Due to the fact that Teams Manager is built around existing Administrative Structures from Microsoft, there are certain aspects of your tenant that directly affect its functionality.
In this article, we'll discuss the most common settings, features, and workarounds that should be applied before you actually install Teams Manager.
Performing these procedures will help you avoid common issues and serve as a solid foundation for your new governance infrastructure.
1. Disabling Naming Conventions
If you have existing Naming Conventions set through Microsoft Entra, they will prevent new Teams from being created by Teams Manager.
In order to ensure that our app functions as intended, you must disable them prior to installing Teams Manager.
Here's how you can do that:
Navigate to Groups > Naming policy in Microsoft Entra.
Select Group naming policy.
Click on Delete policy at the top of the screen.
💡 If you already use Teams Manager and suddenly can't create Teams, it's worth checking if someone has added a Naming Convention through Entra. If they did, deleting it would most likely resolve the issue.
2. Disabling Team Creation
This step is not mandatory for the app to function, since even if your organization retains the ability to create Teams through the standard interface, it won't interfere with Teams Manager.
Despite this, disabling the standard Team Creation Process can ensure that people always use Teams Manager, thereby guaranteeing that your Policies, Naming Conventions, and other governance rules are applied.
Here's how you can do that:
Navigate to your Microsoft Admin Centre and select Groups > Overview > New group.
Create a Group as usual, making sure that the Group type is set to Security.
Once the Group has been created, you're free to add people who will retain their Standard Team Creation capabilities.
Open PowerShell as an Administrator and execute the script that's specified below, making sure to change <YourGroupName> with the name of the Security Group you've just created.
Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Beta.Identity.DirectoryManagement Import-Module Microsoft.Graph.Beta.Groups Connect-MgGraph -Scopes "Directory.ReadWrite.All", "Group.Read.All" $GroupName = "<YourGroupName>" $AllowGroupCreation = "False" $settingsObjectID = (Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | Where-object -Property Displayname -Value "Group.Unified" -EQ).id if(!$settingsObjectID) { $params = @{ templateId = "62375ab9-6b52-47ed-826b-58e47e0e304b" values = @( @{ name = "EnableMSStandardBlockedWords" value = "true" } ) } New-MgBetaDirectorySetting -BodyParameter $params $settingsObjectID = (Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting | Where-object -Property Displayname -Value "Group.Unified" -EQ).Id } $groupId = (Get-MgBetaGroup | Where-object {$_.displayname -eq $GroupName}).Id $params = @{ templateId = "62375ab9-6b52-47ed-826b-58e47e0e304b" values = @( @{ name = "EnableGroupCreation" value = $AllowGroupCreation } @{ name = "GroupCreationAllowedGroupId" value = $groupId } ) } Update-MgBetaDirectorySetting -DirectorySettingId $settingsObjectID -BodyParameter $params (Get-MgBetaDirectorySetting -DirectorySettingId $settingsObjectID).Values
💡 Take a look at this article if you want a more detailed guide on Disallowing Team Creation.
3. Disabling SharePoint Lifecycles
If you have existing SharePoint Lifecycles set up in Microsoft, they will interfere with SharePoint Lifecycles set by Teams Manager, which is why it's highly advised that you disable all automatic actions related to SharePoint Site, Content, and Guest Cleanup.
Here's how you can do that:
Navigate to the SharePoint Admin Center > Policies > Site lifecycle management.
Find the active policy and Delete it or set it to Simulation mode before deleting it.
💡 Keep in mind that other Content Archival and Deletion Policies will remain active. If you're experiencing issues with Teams Manager Lifecycles in regards to SharePoint, it's highly advised that you check whether or not Site lifecycle management or other SharePoint content management settings are active first.
4. SharePoint Site Creation Settings
Due to the fact that the /teams/ link suffix was introduced to SharePoint long after our app's creation, sites with this suffix won't provision Private Channels, we're actively working on updating our infrastructure to insure that this is no longer the case, however, for now, it's highly advised that you stick to the tried and true /site/ suffix to guarantee Private Channel Provisioning.
Here's how it's done:
Navigate to your SharePoint Admin Center.
Select Settings from the side menu.
Click on SharePoint - Site Creation (usually the 4th entry on the list).
Make sure that the dropdown below Create team sites under is set to /sites/.
💡 If you have private channel provisioning issues, it's worth checking if changing this setting to /sites/ will resolve it.
5. Mailing
Teams Manager will present you with two distinct options related to Email Notifications.
Teams Manager Mailing (recommended) - The system will send out emails through our third-party partner (SendGrid). In rare cases, these emails might end up in the spam folder of your inbox, in which case, you might consider switching to an Exchange account.
Exchange Account - The system will send out emails through the email attached to the User that you select (helpful for maximizing privacy).
If you decide to use an Exchange Account for Mailing, make sure that it's Cloud Only (Not OnPrem Synced) since this account type is best suited for interactions with the Graph API.
💡 If you're experiencing issues with your Exchange Account, make sure that it's not OnPrem Synced, since that's where problems usually occur.
⛑️ Need more help?
Get further assistance with Teams Manager through our support chat widget within the app, or reach out to us at [email protected]