Module 6 of 9

📚 M365 Admin Center Course · Module 6 of 9

Service Health & Reports

📂 Course: M365 Admin Center
📦 Module: 6 of 9
🎯 Exam: MS-102
⏱ Read time: ~25 min

MS-102 Exam Alignment
MS-102

Objective 1.5 — Monitor Microsoft 365 services: monitor and report on service health, manage the Message Center, configure email notifications, and use usage reports for licence management decisions.

Identify active incidents and advisories on the Service Health dashboard
Understand the difference between incidents (service degraded/down) and advisories (feature impaired)
Configure email alerts for service health events using a shared mailbox
Triage Message Center posts — especially "Action required" posts with deadlines
Use the M365 Active Users report to identify unused licences for reclamation

Exam Tip: When users report a service issue, the MS-102-correct first step is always checking Service Health — before any local troubleshooting. Also know that "Action required" Message Center posts can cause service disruption if missed.

When users report that something is not working, the first question every M365 admin should answer is: "Is this a Microsoft problem or ours?" The Service Health dashboard answers that in seconds. Beyond reactive incident monitoring, the M365 Admin Center also provides the Message Center for planned changes, and a full suite of usage reports to understand how your organisation actually uses its M365 investment.

🟢 Service Health Dashboard

💡 Why Check This First?

Before spending time troubleshooting a reported issue on your side — checking configurations, restarting services, opening tickets — always check the Service Health dashboard first. If Microsoft has an active incident affecting Teams or Exchange, any troubleshooting on your end is wasted effort. A 30-second check can save hours of unnecessary work.

M365 Admin Center › Health › Service health

Microsoft 365 admin center
|
Health › Service health

🏠 Home

Users

Active users

Roles

Role assignments

Health

Service health

Message center

Service health

ServiceStatusDetails

Exchange OnlineHealthyAll features operational

Microsoft Teams ①DegradedActive incident

SharePoint OnlineHealthyAll features operational

OneDrive for BusinessHealthyAll features operational

Microsoft Entra IDAdvisoryActive advisory

① Teams shows "Degraded" with an active incident. If users are reporting Teams issues right now, this confirms it is a Microsoft-side problem. Click the Teams row to see the incident ID, affected features, current status, and Microsoft's estimated resolution time.

🔴 Incidents vs 🟡 Advisories

Type	What It Means	User Impact	What to Do
🔴 Incident	A service is degraded, experiencing an outage, or a significant feature is unavailable	Users actively experiencing failures, errors, or major disruption	Communicate to affected users, monitor the incident page for updates, avoid unnecessary local troubleshooting
🟡 Advisory	A feature within a service is impaired or performing below expected levels, but the service itself remains operational	Users may notice slower performance or intermittent issues in specific features only	Monitor closely — advisories can escalate to incidents. Inform relevant teams if the affected feature is critical

📨 Message Center

The Message Center is where Microsoft notifies you about planned changes to Microsoft 365 — new features rolling out, features being deprecated, required admin actions with deadlines, and policy updates. Unlike Service Health (which is reactive), Message Center is proactive — giving you advance notice so you can prepare.

M365 Admin Center › Health › Message center

Microsoft 365 admin center
|
Health › Message center

🏠 Home

Health

Service health

Message center 12

Message center

12 unread messages

Action requiredDue: 30 Aug 2026①

MC847291 — Basic Authentication for Exchange Online is being retired

Modern authentication is required after 30 August 2026. Review applications using Basic Auth before the deadline.

New featureRolling out: Jul 2026

MC844112 — Microsoft Teams: Updated meeting recaps with Copilot summaries

Copilot-powered meeting summaries will appear automatically in Teams meeting chats for licensed users.

Plan for changeEffective: Sep 2026

MC840887 — SharePoint: Classic experience sites will transition to modern experience

Classic SharePoint team sites will be automatically updated to the modern experience. Review any classic customisations.

① "Action required" messages have a deadline. These are the highest-priority messages — missing the deadline can result in a service disruption or broken integrations. Always triage Action Required messages first.

🔔 Setting Up Service Health Email Notifications

Checking the admin center manually every day is not reliable. Set up automatic email notifications so the right people are alerted immediately when a service incident starts.

1 Go to Health → Service health and click Preferences in the top-right area of the page.
2 Under Email, turn on "Send me email notifications about service health".
3 Enter the email address to notify. Best practice: use a shared mailbox (e.g. m365-alerts@contoso.com) rather than an individual admin's personal address — this ensures the whole IT team sees alerts.
4 Select which services you want notifications for (or leave all selected). Save your preferences.

⚠️ Weekly Digest for Message Center

In the same Preferences panel, you can enable a weekly email digest of Message Center updates. This is useful for keeping the broader IT team aware of upcoming changes without having them log in to the admin center. Direct this to a shared mailbox so the entire team can review it. The digest is sent every Monday morning.

📊 Usage Reports

The Reports section provides activity and adoption data for every Microsoft 365 service. These are useful for licence reclamation, adoption reviews, capacity planning, and demonstrating M365 ROI to management.

M365 Admin Center › Reports › Usage

Report	What It Shows	Useful For
Microsoft 365 Active Users	Number of users actively using each service over 7/30/90/180-day windows	Licence reclamation — identify users with licences assigned but no activity
Email Activity	Emails sent, received, and read per user	Identify users no longer using email — shared mailbox migration review
Teams User Activity	Calls, meetings, chat messages, and channel posts per user	Teams adoption reviews, identify non-adopters for training
SharePoint Site Usage	Storage used, files accessed, page views per site	Storage planning, identifying abandoned sites for cleanup
OneDrive Usage	Files synced, storage consumed, active vs inactive accounts	Identify users not using OneDrive before enforcing known folder move
M365 Apps Usage	Office app activations, platform (desktop/web/mobile) per user	Determine whether desktop apps are needed or web-only licensing is sufficient

⚠️ Report Anonymisation Setting

By default in some tenants, usage reports show individual user names. In others, Microsoft anonymises the data to meet GDPR requirements. This is controlled in Settings → Org settings → Reports → Privacy. If you need to see individual-level data for licence reclamation, ensure this anonymisation setting is turned off — but check with your Data Protection Officer first.

🎓 Interview Q&A

Q: A group of users reports they cannot join Teams meetings. What is the first thing you check in the M365 Admin Center?

The first thing to check is Health → Service health and look at the Microsoft Teams row. If there is an active incident or degradation listed for Teams, the problem is Microsoft-side and no local troubleshooting is needed. Note the incident ID and communicate it to your users with the expected resolution timeline. Only if Service Health shows Teams as fully healthy should you move on to investigating local causes.

Q: What is the Message Center and why should an M365 admin review it regularly?

The Message Center (Health → Message center) is Microsoft's official channel for notifying administrators about planned changes to M365 services — new features rolling out, features being deprecated, and required admin actions with deadlines. Admins should review it regularly because: (1) "Action required" messages have deadlines — missing them can cause service disruptions; (2) planned feature changes may affect user workflows; (3) deprecations require configuration changes to avoid outages.

Q: You are asked to identify which users have M365 E3 licenses but have not logged in to any M365 service in the last 90 days. How would you do this?

Go to Reports → Usage → Microsoft 365 Active Users and set the time period to 90 days. Filter or export the report to identify users marked as inactive across all services. Cross-reference this with Billing → Licenses to confirm these users have E3 licences assigned. For a large export, download the CSV and filter in Excel.

Q: What is the difference between a service health Incident and an Advisory?

An Incident means a service or significant feature is degraded or unavailable — users are actively experiencing failures or major disruptions. An Advisory means a specific feature within a service is impaired or running below expected performance, but the service as a whole is operational — users may notice intermittent issues or slower performance in a specific area. Advisories can escalate to Incidents if the issue worsens.

🎯 MS-102 Mock Test

Module 6 — Service Health & Reports

5 questions · Scenario-based · MS-102 exam style · Pass mark: 70%

Question 1 of 5

Multiple users across your organisation report they are unable to join Microsoft Teams meetings. Before you begin troubleshooting on your end, what should you check first?

AReset the affected users' passwords and have them retry

BCheck Health → Service health for any active incidents or advisories on Microsoft Teams

CCheck whether the affected users' Teams licences are still assigned

DRun a Teams network connectivity test on affected devices

✅ Correct answer: B. The MS-102-correct first step when a service issue is reported is always checking the Service Health dashboard. If there is an active Microsoft-side incident, all local troubleshooting is wasted effort. Only after confirming Service Health shows Teams as fully healthy should you proceed with local investigation.

Question 2 of 5

The Service Health dashboard shows a yellow status indicator next to Microsoft Entra ID. What does this indicate?

AMicrosoft Entra ID is completely unavailable — all authentication is failing

BA specific feature within Entra ID is impaired or performing below expected levels — the service itself is operational

CMicrosoft Entra ID has been temporarily suspended for planned maintenance

DAn admin action is required to restore Entra ID functionality

✅ Correct answer: B. A yellow status indicates an Advisory — a specific feature within Entra ID is degraded or running below expected performance, but the service itself remains operational. An orange/red status would indicate an Incident (significant degradation or outage).

Question 3 of 5

Your organisation needs to receive automatic email alerts when a Microsoft 365 service incident begins. Where do you configure this?

ASecurity → Alerts → Alert policies → Email notifications

BHealth → Service health → Preferences → Email notifications

CSettings → Org settings → Notifications → Service alerts

DBilling → Billing notifications → Service health alerts

✅ Correct answer: B. Service health email notifications are configured under Health → Service health → Preferences → Email. Best practice is to enter a shared mailbox address rather than a personal admin account, ensuring the whole IT team sees alerts.

Question 4 of 5

The Message Center contains a post tagged "Action required" with a deadline of 60 days related to the retirement of Basic Authentication for Exchange Online. What is the correct response?

AArchive the message — retirement notices are rarely enforced

BIgnore it if no users have complained about email issues

CRead the full post, identify all applications using Basic Auth in your tenant, and migrate them to Modern Authentication before the deadline

DContact Microsoft to request an extension on the deadline

✅ Correct answer: C. "Action required" Message Center posts must be acted on before the stated deadline. Microsoft enforces these changes — applications using Basic Auth will stop working for Exchange Online after the retirement date. Identify all affected apps and migrate them to Modern Authentication (OAuth 2.0) before the deadline.

Question 5 of 5

The finance director asks you to identify all Microsoft 365 users who have been assigned E5 licences but have not used any M365 service in the past 90 days, so those licences can be reclaimed. Where do you find this information?

AUsers → Active users → Sort by "Last sign-in date" and filter manually

BBilling → Licences → Filter by "Unused licences"

CReports → Usage → Microsoft 365 Active Users → set period to 90 days → identify inactive users

DHealth → Service health → Usage analytics → Licence utilisation

✅ Correct answer: C. Reports → Usage → Microsoft 365 Active Users shows which users are actively using each M365 service over the selected period. Setting it to 90 days and exporting as CSV lets you identify users with no activity — strong candidates for licence reclamation after verification.