In This Article |
This article outlines all of the prerequisites and requirements, which will help you plan your Teams Direct Routing deployment in your Office 365 tenant. For a smooth implementation of direct routing, we strongly suggest you review everything on this page before moving forward.
The licenses listed here are for each user that will be enabled for Teams Direct Routing:
Required for all user accounts, a Microsoft Base Plan that includes Microsoft Teams:
Required for all plans that include MS Teams, a Microsoft Teams Phone add-on license (already included with the A5 & E5 plans).
NOTE Starting March 1, 2022, Microsoft will include Audio Conferencing with all plans that include MS Teams at no additional charge. The Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing license is required to:
Microsoft Documentation: Microsoft 365 Audio Conferencing |
IMPORTANT For the direct routing back-end configuration, Microsoft requires a license that includes MS Teams be assigned to a user/service account for each routing domain added to your Office 365 tenant. The domains are used to route your voice traffic to an Evolve IP voice gateway (PSTN Gateway). This is a Microsoft requirement to enable & configure Microsoft's back-end voice environment, and it is a temporary license assignment for the configuration. After the configuration has been completed, the licenses can be removed from the user/service accounts and repurposed to other users in the organization. Any license that includes MS Teams can be used, including the Microsoft Teams Exploratory trial license. |
Teams Direct Routing User/Service Accounts
As stated above, Microsoft requires a user/service account be permanently assigned to each routing domain added to your Office 365 tenant (more info on the routing domains are in the Teams Direct Routing Domains section below).
These accounts do not need any special permissions or assigned any roles. Additionally:
User Accounts for Managing Teams Direct Routing
If you require tight control over over the permissions assigned to users managing your Office 365 environment, or you would like to assign permissions to users in your support/helpdesk staff, you can use the below list of roles for guidance. Detailed information about all roles and their associated permissions can be found in Microsoft's Admin Role article.
Domain Name Administrator: Required role to add the routing domains to your Office 365 tenant. After the routing domains have been added and verified, this role is no longer required.
Teams Communications Administrator: This is an optional role that can be assigned when you don't want to give a user account the Teams Admin role. However, when using PowerShell, this role can create and manage a direct routing configuration. When using the Teams admin center this role cannot view the direct routing configuration at all, but it can be used to assign or change a Teams user's voice routing policy or dial plan. This role does not have the permissions to manage a Skype for Business online configuration.
User Administrator: Required role to create the user/service accounts for each routing domain. After the user/service accounts have been created this role becomes optional for creating users and assigning licenses.
TIP For step-by-step instructions to manage role assignments in Azure AD, check Microsoft's Assign Directory Roles to Users article. To manage role assignments in the M365 Admin Center, check Microsoft's Assign Admin Roles article. |
Evolve IP Support User Account For Evolve IP to configure, manage, and support your Teams direct routing environment we require a user account with the following roles:
Assigning MFA to the Evolve IP Support Account Evolve IP has a large team of employees that can implement and support your Teams direct routing environment. Unfortunately, when you configure the Evolve IP Support account with MFA we may not be able to leverage our entire team to support your environment 24/7. We recently rolled out a solution to support user accounts with MFA enabled, but the solution is limited to certain MFA providers. Microsoft's Azure AD MFA service is supported. However, if your MFA provider is not supported, we will ask that the user account not be configured with MFA. Instead of enabling MFA, you can keep the user account disabled until you need assistance from us. When submitting a ticket or sending an email to our support team, make sure you let them know that the user account is enabled, or ask them to reach out to you so you can enable it. |
Every organization has its own naming conventions, and Evolve IP is no different. The steps in this getting started guide use our naming conventions, and we strongly suggest you use them for two important reasons:
If you choose to use your own naming conventions, that's totally fine. We understand.
NOTE Evolve IP uses Microsoft's multi-tenant (carrier) model for direct routing. This type of configuration requires the use of PowerShell commands – it cannot be created in the Teams admin center. However, after the configuration has been completed you will be able to view and manage the voice routes in the Teams admin center, but there will be no SBCs listed. |
In the US, Evolve IP has two primary datacenters for its voice infrastructure. One in Las Vegas for users located in the west, and one in Philadelphia for users located in the east. When configuring your voice routes in Office 365, you will want to make one of the two locations set as a primary route and the other as a secondary route. For example:
NOTE For our EU locations, Evolve IP has datacenters available in Amsterdam and Delft in the Netherlands. These datacenters offer the same redundant infrastructure and we will advise you on the optimal primary route upon delivery of your unique routing domains. |
When you configure your Office 365 tenant for Teams Direct Routing, you will create a route for each location, and then create two routing policies that makes one of the routes primary and the other secondary. All of this gives you redundancy regardless of where your users are physically located.
Additionally, when you start bulk-provisioning users for direct routing, you will want to identify which users should be provisioned in the east, and which should be provisioned in the west. Later in this article we show you how you can create a CSV report of your user accounts that can be used for bulk-provisioning. Once you have this, you can add a location column to the CSV and assign each user a primary location.
Evolve IP will provide you with 2 domains that will need to be added & verified in your Office 365 tenant. The domains are used for routing your voice traffic to Evolve IP's voice gateways, and is a Microsoft requirement for Teams Direct Routing to work. Additionally, Evolve IP is responsible for managing the DNS zones & records associated with the domains. Therefore, we will need to work together to get your domains added and verified.
NOTE Microsoft requires that a user/service account be created and permanently assigned to each of the routing domains added to your Office 365 tenant. These user/service accounts do not need any special permissions, and they should never be deleted. Here's an example using our naming conventions:
Additionally, during the back-end direct routing configuration, an Office 365 license that includes MS Teams (e.g. Office 365 E1, E3, or E5) will need to be temporarily assigned to each of the user accounts. |
Here's an example for a US configuration:
Location | Routing Domain* | User/Service Account UPN | Temp License |
---|---|---|---|
Evolve IP East (PHL) | c1005437.phl01.us.teams.evolveip.net | eip-tdr@c1005437.phl01.us.teams.evolveip.net | Office 365 E1 |
Evolve IP West (LAS) | c1005437.las01.us.teams.evolveip.net | eip-tdr@c1005437.las01.us.teams.evolveip.net | Office 365 E1 |
*Note: you will receive unique routing domains for your configuration from our delivery team.
You have to use PowerShell to create a direct routing configuration to Evolve IP. You also have to use PowerShell to provision/deprovision Teams user accounts for direct routing. Recently, Microsoft added the ability to create a direct routing configuration in the Teams admin center. However, this only works for organizations that purchase and manage their own SBCs (PSTN Gateways).
Evolve IP uses Microsoft's multi-tenant (carrier) model for direct routing, and this type of configuration cannot be created in the Teams Admin Center (TAC). However, after the configuration has been completed you will be able to view and manage the voice routes in the Teams admin center, but there will be no SBCs listed.
The below screenshot is normal.
Until Microsoft adds all of the necessary UI elements to the Teams Admin Center (TAC), PowerShell will be required to perform the direct routing back-end configuration and user provisioning. Anyone performing the back-end configuration and user provisioning with PowerShell will need to meet the following requirements on their computers:
IMPORTANT: If you have the Skype for Business PowerShell Module installed, you no longer need it. It should be uninstalled from from your computer.
UPDATE With version 2.0 and later of the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module (released March 2021) you do not need to manually connect to the Skype for Business Online services. All you need to do is run Connect-MicrosoftTeams to connect to the MS Teams services, and then run a CsOnline command (E.g. Get-CsOnlineUser). At that point the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module will connect you to the Skype for Business Online services. |
NOTE If you are familiar with using code editors, you can use one of them to stage the PowerShell commands. The PowerShell ISE comes with Windows, and VSCode can be downloaded and installed separately. Do not use a code editor to run self-contained PowerShell scripts (.ps1 files). You should run those from a PowerShell window. |
The Microsoft Teams PowerShell module uses lyncdiscover.yourdomain.com to find and connect to your services. If you are connecting to the service with a user account that is not a .onmicrosoft.com cloud-only account, you need to make sure you have a DNS CNAME entry in your domain's DNS zone pointing to webdir.online.lync.com. For example, if the user account you use to sign in is "jsmith@contoso.com", you will add the following DNS CNAME entry for lyncdiscover in the contoso.com DNS zone. ; Hostname TTL Type Target |
Use the below PowerShell commands to sign into your MS Teams services using a user account with the proper permissions. Microsoft's MFA service is supported.
NOTE Microsoft released version 2.0 of the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module in March of 2021. This new module will automatically connect you to the Skype for Business Online services when you run one of those commands (E.g. Get-CsOnlineUser). You do not need to manually connect to the Skype for Business Online services. |
# Import the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module & connect to the services Import-Module MicrosoftTeams Connect-MicrosoftTeams |
Disconnecting is not a hard requirement. If you just close the PowerShell window, the connected session will eventually time out on Microsoft's side.
Disconnect-MicrosoftTeams |
Direct Routing is only supported with Microsoft Teams, and all Teams user accounts configured for direct routing must have an upgrade policy set to the Teams Only coexistence mode. If your organization is only using Teams (no Skype for Business users), setting the coexistence mode to Teams Only in the Org-Wide Teams Upgrade settings is recommended. Note: There is no reverting back from the Teams Only coexistence mode. Once you set it to Teams Only all Skype for Business users will be forced to use Microsoft Teams.
IMPORTANT On June of 2021 Microsoft retired the Skype for Business Online services for all Office 365 customers. Microsoft did make exceptions for some of their customers that requested a delay, but for the most part, all customers have been migrated off Skype for Business Online. After Microsoft retired Skype for Business Online most customer's Teams Upgrade Policy & Coexistence Modes were set to Teams Only. However, we do recommend you check your TAC for your current org-wide coexistence mode: Teams > Teams Upgrade Settings. You can also check your current org-wide coexistence mode by running this PowerShell command: (Get-CsTenant).TeamsUpgradeEffectiveMode And you can check the status of your users in the TAC: Users > Manage Users |
If your organization is using Skype for Business Online, you will need to set a coexistence mode on a per-user basis. So that you understand the implications of setting individual users to Teams Only while you have other users still using Skype for Business Online, here's a list and description of each coexistence mode:
Reminder A user has to be set to the Teams Only coexistence mode for Teams direct routing to work. |
IMPORTANT If you are migrating users from Skype for Business in batches, you will need to set a user's coexistence mode individually. After you finish the migration make sure you set your global coexistence mode to Teams Only. That way new user accounts will automatically be set to Teams Only. |
Set the Org-Wide Coexistence Mode
Teams Admin Center : Teams > Teams Upgrade Settings
Set the Coexistence Mode Per User
If you are not migrating your users from Skype for Business Online to Teams all at the same time, you will need to assign a Teams Only coexistence mode to each user individually. Additionally, users with an explicit coexistence mode set against their account will override the above org-wide coexistence mode.
To check a user account:
Teams Admin Center: Users > Manage Users > Click on a user's Display Name to view their settings:
Coexistence Mode PowerShell Commands
You can use the below PowerShell commands to check and change the org-wide settings, and to check and change an individual user. Make sure you connect to your Microsoft Teams services before running the commands.
# Check the Org-Wide setting (Get-CsTenant).TeamsUpgradeEffectiveMode # Change the Org-Wide setting to Teams Only Grant-CsTeamsUpgradePolicy -PolicyName UpgradeToTeams -Global # List all users along with their effective coexistence mode Get-CsOnlineUser | FT DisplayName, TeamsUpgradePolicy, TeamsUpgradeEffectiveMode # Export a list of all users along with their Teams upgrade settings to CSV Get-CsOnlineUser | Select DisplayName, UserPrincipalName, TeamsUpgrade* | Export-Csv "C:\Path\to\TeamsUpgrade.csv" -nti # Set a user to use the org-wide setting Grant-CsTeamsUpgradePolicy -Identity user@domain.com -PolicyName $Null # Set a user to ignore the org-wide setting and use Teams Only mode. Grant-CsTeamsUpgradePolicy -Identity user@domain.com -PolicyName UpgradeToTeams |
When a user is assigned a Teams Phone add-on license and provisioned for direct routing, they are able to make private calls from the Teams client. This capability is provided by two Teams Calling policies, Global & AllowCalling. If a user is unable to make calls from the Teams client after being provisioned for direct routing, check the user's settings, and make sure the Teams calling policies are properly configured.
Teams calling policies can be viewed in the Teams Admin Center or by using the below PowerShell.
Teams Admin Center : Voice > Calling Policies
Caller ID policies are used to change or block the Caller ID (also called a Calling Line ID) for users. By default, the user's phone number is displayed when a call is made to a PSTN phone number such as a landline or mobile phone.
The Evolve IP voice infrastructure cannot accept a call from a Teams user when their caller ID policy is set to Anonymous. The policy must be set to User's Number.
Teams Admin Center : Voice > Caller ID Policies
By default Microsoft sets the Call Park "Global" policy to OFF. If you want your users to be able to use the Call Park feature, you need to turn this on in the Teams Admin Center (TAC). If you only want a subset of your users to have this feature, you'll need to create a new Call Park policy, and assign those users to the policy.
Teams Admin Center : Voice > Call Park Policies
If needed, you can use the following steps to generate a CSV report for every user account in your Office 365 tenant. This report can be used to determine whether a user is properly licensed for Teams Direct Routing. Additionally, if you add columns for your Evolve IP provided phone numbers and location, you can use it for provisioning direct routing to your users.
Optionally, you can create a CSV user report using the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module. Keep in mind this module will only return users who have been licensed for Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business Online. Make sure you connect to your Microsoft Teams services before running the commands.
# Define a local path to save your CSV file $CsvFilePath = "C:\path\to\file.csv" # Get all of the Teams/SfBO users $CsOnlineUsers = Get-CsOnlineUser -ResultSize Unlimited | Select DisplayName, UserPrincipalName, Enabled, TeamsUpgradeEffectiveMode # Display the list of users $CsOnlineUsers | Sort DisplayName | FT # Save the list of users to a CSV $CsOnlineUsers | Sort DisplayName | Export-Csv $CsvFilePath -NoTypeInformation |
Properties:
Here's a checklist you can use for your direct routing deployment.
Environment Discovery & Planning
Office 365 Tenant Configuration
User Provisioning