Getting EXO Mobile Device Report by using RobustCloudCommand

Getting mobile device statistics out of Exchange Online must be one of the most time consuming cmdlets. I once tried to generate a report in a tenant I consider large (around 60k users) and it took 2 weeks calendar time with connections expiring all the time and requests dropped due to throttling limits.

I'm currently ramping up Outlook App usage with my customers to get rid of ActiveSync. During that process reporting all EXO connected mobile devices is again required. I was already depressed by the fact that I must again run this sloooow and time consumig operation until I remembered that @nestafo (thanks again!) once mentioned some kind of "robust framework" for running long scripts.

After googling a bit I found it. The RobustCloudCommand. I thought I'd give it a go.

Using RobustCloudCommand

First you have to install it from PS Gallery. It installs also dependencies (CloudConnect, MSOnline, AzureAD). I already had AzureADPreview installed, so AllowClobber parameter was required to force installation of AzureAD module.

Install-Module RobustCloudCommand -AllowClobber
Import-Module RobustCloudCommand

Basically it has only few things to do:
- Create credential object
- Generate a CSV including objects you want to address with a script
- Write a script block for single object, whatever you want to do with single mailbox or user
- Pass all above to RobustCloudCommand and wait few days

RobustCloudCommand reconnects services automatically, adds delays to prevent throttling issues and even writes out estimates when script will be completed. Great!

Kudos to Matthew Byrd for developing the module!
Check his latest RobustCloudCommand post on Exchange Team Blog.

Mobile Device Statistics Report

Here's my take on "Exchange Online Mobile Device Statistics" script using RobustCloudCommand

# declare paths for csvs and log
$csvpath = "C:\Scripts\mbx.csv"
$reportpath = "C:\Scripts\mbx-mobiledevice-report.csv"
$logpath = "C:\Scripts\mbx-mobiledevice-report.log"

# create credentials and connect to EXO
$adminAccount = "exo.admin@tenant.onmicrosoft.com"
$securePassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String "VeryComplex-pa$$w0rd" -AsPlainText -Force

$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ($adminAccount, $securePassword)

Connect-ExchangeOnline -Credential $cred

# get list of mailboxes for processing
Get-EXOMailbox -ResultSize Unlimited -RecipientTypeDetails UserMailbox | Select Displayname,PrimarySMTPAddress,Identity | Export-Csv $csvpath

# import mailboxes from csv
$mailboxes = Import-Csv $csvpath

# start processing
Start-RobustCloudCommand -Credential $cred -recipients $mailboxes -logfile $logpath -ScriptBlock {
 Get-MobileDeviceStatistics -Mailbox $input.PrimarySMTPAddress.tostring() -ErrorAction "SilentlyContinue" | Select @{name="PrimarySMTPAddress"; exp={$input.PrimarySMTPAddress.tostring()}}, FirstSyncTime,LastPolicyUpdateTime,LastSyncAttemptTime,LastSuccessSync,DeviceType,DeviceID,DeviceUserAgent,LastPingHeartbeat,DeviceModel,DeviceImei,DeviceFriendlyName,DeviceOS,DeviceOSLanguage,DevicePhoneNumber,DeviceEnableOutboundSMS,DeviceMobileOperator,Identity,Guid,Status,StatusNote,DeviceAccessState,DeviceAccessStateReason,DeviceAccessControlRule,DevicePolicyApplied,DevicePolicyApplicationStatus,ClientVersion,NumberOfFoldersSynced,SyncStateUpgradeTime,ClientType | Export-Csv $reportpath -Encoding UTF8 -NoTypeInformation -Append
}