Cayosoft Administrator and Microsoft Group Based Licensing

Summary: This article describes how Cayosoft Administrator works in conjunction with Microsoft Group Based Licensing (GBL).

Applies to: Cayosoft Administrator 8.0.0 and later.

Cayosoft Administrator uses direct license assignments for all automation rules and web actions that manage Microsoft 365 licenses, including Cayosoft's group-based licensing automation rules.

Direct vs. Group-Based Licensing (GBL)

Within Microsoft's licensing system, direct license assignments can coexist with Group-Based Licensing (GBL) for the same license. For example:

• A user can be assigned an Office 365 E3 license both directly and through GBL.

• The final license assignment for the user is the combined total of all licenses assigned.

For instance, if a user receives:

• Exchange Online Plan 2 and SharePoint from an E3 license (directly).

• The remaining E3 apps through GBL.

  The user will have access to all E3 apps, combining both direct and inherited assignments.

Similarly, a user may receive three services from an E5 license, where:

• One service is assigned directly.

• Two services are inherited via GBL.

Managing licenses with Cayosoft Administrator

Cayosoft Administrator allows you to:

• Manage all direct license assignments.

• Control GBL group membership, including Dynamic Groups for both hybrid on-premises AD groups and cloud-only groups.

IMPORTANT: Cayosoft does not manage the licenses assigned to Microsoft GBL groups.

Optimization

Cayosoft Administrator includes a built-in optimization feature for licensing rules and actions:

Before assigning a direct license, Cayosoft compares currently assigned licenses with those configured by the rule.

• If the assignments match, no changes are made.

• If there is a difference, the direct license assignment is executed.

• This ensures efficient license management by preventing unnecessary updates.

Configuration

1. To find out more about managing groups using Cayosoft Dynamic Groups, review the following article:  Creating Dynamic Groups.

2. To find out more about the license assignment options available in Cayosoft Administrator, review this article: Microsoft 365 license assignment & enforcement.

3. To find out how to migrate users from GBL to direct assignment, follow the steps outlined in this knowledge base article: Migrating from Microsoft Group Based Licensing to Cayosoft Administrator direct assignments.