How to deploy School Data Sync (Classic) by using SDS V1 CSV files

Important

School Data Sync (Classic) experience will be replaced by the new School Data Sync experience by the end of 2024. We advise that you start planning your transition to the new experience for your next year Back to School.

You can use Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files with School Data Sync (SDS) to import and synchronize your Student Information System (SIS) data to Office 365. SDS can sync students, teachers, schools, sections, and roster information from your SIS to Microsoft Entra ID and Office 365. Using this method, you'll export or create CSV files for School Data Sync from your SIS data, set up a synchronization profile, and upload the CSV files into SDS for processing.

In this article:

Before you get started

Before you start synchronizing with SDS using the CSV import method, review Overview of School Data Sync.

Make sure you meet the following prerequisites:

  • An Office 365 for Education tenant

  • Global Administrator Account

  • School Data Sync (Plan 1) enabled

Note

The data that you provide through SDS may be accessible to third-party application providers through their apps, so you should sync only the data that you want to make available to these third parties.

Create a Sync Profile and Import your CSV files

Make sure you've created your six CSV files and they're ready to use. Then follow these steps to import the files and create your sync profile. A sync profile is just a group of options and settings used by SDS to sync the CSV data that you upload. You can create multiple sync profiles within a single Office 365 tenant.

SDS sign-in

  • Launch a private web browser, navigate to sds.microsoft.com, select sign in, and enter your Microsoft 365 Global Admin account credentials when prompted.

Create a Sync Profile and Upload your CSV Files

  1. After logging in, select + Add Profile in the left-hand navigation to create a sync profile.

    Add profile.

  2. On the Choose Connection Type page, complete the form as appropriate. Once complete, select Start.

    Choose Connection Type.

  3. On the Sync Options page, choose whether you want to create new users or sync existing users. Then select Upload Files to upload your six SDS CSV files. Once uploaded, complete your selections on the page as appropriate and select Next.

    Sync options.

    Note

    If running with option for creating new users and wish to adopt V2.1 CSV, we have released a tool that will help you prepare to support V2.1 CSV format as part of your transition for back to school. See update anchor IDs before creating users.

    • Existing users - Select this option if you already have user accounts created within your Microsoft 365 tenant for each of the students and teachers contained within your CSV files.

    • New users - Select this option if you want SDS to create user accounts for each of your students and teachers contained within your CSV files.

    • Upload Files - Select to upload your six CSV files. If the validation passes, your files will be uploaded into the sync profile.

    • School Properties - After uploading your CSV files, the attributes contained within your School.csv will be auto selected. You should validate the attributes selected here are the same attributes contained in your School.csv

    • Section Properties - After uploading your CSV files, the attributes contained within your Student.csv will be auto-selected. Validate the attributes selected here are the same attributes contained in your School.csv

    • Team Creation Option – Checking this box will ensure SDS creates both the Microsoft 365 Group and Class Team for each class synced. If you leave the box unchecked, SDS will only create the Microsoft 365 Groups.

    • Replace unsupported special characters- Checking this box will allow SDS to automatically replace unsupported special characters while the sync is running. Special characters will be replaced with an "_", and no longer result in an error during the sync process for that object.

    • Sync option for class group display name - Checking this box will allow teachers to control the section display name after the first sync. It will also prevent SDS from overwriting Section DisplayName changes made by teachers.

    • Delay student access - Enabling this option will allow you to set a date for SDS to synchronize memberships and enabled students to view their classes. Disable this option to sync students immediately.

    • When should we stop syncing? - You'll typically want to do this at the end of the school year or term. Once SDS stops syncing the profile, you'll have the option to clean up the classes associated with this profile, as appropriate.

  4. On the Teacher options page, select the appropriate identity matching options, confirm the teacher properties are selected, then select Next.

    SDS will check to ensure you're selecting attributes and options within the correct format. If matching a UserPrincipalName for example, you must select a source directory attribute, which is in the format of a UserPrincipalName (prefix@domain.com) or you must choose to append a domain to the source directory attribute to ensure proper formatting. If your selections aren't in the proper format to complete a match, you'll see a red error displayed on the page.

    teacher options.

    • Primary Key (Source Directory) - This is the teacher attribute in the CSV file used for SDS identity matching. Watch the identity matching video for additional information on how to select the appropriate source directory attribute, and properly configure the identity matching settings for teacher.

    • Primary Key (Target Directory) - This is the user attribute in Microsoft Entra ID used for SDS identity matching. Watch the identity matching video for additional information on how to select the appropriate target directory attribute, and properly configure the identity matching settings for the teacher.

    • Domain (optional) - This is an optional domain value that you can add to the selected source directory attribute to complete your teacher identity matching. If you need to match to a UserPrincipalName or Mail attribute, you must have a domain included in the string. Your source attribute must either include the domain already or you can append the appropriate domain to the source attribute using this dropdown menu.

  5. On the Student options page, select the appropriate identity matching options, confirm the student properties are selected, and then select Next. SDS will check to ensure you're selecting attributes and options within the correct format. If matching a UserPrincipalName for example, you must select a source directory attribute, which is in the format of a UserPrincipalName (prefix@domain.com) or you must choose to append a domain to the source directory attribute to ensure proper formatting. If your selections aren't in the proper format to complete a match, you'll see a red error displayed on the page.

    Student options.

    • Primary Key (Source Directory) - This is the student attribute in the CSV file used for SDS identity matching. Watch the identity matching video for additional information on how to select the appropriate source directory attribute, and properly configure the identity matching settings for teacher.

    • Primary Key (Microsoft Entra ID) - This is the user attribute in Microsoft Entra ID used for SDS identity matching. Watch the identity matching video for additional information on how to select the appropriate target directory attribute, and properly configure the identity matching settings for the student.

    • Domain (optional) - This is an optional domain value that you can add to the selected source directory attribute to complete your student identity matching. If you need to match to a UserPrincipalName or Mail attribute, you must have a domain included in the string. Your source attribute must either include the domain already or you can append the appropriate domain to the source attribute using this dropdown menu.

  6. On the Review page, ensure you have made the appropriate selections. If no additional changes are needed, select Create Profile. Once you create a sync profile, SDS will begin a pre-sync validation process. If any errors are found during this process, you'll have the option to fix them and re-upload files before clicking the resume sync button and starting the real synchronization process. If you receive errors and choose not to update them, you can still choose to resume sync without addressing the errors.

    Review page.

To help automate the sync process after setting up your sync profile, you can Use Microsoft Flow to upload CSV files to SDS. This enables you to manage the entire upload process via a user interface in the cloud, which is much simpler to use than PowerShell scripts.

Video: How to match source and target attributes for sync

For various examples of matching logic success and failure for sync, watch the identity matching video:


Overview of SDS

How to deploy SDS using CSV files in the CSV V2.1 format

How to deploy SDS using CSV files in the CSV V1 format

How to deploy SDS using CSV files in the CSV V2 format

How to deploy SDS by using CSV files in the Clever format

How to deploy SDS by using OneRoster CSV files

SDS Errors