OneDrive Synchronization Activities Test

With OneDrive for Business, you can sync files between your computer and the cloud, so you can get to your files from anywhere - your computer, your mobile device, and even through the OneDrive website at OneDrive.com. If you add, change, or delete a file or folder in your OneDrive folder, the file or folder is added, changed, or deleted on the OneDrive website and vice versa. You can work with your synced files directly in File Explorer and access your files even when you’re offline. Whenever you’re online, any changes that you or others make will sync automatically.

Issues in file synchronization may result in loss of critical changes made to data. This is why, it is imperative that administrators keep track of each operation related to file synchronization. Auditing synchronization activities enables administrators to promptly capture each synchronization-related operation as and when it occurs, ensure that only authorized personnel perform synchronization, and also determine whether/not the documents in the document library and in your local computer are in sync. This is exactly what the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test helps administrators achieve!

This test monitors synchronized-related operations and reports the count of each operation. This enables administrators to understand if any synchronization-task is in progress currently or not. Detailed diagnostics reported by the test reveal which user performed each operation, thus helping administrators promptly identify unauthorized/suspect synchronization operations. The client IPs from which each operation was initiated and the sites that were impacted are also revealed as part of the detailed diagnostics. Additionally, the test also reports the count of changes successfully uploaded to the OneDrive document library and/or successfully downloaded by the local computer. If administrators know of uploads/downloads that have been initiated, then these metrics will help them figure out whether/not all such operations were successful. Failed synchronizations thus come to light, so that they can be investigated.

Target of the test : Microsoft OneDrive for Business

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 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 Portalunder Microsoft Office 365. To know how to manually create a new user using the Office 365 portal and assign the required privileges to that user, refer to theCreating a New User in the Office 365 Portaltopic. 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.

Report System Account Log Entries

By default, this flag is set to No. This means that, by default, the test ignores all operations performed by Windows System Accounts. A System Account in Windows is used by the operating system and by services that run under Windows. There are many services and processes within Windows that need the capability to log on internally (for example during a Windows installation). The system account was designed for that purpose; it is an internal account, does not show up in User Manager, cannot be added to any groups, and cannot have user rights assigned to it. On the other hand, the system account does show up on an NTFS volume in File Manager in the Permissions portion of the Security menu. By default, the system account is granted full control to all files on an NTFS volume. Here the system account has the same functional privileges as the administrator account..

If you want the test to monitor and report on operations performed by Windows System Accounts as well, set this flag to Yes.

Note:

By default, this test does not monitor the operations of the NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM and SHAREPOINT\system accounts. This is governed by the System_Account_Names parameter in the [ODB_Audited_Activities] section of the eg_tests.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory). If required, you can exclude more Windows system accounts from monitoring. For that, do the following:

  1. Edit the eg_tests.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory).

  2. Look for the System_Account_Names parameter in the [ODB_Audited_Activities] section of the file. You will find that this parameter is by default set as follows:

    System_Account_Names=NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM,SHAREPOINT\system

  3. To exclude more Windows system accounts from monitoring, you need to modify the System_Account_Names parameter by appending more system accounts to the comma-separated list.
  4. Finally, save the file.

Report Top N DD

By default, this parameter is set to 10, indicating that the detailed diagnostics will report the details of top-10 file operations. You can change the 'N' in Top N by specifying any number of your choice in this text box.

DD Frequency

Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. The default is 2:1. This indicates that, by default, detailed measures will be generated every second 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

Total operations

Indicates the total number of synchronization-related operations that were performed .

Number

The value of this measure is the sum of the values of all measures reported under the section Synchronization Operations, in the Layers tab page of the eG monitoring console

Unique operations

Indicates the count of unique synchronization-related operations that were performed.

Number

To know which operations were performed, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Unique users

Indicates the count of unique users who performed operations related to synchronization.

Number

To know which are the users who performed synchronization-related operations, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Unique client IPs

Indicates the number of unique clients from which the users initiated the synchronization operations.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of this measure to determine the IP addresses of the clients from which users performed synchronization operations.

Unique sites

Indicates the number of unique sites on which the synchronization-related operations were performed.

Number

Use the detailed diagnosis of OneDrive for Business sites on which synchronization-related operations were performed.

Affected item types

Indicates the number of types (eg., file, folder) of items that were affected by synchronization-related operations.

Number

To know what type of items were affected by the synchronization-related operations, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Unique destinations

Indicates the destination URLs of the synchronization-related operations that were performed.

Number

To know the unique destination URLs, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

Unique user agents

Indicates the unique user agents of browsers used for performing synchronization-related operations.

Number

To know the unique user-agent strings of the browsers used for performing synchronization-related, use the detailed diagnosis of this measure.

File synchronization permits

Indicates the number of times users successfully established a sync relationship with the sites.

Number

For files to be synchronized between your PC and the OneDrive document libraries, a sync relationship has to be set between the two. Typically, a sync relationship can be successfully established only if your computer is a member of a domain that's been added to the list of domains (called the safe recipients list ) that can access document libraries in your organization. If this pre-requisite is fulfilled and a sync relationship is successfully set, then the value of this measure will increase.

File synchronization blocks

Indicates the number of times a sync relationship with sites was not allowed.

Number

Typically, a sync relationship with a site will not be allowed / will fail if:

  • Your PC is not a member of your organization's domain; (OR)
  • Your PC is the member of a domain that has not been added to the list of domains (called the safe recipients list) that can access document libraries in your organization;

In this case, your computer will be blocked from syncing, downloading, or uploading files on a document library. Whenever this happens, the value of this measure will increase.

File downloads

Indicates the number of times users successfully downloaded files from document library to PC.

Number

If after establishing a sync relationship, a user successfully downloads files for the very first time from the document library to his/her computer, then the value of this measure will get incremented.

File changes downloads

Indicates the number of times changes to files were successfully downloaded from document library to PC.

Number

If any changes were made to the files in the document library, and such changes were successfully downloaded by your computer, then the value of this measure will increase.

File uploads

Indicates the number of times users successfully uploaded files from their PC to the document library.

Number

If after establishing a sync relationship, a user successfully uploads files for the very first time from the his/her computer to the document library, then the value of this measure will get incremented.

File changes uploads

Indicates the number of times changes to files were successfully uploaded to document library from PC.

Number

If any changes were made to the files in the user's PC, and such changes were successfully uploaded to the document library, then the value of this measure will increase.

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique users measure lists the users who performed synchronization-related operations on OneDrive for Business. For each user, the operations performed by that user, the number of times the operations were performed, and the client from which that user initiated the operations are revealed. This way, administrators can quickly figure out if any user has performed any unauthorized operation.

Figure 1 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique users measure reported by the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique sites measure reveals the GUID and URL of each of the OneDrive sites on which synchronization-related operations were performed. The type of operation that was performed and the number of times these operations were performed is also reported, so that administrators can accurately identify the site that experienced a high level of activity of this type.

Figure 2 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique sites measure reported by the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test

To know which type of items -eg., file, folder, etc. - was the target of the maximum number of synchronization-related operations, use the detailed diagnosis of the Affected item types measure. For each item type, the detailed metrics reveal the specific operations performed on that type and the number of times the operations were performed.

Figure 3 : The detailed diagnosis of the Affected item types measure reported by the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique destinations measure lists the destination URLs of the synchronization-related operations. For each URL, the specific operations that resulted in that URL and the number of times the operations were performed are reported.

Figure 4 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique destinations measure reported by the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test

The detailed diagnosis of the Unique user agents measure lists the user-agent strings of browsers used by users for performing the synchronization operations. For each user-agent string, the detailed metrics further reveals the number of operations performed using that browser. This will help administrators to identify the browser that was used most often to perform such operations.

Figure 5 : The detailed diagnosis of the Unique user agents measure reported by the OneDrive Synchronization Activities test