Introduction:
I was recently working on project performing the network assessment for teams call quality issues. The network assessment is being done using the free tool provided by Microsoft which is Skype for Business Network Assessment Tool (can be downloaded from Microsoft site).
The Microsoft Network Assessment Tool provides the ability to perform a simple test of network performance to determine how well the network would perform for a Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business Online call. The tool tests the connection to Microsoft Network Edge by streaming a set of packets to the nearest edge site and back for approximately 17 seconds for a configured number of iterations.
You can download the the free tool from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53885
After you download and complete the installation, you will find an installation guide (usage.docx) in the installed directory that will help you prior to the use of network assessment tool.
The tool reports Packet loss,Jitter,Round-trip latency and Reorder packet percentage etc.
As part of the network assessment, we need to run two commands, these commands store the results in user profile, collect the files, review the data before taking any action such firewall ports, proxy,network etc.
The following is a sample of how both the commands console output and the results look like:
Command 1:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Skype for Business Network Assessment Tool>NetworkAssessmentTool.exe
Command 2:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Skype for Business Network Assessment Tool>NetworkAssessmentTool.exe /connectivitycheck
Output files are stored in user profile “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft Skype for Business Network Assessment Tool”
The end goal is to collect these files, but it involves end-user interaction by instructing the user to run the commands,wait for sometime, collect the logs and provide via email or place them in share folder for review.
If you are using the Endpoint Manager tool such as Configuration Manager, this entire process can be automated using PowerShell script and use the scripts feature in ConfigMgr to collect the logs in no time.
How do we use Configuration Manager to automate the process and collect the logs of Network Assessment Tool ?
The scripts in Configuration Manager simplify building custom tools to administer software and let you accomplish mundane tasks quickly, allowing you to get large jobs done more easily and more consistently.
[Note]: Make sure you have the network assessment tool is pre-installed on remote endpoints else this script wont work.
Download the PowerShell script available in Github.
Follow the steps outlined here to create a script in Configuration Manager and use the script from Github.
Hope it helps!