I’ve previously blogged about the Office 365 Service Communications API before and how it can be used to obtain the service status/health of services in your Office 365 tenant. The API also allows you to get historical status along with messages (from message centre, incidents etc.).
In my previous post I showed how this could be done in Flow using a standard HTTP call within each Flow. It works, but it also means you need to set up authentication and each API call manually (even if in the same Flow).
With the recent high-profile outages within Office 365 and the ever reliance on Office 365, it’s always good to stay up-to-date with any potential issues.
There are lots of ways to check the status of Office 365 - the Office 365 portal, Twitter accounts etc. However, what I was after was an automated way of checking for issues and letting me and the team at Symity know about them ASAP (so we can look to mitigate impact) - rather than happening to come across it, or worse users noticing and informing us.
Whilst Flow does have some integration with Microsoft Teams, one missing feature is the ability to create a Team in Microsoft Teams (you can create Channels, messages etc.).
With recent additions to Graph API, you can create a Team using a template and a Graph API call. This API call can be used within a flow. In this scenario, I’m going to create a flow to create a Team. This will work like so:
Microsoft Teams has a feature that I don’t see used or talked about a whole lot - Cards.
Cards allow you to post a container to a Teams channel. The type of card I will use here is a Message Card. These can contain text, images, links etc.
Message Cards are not to be confused with Adaptive Cards. These are entirely different and are not exclusive to Teams. Adaptive cards are more flexible and interactive than Message Cards but unfortunately, do not support the method I employ here - Incoming Webhook.
Background With the preview release of Teams Direct Routing users are now able to make and receive PSTN calls using certified SBCs instead of Calling Plans. Part of setting this up involves setting up PSTN Usages, Voice Routes, Online Voice Routing Policies, PSTN Gateways etc. within Skype Online PowerShell.
Much like Skype for Business, if your users have multiple calling requirements the amount of Voice Routes, PSTN Usages etc. can grow quickly and sometimes make it quite hard to fathom how a call will route.
Last Updated: 13th August 2020
Introduction Microsoft has released Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams. Direct Routing effectively allows you to connect up existing PSTN connectivity (e.g. SIP trunks) into a certified SBC and route directly to Teams. This differs from the Skype Online method of doing this, in that you no longer need any hardware (on-premises Skype for Business Server or a CCE) other than an SBC.
In this post, I’ll go over how to do this with an AudioCodes SBC and SIP trunks.
Introduction For Skype Online there are various tools to report on user sessions:
Call Analytics - This is great for looking at a user’s call history when diagnosing call issues. This is similar to the data we can glean from on-premises SSRS reports.
Call Quality Dashboard - Again, great for looking at overall trends or metrics of call quality to pinpoint issues.
Session Details - This is accessed from the Skype Admin Centre.
Introduction Skype Room System (SRS) v2 has been around a little while now, but until recently I’ve come in to contact with one.
SRS can be deployed in the following ways:
100% On-Premises - The Exchange and Skype for Business user will both be hosted premises installations. More info
100% Online - The Exchange and Skype for Business user will both be hosted in Office 365. More info
Hybrid - This can break down two ways:
Introduction I thought I would write a post to remind people that Microsoft will be switching off TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for their Office 365 services. It was originally meant happen in March 2018, then October 2018, but has now been pushed back to a later date.
If you don’t have Office 365 services you won’t be affected by this, but I would still advise migrating away from the older specifications of TLS where possible.