{"id":1703,"date":"2014-03-19T12:51:00","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T12:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/visualstudioalm\/2014\/03\/19\/visual-studio-online-best-practices-troubleshooting-issues-with-the-eligible-msdn-subscriber-license-type\/"},"modified":"2022-07-18T02:04:08","modified_gmt":"2022-07-18T10:04:08","slug":"visual-studio-online-best-practices-troubleshooting-issues-with-the-eligible-msdn-subscriber-license-type","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/visual-studio-online-best-practices-troubleshooting-issues-with-the-eligible-msdn-subscriber-license-type\/","title":{"rendered":"Visual Studio Online Best Practices: Troubleshooting issues with the &#8220;Eligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As you adopt Visual Studio Online (VSO) and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualstudio.com\/get-started\/assign-licenses-to-users-vs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">assign licenses to your users<\/a> you may want to assign the \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type to team members. MSDN subscriptions are <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.msdn.com\/controlpanel\/blogs\/posteditor.aspx\/[purchased][1]\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">purchased outside of VSO and assigned to individual users. Before an MSDN subscriber can log in to VSO as an eligible MSDN subscriber, the subscription process must first be completed. The general flow looks like this:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>MSDN subscription is purchase by or assigned to a team member. Assignment could be via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/Licensing\/servicecenter\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Volume Licensing Service Center<\/a>, MPN, etc.<\/li>\n<li>Team member receives an email asking them to activate their subscription by signing in with a Microsoft account and registering with the subscription details provided.<\/li>\n<li>Team member activates the subscription and <strong>associates a Microsoft account (MSA) with the subscription<\/strong>. The team member logs in to <a href=\"\/Users\/trevorh\/Desktop\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/subscriptions\/manage\">msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/subscriptions\/manage<\/a> using this MSA to manage the subscription going forward.<\/li>\n<li>A VSO admin adds the MSA (the one the team member associated with their subscription in the previous step) to the Users Hub (https:\/\/<strong><em>Contoso<\/em><\/strong>.visualstudio.com\/_user) and assigns them an \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license.<\/li>\n<li>If 24-48 hours have passed since the subscription was activated, the team member should be able to log in to VSO as an \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d and enjoy full access to <strong><em>all<\/em><\/strong> VSO features (a benefit of this license level).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes though the team member may run into problems after this process. Specifically, they may\u00a0log in\u00a0only to see this message below and find that they have limited access to the account (&#8220;Stakeholder&#8221; license-level access):<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/5706.SHolder.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small\">Figure 1: (Message when MSDN subscription not found for\u00a0signed in user)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The team member could be seeing this error for a number of reasons:\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>**1&#46; The specific MSDN subscription may not be eligible for Visual Studio Online access<br \/>\n**Not all MSDN subscription types include VSO as a benefit. Please refer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualstudio.com\/get-started\/assign-licenses-to-users-vs#MSDNSubscriber\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to the list of eligible MSDN subscriptions<\/a> to verify.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>**2&#46; The MSDN subscription was assigned to the user within the last 48 hours<br \/>\n**There is a delay between MSDN subscription assignments and when VSO will see it allow the user to log in. If the subscription was assigned less than 24 hours ago\u00a0please wait 24-48 hours and have the user\u00a0try again.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>**3&#46; The &#8220;Software Downloads&#8221; benefit has not been provided with the MSDN subscription<br \/>\n**VSO usage is tied to the &#8220;Software Downloads&#8221; benefit of an MSDN subscription. In order to access VSO when assigned the \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type, the user\u2019s MSDN subscription must include this &#8220;Software Downloads&#8221; benefit. \u00a0Here\u2019s an example of enabling that benefit via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/Licensing\/servicecenter\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Volume Licensing Service Center<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2014\/03\/2308.VLSC_.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>**4&#46; The wrong email address has been added to the VSO Users Hub<br \/>\n**<span style=\"color: #ff0000\">This one is important.<\/span> When an MSDN subscription is assigned to a user they receive an email (usually to their work email address) asking them to associate their new MSDN subscription with a Microsoft accountemail address (MSA). This could be the same address where they received the mail or the user could pick a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">completely different MSA<\/span>. The MSA they pick to associate with their new MSDN subscription is the one that needs to be added to the VSO Users Hub (<a href=\"https:\/\/contoso.visualstudio.com\/_user\">https:\/\/<strong><em>Contoso<\/em><\/strong>.visualstudio.com\/_user<\/a>) and assigned the \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license. It\u2019s the one they use to manage their MSDN subscription via <a href=\"https:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/subscriptions\/manage\">https:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/subscriptions\/manage<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Check with your user to see what MSA they\u2019ve associated with &amp; use to manage their MSDN subscription, and ensure that&#8217;s the one on the Users Hub. If OrgIDs are being used with VSO the user should <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualstudio.com\/en-us\/support\/dn800599\">associate their OrgID with the MSDN subscription<\/a> and you can add that to the Users Hub inside VSO.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If all this checks out, have the team member try this:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Go to msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/subscriptions\/manage and log in with your Microsoft account<\/li>\n<li>From the \u201c<strong>My Subscriptions<\/strong>\u201d section in the top-left, copy the <strong><em>name<\/em><\/strong>, <strong><em>email<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Subscriber ID<\/em><\/strong> for the MSDN subscription you want to use with VSO. Paste this into Notepad or other text editor.<\/li>\n<li>Click \u201c<strong>Add an existing subscription to my account<\/strong>\u201d in the \u201c<strong>My Subscriptions<\/strong>\u201d section in the top-left.<\/li>\n<li>Fill out the form with the values you copied in step # 3 and then click NEXT.<\/li>\n<li>Acknowledge and accept the license notice and then click ACCEPT.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This will not change your subscription in any way but will essentially <strong><em>reactivate<\/em><\/strong> it and with any luck this will allow you to log in to VSO.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I hope you are not having any issues with the &#8220;Eligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type in VSO, but if you are please run through this checklist. If you are <strong>still<\/strong> blocked after checking everything above, please open support case:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.visualstudio.com\/support-overview-vs\">http:\/\/www.visualstudio.com\/support-overview-vs<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Click Visual Studio Online tile in the \u201c<em>Answer wasn\u2019t there? Talk to us<\/em>\u201d section<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>\n  Please include the following information when contacting us:\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li>\n      Microsoft account PUID. This is the MSA used by the subscription owner to manage it via http:\/\/msdn.microsoft.com\/en-us\/subscriptions\/manage. Get this number from the bottom of https:\/\/account.live.com\/editprof.aspx (it&#8217;s the &#8220;Uniquie ID&#8221;). Please copypaste&#8230; not a screen shot.\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      MSDN subscription ID\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      Screen shot of your VSO Users Hub (https:\/\/<strong><em>Contoso<\/em><\/strong>.visualstudio.com\/_user)\u00a0clearly showing the user with the issue.\n    <\/li>\n<li>\n      Your VSO account name (like <strong><em>Contoso<\/em><\/strong>.visualstudio.com)\n    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>HTH,<br \/>\n&#8211;Trev<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As you adopt Visual Studio Online (VSO) and assign licenses to your users you may want to assign the \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type to team members. MSDN subscriptions are purchased outside of VSO and assigned to individual users. Before an MSDN subscriber can log in to VSO as an eligible MSDN subscriber, the subscription [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":45953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devops"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>As you adopt Visual Studio Online (VSO) and assign licenses to your users you may want to assign the \u201cEligible MSDN Subscriber\u201d license type to team members. MSDN subscriptions are purchased outside of VSO and assigned to individual users. Before an MSDN subscriber can log in to VSO as an eligible MSDN subscriber, the subscription [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/devops\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}