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Office365 Exchange

Overview​

Microsoft’s Office365 suite includes Exchange Online, which is a hosted messaging application that provides organizations access to the full-featured version of Exchange Server.

The monitoring information of Microsoft's Office365 is available through the Office365 API Management.

The data provided by the Office365 Management API are not real-time They're based on a 7 days reporting period

Plugin-Pack assets​

Monitored objects​

  • Users email activity
  • Mailboxes usage

Monitored metrics​

See link for details about metrics :

Metric nameDescription
exchange.users.active.countNumber of active users
exchange.users.emails.sent.total.countNumber of total sent mails
exchange.users.emails.received.total.countNumber of total received mails
exchange.users.emails.read.total.countNumber of total read mails

Once the host created, you can configure some macros on the services to filter information by user or by mailbox. More information in the Configuration section.

Prerequisites​

Refer to the official documentation of Office365 Management or follow the link in the 'More information' section to create an Office365 account and get help about the management features.

Register an application​

The Office365 Management API use Azure AD to authenticate against Office365. To access the Office365 Management API, you need to register your application in Azure AD. Application is here used by Microsoft as a conceptual term, referring not only to the application software, but also to the Azure AD registration and role in authentication/authorization "conversations" at runtime. (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/active-directory/develop/app-objects-and-service-principals)

Office365 Management API authorization​

To collect data from Exchange Online, you need to specify the following authorization:

  • Microsoft Graph :
    • Reports.Read.All (Type : Application)
    • User.Read (Type : Delegated)
  • Office365 Management APIs :
    • ServiceHealth.Read (Type : Application)
    • ActivityFeed.Read (Type : Application)

More information​

You can access to the official documentation to register your application, get your ID client, ID secret and your Tenant ID by following this link: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office/office-365-management-api/get-started-with-office-365-management-apis

Installation​

  1. Install the Centreon Plugin package on every poller expected to monitor Office365 Exchange:
yum install centreon-plugin-Cloud-Microsoft-Office365-Exchange-Api
  1. On the Centreon Web interface, install the Centreon Plugin-Pack Office365 Exchange from the "Configuration > Plugin Packs > Manager" page

Configuration​

  • Log into Centreon and add a new Host through "Configuration > Hosts".
  • Apply the Cloud-Microsoft-Office365-Exchange-Api-custom template and configure all the mandatory Macros :
MandatoryNameDescription
XOFFICE365CUSTOMMODEAccess mode for the Plugin (default: 'graphapi')
XOFFICE365TENANTTenant-id of your Office365 organization
XOFFICE365CLIENTIDClient-id of your registered application
XOFFICE365CLIENTSECRETSecret-if of your registered application
OFFICE365EXTRAOPTIONSAny extra option you may want to add to the command (eg. a --verbose flag)

The metric perfdateY will record the date the metric was collected. You can filter it by entering --filter-perfdata='^(?!.*perfdate).*$' into the OFFICE365EXTRAOPTIONS macro.

Once the host created, you can configure some Macros on the services to filter information:

MandatoryNameDescription
FILTERUSERFilter specific users
FILTERMAILBOXFilter specific mailboxes
FILTERCOUNTERFilter specific counters (default:'active|total')

FAQ​

How can I test the Plugin in the CLI and what do the main parameters stand for ?​

Once the Centreon Plugin installed, you can test it directly in the CLI of the Centreon poller by logging with the centreon-engine user:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins//centreon_office365_exchange_api.pl \
  --plugin=cloud::microsoft::office365::exchange::plugin \
  --mode=email-activity \
  --tenant='abcd1234-5678-90ab-cd12-34567890abcd' \
  --client-id='9876dcba-5432-10dc-ba98-76543210dcba' \
  --client-secret='8/RON4vUGhAcg6DRmSxc4AwgxSRoNfKg4d8xNizIMnwg='

Expected output:

OK: Active mailboxes on 2019-03-10 : 141/1532 (9.20%) - Total (active mailboxes)
Send Count: 9478, Receive Count: 62197, Read Count: 24401 |
'active_mailboxes'=141mailboxes;;;0;1532
'total_send_count'=9478;;;0;
'total_receive_count'=62197;;;0;
'total_read_count'=24401;;;0;

The available thresholds as well as all of the options that can be used with this Plugin can be displayed by adding the --help parameter to the command:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins//centreon_office365_exchange_api.pl \
  --plugin=cloud::microsoft::office365::exchange::plugin \
  --mode=email-activity \
  --custommode='graphapi'\
  --help

You can display all of the modes that come with the Plugin with the command below:

/usr/lib/centreon/plugins//centreon_office365_exchange_api.pl \
  --plugin=cloud::microsoft::office365::exchange::plugin \
  --list-mode

Why do I get the following error:​

UNKNOWN: 500 Can't connect to ...:443​

This error message means that the Centreon Plugin couldn't successfully connect to the Office365 Management API. Check that no third party device (such as a firewall) is blocking the request. A proxy connection may also be necessary to connect to the API. This can be done by using the --proxyurl option in the command.

UNKNOWN: 501 Protocol scheme 'connect' is not supported |​

When using a proxy to connect to the Office365 Management API, this error message means that the Centreon Plugin library does not support the proxy connection protocol.

In order to prevent this issue, use the curl HTTP backend by adding the following option to the command: --http-backend='curl'.