O365 Users Test

Office 365 user accounts and Office 365 licenses do not need to have a one-to-one correspondence: it is possible to have Office 365 users who do not have an Office 365 license, and it is possible to have Office 365 licenses that have not been assigned to a user. Likewise, you can deny a licensed user sign-in rights, and can even delete a user without deleting his/her license. With so many different user configurations possible, its only natural that administrators find it hard to track the license assignment and access settings of each user. This is where the O365 Users test helps. With the help of this test, administrators can quickly determine the count of unlicensed users, deleted users, and those who do not have sign-in rights. Detailed diagnostics reported by this test reveal the names of such users.

Target of the test : Office 365

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

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

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

Certificate-based authentication (CBA) enables customers to allow or require users to authenticate with X.509 certificates against their Azure Entra ID for applications and browser sign-in. When monitoring highly secure Office 365 environments, you should 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.

To achieve this, you should do the following:

  1. Enable Azure Entra ID 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 Tenant. For the automatic procedure, refer to Automatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites For Monitoring Microsoft Office 365 Environments.

    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.

Graph Client ID, Graph Client Secret

This test pulls metrics by accessing the Microsoft Graph API. Therefore, for this test to run, the Microsoft Graph App should first be registered on Microsoft Entra ID, with a specific set of permissions. To know what these permissions are and which tests require these permissions, refer to eG Tests Requiring Microsoft Graph App Permissions.

This App can be created manually or using the proprietary PowerShell script that eG Enterprise provides. For the manual procedure, refer to Registering the Microsoft Graph App On Microsoft Entra ID. To use the PowerShell script, refer to Automatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites For Monitoring Microsoft Office 365 Environments.

To allow this test access to Microsoft Graph App, you need to configure the test with the Graph Client ID and Graph Client Secret of the registered application. The Client ID is a unique identifier for your application, while the Client Secret is a confidential string used to verify your application's identity to access protected resources. If you have manually registered the app in Microsoft Entra ID, then steps 5 and 6 of the procedure detailed in the Registering the Microsoft Graph App On Microsoft Entra ID topic will lead you to the Client ID and Client Secret of the app. Make a note of these details and use them to configure the Graph Client ID and Graph Client Secret parameters, respectively. On the other hand, if you have used eG's proprietary pre-requisites script to automatically create the Microsoft Graph app, then, step 13 of the procedure detailed in the Automatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites For Monitoring Microsoft Office 365 Environments topic will provide you with the Client ID and Client Secret of the graph app. Make a note and configure the Graph Client ID and Graph Client Secret parameters accordingly.

Graph Scope, Graph Authority

This test pulls metrics by accessing the Microsoft Graph API. Therefore, for this test to run, a Microsoft Graph App should first be registered on Microsoft Entra ID, with a specific set of permissions. To know what these permissions are and which tests require these permissions, refer to eG Tests Requiring Microsoft Graph App Permissions.

This App can be created manually or using the proprietary PowerShell script that eG Enterprise provides. For the manual procedure, refer to Registering the Microsoft Graph App On Microsoft Entra ID. To use the PowerShell script, refer to Automatically Fulfilling Pre-requisites For Monitoring Microsoft Office 365 Environments.

To interact with the Graph API and gather the required performance statistics, the eG agent running this test requires an access token. The SCOPE and AUTHORITY parameters within the access token are crucial for defining the scope of access and the authentication context, respectively. SCOPE specifies what resources the eG agent running this test can access, while AUTHORITY identifies the authentication provider. The Graph Scope and Graph Authority parameters of this test capture the SCOPE and AUTHORITY definitions (respectively) in the eG agent's access token.

By default, the Graph Scope parameter is set to https://graph.microsoft.com/.default. This is a common SCOPE for Microsoft Graph, allowing the eG agent to access all permissions that have been granted to the registered Microsoft Graph app within the Microsoft Entra ID. You can change this to match the SCOPE defined for the eG agent in your organization.

Similarly, the Graph Authority is set to https://login.microsoftonline.com/ by default. In this case, the tenant name or ID you specify against the Tenant Name parameter will be automatically appended to https://login.microsoftonline.com to complete the URL and set the default Graph Authority - i.e., https://login.microsoftonline.com/<Tenant_Name/ID>. This default setting indicates that Microsoft Entra ID will handle the authentication and authorization process.

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.

Show Top N DD

By default, the detailed diagnosis of this test displays the details of only the top-10 users, picked at random. If you want, you can change the value of this parameter, so that detailed diagnosis displays records pertaining to more number of users or fewer.

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

Unlicensed users

Indicates the number of users who have not been assigned a license.

Number

When you create a new Office 365 user account, you don't have to assign that user a license: the new user will have a valid account, but he or she won't be able to sign in to Office 365.

To know which users have not been assigned a license, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Deleted users

Indicates the number of users who have been removed.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to know which user accounts have been deleted.

When deleting a user, you can choose to retain the user license or even remove the license along with the user account. The latter is cost-effective as you do not have to continue paying for an unused license. Alternatively, you can even assign the deleted license to another user, thus leveraging your existing investments in Office 365.

Users with non-expiring passwords

Indicates the number of users whose password has been set to never expire.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis to know which users have been configured with passwords that never expire.

Users with password nearing expiry

Indicates the number of users whose password is about to expire.

Number

This measure will be reported only if the test is run by the administrator who has Global Administrative privileges.

Sign-in denied users

Indicates the number of users whose sign-in status has been blocked.

Number

To know which users have been denied sign-in rights, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Sign-in allowed users

Indicates the number of users whose sign-in status has been blocked.

Number

 

The detailed diagnosis of the Unlicensed users measure reveals the principal name and display name of each of the unlicensed users. This way, you can quickly identify which users have yet to be assigned a license.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unlicensed users measure

Using the detailed diagnosis of the Deleted users measure, you can at-a-glance identify the users who have been deleted and the locations from which they have been deleted.

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Deleted users measure

The detailed diagnosis of the Users with non-expiring passwords measure reveals the principal name and sign-in name of the users who have been configured with non-expiring passwords. Additionally, the detailed metrics reveal the location of the user and the Office 365 product to which he/she has been assigned a license.

Figure 3 : The detailed diagnosis of the Users with Non-Expiring Passwords measure