How to suspend a tenant and restore it

Executive summary. Suspend everybody in an organization, and put them back exactly as they were.

Definition

Suspension disables sign in for a tenant's users; restoring reverses one specific suspension.

What to do

From the tenant in the operator console, choose to suspend its users, and record why.

The response tells you how many people were suspended and gives the suspension a reference.

KEEP THAT REFERENCE. Restoring asks for it.

To restore, use the same tenant and quote the suspension reference along with a reason.

Why restoring needs the reference

A restore names the suspension it is reversing, so it puts back the people that suspension took out and nobody else. A blanket restore would quietly reactivate anybody suspended separately, for their own reasons, at another time.

Both the suspension and the restore are audited against your operator identity with the reasons you gave.

Frequently asked questions

I lost the suspension reference. Can I still restore?

The suspension is on the tenant record with its reference, so it can be looked up. The reference is required rather than optional because a restore without one cannot know which suspension it is undoing.