Creating Connections to Microsoft 365

Important: The FlexNet Beacon released with FlexNet Manager Suite 2018 R2 or later is required to use the Microsoft 365 connector. However, installing the FlexNet Beacon included in the 2019 R1 or later release provides maximum ease-of-use with the Microsoft 365 connector by including auto-populated values on the Create PowerShell Source Connection dialog (that otherwise need to be entered manually). In addition, Microsoft Office 365 (deprecated) will not appear as a Source Type connection on the Create PowerShell Source Connection dialog, and instead will remain Microsoft Office 365.

Tip: The connector to Flexera One SaaS Management (see Managing Flexera One SaaS Management Connections) supersedes and overrides both the Microsoft 365 connector and the Microsoft Office 365 (deprecated) connector. This means that if you implement the Flexera One SaaS Management connector (see System Settings: Integrations Tab), any licenses that are created from imports through either of the Microsoft 365 connectors are automatically given a status of Retired, so that they have no impact on license reconciliation calculations. Instead, new licenses are created from the Flexera One SaaS Management imports, and these are included in license reconciliations as usual.

A separate connection is required for each tenant of Microsoft 365. (Typically, there is one tenant per enterprise; but your corporate history, particularly of mergers and acquisitions, may mean that your enterprise has multiple Microsoft tenants.) The inventory beacon requires this connection to import entitlements, users, and usage information from the Microsoft 365 online account. Each per-tenant import covers all subscriptions for that tenant.

When you use the Microsoft 365 connector, there are two ways of creating connections to the Microsoft 365 online service. Refer to the following sections for associated instructions:

• Using FlexNet Manager Suite’s Multi-Tenant App to Connect to Microsoft 365 — The Microsoft 365 connector uses a pre-registered multi-tenant app that has been configured by Flexera for the purpose of collecting Microsoft Office 365 data. This app is configured to allow our customers to collect data without the hassle of registering an app in their own instance.
• Registering an App Using the Azure Portal to Connect to Microsoft 365 — This second method registers an app within your own Microsoft Office 365 instance.
  Tip: This second method allows for the use of a client secret to collect the token for interaction with Microsoft 365, so that you do not need a user account and password with special privileges for regular operation of the connector.

If you use the Microsoft Office 365 (deprecated) connector, refer to the instructions in Creating Connections using the Microsoft Office 365 (Deprecated) Connector.