With a great thank you to Denis Gundarev for putting this guide together. I herby present to world how to provision Office in an Appstack.
This recipe provides step-by-step instructions on how to provision and manage App Volumes AppStacks with Microsoft Office 365. This guide does not cover all aspects of App Volumes deployment and configuration; it only covers aspects specific to Office 365 deployment in App Volumes environment.
These instructions are provided "as is" and do not fully cover licensing scenarios. Readers should consult with Microsoft licensing or support specialists regarding Office 365 plans and advanced configuration.
Important: Office 365 is currently available in two versions: Office 2013 and Office 2016. App Volumes 2.10 has been tested only with Office 2013. Office 2016 version of Office 365 may work; however, that version is not currently on the compatibility list.
The following table provides a high-level description of the provisioning process:
Step | Task | Description |
Step 1 | Review the requirements | This step is necessary to understand Office 365 deployment options and coexistence with App Volumes See the “Requirements” section[MB(1] |
Step 2 | Plan the AppStack | Understand how many AppStacks you should have See the “Planning the AppStack” section |
Step 3 | Prepare the Office 365 Installation source | Before provisioning the AppStack, use the Office Deployment Tool to download and configure Office 365 Installation source. See the “Preparing Office 365 Installation Source” section |
Step 4 | Provision the AppStack | After the installation source is configured, use the provisioning VM to provision the AppStack. See “Provision the AppStack” section |
Step 5 | (Optional) Install Office Add-ons | If you plan to use third-party Office add-ons, review the section “Third-party applications and Office Add-Ons.” |
Step 6 | (Optional) Updating the AppStack | For guidelines on how to update the AppStack when a new build of Office 365 is released, review the “Updating the AppStack” section |
App Volumes 2.10 is the first version of App Volumes that is compatible with Office 365. If you have been using a previous version of App Volumes, make sure that all components, including the Manager, agents and templates are updated.
Shared Computer Activation is required when App Volumes delivers Office 365. This functionality is only available with Office 365 subscription plans that include Office 365 ProPlus. Currently only the following Office 365 plans support Shared Computer Activation:
Office 365 ProPlus contacts with the Office Licensing Service on the Internet to obtain or renew a licensing token whenever the user is logging in and launching Office. Therefore, reliable connectivity is required between all target computer s and the Internet.
You also need the Internet to download or update the Office 365 Installation source.
To prepare the Installation source, you need a computer that is connected to the Internet and that runs one of the following operating systems:
Important: We recommend running preparation on a computer that doesn’t have AppStacks or Writables attached. Since no components are not installed into the system, this could be your workstation.
During preparation , about 1.5GB are downloaded from the internet, each additional language pack adds 175-250 Mb.
We recommend storing installation source package on the remote file server.
It is possible to configure the environment to allow a Single Sign-On (SSO), so that users don’t need to type their Office 365 credentials every time they log in. Such a configuration is out of the scope of this guide; please consult with your Microsoft representative.
This mean that following scenarios are not supported:
Please also note that Microsoft does not support mixing any of the install methods with Office delivered using Microsoft App-V.
Click-to-Run: Microsoft does not support two separate Click-To-Run packages on the same computer. For example, you cannot have Office 365 ProPlus AppStack, and Office Visio AppStack assigned to the same computer.
To resolve this issue, we recommend deploying all Office applications as a single Click-To-Run package to a single AppStack.
However, if your licensing does not permit the use of additional Office applications for all users, you should create separate AppStacks with all required combinations and assign them to appropriate domain groups.
Example: Suppose all users need to have a base Office 365 package, while some users need Visio, others need Project, and others need to have all applications. In this case, you create 4 AppStacks as defined below:
32- vs. 64-bit versions: Office 365 ProPlus is available in a 32-bit and a 64-bit version. Select the version when preparing the installation source.
Language: You may also select which language packs should be included into the AppStack.
For more details on versions and language packs, see the “Customizing the Configuration File” section below.
Unlike MSI- based installations, Office 365 Click-to-Run is not available at Microsoft Volume Licensing and can be only downloaded by Office Deployment Tool (ODT).
You can download the Office Deployment Tool from the Microsoft website. The download includes a sample configuration file, Configuration.xml. The Office Deployment Tool performs the tasks that are specified by using the optional properties in the Configuration.xml file.
Important:
There are two different versions of the Office Deployment Tool available – one for Office 2013 and a different one for Office 2016. Each Office Deployment Tool works only with that specific version of Office. You can download them from the Microsoft Download Center by using the following links:
The Office Deployment Tool is a downloadable self-extracting executable file that contains the following:
The .xml file may be edited using Notepad or any other text editor. We recommend saving the configuration to a separate file for each AppStack you are planning to create. While you may name the file anything you like, we recommend that you give it an informative, descriptive name.
Example configuration.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Configuration>
<Add SourcePath="\\FileServer\Office15\WS32"
OfficeClientEdition="32">
<Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
<Language ID="ja-jp" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Groove" />
<ExcludeApp ID="Lync" />
</Product>
<Product ID="ProjectProRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
<Product ID="VisioProRetail">
<Language ID="en-us" />
</Product>
</Add>
<Updates Enabled="FALSE" />
<Display Level="None" AcceptEULA="TRUE" />
<Logging Level="Standard" Path="%temp%" />
<Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" />
<Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing"
Value="1" />
</Configuration>
In the example below following parameters are important:
Add SourcePath="\\FileServer\Office15\WS32" | Specifies the location where ODT will save downloaded files. The Same parameter is used during provisioning to locate the installation source |
OfficeClientEdition="32" | Edition of the Click-To-Run package could be “32” or “64.” |
Product ID="O365ProPlusRetail" Product ID="ProjectProRetail" Product ID="VisioProRetail" | Specify the products that will be downloaded and installed See https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2842297 for a full list of supported IDs |
ExcludeApp ID="Groove" ExcludeApp ID="Lync" | List of Applications you want to exclude from the installation
The following is a list of the supported values for ID:
The value “Groove” is used to exclude OneDrive for Business. The value "Lync" also applies to Skype for Business. |
Language ID="en-us" Language ID="ja-jp" | Specifies, which product languages to download and install. |
Updates Enabled="FALSE" | Because AppStacks are read-only, automatic Office updates must be disabled |
Display Level="None" | Specify that no UI will be shown during provisioning. This should be set to “None” to prevent automatic activation right after the installation |
AcceptEULA="TRUE" | Automatically accept EULA |
<Logging Level="Standard" Path="%temp%" /> | Logging level during download and setup and location of the log file |
Property Name="AUTOACTIVATE" Value="1" | Force automatic activation when user starts the Office application, should be set to “1.” |
Property Name="SharedComputerLicensing" Value="1" | Mandatory parameter to enable Shared Computer Activation |
This document provides the only minimum required information on how to configure the .xml file to use in the App Volumes environment. For additional details, refer to Microsoft documentation: Reference for Click-to-Run Configuration.xml file.
To download the installation source, run setup.exe from ODT, specify the “/download” parameter and provide a path to the custom .xml file.
Example:
\\FileServer\Office15\setup.exe /download \\FileServer\Office15\Download.xml
The source path should now be populated with an Office folder containing the Office 365 ProPlus installation source.
Example:
\\FileServer\Office15\setup.exe /configure \\FileServer\Office15\Download.xml
Most third-party applications and add-ons are dynamically discovered by Office in cases when they are delivered by AppStacks separately from the Office 365 AppStack. However, in some scenarios, add-ons may need additional configuration or require Office to be present during the provisioning. If a third-party add-on is not interconnecting with Office 365, follow the steps below to troubleshoot the issue:
Click-to-Run deployments of Office 365 differ from traditional MSI-based deployment in the method of upgrading/patching the installation. Updates are not distributed with Windows Update and must be installed using ODT.
There are two methods of upgrading:
Example:
\\FileServer\Office15\setup.exe /configure \\FileServer\Office15\Download.xml
References:
Office 2013 Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36778)
Overview of shared computer activation for Office 365 ProPlus (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn782860.aspx)
Office installed using Click-to-Run and Window Installer on same computer isn't supported (https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Office-installed-using-Click-to-Run-and-Window-Installer-on...)
Determine the deployment method to use for Office 365 ProPlus (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg998766.aspx)
Overview of Click-to-Run customization (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219428.aspx)
Reference for Click-to-Run configuration.xml file (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219426.aspx)
Update Office 2013 or Office 365 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/gp/office-2013-365-update)
Product IDs that are supported by the Office Deployment Tool for Click-to-Run (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2842297)
Download Click-to-Run for Office 365 products by using the Office Deployment Tool (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj219424.aspx)
Group Policy Administrative Template files (ADMX, ADML) and Office Customization Tool (OCT) files for Office 2013 (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc178992.aspx)