Prerequisites for Microsoft 365

To populate the Microsoft 365 pages in SAM Core on Snow Atlas with data, you need inventory sources. To get accurate statistics and insights, you must add cost periods and link users.

Add inventory sources

To get information on subscriptions, users, applications, and activity into the Microsoft 365 pages, you need inventory sources.

• Snow Integration Connector for Microsoft 365

  The connector imports information on subscription plans and some user activity from the Microsoft 365 portal. For more information, see Snow Integration Connector for Microsoft 365.

  note

  You are recommended to schedule data aggregations for the Microsoft 365 connector every 24 hours, to get the latest activity data from the Microsoft 365 portal. Aggregating more often than on a daily basis adds minimal benefit, since the Snow Inventory Agent, which also provides activity from on-premises inventory sources, is scanned on a daily basis in most cases.

  Manual aggregations should only be done when necessary, for example, due to changes within the portal itself.

• Snow Inventory Agents

  The agents provide inventory of devices and Microsoft 365 on-premises applications as well as user activity in those applications. For more information, see:

  • Snow Inventory Agent for macOS

  • Snow Inventory Agent for Windows

  • Configuration of Snow Inventory Agents

• Cloud Application Metering

  The browser extensions collect cloud application use and user activity. For more information, see Cloud application metering.

Add cost periods and link users

To get accurate statistics and insights in the Microsoft 365 pages, cost periods must be added manually and Microsoft 365 users linked to Snow inventoried users.

• Add cost periods

  Information imported from the Microsoft 365 portal only contains the total number of subscriptions and the number of subscriptions that have been assigned to users. There is no information about the costs for the Microsoft 365 subscriptions in the portal, so the cost periods must be added manually.

  For more information on how to add, edit, and delete cost periods on the Cost page, see Manage cost periods in Microsoft 365.

• Link users

  To automatically detect license coverage of applications, users gathered from the inventory sources and the Microsoft 365 portal users must be linked. The usage of on-premises applications can then be connected to the corresponding user and subscription plan.

  For more information on how to set up automatic linking, manually link users, and unlink users, see Manage user linking in Microsoft 365.