Mobile Devices Test

Exchange Online supports the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol, which synchronizes mailbox data between mobile devices and Exchange Online, so users can access their email, calendar, contacts, and tasks on the go.

With many organizations these days encouraging their employees to bring their own mobile devices to work, it has become super-imperative for administrators to keep track of which mobile devices are accessing Exchange Online and syncing with the mailboxes hosted on it, and what are the most popular devices. This information is critical, as they help administrators understand the type of devices that frequently interact with Exchange Online, so that they can accordingly define access policies, DLP policies, and anti-malware protection policies to protect the mailboxes and data hosted online. This is where the Mobile Devices test helps!

This test captures and reports the count and details of ActiveSync-enabled mobile devices and device types that are syncing with mailboxes hosted on Exchange Online. With the help of this information, administrators can quickly identify devices that are popular and the configuration (OS, OS language, mail client) of such devices, so that access policies can be prudently defined.

Target of the test : Exchange Online

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Office 365 tenant being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameters Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured. By default, this is portal.office.com

Tenant Name

This parameter applies only if you want the eG agent to use Azure AD Certificate-based Authentication for accessing and monitoring an O365 tenant and its resources.

Azure AD certificate-based authentication (CBA) enables customers to allow or require users to authenticate with X.509 certificates against their Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) for applications and browser sign-in. When monitoring highly secure Office 365 environments, you can configure the eG agent to identify itself to a tenant using a valid X.509 certificate, so that it is allowed secure access to the tenant and its resources.

By default, the value of this parameter is none. This means that, by default, the eG agent does not use certificate-based authentication to connect to an O365 tenant.

On the other hand, if you want the eG agent to use this modern authentication technique to securely access a tenant's resources, you should do the following:

  1. Enable Azure AD Certificate-based authentication for the target O365 tenant; this can be achieved manually, via the Office 365 portal, or automatically, using Powershell scripts we provide. For the manual procedure, refer to Manually Enabling Certificate-based Authentication For an Office 365 Tenantunder Microsoft Office 365. For the automatic procedure, refer to Automatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites in a Modern Authentication-Enabled Environmentunder Microsoft Office 365.

    When enabling certificate-based authentication, an X.509 certificate will be generated for the target tenant.

  2. Configure the Tenant Name parameter with the name of the tenant for which certificate-based authentication is enabled. Using the tenant name, the eG agent will be able to read the details of the X.509 certificate that is generated for that tenant, and use that certificate to access that tenant's resources. To determine the tenant name, do the following:

    • Log in to the Microsoft 365 Admin Center as an administrator.

    • Under Setup, click on Domains.

    • Find a domain that ends with .onmicrosoft.com - this is your Microsoft O365 tenant name.

O365 User Name, O365 Password, and Confirm Password

These parameters need to be configured only if the Tenant Name parameter is set to none. On the other hand, if a valid Tenant Name is configured, then you should set these parameters to none .

For execution, this test requires the privileges of an O365 user who is vested with the View-Only Audit Logs, View-Only Recipients, Mail Recipients, and Mailbox Import Export permissions. Configure the credentials of such a user against O365 User Name and O365 Password text boxes. Confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.

While you can use the credentials of any existing O365 user with the afore-said privileges, it is recommended that you create a special user for monitoring purposes using the Office 365 portal and use the credentials of that user here. To know how to create a new user using the Office 365 portal and assign the required privileges to that user, refer to Creating a New User in the Office 365 Portal under Microsoft Office 365. You can also use eG's proprietary PowerShell script to automatically create a new user, or assign the required privileges to an existing user. To know how to use this script, refer to theAutomatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites in a Basic Authentication-Enabled Environmenttopic.

Domain, Domain User Name, Domain Password, and Confirm Password

These parameters are applicable only if the eG agent needs to communicate with the Office 365 portal via a Proxy server.

In this case, in the Domain text box, specify the name of the Windows domain to which the eG agent host belongs. In the Domain User Name text box, mention the name of a valid domain user with login rights to the eG agent host. Provide the password of that user in the Domain Password text box and confirm that password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.

On the other hand, if the eG agent is not behind a Proxy server, then you need not disturb the default setting of these parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none.

Proxy Host, Proxy Port, Proxy User Name, and Proxy Password

These parameters are applicable only if the eG agent needs to communicate with the Office 365 portal via a Proxy server.

In this case, provide the IP/host name and port number of the Proxy server that the eG agent should use in the Proxy Host and Proxy Port parameters, respectively.

If the Proxy server requires authentication, then specify the credentials of a valid Proxy user against the Proxy User Name and Proxy Password text boxes. Confirm that password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box. If the Proxy server does not require authentication, then specify none against the Proxy User Name, Proxy Password, and Confirm Password text boxes.

On the other hand, if the eG agent is not behind a Proxy server, then you need not disturb the default setting of any of the Proxy-related parameters. By default, these parameters are set to none.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 1:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every time the test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. You can modify this frequency, if you so desire. Also, if you intend to disable the detailed diagnosis capability for this test, you can do so by specifying none against DD Frequency.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enabled/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Unique user agents

Indicates the number of mobile device user agents accessing Exchange Online.

Number

The User-Agent header contains a line of text that can be used to identify a mobile device.

Using the detailed diagnosis of this measure, you can view the top-20 user-agent strings, in terms of the number of mobile devices supporting those strings. From the user-agent strings, you will be able to figure out the type of mobile devices interacting with Exchange Online.

Unique device types

Indicates the number of mobile device types that are syncing with Exchange Online.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the top-20 mobile device types, in terms of the number of mobile devices of that type accessing Exchange Online.

Unique operating systems

Indicates the number of mobile operating systems accessing Exchange Online.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the top-20 mobile operating systems, in terms of the number of mobile devices running those operating systems.

Unique clients

Indicates the number of mail clients that are interacting with Exchange Online.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the top-20 mail clients, in terms of the number of mobile devices supporting those clients.

Unique device OS languages

Indicates the number of unique device OS languages in use in the mobile devices that are interacting with Exchange Online.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to view the top-20 OS languages, in terms of the number of mobile devices that have been configured with those languages.

Total devices

Indicates total number of mobile devices syncing with mailboxes on Exchange Online.

Number

This is a good indicator of the device load on Exchange Online.

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique user agents measure lists the top-20 user-agent strings, in terms of the number of mobile devices supporting those strings. From the user-agent strings, you will be able to figure out the type of mobile devices interacting with Exchange Online. From the device count, you can instantly identify the most popular device type.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique user agents measure

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique operating systems measure lists the top-20 mobile operating systems, in terms of the number of mobile devices running those operating systems. This will reveal to you that operating system that runs on the maximum number of mobile devices which are interacting with Exchange Online.

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique operating systems measure

Use the detailed diagnosis of the Unique device types measure to view the top-20 mobile device types, in terms of the number of mobile devices of that type accessing Exchange Online. With the help of these detailed metrics, you can quickly identify the device type that is most popular.

Figure 3 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique device types measure

Use the detailed diagnosis of the Unique clients measure to view the top-20 mail clients, in terms of the number of mobile devices supporting those clients.

Figure 4 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique clients measure

Use the detailed diagnosis of the Unique device OS languages measure to view the top-20 OS languages, in terms of the number of mobile devices that have been configured with those languages.

Figure 5 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique device OS languages measure