How to create a Placeholder Tenant for a Customer with an existing Microsoft Tenant?

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Introduction

This article guides Seller and Distributor administrators through creating a Placeholder Tenant for a Customer who already has a Microsoft Tenant and is moving under your management. By capturing the existing Tenant details before the Microsoft partnership is accepted, you can prepare the whole Customer setup in advance instead of waiting for the transfer to complete. You can select the Placeholder Tenant when you place an Order and schedule that Order for the moment the Tenant becomes Active. When the Customer approves the partnership, the Platform matches and activates the Tenant automatically and places the scheduled Orders, so the Subscriptions are provisioned as soon as the Tenant is ready.

In this article:

NOTE! A Placeholder Tenant does not create a new Tenant at Microsoft. It records a Tenant that the Customer already owns, so that you can prepare Orders before the Customer accepts the Microsoft partnership. The Pending status means that Microsoft has not yet confirmed that the Tenant is under your management, not that the Tenant is still being created. If the Customer has no Microsoft Tenant yet, create a new Tenant Domain instead, as described in How to create Microsoft Tenant Domain for a Customer Organization?

Before you start

Use this procedure when the Customer already has a Microsoft Tenant and is moving it under your management. The Tenant exists at Microsoft and the Customer administers it, but it is not yet linked to your Microsoft Partner Center account. That link is created when the Customer accepts the Microsoft partnership.

Both Tenant types are created with the same CREATE NEW button on the Offer page, because in both cases a new Tenant record is created in the Platform. The Tenant type option decides what that record points to:

  New Tenant Domain Placeholder Domain
At Microsoft A new Tenant is created. Maps to a Tenant that already exists.
You enter A Domain name to be created. The full existing Domain name and the Microsoft Tenant ID.
Domain ownership verification Applies. Skipped.
Created with status Active Pending, until Microsoft confirms the partnership.

Collect the following details from the Customer:

  • The full Domain name of the existing Tenant, exactly as provided by Microsoft.
  • The Microsoft Tenant ID of the existing Tenant. You enter it in the External ID field, and the Platform expects it in GUID format.

Make sure that:

  • You are logged in on behalf of the Customer Organization that the Tenant belongs to.
  • The Customer can sign in to the Microsoft portal with a Global Admin account. Only a Global Admin can approve the partnership.

NOTE! The Domain name of a Placeholder Tenant is not validated against Microsoft, and the Domain ownership verification step is skipped. The Domain name and the External ID are the only link between the Placeholder Tenant and the incoming Microsoft Tenant, so enter them carefully.

Create a Placeholder Tenant

  1. Log in on behalf of the Customer Organization.
  2. Open the Microsoft Offer that you want to order and fill in the configuration as usual: Quantity, Term Duration and Billing Cycle.
  3. In the Tenant Domain field, select CREATE NEW. The "Create new tenant domain" pop-up opens.

Figure 1. Creating a Tenant from the Offer page.

  1. Under Tenant type, select Placeholder Domain.
  2. In the Domain name field, enter the full Domain name provided by Microsoft.
  3. In the External ID field, enter the Microsoft Tenant ID of the existing Tenant.
  4. Check the Tenant will be created as indicator. For a Placeholder Domain it always shows Pending and cannot be changed.

Figure 2. Creating a Placeholder Domain Tenant with the External ID of the existing Microsoft Tenant.

  1. Select Save. The new Tenant appears in the list with the Pending label and can be selected when you place an Order.

Warning! Verify the Domain name and the External ID before you select Save. If the details are incorrect, the incoming Microsoft Tenant cannot be matched and a separate Organization is created instead. While the Tenant is in the Pending status you can still correct the details, as described in Edit a Pending Tenant.

NOTE! You do not have to wait for the activation to prepare the Customer Subscriptions. The Pending Tenant can be selected when you place an Order, and the Order can be scheduled so that the Platform places it automatically as soon as the Tenant becomes Active. See: How to schedule an Order for a Pending Placeholder Tenant?

Validation rules

The Platform blocks the creation of a Placeholder Tenant in the following cases:

  • The Customer Organization already has a Tenant in the Pending status. An Organization can have only one Pending Tenant at a time, so the Placeholder Domain option stays disabled until that Tenant is activated or deleted. The Platform shows: "This organisation already has a pending tenant."
  • The External ID is already used by another Tenant in the same Customer Organization. The External ID must be unique within the Organization.
  • The Customer Organization already has an active Tenant with the same External ID under the same parent Seller. The Platform shows an error indicating the conflict with the existing active Tenant.

The Placeholder Tenant stays in the Pending status until Microsoft confirms the partnership.

  1. Send the Customer the Microsoft partnership acceptance link. The link is available in Microsoft Partner Center.
  2. The Customer signs in to the Microsoft portal with their Global Admin account and approves the partnership.
  3. Microsoft registers the Customer Tenant under your Microsoft Partner Center account.

NOTE! If the Customer uses an account without Global Admin rights, they cannot approve the partnership and the Tenant remains in the Pending status. Ask the Customer to repeat the approval with a Global Admin account. Synchronization with Microsoft Partner Center can take up to 24 hours.

Tenant activation

When the Vendor synchronization runs, the Platform matches the incoming Microsoft Tenant by External ID within the same parent Seller:

  • If a Pending Placeholder Tenant with the same External ID is found, the Platform activates it. The status changes from Pending to Active, the Microsoft Tenant data received from Microsoft Partner Center is linked to it, and no duplicate Organization is created.
  • The Customer is now manageable under your account, and you can place Orders for the Tenant as for any other Active Tenant.
  • Every Order that you scheduled on Tenant activation is placed at this point automatically, and the Subscriptions are provisioned without any further action from you. See How to schedule an Order for a Pending Placeholder Tenant?

A notification confirms that a new Customer was received from Microsoft Partner Center.

Figure 3. Notification confirming the activated Customer Tenant.

Edit a Pending Tenant

While a Tenant is in the Pending status, you can correct its Domain name and External ID. After the Tenant is activated, these details can no longer be changed.

  1. In the Tenant Domain field on the Offer page, select CREATE NEW to open the list of Tenants.
  2. Find the Tenant with the Pending label and select the edit (pencil) icon. The Edit Tenant dialog opens.
  3. Update the Domain name, the External ID, or both. The same validation rules apply as when the Tenant is created.
  4. Select Save.

Figure 4. Correcting the details of a Tenant in the Pending status.

Warning! Editing a Pending Tenant does not update the scheduled Orders that were created for it. The Platform does not check for these Orders and cannot show you which Orders belong to the Tenant. A scheduled Order follows the Tenant record, so if you change the External ID, the Subscriptions are provisioned into whichever Microsoft Tenant the new External ID matches.

If you have already scheduled an Order for the Tenant, correct the details in this sequence:

  1. Delete the scheduled Order in the Orders section.
  2. Edit the Domain name and the External ID of the Pending Tenant.
  3. Create a new scheduled Order for the corrected Tenant.

Delete a Pending Tenant

Delete a Pending Tenant when the transfer will not be completed, or when the Organization needs a new Placeholder Tenant and the existing one blocks it.

  1. In the Orders section, delete any scheduled Orders that were created for this Tenant.
  2. In the Tenant Domain field on the Offer page, select CREATE NEW to open the list of Tenants.
  3. Find the Tenant with the Pending label and select the delete (bin) icon.
  4. Confirm the deletion.

Figure 5. Deleting a Tenant in the Pending status.

Warning! Deletion is permanent. The Tenant record and the contracts that belong only to it are removed completely and cannot be restored. The Platform also allows the deletion even when scheduled Orders for the Tenant still exist, and it does not cancel them. Those Orders stay in the Scheduled status and are never placed. Always delete the scheduled Orders first.

NOTE! Once the Pending Tenant is deleted, the Organization has no Tenant in the Pending status, so the Placeholder Domain option becomes available again and you can create a new Placeholder Tenant.

When the Tenant details do not match

If the synchronization cannot match the External ID within the same parent Seller, it follows the standard logic and creates a new Organization for the incoming Microsoft Tenant. The Placeholder Tenant stays in the Pending status and is not activated.

There is no automatic cancellation. Clean up the unmatched Placeholder Tenant yourself: delete the scheduled Orders that were created for it, and then delete the Tenant, as described in Delete a Pending Tenant. The Customer is then managed through the Organization that the synchronization created.

Summary

A Placeholder Tenant lets you register a Customer who already has a Microsoft Tenant before the Microsoft partnership is accepted. You create the Tenant from the Offer page by selecting Placeholder Domain and entering the Domain name and the Microsoft Tenant ID as the External ID. The Tenant is created in the Pending status, and the Customer approves the partnership in the Microsoft portal with a Global Admin account. The Vendor synchronization then matches the incoming Tenant by External ID and activates the Placeholder Tenant instead of creating a duplicate Organization. Any Orders that you scheduled for the Tenant are placed at the same moment, so the Customer Subscriptions are provisioned as soon as the transfer completes. While the Tenant is Pending you can correct its details or delete it, but scheduled Orders are never updated or cancelled with it, so delete those Orders first.

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