By default, an OneDrive account is automatically provisioned for users when they browse to it for the very first time. In some cases, you may want your users' OneDrive locations to be pre-provisioned or ready beforehand. For example:
- You may want to create OneDrive accounts for your new employees as and when you add them to your organization.
- Your organization plans to migrate from on-premises servers to Microsoft 365.
- Your organization plans to migrate from another online storage service.
If you're an admin looking for ways to pre-provision OneDrive accounts for your users, you've come to the right space! We will take you through a step-by-step guide on how to pre-provision OneDrive accounts:
- Create a list of all the users you want to pre-provision in OneDrive and save it as a file. For example, create a text file named users.txt containing:
user1@mydomain.com
user2@mydomain.com
user3@mydomain.com
- Download the latest SharePoint Online Management Shell.
- Connect to SharePoint as a global admin or SharePoint admin in Microsoft 365.
-
Run the following PowerShell command consuming the text file you created in step1:
$users = Get-Content -path "C:\Users.txt"
Request-SPOPersonalSite -UserEmails $users
Congratulations! You've now pre-provisioned OneDrive for your users.
Automate Microsoft 365 provisioning with M365 Manager Plus:
M365 Manager Plus is an extensive Microsoft 365 tool used for reporting, managing, monitoring, auditing, and creating alerts for critical activities. With this solution, Microsoft 365 admins can automate several tasks like license assignment, restoring users, deleting users, etc. All you need to do is specify the interval in which you want the tasks to run and M365 Manager Plus will take care of the rest.
After a user account is created in Microsoft 365, the admin must assign appropriate licenses to the user in order for them to use OneDrive or any other Microsoft 365 service. Sometimes, it is a monotonous task to identify new users and assign licenses to them.
That's why M365 Manager Plus provides you a way to perform the task without human intervention. Here's how you can do it:
- Login to M365 Manager Plus with admin credentials.
- Navigate to Automation tab > Automation.
- Select the Microsoft 365 tenant from the drop-down list.
- Enter the Automation Name and Description.
- In the Select Task/Policy field, choose License Modification.
- Select the task you desire. For example, Assign selected licenses or Remove selected licenses.
- Select the desired licenses from the drop-down list.
- Select the location.
- Select the report or upload the CSV file from where you want to import objects (in this case, users).
- Select the Frequency at which you want the task to run.
Congratulations! You've now automated the task for your organization.
To download the trial version of Microsoft 365 Manager Plus, click here.
