Office 365 Monitoring

Office 365 - An Overview

Office 365 refers to a group of subscription plans that provide productivity software like access to Office applications plus and related services. This includes server that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services), such as Lync web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business and additional online storage with OneDrive and Skype world minutes for home.

There are different tiers to Office 365, such as personal, home and business. In its most basic form, you get access to full Office desktop apps, mobile apps for Android and iOS, OneDrive storage, Skype minutes and more. For business users, Office 365 also offers service subscriptions for e-mail and social networking services through hosted versions of Exchange Server, Skype for Business Server, SharePoint Office Online, and integration with Yammer. 

 Monitoring Office 365 - What we do

Applications Manager provides operational intelligence into Office 365 applications, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Skype for Business. You can view a holistic picture of the health and performance of Office 365 deployments and associated services using custom, interactive dashboards.

  • Exchange Online - Gather long-term data and present detailed reports for Exchange Online, such as mailbox statistics, Exchange Online service health, endpoint connectivity and dozens of other details.
  • SharePoint Online - Get detailed metrics into the health and affected tenant count of SharePoint Online services, including Access Services, Office Web Apps, Yammer components, etc. Applications Manager also keeps track of the TCP connectivity of various SharePoint Online endpoints as well as the performance of SharePoint applications and sites.
  • Skype For Business Online - Monitor key metrics of Skype for Business Online, including the health status of services such as audio and video, federation, sign-in, etc. Checks for the connectivity status and response time of various endpoints as well as the top sessions by duration.

Note: Microsoft Office 365 Services are supported only on Windows installations of Applications Manager.

Applications Manager offers comprehensive performance monitoring for Office 365, enabling admins to minimize downtime and performance degradation as well as take corrective actions before any problems arise. The latest monitoring capabilities in Applications Manager also include:

  • Microsoft Office 365 License Reporting and Management - Stay on top of the provisioning of licenses; manage user licenses in bulk and know the actual Assigned License Count under each service type. Get organization license information like Consumed Licenses, Locked out units, Suspended Units, Unassigned Licenses, Total User Count, License and Tenant Name.
  • Office 365 Service Health - You can view the health of Office 365, and associated services  on the Service health page. If you are experiencing problems with a cloud service, you can check the service health to see its Affected Tenant Count and Last Updated Time to determine if a resolution in progress before you call support or spend time troubleshooting.
  • Endpoints Connectivity - Keep track of the TCP connectivity of various SharePoint Online endpoints as well as the performance of SharePoint applications and sites.
  • Fix Performance Problems Faster - Get instant notifications of common performance issues with a cloud service; check the service health to diagnose service incidents, drill down to their root cause and resolve them quickly to ensure smooth and uninterrupted service delivery. Ensure Office 365 applications are consistently delivering a high-quality experience for end users

Creating a new Office 365 monitor

Mode of Monitoring: PowerShell

Prerequisites for monitoring Office 365 metrics: Click here

Using the REST API to add a new Office 365 monitor: Click here

Follow the steps given below to create a new Office 365 monitor:

  • Click on New Monitor link. Choose Office 365.
  • Specify the Display Name of the Office 365 monitor.
  • Enter the Domain Name/ Tenant Name used to sign up for Office 365. Example: The tenant name for apm@apmtest.onmicrosoft.com is apmtest
  • Enter the Office 365 admin account User Email.
  • Enter the Password for the Office 365 admin email.
  • Choose Microsoft Office 365 Services: Exchange Online, Skype For Business Online or Sharepoint Online
  • Specify the polling interval in minutes and timeout in seconds
  • Choose the Monitor Group from the combo box with which you want to associate Office 365 monitor (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
  • Click Add Monitor(s). This discovers Office 365 from the network and starts monitoring them.

Create a new Office 365 Monitor video

Note: The office 365 admin account used for monitoring must be assigned the below roles: Exchange administrator, SharePoint administrator or Skype For Business administrator

Monitored Parameters

Go to the Monitors Category View by clicking the Monitors tab. Click on the Office 365 monitors under the Cloud Apps table. Displayed is the Office 365 bulk configuration view distributed into three tabs:

  • Availability tab displays the availability history for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
  • Performance tab displays the health status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
  • List view enables you to perform bulk admin configuration.

Click on the monitor name to see all the server details listed under the following tabs:

Overview

Parameter Description
LICENSE DETAILS:
Total License Count The number of licenses that have been purchased for a specific licensing plan.
Consumed Licenses The number of licenses that have been assigned to users from a specific licensing plan.
Unlicensed User Count The number of user accounts without license.
Warning Units The number of licenses in a licensing plan that you haven't renewed, and that will expire after the 30-day grace period.
Locked Out Units The number of accounts that have been locked out
Suspended Units The number of accounts that have been suspended
Unassigned Licenses The number of licenses available for assignment
Total User Count The total number of users for the office 365 subscription
License The License Type.
Tenant Name The name of the account the SKU belongs to.
Office 365 Service Health:
Service – Feature The Office 365 Service – Feature Name
Status The status of the Service – Feature
Affected Tenant Count The number of tenants potentially affected by service incident.
Last Updated Time The last updated time for service incident.
Endpoints Connectivity:
Endpoint The Office 365 endpoint / URL.
Port The port on which endpoint / URL is accessible.
Status The status of endpoint/ URL.
Response Time The time taken for connecting to endpoint/URL.