SharePoint File Operations Test

SharePoint Online is widely used as a cloud-based service to which users can easily upload their files and share them with other users. Users with access to a file in a document library can download the file at any given point in time and work on it offline. Alternatively, they can checkout a file to make sure that no other user can edit it, make changes to that file online/offline, and check that file back into the library with or without their changes.

If any of these file operations fail or take longer than usual, it can cause critical changes to be lost. Consequently, user productivity will be badly affected and user confidence in SharePoint Online will be shaken. This is why, it is imperative that administrators spot failures/slowness in such operations well before users notice. This is exactly what the File Operations test helps administrators achieve!

Periodically, this test emulates a file upload, download, checkin, checkout, and delete operation, and reports the status and time taken by each operation. In the process, the test proactively alerts administrators to the failure/slowness in a file operation, thereby enabling them to investigate and resolve the bottleneck before users complain.

Target of the test : Microsoft SharePoint 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 has been assigned theService support admin and SharePoint admin roles and is vested with the View-Only Audit Logs permission. 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 aforesaid 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 Environmenttopicunder Microsoft Office 365 .

O365 Domain

This parameter needs 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 this parameter to none .

To have a personalized business email address, team site address, or even an account name, you set up a domain name with Office 365. A domain is a unique name that appears after the @ sign in email addresses, and after www. in web addresses. It typically takes the form of your organization's name and a standard Internet suffix, such as yourbusiness.com or stateuniversity.edu. Office 365 gives you an initial domain name to use. By default, this will be of the format: *.onmicrosoft.com - eg., abc.onmicrosoft.com. To enable this test to pull metrics, you need to configure the test with the name of this initial domain. Therefore, configure the O365 Domain parameter with the name of the initial domain. To know what is your Office 365 initial domain name, do the following:

  1. Log on to the Microsoft Office 365 Online Portal using an administrative account.
  2. Under Management, click on Domains.
  3. The initial domain should be listed with a name ending with .onmicrosoft.com.

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.

Location to Upload File

This test emulates a file upload operation. To enable the test to perform that operation, specify the SharePoint Online location to which the test should upload the file. Example: https://egshareit.sharepoint.com

File Download Location

This test emulates a file download operation. To enable the test to perform that operation, specify the location on your local host to which the test should download the file. Example: C:\\temp
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

File checkin status

Indicates whether/not the test was able to checkin the file successfully

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Success 1
Failure 0

Note:

Typically, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of a file checkin operation. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

File checkin time

Indicates the time taken for the file checkin operation to complete.

Seconds

An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of a bottleneck when checking in.

File checkout status

Indicates whether/not the test was able to checkout the file successfully

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Success 1
Failure 0

Note:

Typically, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of a file checkout operation. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

File checkout time

Indicates the time taken for the file checkout operation to complete.

Seconds

An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of a bottleneck when checking out.

File deletion status

Indicates whether/not the test was able to delete the file successfully

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Success 1
Failure 0

Note:

Typically, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of a file delete operation. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

File deletion time

Indicates the time taken for the file delete operation to complete.

Seconds

An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of a bottleneck when deleting a file.

File download status

Indicates whether/not the test was able to download the file successfully

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Success 1
Failure 0

Note:

Typically, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of a file download operation. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

File download time

Indicates the time taken for the file download operation to complete.

Seconds

An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of a bottleneck when downloading.

File upload status

Indicates whether/not the test was able to upload the file successfully

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are listed in the table below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Success 1
Failure 0

Note:

Typically, this test reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of a file upload operation. In the graph of this measure however, the same is indicated using the numeric equivalents only.

File upload time

Indicates the time taken for the file upload operation to complete.

Seconds

An unusually high value for this measure is indicative of a bottleneck when uploading a file.