With the recent news / leak that Skype for Business Online will be upgraded to Teams its time to read up more on Teams and i hope to share with you what im reading and learning.
I’ve already blogged on the two videos from the Teams Academy
The second one in the series on Success with teams here
This session is second part of the series following on from the Introduction to Microsoft Teams video which i did a summary on here
This session is from March 2017 and features and functionality subject to change and they will have for sure from March. For example today 11th September external access was announced for Teams which is a big one !!!! more details here
Recommended to visit first training
Far left hand side you see the icons menu with Activity, Chat, Teams, Meetings and Files. You can see teams channel in global search bar, tabs across the top and threaded conversation below.
Agenda for the session
Key Learning’s and as with any UC solution, Firewalls and Networking are KEY !!!!!
Updated marked in this session are updated from Preview as this session is from March 2017
Documentation can be found here
Helps go through the plan, deliver, operation phases for the a team deployment, Plan, deliver, operate are also used in Skype Operations Framework.
Planning workshops and bandwidth calculators are also available so you can see PLANNING IS KEY !!!
Foundation of Microsoft Teams
For Microsoft to become the hub of teams collaboration you have to leverage of the existing Microsoft products you use and from Office 365.
- Office 365 Groups
- Azure Active Directory
- Exchange
- SharePoint
Office 365 Groups
Groups are used to manage memberships and access controls. Owners of existing groups can move them over to teams and controlled via admin portal.
Azure Active Directory (AAD)
Teams uses AAD to use existing credentials to sign so you don’t need a separate user account to sign in and identities are stored in AAD.
Teams by using AAD can also leverage Azure Active Directory Modern Authentication for enhanced security.
Exchange
A group mailbox and calendar gets created for each team and a meetings are created also regardless of where meeting is created and accessible for teams client and outlook.
SharePoint
Each teams will get a SharePoint site created, permissions governed by groups membership, and each channel within a team will get a folder on this SharePoint site.
Uploaded file’s are uploaded to SharePoint
OneDrive for Business
Files shared during private chats are hosted on the SENDERS OneDrive for Business Storage.
The files icon in the teams client give instant access to your OneDrive for business files.
Key to getting the client to successfully connect to the back end services !
Whitelisting
Firewall Whitelisting of URLs and IP Address ranges
https://aka.ms/Teams-IPs-Ports
Subscribe to RSS feed for updated changes here!
https://support.office.com/en-us/o365ip/rss
Proxy Server
Recommended not using a proxy server !
If you have a proxy then make sure you can resolve external DNS, allows udp and allow direct udp based routing and traffic.
Network Planning
Massive Topic, Network planning is key !
Teams can deliver Chat and real-time media so in the session its break down the different as chat consists from messaging and files where Real time media is audio, video and desktop sharing.
You can afford a delay in chat service but not in real media as it will affect the session and experience for users. Drop or delay in real time media can affect calls dramatically with dropped of delayed packets.
Most teams leverage chat services over real time
Chat services will ALWAYS travel via Office 365!!!
This is how teams make sure data and chat are accessible on any devices and ensure data is stored in correct regional datacentres.
Real time media is different and dependant on scenario
- For a peer to peer for 1 to 1 call will go as DIRECT as possible between two people
- Meetings or private chats of three or more people with go via Office 365!
This is a summary and will breakdown more
Conferencing Flows
Audio
Each participant sends one audio stream to conferencing units and the conferencing unit will mix the steams and send a single audio stream to each participant.
Video
- Each Participant sends video and each participant can receive up to four video streams.
- When four or more participants are in a meeting the most recent four speakers will be shown!
Desktop Sharing
- Desktop Sharing leverages a video Stream !, one user sends and all other users will receive!
- Stream based on receiver capability
Call Flows
One on One chat service call flow with Alice and Bob signed into Teams client
Chat Content always sent via Chat service to Office 365, as this is chat each client using port 443 for chat service and can tolerate some network latency!
However now we add Real time media (Audio, Video and Desktop Sharing)
Teams leverages ICE protocol to establish if a direct connection can be made for the most optimal media path between Alice and Bob which it can in the example above!
Both client can directly communicate together, for example two clients can communicate if they both had public ips and both on the same network and internal ips.
ICE , STUN and TURN are all used, similar to Lync and Skype for Business.
Alice and Bob are not directly connected on the same network and have a firewall between them in the example above.
For chat service this all goes to Office 365 and is not a problem so they can communicate in chat and direct chat messages. Direct connections between Bob and Alice are not in play for chat service.
However for real time media they are! In this example direct communications are not allows and are blocked.
In this scenario Office 365 is not used as a Media Relay with Alice and Bob routing media to Office 365 as a direct connection was not possible in this example.
Media relay will proxy real time media to the other user
Alice and Bob can have real time conversation
Path less Optimal as have to travel to relay and latency is increased but shouldn’t be too much perhaps a couple more milliseconds. Depends on client locations.
Call Flows – Multiparty
Alice, Bob and Charly here initiate a meeting
- Path to Chat service is the same
- Real time media is different to peer to peer as never does direct. Real time media always goes to Office 365
Audio, Video and Desktop sharing is distributed to all users
- Both TCP and UDP are both used for sending packets over the internet, both with advantages and disadvantages
- TCP great for Email but packets are required to be acknowledge
- UDP fire and forget and doesn’t require acknowledgement that packets sent have been received.
- Like sending post 1st class or recorded delivery.
Teams can use both TCP and UDP but for media we want to send packets and quickly and not add delay.
If some packets are lost we do lose some information and you would lose a very small part of the audio so may not be noticed.
Overall UDP is PREFFERED ! TCP is fall-back as may increase more delay!
Networking Best Practices!
RTC traffic is sensitive to packet loss, delay and jitter unlike other traffic like email.
Wireless is key and should be planned, for example meeting rooms may need more Access point coverage than office space due to number of users connected in one place.
Bandwidth Considerations
There is a Teams bandwidth calculator here
https://www.successwithteams.com/BandwidthCalculator
I’ve done a summary on the video session for planning bandwidth as well here
Audio is expected to be in use for every Teams Meetings and max stream size calculation is set as 100Kbps and one audio stream is sent to all users.
Meeting Layouts and Bandwidth Utilizations
Full Screen – two person call. Bottom right is your video
When you add two video you then share the space and three videos as well
Four videos you have shared video and equal size in the client
Now add Desktop sharing
You can see the desktop share take more room over the video
Lets breakdown
Providing network consideration allow throughput the max meetings using 1080p is shown above.
Max resolutions is shown where you can see the different video screen sizing in each scenario.
Throughput is data dependent and if network doesn’t allow max is will lower throughput.
This show max uploads with 1080p, this is from active presenter view and uploads.
Worse Case Scenario
In this example where worse combination of layout and monitor resolution occur. Ultra HD monitors and one participant with 720p the client will try and see if possible and will scale down.
Management of Teams
Teams is enabled by default on all Office 365 tenants but can be disabled via PowerShell at a user level.
This features above will be removed and to disable on user basis then remove the licence for teams.
After Teams enabled then you have general settings and all will be enabled.
General you can have org chats and disable SfB interop
As Teams using groups you can navigate to groups. You can restrict team creation to specific security groups.
You can disable GIFS, Stickers,. Memes
You can add content ratings as well, Strict is recommend.
T Bot can not be disabled
Client Rollout
There is a number of clients available for many different platforms!
Most functionality is available in web chat but desktop client required for real time communication.
https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads
You can also deploy via SCCM
Mobile client available from mobile platforms app store and cant be deployed via MDM
- Desktop and web will auto update
- Mobile client will update via mobile app stores.
Security and Compliance
Data encrypted at rest and in transit!
All data store in regional clouds based on AAD Settings
Teams chat service runs with the Office 365 compliance boundary
http://aka.ms/o365-compliance-doc
Teams has strong security measures and data always encrypted.
Based on the SKU you own though!
Check admin portal for any service issues or outages
Check ports are whitelisted !
Collect Logs
Only in Web and desktop clients
- https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads
- https://aka.ms/iosteams
- http://aka.ms/androidteams
- http://aka.ms/wpteams
https://aka.ms/microsoft-teams-readiness
https://support.office.com/en-us/o365ip/rss
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/actionable-messages/
https://aka.ms/connectorsforgroups
https://aka.ms/microsoftteamsbotsplatform
https://aka.ms/teamsbotframework
Some more as well from here
Product Tour: https://youtu.be/bhIzp2tFXYQ
Summary: Take a quick tour of Microsoft Teams.
Teams and Channels: https://youtu.be/kyXzlnLNLB
Summary: Learn how teams can bring together all the right people, communications, files, and tools.
Using Tabs: https://youtu.be/mM_iGhuad38
Summary: Learn how to add tabs to different channels and chats that will allow your team to connect to other apps, hold conversations about different files, generate instant analytics, and more.
Productive Conversations: https://youtu.be/4guKy0jyFrk
Summary: Get some quick tips on how to have productive and targeted team conversations.
Private Chat and Calling: https://youtu.be/239yow7v2cU
Summary: Get all the information you need to make private calls or chat privately with teammates, from focused one-on-one conversations or as a group.
Meet Now: https://youtu.be/7k2omzTVexs
Summary: From a channel, go live together with video, screen sharing, and relevant content.
Onboard Your Team: https://youtu.be/LTHxsPmc8Wc
Summary: Learn how to get your team up and running so you can start collaborating and creating!
Scheduled Meetings: https://youtu.be/bDTTfP7RJ48
Summary: Find out everything you need to know about scheduling and organizing meetings in Microsoft Teams, from viewing all your appointments at once to how to join a meeting once you’ve accepted an invite!
Martin Boam's Microsoft Blog 