Usage, Alerts & Diagnostics Tools
From team activity to guest access patterns — monitor everything happening in Teams with usage reports, alert rules, the network connectivity test tool, and feedback policies.
Monitoring the Teams environment
Running Teams without monitoring is like driving without a dashboard.
You need to know: How many people are using Teams? Which teams are active and which are dead? Are guests accessing things they shouldn’t? Did someone create 50 teams today? Is the network performing well?
Teams gives you usage reports (who’s doing what), alert rules (notify me when something unusual happens), the network connectivity test (is the network healthy?), and feedback policies (let users tell you what’s broken).
Teams usage reports
Teams admin center reports
Teams admin center → Analytics & reports → Usage reports
| Report | What It Shows | Exam Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| Teams usage | Active users, active teams, guests, channels, messages | Overall adoption metrics |
| Teams user activity | Per-user breakdown — messages, calls, meetings | Identify inactive/active users |
| Teams device usage | Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, web usage | Device adoption |
| App usage | Which apps are installed and used | App governance |
| Teams activity by team | Per-team metrics — active users, messages, guests | Identify dead teams |
| PSTN usage | Call minutes, domestic/international breakdown | Voice cost monitoring |
| PSTN blocked users | Users who exceeded calling limits | Budget management |
| Per-meeting metrics | Quality, duration, participant count per meeting | Meeting experience |
Microsoft 365 admin center reports
M365 admin center → Reports → Usage → Microsoft Teams
These reports provide broader Microsoft 365 context alongside Teams metrics.
Microsoft Adoption Score
Provides benchmarks comparing your organisation’s Teams usage against similar organisations — useful for adoption initiatives.
Alert rules
Alert rules send notifications when specific conditions are met:
Teams admin center alerts
Teams admin center → Notifications & alerts → Alert rules
| Alert Type | What It Monitors | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Device health | Teams Rooms and phone device status | Alert when a Teams Room goes offline |
| External domain changes | External access domain list changes | Alert when a new domain is added to external access |
| App submission | Custom app submitted for approval | Alert when a developer uploads a custom app |
Microsoft 365 alert policies
Microsoft 365 admin center → Health → Alert policies (or Purview compliance portal)
Broader M365 alerts that include Teams:
- Unusual volume of file sharing
- Teams policy changes
- Guest access changes
- Elevated privilege assignments
Scenario: Jaylen configures monitoring at RemoteFirst
Jaylen sets up comprehensive monitoring for RemoteFirst’s 800 remote employees:
Alert rules (Teams admin center):
- Device health: Alert when ANY Teams Room device goes offline for more than 30 minutes
- External domain: Alert when the external access domain list changes
Usage reports (weekly review):
- Teams activity by team → identify teams with zero activity in 30 days → flag for cleanup
- Guest access → review guest count trend → are guests growing uncontrolled?
- PSTN usage → check call costs vs budget → are any users making excessive international calls?
Dashboard for IT manager:
- Active users trend (daily/weekly)
- Poor call rate trend (should stay under 3%)
- New teams created per week (sprawl indicator)
Monitoring team creation and deletion
Audit logs
Microsoft Purview → Audit → Search for Teams activities:
| Activity | Audit Event |
|---|---|
| Team created | TeamCreated |
| Team deleted | TeamDeleted |
| Team settings changed | TeamSettingChanged |
| Member added | MemberAdded |
| Guest added | GuestAdded |
| Channel created | ChannelAdded |
| Channel deleted | ChannelRemoved |
These audit logs are searchable, exportable, and can trigger Power Automate flows for automated responses.
Monitoring guest access
Key guest monitoring activities:
- Guest count report: Teams usage reports show guest users per team
- Audit logs: Track when guests are added/removed
- Access reviews: Periodic verification (covered in Module 8)
- Conditional Access reports: Monitor guest sign-in activity
Network connectivity test tool
The Microsoft 365 network connectivity test (at aka.ms/netonboard) provides ongoing network health monitoring:
- Run from browser at each office location
- Tests connectivity to Microsoft 365 services
- Shows: DNS resolution, TCP connectivity, UDP media path, network egress location
- Admin can view results in the Microsoft 365 admin center → Health → Network connectivity
Exam tip: The network connectivity test tool results appear in the M365 admin center. Monitor it regularly to catch network degradation before users complain.
Feedback policies
Feedback policies control how users submit feedback about Teams. They are managed via Microsoft 365 cloud policy service and Teams PowerShell (New-CsTeamsFeedbackPolicy, Set-CsTeamsFeedbackPolicy, Grant-CsTeamsFeedbackPolicy).
| Setting | What It Controls |
|---|---|
| Allow users to send feedback | Show/hide the feedback button in Teams |
| Allow users to include screenshots | Whether screenshots can be included |
| Allow users to contact Microsoft | Whether feedback goes to Microsoft directly |
| Survey frequency | How often users see satisfaction surveys |
Rate My Call
Rate My Call prompts users to rate their call quality after hanging up:
- Stars (1-5) and optional feedback
- Data feeds into CQD for correlation with technical metrics
- CQD can report on Rate My Call responses
🎬 Video walkthrough
Flashcards
Knowledge Check
Jaylen's IT manager wants a weekly report showing which teams at RemoteFirst have had zero activity in the past 30 days, to identify teams for cleanup. Where should Jaylen look?
RemoteFirst has 200 guest users. Jaylen wants to be automatically notified when a new guest is added to any team. What should he configure?
Next up: Client Logs & Diagnostics — when things break, you need logs. Learn to collect client logs, clear the cache, and use self-help diagnostics.