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Term transition and expired class management

  • Článek

Overview

School Data Sync (SDS) (Classic) synchronizes student information system (SIS) data to Microsoft Entra ID and Office 365. For each class synced, SDS (Classic) will create a Microsoft 365 Group and Class Team. Classes usually have a limited lifetime, such as a single term, semester, or school year. At the end of the school term, we recommend that organizations follow these processes to ensure the classes are expired properly and cleaned up when they're no longer active and no longer need to be synced. Afterwards, a new term sync can begin.

This document explains the term-end process for organizations syncing CSV files.

Important

If you are using an API connection for your sync profile, you MUST delete the profile and recreate it after your school year is complete. Microsoft suggests completing the group cleanup process before creating your new API based sync profile.

Term cycle management is connected with the processes of expiring and archiving Microsoft 365 Groups and Class Teams and redeploying data with SDS (Classic). The term cycle is described below:

  • Profile expires - The expiration date for a sync profile is set when the profile is created. When the expiration date is reached, the profile enters a paused state, so it no longer processes any new data or new changes. At this point, you can begin the cleanup process.
  • Run cleanup actions - When the profile is expired, you can perform group clean-up within the SDS (Classic) dashboard.
  • Delete the expired sync profile

Profile expires

When a profile reaches its expiration date, the profile is locked or paused, and will no longer sync data.

Run cleanup actions

When the profile is expired, you can perform group cleanup within the SDS (Classic) dashboard. You have these options during the process:

  • Mark classes expired - This option tags the sections as EXP in the display name and status and also updates the SIS identifier of the group. This option makes it easy to identify which classes are expired and are no longer active for your staff and students.
  • Archive Teams classes - This option puts the teams into read-only mode. This step ensures that your Teams class data remains but is moved out of the active view within Teams for your staff and students. The content still can be accessed in read-only mode. Class owners can restore the teams if needed or when Teams classes are accidentally archived. For specific instructions on archiving and restoring Teams, read the support document, Archive or restore a team.

Additionally, you can run these PowerShell scripts in your cleanup process:

  • Removing unused sections - SDS groups that weren't used in the previous term don't have content or data stored in the groups and can be removed. This process targets and removes all SDS sections that are considered empty within the section usage report. For more information on using this script, watch the video, Performing SDS cleanup activities.
  • Removing expired section memberships - This process removes the members of the groups created with SDS. For more information on using this script, watch the video, Performing SDS cleanup activities.

Important

Microsoft recommends performing the cleanup actions in the order given. However, these actions can be performed at any time.

Delete the expired sync profile

After you've run the cleanup actions, you can then copy the settings of the profile and delete the expired profile. The profile only consists of the configuration of how the data is synced, so deleting the profile doesn't delete any data. If you want to delete data, you can soft delete it from within Teams, the admin center, or term cleanup, or by removing it from the sync. This soft deleted data remains in a recycle bin and you have 30 days to restore it before it's removed permanently. Additionally, PowerShell scripts are available to help delete and restore data.

To copy the settings and delete the profile:

  1. To sign in to SDS (Classic), launch a private web browser, navigate to sds.microsoft.com, select sign in, and enter your Office 365 Global Admin account credentials when prompted.
  2. Select the expired profile, edit the profile, and copy / screenshot the settings prior to deletion.
  3. Select Delete Profile.