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This article provides steps to create resource accounts for shared spaces and devices, and includes steps to configure resource accounts for Microsoft Teams rooms on Windows, Teams rooms on Android, Teams rooms on Surface Hub, and hot- desking on Teams screens.
Microsoft 365 resource accounts are mailbox and Teams accounts that are dedicated to specific resources, such as a room or a display device. These resource accounts can automatically respond to meeting invitations using rules you define when they are created. For example, if you have a shared resource, such as a meeting room, you can create a resource account for that meeting room that will automatically accept or decline meeting invitations based on calendar availability.
Each resource account is unique to an installation of Microsoft Teams Rooms or the Teams high-desktop viewer application.
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Microsoft 365 resource accounts are not the same as Teams resource accounts. Group resource accounts can be used with call queues and auto attendants to accept phone calls from external phone numbers. Microsoft 365 resource accounts are linked to an Exchange Online mailbox and allow shared resources such as rooms, projectors, etc. to be booked.
If you'd like to learn more about Teams resource accounts, seeManage resource accounts in Microsoft Teams.
Note
If you use Microsoft Teams boards, the Teams Rooms resource account is linked to both Teams Rooms and the associated Teams contexts.
Note
Skype for Business
If you need to activate your resource account to work with Skype for Business, seeDeploy Microsoft Teams rooms with Skype for Business Server
Before you start
Requirements
Depending on your environment, you need one or more roles to create resource accounts.
| environment | Required roles |
|---|---|
| Azure Active Directory | Global admin or user admin |
| Active file | Enterprise Active Directory Administrators, Domain Administrators or have assigned rights to create users. Azure Active Directory Connect Sync permissions. |
| Exchange Online | Global Administrator or Exchange Administrator |
| Exchange Server | Exchange Organization Management or Recipient Management |
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If you are creating resource accounts for Teams Rooms, the UPN of the resource account must match the SMTP address of the resource account.
What license do you need?
In the next step, you'll create a resource account for your Teams Rooms console. Before you do this, you must purchase a license because each resource account you want to associate with a Teams Rooms console needs a Teams Rooms license.
Follow the steps below to purchase a Teams Room Basic or Teams Rooms Pro license that you can assign to a resource account in a later step. For a comparison between Teams Rooms Basic and Teams Rooms Pro licenses, seeUpdate team meeting room license.
Note
If you have multiple Teams Rooms consoles, we recommend purchasing a Teams Rooms Pro license for each of your consoles. The Teams Rooms Pro license enables more advanced remote management and analytics for Teams Rooms, allowing you to create a more consistent and powerful Teams Rooms and meetings experience.
- go toMicrosoft 365 admin centerand sign in with an account that has global administrator rights.
- In the admin center, go toCharge>Purchase of servicespage.
- In thePurchase of servicespage, typeGroup roomsin the search box and press enter.
- ChooseDetailsbelow the twoTeams Rooms BasictheTeams Rooms Pro.
- Select the number of licenses you wish to purchaseSelect license quantity.
- Choose how often you want to be chargedSelect billing frequencyand then clickBuy.
Note
You can purchase up to 25 Teams Rooms Basic licenses. Any additional licenses you purchase beyond the 25 must be Teams Rooms Pro licenses.
You can purchase a Teams Rooms Basic license for a Teams Rooms console and later change the license for that console to Teams Rooms Pro. First make sure you have a Teams Rooms Pro license available, then follow the instructions atChange the apps and services a user has access to.
Create a resource account
Each Microsoft Teams Rooms device needs its own resource account. The resource account is the account that the Teams Rooms device connects to and is the one that invites users to your organization to book a Teams Room.
When you create the resource mailbox, you can specify whether you want to allow recurring meetings, whether the room automatically accepts invitations, how many days in the future it will accept invitations, and so on.
Suggestion
When naming your resource accounts, we recommend using a standard naming convention at the beginning of the email address. This will help create dynamic groups for ease of management in Azure Active Directory. For example, you can use "mtr-" for all resource accounts that will be associated with Microsoft Teams rooms.
Suggestion
We recommend that you create all resource accounts using Exchange Online and Azure Active Directory.
You can automatically configure the recommended Teams Rooms resource settings through itSurface Hub and Microsoft Teams Rooms automatic installation guide.
Create a resource account using a method from one of the following tabs:
- In the Microsoft 365 admin center
- With Exchange Online
- With Exchange Server
- Modify an existing Exchange room mailbox
Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Provide the administrator credentials for the Microsoft 365 tenant.
I'm going to youResourcesin the left panel, and then selectRooms & equipment. If these options are not available in the left panel, you may need to selectView allfirst.
ChooseAdd resourceto create a new resource account. Enter a display name and email address for the account, then selectSave.
By default, resource accounts are configured with the following settings:
- Allow recurring meetings
- Automatically reject meetings outside the following limits
- Booking window (days): 180
- Maximum duration (hours): 24
- Automatically accept meeting requests
If you want to change them, selectEdit booking optionsbefore choosingShut up. If you want to change them later, go toResources>Rooms & equipment, select the resource account. Then downBooking options, selectProcessing.
I'm going to youUsers>Active usersand select the room you created to open the properties panel.
Then assign a password to the resource account. In the panel, selectReset password.
Requiring users to change their password on a shared device will cause login issues. DeselectRequire this user to change their password on first loginand selectReset password.
You may also need to apply bandwidth policies or meeting policies to this account. You can define mailbox policies in a later step.
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If you only use this resource account to reserve space and automatically accept or decline invitations, you're done. If you use this resource account for PSTN calls, seeAdditional Microsoft Teams Licensesto determine what permission is needed.
Configure mailbox properties
You can improve the meeting experience in Teams Rooms by customizing how your resource account responds to and processes meeting invitations. Using Exchange Online PowerShell, you can set the following resource account properties:
AutomateProcessing:
Automatic AcceptanceMeeting organizers make the room booking decision directly without human intervention.AddOrganizerToSubject:
$falseThe meeting organizer is not added to the meeting request subject.Delete comments:
$falseKeep any text in the message body of incoming meeting invitations. This is required to process external groups and third-party meetings to provide a one-touch Join experience.Delete Topic:
$falseKeep incoming meeting requests on topic.ProcessExternalMeeting Messages:
$truthDetermines whether to process meeting requests originating from outside the Exchange organization. Required for external group meetings andthird party meetings.(Video) Create a resource account for a Teams Room systemRemovePrivateProperty:
$falseEnsures that the private flag sent by the meeting organizer in the original meeting invitation remains as set.AddAdditionalResponse:
$truthThe text specified by the AdditionalResponse parameter is added to meeting requests.AdditionalResponse: "This is a Microsoft Teams meeting room!"The additional text to add to the meeting acceptance response.
To configure these properties, you must log in to Exchange Online PowerShell. For more information, seeSign in to Exchange Online PowerShell.
After you connect to Exchange Online PowerShell, you can configure mailbox properties on a resource account using itSet-CalendarProcessingcmdlet.
The following example sets the properties for theConference Room01resource account:
Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity "ConferenceRoom01" -AutomateProcessing AutoAccept -AddOrganizerToSubject $false -DeleteComments $false -DeleteSubject $false -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages $true -RemovePrivateProperty-Repondionals$false se "This is a Microsoft Teams meeting room!"Turn off password expiration
Like any Microsoft 365 account, a newly created resource account's password is set to automatically expire after a period of time. However, if the resource account's password expires, the Teams Rooms device it's connected to won't be able to reconnect on the expiration date.
To avoid having to reset the resource account password and then sign in again on each Teams Rooms device, you can disable password expiration for the account.
Note
CompositionPassword never expiresis a requirement for shared Microsoft Teams devices. If your domain rules prohibit passwords that do not expire, you should create an exception for each Teams device resource account.
Follow the steps in one of the tabs below to disable password expiration:
- Azure Active Directory 2.0
- Azure Active Directory 1.0
- Active Directory (On Premises)
First, connect to Active Directory PowerShell:
Connect-AzureADThen, lookSet a password so it never expires.
This example sets the password for the ConferenceRoom01@contoso.com account to never expire.
Set-AzureADUser -ObjectID ConferenceRoom01@contoso.com -PasswordPolicies DisablePasswordExpirationGranting a meeting room license
After you create the resource account, you must assign it a license. The resource account needs a Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic or Teams Rooms Pro license to connect to a Microsoft Teams Rooms device. For more information, seeMicrosoft Teams Rooms licenses.
Note
Microsoft Teams Rooms Basic and Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro are the two SKUs available for shared meeting room devices, including Teams Rooms. A meeting room license is required for Teams displays with a hot desktop.
To assign licenses using the Microsoft 365 admin center, do the following:
- Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center.
- Provide the administrator credentials for the Microsoft 365 tenant.
- I'm going to youUsers>Active users.
- Select the resource account you created earlier.
- In the right pane, selectLicenses and applications.
- Develop itEmptysection, select the license you purchased earlier.
Next steps
Meeting policies
You may need to apply custom network, bandwidth, or meeting policies to this account. For more information about network and bandwidth policies, see. For Teams Rooms, we recommend setting your meeting policy bandwidth to 10 Mbps.
For collaboration, turn on PowerPoint Live, Whiteboard, and shared notes. It is recommended that you enable the "Meet now in private meetings" meeting policy setting. You may want to create a meeting policy to customize participant and guest settings for Teams Rooms. For example, control the lobby settings, such as which participants will be automatically admitted to meetings. For more information about group meeting policies, seeManage political meetings in Microsoft Teams.
Call
There are no unique requirements for enabling calls with resource accounts. You activate the resource account for calling in the same way you activate a normal user.
Note
We recommend that you disable voicemail for shared devices by assigning a call policy to the device's resource accounts. I seeCalls and call forwarding to groupsFor more information.
To help your users more easily schedule meetings in a Teams Room, you can create lists of rooms and places in Exchange Online.
Exchange room lists and Outlook parts are used to control which resource accounts (and therefore the group rooms they are associated with) appear in the Outlook Room Finder. Room Finder is an Outlook feature that helps users find rooms that are close to them, available for booking, and meet other criteria, such as the availability of a screen.
Room lists are a special type of Exchange distribution group that allow you to group resource accounts (and thus the Teams Rooms they are associated with) in a meaningful way. For example, you might want to create room lists for all the rooms in every building on your campus.
Outlook Places allows you to set specific attributes about a resource account and its Teams Room. Some of the features you can set are:
- Building
- City
- Capacity
- If the location is wheelchair accessible
- Audio, video and display names
Using a combination of room lists and room features selected by a user, Room Finder in Outlook will display a list of rooms available for booking. To get the most out of room lists and places, create room lists based on a characteristic place, such as the building. For example, set the city and building location attributes for each resource account, and then add each resource account to a list of building rooms. When a user tries to select a room to book, Outlook will display a list of cities and the room listings available in each of those cities.
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Each resource account must have its location attributes defined. If these attributes, specifically city, building and capacity, are not set, these rooms will not appear as available options for booking, even if a room list contains them.
To create a room list, follow the instructions atCreate a room list.
To configure location attributes for a resource account, seePlace.
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