Why is Microsoft 365 setup (Groups + SharePoint + Domains) still so complex?
Microsoft 365 Setup Feedback Summary Summary of Experience: Setting up two small business workspaces (Cork & Clarity and Stone Clarity Consulting) in Microsoft 365 required navigating multiple disconnected systems including the Admin Center, Outlook, SharePoint, and an external DNS provider. The process was significantly more complex than expected and not intuitive for a non-technical user. Key Issues Encountered: 1. Identity and Account Confusion - Unclear whether to create separate users or use one account with aliases - Creating multiple users caused login confusion, broken permissions, and access issues 2. Domain and DNS Setup Complexity - Required switching between Microsoft and external DNS (Looka) - Instructions were unclear and required manual troubleshooting - No clear distinction between required and optional DNS records 3. Default Domain Confusion - New groups defaulted to the wrong domain - No visible option to change domain during group creation - Required changing global default domain (non-intuitive) 4. Inconsistent Group Behavior - Outlook groups and Teams-backed groups behave differently - No indication of differences or consequences - Groups appeared in some places but not others 5. Membership and Ownership Issues - Group creator was not consistently added as member - Ownership did not always persist after changes - Groups existed but were inaccessible or invisible 6. Outlook UI Limitations - Groups not visible despite existing and being correctly configured - No clear instructions on how to 'activate' or 'follow' groups 7. SharePoint Site Not Created Automatically - SharePoint sites were not created when groups were created - Required hidden steps: Outlook → Files → Open in SharePoint - No indication that the site did not exist yet 8. SharePoint Discovery Issues - Sites do not appear until manually accessed or followed - No onboarding or guidance for discovering sites 9. Ghost/Deleted Items Still Visible - Deleted group (Cork & Clarity Hub) remained visible - No clear distinction between deleted vs followed sites 10. Fragmented User Experience - Required switching between multiple platforms - No single place to manage or understand setup status - High cognitive load for basic configuration Conclusion: While Microsoft 365 is a powerful platform, the initial setup experience is overly complex and fragmented, especially for small businesses. Simplifying group creation, making SharePoint provisioning automatic and visible, and improving UI consistency across apps would significantly improve usability and adoption.
Need assistance: Unable to Remove GoDaddy as Partner/Reseller and Unfederate the Domain actus.law
I have been trying to resolve this issue for nearly four weeks, and been through many troubleshooting sessions and telephone calls with Microsoft Support, but this seems extremely complicated: The domain actus.law is owned by the Danish law firm Actus Law, and is registered with GoDaddy as the domain registrar. The Microsoft 365 tenant was originally created and federated by GoDaddy, who acted as the delegated administrator (via DAP/GDAP). On advice from a Microsoft Sales Advisor, Actus Law purchased a Microsoft 365 Business Standard license directly through Microsoft connected to the above tenant with the goal of managing the tenant independently through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center — without GoDaddy's involvement, beyond being the registrar. After the purchase it was impossible to manage users/licenses/domains in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, as the domain is federated and therefore all requests always get redirected to GoDaddy. It was therefore not possible to verify the domain or create any users. I contacted Microsoft Support on 8 May, where I was told that the way forward was to delete current DNS records and remove GoDaddy's partnership privileges in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. We therefore deleted all GoDaddy's delegated administrative privileges (GDAP/DAP) on 8 May 2025 and requested GoDaddy to end the reseller relationship. After this the support agent closed the ticket. This was handled through Support Ticket #2505081420003154. GoDaddy afterwards confirmed that they have removed all rights and that the domain is free to be unfederated. However, this did not solve the problem, since GoDaddy is still registered as partner and the domain is still federated. Therefore I am not allowed to make any changes and I always get redirected to GoDaddy when trying to manage anything in Microsoft 365 Admin Center. On 9 May I contacted Microsoft Support again and asked to disconnect the tenant from GoDaddy so I can manage everything in Microsoft 365 Support Center. This was under the Support Ticket #2505091420000046. The assigned agent tried during multiple weeks to troubleshoot and fix the problem with PowerShell commands using both MsolService and Microsoft.Graph, but always ended up getting access errors or insufficient privileges to perform the change in authorization from federated to managed. It has also not been possible to delete GoDaddy as partner. On 20 May I was asked to contact GoDaddy again to make sure that they had removed themselves as partner, and I got the following confirmation in writing from GoDaddy's Advanced Technical Support: "The Microsoft 365 organization for actus.law is no longer associated with GoDaddy. You can now reach out to Microsoft directly and receive support for a password reset for any admin user you need to access, or any other support issues. NOTE: If the domain is still set to use GoDaddy’s email login system you will need to ask Microsoft to “un-federate” the domain." On 21 May I explained GoDaddy's response in an email to the assigned agent, but now the agent simply stopped responding to my emails. I sent a reminder after 5 days, but did not get any response. On 28 May I called Microsoft Support and was assigned a new agent. That agent told me to contact GoDaddy, as it seems they still have visible GDAP, and only GoDaddy can remove that. Then the agent closed the ticket. I tried to contact GoDaddy afterwards, but they told me that the reseller relationship/GDAP was completely removed from GoDaddy's side on 8 May 2025 and all changes have propagated. However, since all GDAP/DAP had already been deleted at that point (which was done on 8 May, see above under number 4), GoDaddy could not remove it in Microsoft's systems according to the normal procedure so it is correctly reflected in the Microsoft 365 tenant. So they asked me to contact Microsoft Support again and explain the situation. WHAT I WANT TO ACHIEVE: I want GoDaddy completely removed as partner/administrator from my tenant and the domain actus.law to be "managed" and not "federated", so I can manage everything directly in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and use my Microsoft 365 Business license. CURRENT STATUS: GoDaddy says everything has been removed on their end and that only Microsoft can now unfederate the domain. Microsoft Support says GoDaddy still needs to remove DAP/GDAP — but I cannot see their DAP/GDAPS anywhere in the Admin Center, and GoDaddy says they’ve already done it. Does anyone have an idea of what to do in this situation? I would appreciate any help, I feel completely stuck, and I am unable to set up any users or mails 😒Unable to whitelist quarantined emails
We have an email that is being constantly quarantined from a webform. The email comes from the email of the web form server, but is spoofing an internal address in our tenant by design. The email keeps getting blocked, and nothing we've tried as far as transport rules, whitelist additions, etc has been able to discernably affect this. There is a option to create a tenant allow list entry but the maximum duration is 45 days. We need a way to reliably whitelist an email indefinitely.
Adding Outlook add-ins and permissions
Wonderoig if someone can answer a question for me. I'll use the process in this link as context https://help.draftable.com/hc/en-us/articles/46382047949977-Configuring-Redline-in-Email-Outlook-with-Draftable In short when adding an Outlook Addin and selecting a group to assign the add-in too and the accepting the permission requests does this: Apply the permissions to ONLY those nominated users' mailboxes; or Applies the permissions to ALL mailboxes and applies "security" by limiting the users who can see the add-in I assume it does one of the two. Any ideas?Deploy Open Web UI on Azure VM via Docker: A Step-by-Step Guide with Custom Domain Setup.
Introductions Open Web UI (often referred to as "Ollama Web UI" in the context of LLM frameworks like Ollama) is an open-source, self-hostable interface designed to simplify interactions with large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-4, Llama 3, Mistral, and others. It provides a user-friendly, browser-based environment for deploying, managing, and experimenting with AI models, making advanced language model capabilities accessible to developers, researchers, and enthusiasts without requiring deep technical expertise. This article will delve into the step-by-step configurations on hosting OpenWeb UI on Azure. Requirements: Azure Portal Account - For students you can claim $USD100 Azure Cloud credits from this URL. Azure Virtual Machine - with a Linux of any distributions installed. Domain Name and Domain Host Caddy Open WebUI Image Step One: Deploy a Linux – Ubuntu VM from Azure Portal Search and Click on “Virtual Machine” on the Azure portal search bar and create a new VM by clicking on the “+ Create” button > “Azure Virtual Machine”. Fill out the form and select any Linux Distribution image – In this demo, we will deploy Open WebUI on Ubuntu Pro 24.04. Click “Review + Create” > “Create” to create the Virtual Machine. Tips: If you plan to locally download and host open source AI models via Open on your VM, you could save time by increasing the size of the OS disk / attach a large disk to the VM. You may also need a higher performance VM specification since large resources are needed to run the Large Language Model (LLM) locally. Once the VM has been successfully created, click on the “Go to resource” button. You will be redirected to the VM’s overview page. Jot down the public IP Address and access the VM using the ssh credentials you have setup just now. Step Two: Deploy the Open WebUI on the VM via Docker Once you are logged into the VM via SSH, run the Docker Command below: docker run -d --name open-webui --network=host --add-host=host.docker.internal:host-gateway -e PORT=8080 -v open-webui:/app/backend/data --restart always ghcr.io/open-webui/open-webui:dev This Docker command will download the Open WebUI Image into the VM and will listen for Open Web UI traffic on port 8080. Wait for a few minutes and the Web UI should be up and running. If you had setup an inbound Network Security Group on Azure to allow port 8080 on your VM from the public Internet, you can access them by typing into the browser: [PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS]:8080 Step Three: Setup custom domain using Caddy Now, we can setup a reverse proxy to map a custom domain to [PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS]:8080 using Caddy. The reason why Caddy is useful here is because they provide automated HTTPS solutions – you don’t have to worry about expiring SSL certificate anymore, and it’s free! You must download all Caddy’s dependencies and set up the requirements to install it using this command: sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list sudo apt update && sudo apt install caddy Once Caddy is installed, edit Caddy’s configuration file at: /etc/caddy/Caddyfile , delete everything else in the file and add the following lines: yourdomainname.com { reverse_proxy localhost:8080 } Restart Caddy using this command: sudo systemctl restart caddy Next, create an A record on your DNS Host and point them to the public IP of the server. Step Four: Update the Network Security Group (NSG) To allow public access into the VM via HTTPS, you need to ensure the NSG/Firewall of the VM allow for port 80 and 443. Let’s add these rules into Azure by heading to the VM resources page you created for Open WebUI. Under the “Networking” Section > “Network Settings” > “+ Create port rule” > “Inbound port rule” On the “Destination port ranges” field, type in 443 and Click “Add”. Repeat these steps with port 80. Additionally, to enhance security, you should avoid external users from directly interacting with Open Web UI’s port - port 8080. You should add an inbound deny rule to that port. With that, you should be able to access the Open Web UI from the domain name you setup earlier. Conclusion And just like that, you’ve turned a blank Azure VM into a sleek, secure home for your Open Web UI, no magic required! By combining Docker’s simplicity with Caddy’s “set it and forget it” HTTPS magic, you’ve not only made your app accessible via a custom domain but also locked down security by closing off risky ports and keeping traffic encrypted. Azure’s cloud muscle handles the heavy lifting, while you get to enjoy the perks of a pro setup without the headache. If you are interested in using AI models deployed on Azure AI Foundry on OpenWeb UI via API, kindly read my other article: Step-by-step: Integrate Ollama Web UI to use Azure Open AI API with LiteLLM ProxyMicrosoft purview enviornments i.e TEST & PROD?
As per microsoft, it allow only Microsoft Purview account per tenant. How to design/ create the multiple environments in the microsoft purview i.e Test & prod? is it through domains? Another question related to same, In my organisation we got single tenant and through subscriptions project/department segregration happened. Already one of department in organization they've created the purivew account for their project purpose. Now another department of project want to implement the purview and their team wants to managing asking purview admin privs and don't want to existing purivew admins to access the data, how to implement in the sceinarios?
Domain Status show Possible service issues with MX having Error but checked MX Record its the same
Hi, Just found out that Microsoft 365 Admin Centre > Domains show custom domain having Possible service issue status. When clicked into it, it shows MX status having error. Did a nslookup -type=MX "xxxx.com" and did a comparison with DNS MX Record, It shows exactly the same value as Microsoft 365. Not sure what is exactly the issue. We did not make any amendment to any settings.Inability of Service Provider to be a Multi-Tenant Organization (PREVIEW)
Hello, I'm new here, so pardon me if I'm doing this wrong. My boss has asked me to check into this Multi-Tenant Organization thing and I was able to create it on our tenant. However we are a Service Provider organization and upon inviting another Tenant, I was awarded with this error: "Error-Action 103: Service providers cannot be part of a multi-tenant organization." Is this reall a thing, and we won't be able to configure this to ourselves? I mean, we are a group and we have two tenants, we need to allow comunication between them both, and this seemed like a good starting point. Can you guys help me out on this?
