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Machine Groups and Microsoft Office

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Posted on by slypdog93

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I have a machine group setup in my power automate environment with 10 machines in the group to run desktop flows. In order to login to any machine, I have created an account that has access to all 10 machines. I need to be able to use Microsoft 365 on all 10 machines; however, Microsoft has a limit of 5 logins for Office.

How do I setup more than 5 machines in a machine group with Microsoft Office while still using the same account to login to every machine?

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,928 Moderator on at

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Hi @slypdog93

You cannot, since the limit is 5, you would need another 5 machine license.

If you like my answer, I would really appreciate if you please Mark it as Resolved, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

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slypdog93 60 Season of Giving Solutions 2025 on at

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Hi Mike - Does this mean that it is not possible to setup a machine group with more than 5 runners that have MS Office? This seems like a serious limitation that would prevent any business from scaling Power Automate.

Is there any way to setup a machine group of greater than 5 runners that have MS Office?

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,928 Moderator on at

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@slypdog93

No, thats not what I said, nor what you asked. You asked if you could use the same account. The answer is no, and its not a limitation other than a license.

Buy another license.

As this is the answer (still) please mark my answer as so

If you like my answer, I would really appreciate if you please Mark it as Resolved, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

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slypdog93 60 Season of Giving Solutions 2025 on at

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Hi Mike - I don't know if you understood my original question. I would like to use Power Automate Machine Groups. To use the machine group you must setup a connection reference and the login used for the connection reference will be used when signing into any machine in the group. So the account, MyRPAOffice, for example will be used when logging into machines 1-10.

Obtaining more office licenses for other accounts is not a problem but the limitation of only being able to use one account with machine groups is.

Given the limitation of only being able to use one account with machine groups, how can Microsoft Office be setup on more than 5 machines?

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Michael E. Gernaey 53,928 Moderator on at

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@slypdog93

I understood what you said, but you also said you needed to use Microsoft 365 on all machines. (it wasn't just a reference connection login).

If its just a log in, that has nothing to do with licenses, as its just a login for an account and the account has no limit. But you asked if you could use Microsoft 365 on all 10.

In this case, I would really recommend calling Microsoft and asking. Even VM's (which are what these are), require licenses for software.

If you need office on all 10, my guess is you need licenses for all 10. The login doesn't matter, except if you were using Office on more than 5 machines at a time, which would be breaking their 5 usage limit.

I would definitely call.

If you like my answer, I would really appreciate if you please Mark it as Resolved, and give it a thumbs up, so it can help others

Cheers

Thank You
Michael Gernaey MCT | MCSE | MCP | Self-Contractor| Ex-Microsoft
https://gernaeysoftware.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelgernaey

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slypdog93 60 Season of Giving Solutions 2025 on at

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Hi - I was able to resolve this issue by not using Machine Groups and instead using the Dataverse API to kickoff flows. This removed the restriction imposed by machine groups of using the same account for every machine.

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