What's the Office 365 admin center and how does it relate to CRM Online?
Applies To: CRM Online
[This topic is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases.]
The Office 365 admin center is a portal site rich in features for the administrator. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online takes advantage of the features on this site to simplify and consolidate management of user accounts, billing, licensing, and more.
.png "Office 365 admin center")
Review the information in this topic to learn how to do common CRM Online administrative tasks in the Office 365 admin center.
Note
You must have the Global admin role to fully access the Office 365 admin center.
In This Topic
Open CRM and other services with the app launcher
Manage instances and updates in the CRM Online Administration Center
Check your service health
Review your messages
Request service
Manage users
Manage subscriptions
Set the password expiration
Configure self-service password reset and other settings in Microsoft Azure
Add your domain
Purchase services
Open CRM and other services with the app launcher
You can open CRM Online and other services such as Microsoft Dynamics Marketing and Microsoft Social Engagement from the Office 365 app launcher. Choose Admin to open the Office 365 admin center and CRM to open CRM Online. More information: Find help for the latest changes in Office 365
.png "Office 365 app launcher")
Manage instances and updates in the CRM Online Administration Center
The CRM Online Administration Center is your portal site to manage CRM Online instances and updates.
You access the portal by choosing CRM from the left-side menu in the Office 365 admin center.
.png "Choose Admin > CRM")
Choose the Instances tab to edit, copy, and reset, existing instances, configure new instances, manage preferred solutions, and more. More information: Manage Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online instances
.png "CRM Online Administration Center Instances tab")
Choose the Updates tab to approve and schedule updates, change the update target version, and open CRM Online. More information: Manage Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online updates
.png "CRM Online Administration Center - Updates tab")
Check your service health
You can quickly get real-time status of your CRM Online and Office 365 services. The dashboard on the Office 365 admin center provides a comprehensive view of the service health of your online services. If users are having trouble signing in to CRM Online, check this page to see if there is a service outage.
Under Current health, you can select services with issues to get more information.
.png "Office 365 admin center dashboard service health")
Choose Service Health from the left-side menu to get more detailed information for each service arranged by date.
.png "Office 365 admin center service health")
Choose Planned Maintenance to see if there are any scheduled events for your online service.
.png "Choose Planned Maintenance")
Review your messages
Check out the Message center to see how to fix or prevent issues, plan for service changes, or just to stay informed of new or updated features.
.png "Office 365 admin center message center")
Request service
Having a problem with your CRM Online service? You can create a service request to get the issue resolved.
Create a CRM Online service request
Sign in to the Office 365 admin center.
In the left-side menu, choose Support > Overview
Under Create a service request, choose Dynamics CRM Online. You may need to expand the list by choosing More.
Fill in the information and submit your request.
.png "Office 365 admin center service request")
Manage users
Each user signs in to CRM Online with an Office 365 user ID (more precisely, an Azure Active Directory user ID, see the following Note). Access to CRM Online is controlled through the Office 365 user ID.
You use the Office 365 admin center to add, edit, and delete CRM Online users and to reset passwords.
.png "Office 365 admin center active users")
Note
CRM Online uses Azure Active Directory as its identity provider. You access CRM Online through an Azure Active Directory user ID that is created and managed in the Office 365 admin center. For simplicity, we’ll refer to the Azure Active Directory user ID as the Office 365 user ID in this documentation.
If your company uses on-premises Active Directory for user identity, you have options that can simplify user management such as providing a single sign-on experience for your users. More information: Manage user account synchronization
Manage subscriptions
Use the Subscriptions page to adjust licenses, view your bill, add a partner of record, and lots more.
.png "Office 365 admin center subscriptions")
Set the password expiration
Use the Passwords page to set how frequently a user’s password expires and the number of days before a user is notified of an upcoming expiration.
.png "Office 365 admin center manage password expiration")
Tip
Note the information on this page about users doing their own password reset. To enable your users to be able to reset their passwords themselves, you’ll need to purchase an Azure Active Directory subscription and configure it for password self-service. More information:Self-service password reset in Azure AD: how to enable, configure, and test self-service password reset
Configure self-service password reset and other settings in Microsoft Azure
If you have an Azure Active Directory Basic or Premium subscription, you can set it up so users can do their own password reset. You can access Azure Active Directory configuration from the Office 365 admin center. More information: Enable users to reset their Azure AD passwords
On the left-side menu of the Office 365 admin center, choose Admin > Azure AD. Select your subscription in Microsoft Azure and then choose Configure.
.png "Azure Active Directory password policy")
Add your domain
Use the Manage domains page to add your domain to your subscription. When you add your own domain, user sign-ins can match your company’s URL. For example, instead of user@contoso.onmicrosoft.com, it could be user@contoso.com. More information: Verify your domain in Office 365
.png "Office 365 admin center add your domain")
Purchase services
On the left-side menu of the Office 365 admin center, choose Purchase Services to add licenses or purchase new online services.
.png "Office 365 admin center purchase services")
See Also
Other Resources
About the Office 365 admin center
Send comments about this topic to Microsoft.
© 2015 Microsoft. All rights reserved.