Understand Teams Rooms management options
To fully understand the scope of device management for Microsoft Teams Rooms, we need to drill down into a few categories:
Device setup and configurations
Management tools
Software updates
Device information
Device setup and configuration
The device setup and installation process of your meeting rooms is slightly different. While Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows runs Windows 10/11 OS, Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android uses version 9 or higher. When deploying Microsoft Teams Room on Windows, your device is preconfigured with a specific Windows build. During device setup, you go through the same installation steps as all other Windows clients, selecting the region, keyboard layout, internet connectivity, and more.
Because they're seeded with an OS and wait for delivery by the OEM, this build is often outdated and in need of an update. Once the device is connected to the internet, you should run Windows Update to install the latest OS and security patches. Depending on the installed software, the Teams app won't work if the updates aren't installed properly.
Once the Microsoft Teams app is updated to the latest version, you can start configuring the device, resource account information, configure meeting settings, or select peripherals. You can also use an XML configuration file to customize specific settings on your Windows device. The entire setup and configuration process can take several hours before the device is ready to join Microsoft Teams meetings.
Installing Microsoft Teams Rooms for Android is similar. At the beginning the Microsoft Teams Room on Android forces you to select a region, a timezone, and language. Afterwards, you must connect the device to the internet via LAN or Wifi to install OS and security updates. It isn't recommended to continue until your device is up to date. This ensures your Android system stays secure.
Note
Each Microsoft Teams Room behaves a little different during installation, depending on the OEM. Please refer to the vendors installation guide for specific instructions.
Device management tools
Teams admin center: The main tool to manage Microsoft Teams settings on meeting devices. You can configure settings such as account information, meeting settings, device settings, peripherals, and themes.
Microsoft Intune: Allows for additional configuration, such as pushing required certificates for authorization to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows. However, not all configuration profile types are supported.
Device configuration profiles: Used to manage Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android. You can force the device to use specific settings, such as theme, timezone, device lock, energy settings, or office hours.
Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal: A web-based interface for centralized management of Teams Rooms Pro devices only. Administrators can manage and configure their devices remotely, update device firmware, troubleshoot issues, and monitor device health.
Vendor-specific management solutions: Many Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android vendors offer their own management solution platforms, which might provide additional advantages for specific changes that can't be edited remotely via device configuration profiles or the Teams admin center.
Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal
The Microsoft Teams Room Pro Management portal is a web-based configuration and management interface for Microsoft Teams Rooms devices that are using a Microsoft Teams Room Pro license.
The Pro portal provides a centralized way to configure and manage multiple Microsoft Teams Room Pro devices simultaneously. Centralized management allows administrators to simplify and automate device configuration, monitoring, and maintenance, which can result in improved efficiency and reduced operational costs.
Remote Monitoring: Allows admins to remotely monitor device performance and status, spot potential issues early, and optimize device performance.
Automated Updates: Provides automatic updates for Microsoft Teams Room Pro devices, keeping them up to date with the latest features and security updates.
Update Rings: Allows admins to define groups of devices that receive updates at different times, minimizing the risk of errors and failures.
Incidents: Allows users to report problems and request assistance. The portal automatically creates an incident if the device's software agent reports a problem, and tries to solve it independently or with human intervention.
Group Policy Support: Simplifies the configuration and management of devices across a larger organization by allowing admins to configure settings for groups of devices.
Role-based access control: Controls which users have access to the portal and limits their permissions based on their assigned roles.
Microsoft Intune
Microsoft Intune can be used in your organization to ensure security of your Microsoft Teams Room on Windows devices. You can only take advantage of it if the logged in resource account has a Teams Room Pro license assigned. With Microsoft Intune, you're able to assign compliance policies or set configuration profiles for your Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows.
Intune currently doesn't support configuration profiles for Teams Android-based devices, such as Teams Rooms on Android, Panels or Displays. Instead use the Teams admin center available options to create and assign configuration profiles.
In addition, you need to decide how you want the device to be join and register with the organization. While Teams Rooms on Android can just be Intune Registered, Teams Rooms on Windows can be either Intune Registered or Intune Registered and Microsoft Entra joined.
Software updates
Update your Microsoft Teams Rooms devices to ensure they have the latest features and remain secure. Microsoft provides automatic updates via the Teams admin center for Teams Rooms on Android and Windows. The Teams Room Pro portal offers additional update configurations, including the ability to delay updates. Updates are rolled out monthly and tested by Microsoft before release. Vendors of Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android provide additional software updates through their own interfaces.
Device health information
Within the Microsoft Teams admin center, you can view your device summary, health summary and license summary for each device class.
The device summary of Teams Rooms on Windows shows how many devices you have in total, how many are currently online, and how many are offline.
The health summary shows the number how many of your Teams Rooms system are healthy, nonurgent, or critical.
The license summary displays how many currently online devices have a Teams Rooms Basic or Teams Rooms Pro license.
You can even dig deeper into a single room, by selecting the display name. The devices overview is shown and you can view all information about the device such as Peripherals, Health, Details, Activity and History.
When using Microsoft Teams Room with a Teams Rooms Pro license, your devices are listed in the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro portal as well. You find more centralized information about all of your Teams Rooms that have a Pro license. In addition to the information from the Teams admin center, the Pro portal delivers detailed information about opened tickets, health history, and usage of your Teams Rooms.
Note
The installed agent on Microsoft Teams Room reports every 5 minutes and provides an online status and health state of the device, so the Teams admin center and Pro portal won't update immediately if disconnected from the network.
The ways you can manage a Microsoft Teams Room is based on your license type and operating system of the device. The following table shows an overview which tools and platforms can be used to manage a device:
OEM-specific management
Many OEM providers, such as Logitech, Neat, or Yealink offer additional ways to manage their Microsoft Teams Rooms devices. Within these portals, you might find a specialized overview about your devices, including device software information, peripheral health state, and additional device specific settings.
If your organization plans to buy Teams Rooms from just one vendor, their specific management tool might be a good alternative to the Microsoft Teams Rooms Pro Management portal, in case you just plan to use the Teams Rooms Basic license.
To find our more about vendor specific management solutions, read through their documentation or contact the vendor's support team.
Local device management
No matter if you're using the Teams Rooms Basic or Pro license, you can always manage your devices locally. Depending on how they're integrated in your Microsoft 365 ecosystem, there might be some limitations. If you use the Basic license with your Teams Rooms on Android devices, you can set your preferred language, country/region, and timezone, then connect it to your preferred network via LAN or WiFi
Afterwards, you are asked to use the sign in the resource account by either signing into the device itself or use the Device Code Flow mechanism. When the account was logged in, your device is ready to go.
When logging in to the settings, depending on the OEM, you can configure different settings to adjust your meeting room device:
Teams Admin Settings: Calling, General & Meetings settings. When using the Teams Rooms Basic license, not all settings can be edited.
Select Peripherals: Choose a camera, microphone or touch console
Power-Saving features: Choose your preferred setting when the meeting room system goes to standby mode
Local Network Access: Enable local network access to remotely sign-in as admin to the meeting room device
Note
Due to the wide variety of Microsoft Teams Rooms on Android vendors, we cannot introduce you to every system. Read through your installation and management guide to learn how to manage your device locally.
Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows can take advantage of using XML-based configuration files. With XML configuration files you can ensure that specific settings are changed on Windows as soon the XML file gets applied. Some of these settings you can control include:
Dual Screen Mode
Theming
Display Resolution
Meeting layouts
External Meeting tools enabled
A full list of all XML elements is shown in Manage a Microsoft Teams Rooms console settings remotely with an XML configuration file