Pre-requisites for Monitoring Exchange Online

Before attempting to monitor Microsoft Exchange Online, make sure that the following pre-requisites are fulfilled:

  1. The eG agent should be deployed on a remote host running one of the following Windows versions:
    • Windows 10
    • Windows 8.1
    • Windows Server 2016
    • Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2
    • Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

    • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

  2. The Windows system hosting the remote agent should have internet connection.
  3. .NET 4.5 (or above) should pre-exist on the eG agent host.
  4. Windows Management Framework (WMF) 5.1 should be installed on the eG agent host

  5. eG Enterprise provides proprietary PowerShell scripts, which you can run and have many of the pre-requisites for monitoring automatically fulfilled. These scripts and their purposes are discussed in the table below:

    Script name

    Purpose

    O365_Step2_ModulesDwnldnInstall.ps1

    Automatically installs the following modules/packages that are required for monitoring Exchange Online:

    • A 64-bit version of the Microsoft Online Services Sign-in Assistant for IT Professionals RTW
    • A 64-bit version of the Microsoft Azure Active Directory Module for Windows PowerShell

     

    O365SetRolesAndpermissions.ps1

    The eG agent runs Powershell cmdlets to pull many of the metrics for Exchange Online. To run these cmdlets, the eG agent requires the privileges of a user who has been assigned the Global reader role and is vested with the View-Only Audit Logs, View-Only Recipients, Mail Recipients, and Mail Import Export permissions. For this purpose, each test the eG agent runs on Exchange Online should be configured with the credentials of a user who has been assigned the aforesaid role and permissions. Using this script, you can:

    • Automatically create a user with the aforesaid permissions, or;
    • Automatically assign these permissions to any existing user you choose

    Also, to enable the eG agent to monitor service health, theMicrosoft Graph App needs to be installed on Azure Active Directory (AD), with the following permissions:

    • ServiceHealth.Read
    • MyFiles.Read
    • Sites.Read.All
    • User.Read
    • Group.Read.All
    • User.Read.All
    • Reports.Read.All

    This script automatically creates a Microsoft Graph app on Microsoft Azure Active Directory, auto-configured with all the permissions required for monitoring.

    To know how to use these scripts, refer to Using Powershell Scripts to Fulfill Requirements for Monitoring Exchange Online topic

  6. On the other hand, if you choose not to use the scripts above, then you have to manually fulfill each of the requirements described in the table above. To know how, refer to How to Manually Fulfill Pre-requisites for Monitoring Exchange Online?
  7. The Mail Deliverability test emulates a user sending/receiving mails from Exchange Online to report on its availability and responsiveness. For this purpose, the test uses the SMTP Port configured on Exchange Online (default: 587). For this test to work, make sure that the remote agent is able to communicate with Exchange Online via that SMTP port.