ReadyXRM

Last week I posted a method to use a Dynamics 365 Non-Interactive user as a way to use external tools (XrmToolBox, Plug-In Registration Tool, etc).  This solution came about due to the fact that the Delegated Admin doesn’t seem to work to access Dynamics 365 using these tools.

Non-Interactive users are also useful when connecting to Dynamics 365 with Portals and other external applications using a secure method and in some cases not using up a license.

Setting up a Non-Interactive user requires a specific set of steps in a particular order and potentially some timing considerations.

Here are step by step instructions and screen shots to setup a Non-Interactive user.  This should work for most recent versions of Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365.

You will need the following

• Global Administrator Access for Office 365
• System Administrator Access for Dynamics 365 (Delegated Admin will not work)
• Temporary access to a Dynamics 365 License

First step is to log in to the Office 365 Administrator portal and add a new user to Office 365.

Give an appropriate name to the user based on what you are using it for.  Assign it a Dynamics 365 License.  Don’t worry, assigning the license is only temporary for setting up the user.

When you assign the Office 365 user a Dynamics 365 license, the process in the background will create the user in Dynamics 365.  This process may take a few minutes to potentially hours… so you are best to relax and wait for the process to do its thing.

Log into Dynamics 365 with a full System Administrator account (not a delegated admin) and wait for your new user to show up in the Dynamics 365 User list.

The next step would be to give this user the System Administrator role.  This will ensure that all your external tools will function correctly.

In the user details, change the CAL license information to Non-Interactive.  This will prevent anyone from being able to login directly to Dynamics 365 with that user account.

In the event anyone tries to login, they will see this message:

Now go back to your Office365 Portal and remove the Dynamics 365 license from the user account.  This will free up the license for other users.

The user still should be an active Office 365 user, but no longer holds a Dynamics 365 licenses.  By virtue of the fact that it is a Non-Interactive user, it can still access Dynamics 365 via external tools and applications.

Depending on your security setup, you may need to change the password on the first login. A good method is to open up the Plug-In registration tool and attempt to login with the Non-Interactive user.

Once the password is reset, you should have no problem using the various external tools to access Dynamics 365 or using that Non-interactive user for external based applications.

In Conclusion…

The Non-interactive user is a valuable feature for accessing Dynamics 365 with external tools and applications and in most use cases does not need to consume a license if used for system configuration by a partner (assuming they have delegate admin access) or the application (such as a portal) if used by non-employees.

If you create an external application in which your employees will access Dynamics 365, you can still use the non-interactive user to access Dynamics.  However you are expected to have an appropriate licensing.

Hope you find these steps helpful.  I have been slowly accumulating a nice bit of content on this blog, please check out some of my other articles and if you have questions or ideas for other topics, feel free to reach out to me.

Cheers
Nick