10.1. Microsoft 365 Connector

The synchronization of users and groups and teams to an Azure Directory Domain, which will then be used by Microsoft 365, is made possible by the Microsoft Office Connector. The connector makes it possible to control which of the users created in UCS can use Microsoft 365. The selected users will be provisioned accordingly into the Azure Active Directory domain. It is configurable which user attributes are synchronized and which are anonymized during synchronization.

The single sign-on login to Microsoft 365 is done via the UCS integrated SAML implementation. Authentication takes place against the UCS server, and no password hashes are transmitted to Microsoft Azure Cloud. The user’s authentication is done exclusively via the client’s web browser. The web browser should however be able to resolve the DNS records of the UCS domain, this is a particularly important point to note for mobile devices.

10.1.1. Setup

To setup the Microsoft 365 Connector a Microsoft 365 Administrator account, a corresponding Account in the Azure Active Directory, as well as a Domain verified by Microsoft are required. The first two are provided for test purposes by Microsoft for free. However to configure the SSO, a separate internet domain where TXT records can be created is required.

In case there is no Microsoft 365 subscription available, one can be configured it via https://www.office.com/ in the trial for business section. A connection is not possible with a private Microsoft account.

You should then sign in with a Microsoft 365 Administrator Account into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. At the bottom left of the navigation bar select Azure AD to open the Azure Management Portal in a new window.

In the Azure Active Directory section the menu item Custom domain names can be used to add and verify your own domain. For this it is necessary to create a TXT record in the DNS of your own domain. This process can take up to several minutes. Afterwards the status of the configured domain will be displayed as Verified.

Now the Microsoft 365 Connector App can be installed from the App Center on the UCS system. The installation takes a few minutes. There is a setup wizard available for the initial configuration. After completing the wizard the connector is ready for use.

Fig. 10.1 Microsoft 365 Setup assistant

10.1.2. Configuration

After the end of the installation through the setup wizard, users can be enabled to use Microsoft 365. This configuration can be done through the user module on each user object on the Microsoft 365 tab. Usage and allocation of licenses are acknowledged in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

10.1.2.1. Users

If a change is made to the user, the changes are likewise replicated to the Azure Active Directory domain. There is no synchronization from the Azure Active Directory to the UCS system. This means changes made in Azure Active Directory or Office Portal may be overridden by changes to the same attributes in UCS.

Due to Azure Active Directory security policies, users or groups in the Azure AD can’t be deleted during synchronization. They are merely disabled and renamed. The licenses are revoked in the Azure Active Directory so that they become available to other users. Users and groups whose names start with ZZZ_deleted can be deleted in Microsoft 365 Admin Center.

It is necessary to configure a country for the user in Microsoft 365. The connector uses the specification of the country from the contact data of the user. If not set, it uses the setting of the server. With the help of Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/attributes/usageLocation a 2-character abbreviation, e.g. US, can be set as the default.

Through Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/attributes/sync, the LDAP attributes (e.g. first name, last name, etc.) of a user’s account which will to be synchronized are configured. The form is a comma-separated list of LDAP attributes. Thus adaptation to personal needs is possible.

With the Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/attributes/anonymize, a comma-separated list of LDAP attributes can be configured that are created in the Azure Active Directory but filled with random values. The Univention Configuration Registry Variables office365/attributes/static/.* allows the filling of attributes on the Microsoft side with a predefined value.

The Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/attributes/never can be used to specify a comma separated list of LDAP attributes that should not be synchronized even when they appear in office365/attributes/sync or office365/attributes/anonymize.

The Univention Configuration Registry Variables office365/attributes/mapping/.* define a mapping of UCS LDAP attributes to Azure Attributes. Usually these variables don’t need to be changed. The synchronization of the groups of Microsoft 365 user can be enabled with the Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/groups/sync.

Changes to Univention Configuration Registry Variables are implemented only after restarting the Univention Directory Listener.

10.1.2.2. Teams

To use Teams, synchronization of groups must be enabled in the Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/groups/sync with the value yes, and then the Univention Directory Listener service must be restarted. If UCS groups are to be created as teams in Microsoft 365, the groups must be configured as teams on the Microsoft 365 tab via the Microsoft 365 Team checkbox. Furthermore, it is necessary to define an owner of the team on the same tab. Further settings on the team can be made by the team owners directly in the Teams interface. After activating a group as a team, the group members are added to the new team. Provisioning a new team in Microsoft 365 can take a few minutes.

Ensure that users of a team in Azure are provided with a license that includes the use of Teams.

10.1.3. Synchronization of Users in multiple Azure Active Directories

The Microsoft 365 Connector is able to synchronize users to multiple Azure Active Directories. For each user account, multiple Azure AD instances can be assigned, where an account should be created. A user gets a distinct username (Userprincipalname or UPN) for every assigned Azure AD.

An alias is assigned to each additional Azure AD connection by the administrator. To manage these aliases the program /usr/share/univention-office365/scripts/manage_adconnections can be used. A new alias is created by calling /usr/share/univention-office365/scripts/manage_adconnections create <Aliasname>. This will set the Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/adconnection/wizard to the newly created alias. The value of this Univention Configuration Registry Variable defines which connection is configured by the next run of the Microsoft 365 Configuration Wizard.

After creating the alias, the new connection must be configured through the Microsoft 365 Configuration Wizard, as well.

To use single sign-on with multiple Azure AD connections, a new logical SAML Identity Provider is needed for each connection. This is described in Extended Configuration.

The Identity Provider should get the same name as the alias. If another name was chosen, the PowerShell script to configure single sign-on needs to be adjusted manually. For example the Univention Configuration Registry Variable saml/idp/entityID/supplement/Aliasname=true needs to be set on all domain controllers responsible for single sign-on.

A UCS user can only use one Microsoft 365 account in one browser session at a time. To change the connection, a logout from Microsoft 365 is necessary.

A default alias for Microsoft 365 enabled users and groups can be set in the Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/defaultalias. To synchronize them into a different Azure Active Directory the connection alias must be selected explicitly at the user or group object.

10.1.4. Troubleshooting/Debugging

Messages during the setup are logged in /var/log/univention/management-console-module-office365.log.

In case of synchronization problems, the log file of the Univention Directory Listener should be examined: /var/log/univention/listener.log.

Some actions of the Connector use long-running Azure Cloud operations, especially when using Teams. These operations are logged in the log file /var/log/univention/listener_modules/ms-office-async.log The Univention Configuration Registry Variable office365/debug/werror activates additional debug output.