eG Monitoring
 

Measures reported by SPOSyncActTest

If your organization has an Office 365 business subscription or uses SharePoint Server 2019 Public Preview, you can sync your SharePoint files to a folder on your computer where you can work directly in File Explorer and access the files even when you are offline. Whenever you are 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 SPOSyncActTest 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 SharePoint 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.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Office 365 tenant being monitored.

The measures made by this test are as follows:

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 the SharePoint Online 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.
File_sync_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 SharePoint Online 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_sync_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.

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_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.