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Charles-André Bélanger's avatar
Charles-André Bélanger
Brass Contributor
Nov 23, 2018
Solved

creating user without license for Sharepoint

Hello,

I need to give access to some external users of my organization to our Sharepoint (Office 365).

So I created a user in my tenant without giving im a license, this allow me to assign his name as a "reader" to a resource in my Sharepoint.


The question I have, is this legal or "legit" to do this? The fact that this user does not have a license assign, and the fact that this user can access resources in my tenant

 

thanks for your help

office 365
sharepoint
  • BenStegink's avatar
    BenStegink
    Steel Contributor
    Nov 24, 2018

    Agree with Chris Webb, on this one.His answer should be marked as the correct answer. Users need to be invited as external users in order to be legal. The process of creating them an account in azuread, not licensing them, but still granting them a SharePoint access doesn’t adhere to Microsoft’s licensing policies.

    • ChrisHoardMVP's avatar
      ChrisHoardMVP
      MVP
      Nov 24, 2018
      Thanks guys.

      Thanks for the point out. I interpreted the question as the invitation and ‘creation’ of an external guest account into a SPO site - not the actual creation of a user on the domain through the admin centre. These external guests usually have EXT on the UPN.

      Apologies, will try to be more specific next time!

      Best, Chris
      • TonyRedmond's avatar
        TonyRedmond
        MVP
        Nov 26, 2018

        Hmmmm... Guest users are guest users whether they are created using the Azure AD portal or created by an application as the result of a user extending a sharing invitation (SharePoint) or to join a group (Teams, Planner, Office 365 Groups). The end result is an Azure AD account marked as a guest. These accounts don't need to be licensed to access resources in a tenant. They do need licenses (1:5 ratio to tenant accounts, but this is not enforced) when Azure AD premium features are used (like dynamic groups), but that doesn't come into play if the accounts are used for SharePoint document sharing.

         

        See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/b2b/licensing-guidance

  • ChrisWebbTech's avatar
    ChrisWebbTech
    MVP
    Nov 24, 2018
    Not exactly. You need to use the “sharing” method. Creating an account without a license is using azuread etc. and requires a license. Has to be B2B via using the Share site or sharing links for documents / list items or if it’s group connected inviting as guest to the group to provide access.

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