SOLVED

Teams Recording availability for South Africa region-registered tenants

Copper Contributor

Kindly advise on the timeline for the recording function availability for the South Africa region. 

 

Our corporation recently moved away from utilising Zoom Meetings (which had a functioning meeting recording integration) to Microsoft Teams with the expectation that all similar functionality would be available to us. Due to most organisations (ours included) currently having to work from home and heavily relying on being able to replicate functions that would normally be done on-site, the omission of key functions causes frustration for those sections of the company that need it.

 

This lack of recording through Teams thus greatly impacts on the quality of key meetings (i.e. Board and Executive Committee meetings) as this aids in minute taking. Having to employ a third party solution is an unnecessary additional expenditure the organisation would prefer to avoid. 

 

Our organisation is currently on a Microsoft 365 Business Standard license. Please suggest an interim/alternative Microsoft-based solution as well if available.

23 Replies
Hi,

Please note that we meet all technical criteria as I have previously gone through the page of the link you have sent. Microsoft was contacted by our 365 implementation team and were informed that this is a change that needs to be implemented on Microsoft’s side as it relates to regional activation.

@KGill1175 OK, I understand. As your team has had a dialog with Microsoft perhaps you should use the already established communication channel to get an update about the estimated activation.

@KGill1175 Hello! Did you see this?

 

*edit* let me get back with the full message.

@KGill1175 

 

Updated Feature: Microsoft Stream cloud recordings regional storage control

 

 

Meeting recordings are stored in Microsoft Stream cloud storage. Tenant admins have an option to go the Microsoft Teams admin center to turn ON/OFF “Allow cloud recording” setting for Teams meetings. The recording feature is currently disabled for customers whose Teams data is stored in-country if Microsoft Stream is not available in country. We will be adding an additional setting which will allow customers to use recording if Microsoft Stream data residency is not yet in country.

 

We will begin rolling this change at the end of June and expect to be complete mid-July.

 

Note: This change applies to Teams meeting and call recordings. There is a plan for implementing a similar change for Teams live events, and we will communicate via Message center when available.

 

[How does this affect me?]

If tenant admin turns on AllowRecordingStorageOutsideRegion then the recordings will be stored in the nearest regional data center of Microsoft Stream. This will be the default behavior once the change takes effect. For customers who prefer to store the recordings in-country, it is recommended customers disable the meeting recording feature in Teams admin center and re-enable once Microsoft Stream is deployed in that country.

 

How will Teams meeting recordings work after the change?

If the tenant admin turns AllowRecordingStorageOutsideRegion ON:

·  before the Stream service is available in country

·  all recordings will be stored the in-region storage. If Stream is made available in-country later, any existing and new recordings will continue to be stored in the nearest regional data center.

·  after the Stream service is available in country

·   all recordings will be stored in country.

 

Will we change this behavior of saving meeting recordings to in country storage instead of in-region storage after Stream service is available in country?

Yes, new tenants and existing tenants that have not yet enabled meeting recordings will save new recordings in the in country storage after Stream is available in country. However, any tenant that enables meeting recordings BEFORE Stream is available in country will continue to use the in-region storage even after Stream is available in country.

 

Will recordings be migrated from in-region to in country storage after Stream service is available in country?

  • No, recordings will not be migrated.
  • If a tenant admin has turned ON recording before Stream service is made available in country, then all past and new recordings after Stream service is available will continue to be stored in the in-region storage.

How do I know which region my tenant is in and where is the data stored for Microsoft Stream?

If you use Microsoft Stream and your Office 365 tenant is in a region outside of regions where Stream is currently deployed to, your data will be stored in the nearest geographic region.

To find the region your tenant is in:

  1. In Stream, click ? in the upper right corner.
  2. Click About Microsoft Stream.
  3. Click Your data is stored in.

For more general information on where data is stored across services in Office 365, see Where is your Office 365 data located.

 

Which new countries will have Microsoft Stream enabled?

Microsoft Stream will be adding Stream storage instances in more regions and locations over time. Here is the list of regions Stream plans to support by end of 2020 (available regions in italics :(

 

  • UK, Canada, Australia, India, Japan, Norway, France, Singapore, UAE, China, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden

How do I turn off Teams meeting recording for all users in my tenant?

  • Select Meeting Policies -> Global and turn off “Allow cloud recording”.

[What do I need to do to prepare for this change?]

When this change takes effect, you will need to verify that "Allow cloud recording" is set for the experience you prefer.

@ChristianBergstrom 

 

how does one configure AllowRecordingStorageOutsideRegion ?

there is zero documentation about this switch, what command does this refer to?

also, if you disable "Allow Cloud recording" in Teams, do meetings get recorded somewhere else or don't get recorded at all (in which case it should be "turn on/off meetings recording")

@ChristianBergstrom how do you interpret this?

 

These 2 statements are in the same article and confusing to me

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/cloud-recording

 

Users won't need a Microsoft Stream license assigned if you want users to only record and download the recordings. This will mean that the recordings aren't stored in Microsoft Stream but are instead stored in Azure Media Services (AMS) with a 30 day limit before it's deleted.

 

Meeting recordings are stored in Microsoft Stream cloud storage. Once you record a meeting, Microsoft Stream retains it forever (or until the recording owner deletes it). If the recording doesn't get uploaded to Stream, it's stored in Teams cloud storage, where it's available for download for 20 days.

@mikkele They are saying "We will be adding an additional setting" so it will probably show up in the Teams admin portal and available to configure using PowerShell, with the Set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy.

@mikkele I believe this is the case.

 

No Stream license: Record/download and stored in Azure Media Services, not Stream, for 30 days.

 

With Stream license: If uploaded retained forever. If not uploaded to Stream then Teams cloud storage for 20 days.

Hi. Thanks, I received this from Microsoft via the Office 365 Message Center. I appreciate the feedback.
So just to confirm, if i remove the Stream license for each of the users, they will be able to record meetings and it will be stored for 20 days in the local Azure DC?

@ChristianBergstrom 

As of today, 13 August 2020 - still impossible to record Teams meetings in South Africa.  As a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) partner that markets Teams to my clients, this is particularly frustrating:(

 

Even worse is that there are often others in the meeting who have a tenant in another country and can record, leaving me looking stupid and unprepared.  It makes selling the solution even more difficult given that I cannot even get my own system to work while clients are able to make it work.

@seanachim 

 

Likewise - however we have managed to follow the guidance and enable our clients to record within teams. - It took a day or two to take affect after applying the change - and not all policies are able to be changed.. but changing the global policy and assigning that to users allowed teams recording.

 

set-CsTeamsMeetingPolicy -AllowRecordingStorageOutsideRegion $true

 

Sets the value on the global policy

 

Regards

@KGill1175 

I found that a third-party software can record Teams video conferences perfectly. Please visit the below link

https://www.evaer.com/skype-call-recorder-blog/how-to-record-a-microsoft-teams-meeting/

best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

@mikkele The documentation has now been updated as it was misleading it now says

'Users won't need a Microsoft Stream license assigned if you want users to only record and download the recordings. This will mean that the recordings aren't stored in Microsoft Stream but are instead stored in Azure Media Services (AMS) with a 21-day limit before it's deleted. It's not something at this point that an admin can control or manage including the ability to delete it.'

Thanks, but this conversation is about the AllowRecordingStorageOutsideRegion parameter.

”Allow storing recording outside of region. All meeting recordings will be permanently stored in another region, and can't be migrated.”

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/cloud-recording#where-your-meeting-recordings-are-st...

For those of us that have been fighting this battle I feel that Microsoft has poorly setup SA North hosting because its not just this but a laundry list of issues relating to services not available to South Africa. 

 

The only way around this mess is to setup O365 in another country but good luck getting a South African CSP to license you. CSP's are not allowed to license Tenants in other countries. 

1 best response

Accepted Solutions
best response confirmed by ThereseSolimeno (Microsoft)
Solution

@mikkele The documentation has now been updated as it was misleading it now says

'Users won't need a Microsoft Stream license assigned if you want users to only record and download the recordings. This will mean that the recordings aren't stored in Microsoft Stream but are instead stored in Azure Media Services (AMS) with a 21-day limit before it's deleted. It's not something at this point that an admin can control or manage including the ability to delete it.'

View solution in original post