Monitor Office compatibility and deployments by using Telemetry Dashboard
Summary: Explains how to view the stability of Office documents and solutions and the status of your Office deployments by using Telemetry Dashboard.
Audience: IT Professionals
Note
To assess your Office compatibility, we recommend using the Readiness Toolkit for Office add-ins and VBA. The Readiness Toolkit is a free download and can be used to identify the VBA macros and add-ins used in your organization. Also, the Excel-based readiness reports can tell you which add-ins are adopted or supported in Office 365 ProPlus and can provide suggestions on how to remediate VBA macros issues that are identified. For more information, see Use the Readiness Toolkit to assess application compatibility for Office 365 ProPlus.
After you deploy the components of Telemetry Dashboard and Telemetry Agents have collected data, you can use Telemetry Dashboard to investigate stability issues for Office documents and Office solutions. You can also use Telemetry Dashboard to see the status of Office deployments. This article helps you navigate the worksheets in Telemetry Dashboard, use filters to adjust how data is displayed, and troubleshoot common error messages that are shown in Telemetry Dashboard.
Important
This article is part of the Content roadmap for Office 2013 compatibility. Use the roadmap as a starting point for articles, downloads, scripts, and videos that help you assess Office 2013 compatibility.
In this article:
Open Telemetry Dashboard and connect to the database
Learn about the Telemetry Dashboard worksheets
Change the scope of the data that's shown in a worksheet
Determine the overall stability of Office 2013 documents and solutions throughout your organization
Drill down to investigate unstable documents or solutions that require your attention
Determine how well you are tracking towards full deployment of Office 2013 throughout your organization
Troubleshoot error messages that are shown in Telemetry Dashboard
Open Telemetry Dashboard and connect to the telemetry database
After the Telemetry Dashboard components are deployed, you are ready to start Telemetry Dashboard and connect to the telemetry database.
To help you get started, view this short video called Quick tips for Telemetry Dashboard navigation.
Short video about Telemetry Dashboard navigation
Note
You can complete tasks in all Office 2013 suites by using a mouse, keyboard shortcuts, or touch. For information about how to use keyboard shortcuts and touch with Office products and services, see Keyboard shortcuts and Office Touch Guide.
The way you start Telemetry Dashboard depends on the operating system you're using. The following table lists and describes the procedures for each supported operating system:
To start Telemetry Dashboard
| Operating system | How to start Telemetry Dashboard |
|---|---|
Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2 |
From the Start menu, choose All Programs, Microsoft Office 2013, Office 2013 Tools, Telemetry Dashboard for Office 2013. |
Windows 8 |
On the Start screen, right-click the background or swipe in from the top or bottom to display the app bar, select All apps, and then select Telemetry Dashboard for Office 2013. |
Windows Server 2012 |
Swipe in from the right edge to show the charms and then select Search to see all the apps that are installed on the computer. Next, choose Telemetry Dashboard for Office 2013. |
To connect to the telemetry database
On the Getting started worksheet, choose Connect to Database.
In the Data connection settings dialog box, enter the name of the SQL Server server and database where telemetry data is stored, and then choose OK.
After you connect Telemetry Dashboard to the telemetry database, new worksheets are added to display information about Office documents, solutions, and other information. If you haven't yet deployed Telemetry Dashboard components, or if data isn't populating the dashboard as expected, see Deploy Telemetry Dashboard.
Learn about the Telemetry Dashboard worksheets
The following table briefly describes the primary worksheets in Telemetry Dashboard. All Telemetry Dashboard worksheets, including descriptions of their columns, are described in Telemetry Dashboard worksheet reference.
Telemetry Dashboard worksheets
| Worksheet name | Purpose |
|---|---|
Overview |
Provides a quick view of the health of Office documents and solutions and a view of deployment trends. The links on this worksheet help you investigate Office compatibility and stability issues in your organization. |
Documents |
Helps you investigate which Office documents are the most heavily used and identify documents that are experiencing issues. This worksheet shows Office documents that were detected in the Most Recently Used (MRU) files in the local registry of monitored clients that run Office 2013 and earlier supported versions of Office. The list also contains load events for monitored clients that run Office 2013. Select any of the value links to open a worksheet that provides more detail. For example, in the Total Users column, you can select any number to view the users who have that file in their MRU list. |
Solutions |
Shows details about solutions, such as COM add-ins, that were detected on monitored computers. This worksheet also shows telemetry data about load events on monitored client computers that run Office 2013. Check the Critical column for a count of the number of unique users who have hit critical errors that the solutions are causing on Office 2013 clients. By reviewing critical errors and the number of users affected, you can decide whether to forcibly block add-ins that are crashing for many users. To do so, choose the Add-in management mode link at the top of the worksheet. You can also investigate performance issues that might be causing a solution to take a longer time to load than expected on some computers. The load time values that are displayed in this worksheet are statistical averages. Select on of the value links to see individual user load times for a particular document. |
Telemetry Processor |
Lists the servers that run Telemetry Processor, the number of users and computers that are monitored, and the date and time of the last update. |
Deployments |
Lists the versions of Office that are detected and other details, such as architecture type and number of unique instances of each version. |
Custom report |
Helps you to create a PivotTable report so that you can customize how you view the data in Telemetry Dashboard. Create a custom report if the Documents and Solutions worksheets don't display data in the way that you want to view it. To learn more, see Custom reporting and database schema reference for Telemetry Dashboard. You can also watch a video demo called Custom reporting in Telemetry Dashboard. |
Getting started |
Provides step-by-step guidance to deploy Telemetry Dashboard components. |
Telemetry Dashboard guide |
Provides a brief tutorial on Telemetry Dashboard concepts. |
Use filters to adjust what's shown in a Telemetry Dashboard worksheet
In the navigation pane on the left side of the dashboard, there are filters called Label1, Label2, Label3, Label4, Date range, and View. You can use these filters to change the scope of the data that is shown in a worksheet. Any time that you change a filter, you must select the Refresh button .png "An image of the button on the Office Telemetry Dashboard that refreshe the data in the content pane.")
to refresh the data in the content pane. The Refresh button is located in the upper-right corner of most worksheets. When you refresh the data, the sorting order is automatically reset. You can verify when the content pane was last updated by referring to the time stamp that is located below the Refresh button on the navigation pane.
The following table provides more information about the filters in Telemetry Dashboard.
Telemetry Dashboard filters
| Filter | Description |
|---|---|
Label filters .png "An image of the label drop down box on the Office Telemetry dashboard's navigation pane.") |
Use the Label filters to filter data by department, location, or deployment group. These filters are available for most worksheets. The Label filters are populated by data that is specified in the <TAG> fields when you deploy the Telemetry Agent on client computers. For more information on how to set these fields, see Telemetry Agent. |
Date range filter .png "An image of the Date Range drop down box in the Office Telemetry dashboard's navigation pane") |
Use the Date range filter to choose the date range for the telemetry data that you want to view. This helps you watch trends over longer periods of time, or drill down and find more recent data for analysis. The graphs on the Overview worksheet, such as Documents and Solutions stability and Office deployment trend, show data that extends back to four times the selected date range in the navigation pane. This provides better context when you graphically display the data and trends for analysis. For longer date ranges, there might be a small delay before the results are displayed in the content pane. The Overview worksheet supports changing the date range to Last 7 days, Last 1 month, or Last 3 months. A snapshot of the telemetry database is taken every evening at midnight (local server time). It is used to compose the graphs and data that are shown on the Overview worksheet. Therefore, the Overview worksheet isn't real-time, but is, instead, based on nightly snapshots. |
View filter .png "An image of the View drop down box on the Office Telemetry dashboard's navigation pane.") |
The View filter on the Documents and Solutions worksheets allows you to select pre-scoped views that help you analyze data. Here are the options that you can choose from:
|
Determine the overall stability of Office 2013 documents and solutions throughout your organization
The Overview worksheet allows you to quickly understand how your critical documents and solutions (add-ins) are behaving on users’ computers. Instead of browsing the Documents and Solutions worksheets, which show you item-by-item status, you can open and refresh the Overview worksheet to see a high-level view of document and solution stability.
The following screen shot shows the Overview worksheet.
The Overview worksheet in Telemetry Dashboard
.png "An screenshot of the main Overview worksheet view on the Office Telemetry dashboard.")
The four numbers that are highlighted at the top of the content pane show the number of stable and unstable documents and solutions. If you see a high unstable count, you should investigate to find out what is occurring.
The metrics for stable versus unstable are calculated by determining whether the documents or solutions have success rates that meet the following thresholds:
95% for documents
99.9% for solutions
If a document or solution meets these thresholds, they are considered stable. If they don't meet these thresholds, they are considered unstable. The success rate is determined by the percentage of sessions where the document or solution operated without encountering a critical issue. The critical issues that are tracked by Office Telemetry include application crashes, Office object model calls that would definitively fail for compatibility reasons, and more. A session is defined by the opening of a document or solution or an elapsed 24-hour period where the document is open.
You can use the filters in the navigation pane to focus on specific business groups in your organization or customized date ranges. For example, you might want to know how well the new Sales reporting solutions for Office 2013 are performing since their deployment last month. You can select the Last 1 month date range, and the appropriate Label for the Sales team's computers. After you select Refresh, the Overview worksheet view shows you a high-level view of document and solution stability for the Sales team’s Office deployments. From there, you can decide your next steps.
In addition, the Overview worksheet view provides a summary of the top 400 frequently used documents and the top 100 frequently used solutions. Research indicates that these numbers represent the average number of documents and solutions in any given enterprise department that are frequently used.
Note
Built-in documents and solutions that are provided by Microsoft aren't included in the top documents and solutions counts that are displayed on the Overview worksheet.
Drill down to investigate unstable documents or solutions that require your attention
After you know the number of unstable documents and solutions, you can drill into the details. On the Overview worksheet, select a value to see a detailed list of stable or unstable documents or solutions. The following graphic shows how to view the unstable documents by selecting the corresponding value (23) on the Overview worksheet.
How to choose a value on the Overview worksheet to see unstable documents
.gif "A screenshot of a drill down Overview worksheet showing stable and unstable document statistics.")
After you click the link for unstable documents, the Documents worksheet appears. The worksheet is filtered to show the 23 unstable documents. The following screen shot shows an example of this filtered view. Although it isn't obvious in the screen shot, only 23 documents are listed, sorted by most unstable.
Unstable documents that are shown in the Documents worksheet
.png "A screenshot of a 2nd level drill down Overview worksheet showing details for unstable documents.")
Important
Remember that when you select a link on the Overview worksheet to see details about documents or solutions, the contents pane displays a filtered view. Select the message bar at the top of the header pane to see the full list of all items for that worksheet.
Back on the Overview worksheet, under the stable and unstable counts, you can see the trend charts that show how these counts increased or decreased over past periods. If you see the trend line pointing down to indicate a decline in stability, this indicates that recent changes are triggering issues for your documents and solutions. As shown in the following screen shot, the date range that is displayed in the trend chart shows an expanded range that is four times longer than the selected date range. This provides better context to view the overall trend data.
How trend data is illustrated on the Overview worksheet
.gif "A screenshot of a drill down Overview worksheet on the Office Telemetry dashboard showing unstable vs. stable document summary over an extended period.")
View the progress of Office 2013 deployments in your organization
You can track your overall Office 2013 deployment progress by looking at the chart at the lower part of the Overview worksheet. This shows the number of users who are running each Office version and how the Office deployments have changed over time. By using this chart, you can quickly check the deployment status and share progress with your stakeholders.
Note
The date range that is displayed in the deployment trend chart shows an expanded range that is four times longer than the selected date range. This provides better context to view the overall trend data.
The following image shows an example of the Office deployment trend chart on the Overview worksheet.
Office deployment trend chart on the Overview worksheet
.png "A screenshot of deployment trends as displayed on the Overview page in the Office Telemetry dashboard.")
Troubleshoot error messages that are shown in Telemetry Dashboard
As you use Telemetry Dashboard, you might notice error messages that are shown in yellow banners at the top of the dashboard. The following sections describe common error messages.
You see the error message "The Telemetry Dashboard COM add-in is not enabled or installed."
When you view a worksheet in Telemetry Dashboard, you might see the following message:
COM add-in error message
.png "A screenshot of the Telemetry Dashboard COM add-in error message.")
To resolve this issue, enable the Telemetry Dashboard COM add-in that is available in Office Professional Plus 2013, Office Standard 2013, and Office 365 ProPlus.
To enable the Telemetry Dashboard COM add-in
Start Telemetry Dashboard by choosing Telemetry Dashboard for Office 2013 in the All Apps page in Windows 8, or by choosing Telemetry Dashboard for Office 2013 from the Start menu under Office 2013 Tools in Windows 7.
Select the Let’s get started button.
In the Getting Started worksheet, select the Click here to use saved copies of Telemetry Dashboard banner that is shown in the following screen shot.
Message that enables saved copies of Telemetry Dashboard
.png "A screenshot of the Save Copies Info Message.")
Reopen the Telemetry Dashboard Excel worksheet that had the error message.
You see the error message "Telemetry Processor service(s) have errors."
When you view a worksheet in Telemetry Dashboard, you might see the following message:
Telemetry processor error message
.png "A screenshot of the Telemetry Processor services error message.")
The Telemetry Processor error message is displayed when no agents have reported any data to the dashboard, or if the Telemetry Processor hasn’t inserted any data to the database for a day.
For more information, see the log file (%windows%\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\AppData\Local\Temp\dperrorlog.txt on the computer where Telemetry Processor is running).
In addition, do the following:
Verify the network connection between the Telemetry Processor and the Telemetry Dashboard.
In Service in Control Panel, verify that the Office Telemetry Processor service is running.
Verify that the SQL Server server is running correctly.
Verify that the data in the telemetry shared folder that was reported back from the agent was processed correctly. If there are many folders and files in the shared folder that weren't processed for more than 2 hours, the Telemetry Processor isn't working correctly.
For more information about how to troubleshoot Telemetry Processor, see Troubleshooting Telemetry Dashboard deployments.
See also
Content roadmap for Office 2013 compatibility
Overview of Office Telemetry
Deploy Telemetry Dashboard
Telemetry Dashboard worksheet reference
Assess Office 2013 compatibility