Edit

Share via

Multi-Geo capabilities in Microsoft Teams

  • Article

Multi-Geo capabilities in Teams enable Teams chat data to be stored at rest in a specified geo location. Chat data consists of chat messages, including private messages, channel messages, and images used in chats.

Teams uses the Preferred Data Location (PDL) for users and groups to determine where to store data. If the PDL isn’t set or is invalid, data is stored in the tenant's central location.

Find the geo location of Teams user/channel

The Get-MultiGeoRegion cmdlet in Teams displays the following multi-geo related properties:

  • Region: The first three letters of the region name correspond to the geo code, which tells you where the Teams data is currently located for the user/channel.
  • LastMovementTimestamp: Indicates when Teams data was last migrated (either automatically or manually).
  • PreferredDataLocation: Specifies the geo location code that was set by the Teams admin.

User chat

User chat includes one-to-one, one-to-many, and private meeting messages.

When a new user is created, Teams reads the user's PDL and stores all their chat data in that geo location.

For existing users, if an administrator adds or modifies the PDL for a user, that user's chat data is added to a migration queue to be moved to the specified geo location.

The storage location for a one-to-one or one-to-many chat is based on the PDL of the person who created the chat. If that user's PDL is changed, the chat will be migrated to the new geo location. The storage location for a meeting chat is based on the PDL of the meeting organizer.

To find the current location of a user's Teams data, PDL, and the last movement timestamp for a user connect to Teams PowerShell and run the following command:

Get-MultiGeoRegion -EntityType User -EntityId <UPN>

The output of the command looks like this:

Region                    : BRA
LastMovementTimeStamp     : 10/10/2023 8:21:01 PM
PreferredDataLocation     : IND

Enable port 8653 to allow execution of this command.

Channel messages

Each Microsoft 365 group has a Preferred Data Location (PDL) which denotes the geo location where related data is to be stored. Teams uses the PDL for the group associated with each team to determine where to store channel messaging data for that team. This includes private channels and chat that occurs within a channel meeting.

When a user creates a new team, that user's PDL determines what PDL is assigned to the Microsoft 365 group. The group PDL determines where that team's data is stored. If that user's PDL later changes, the group's PDL isn’t changed.

For existing teams, if an administrator adds or modifies the PDL for the Microsoft 365 group that backs a team, that team's channel messaging data is added to a migration queue to be moved to the specified geo location.

Changing the PDL of the Microsoft 365 group queues the Teams data to migrate to the chosen location. However, this doesn’t migrate the SharePoint site or files associated with the Group automatically. You must move the site separately by following the procedures in Move a SharePoint site to a different geo location. Be sure to do both steps to avoid Teams data and SharePoint data for one group in different locations.

To find the current location of a team's data, PDL, and the last movement timestamp for the group connect to Teams PowerShell and run the following command:

Get-MultiGeoRegion -EntityType Group -EntityId <GroupObjectId>

User Experience

Teams Multi-Geo is seamless to the end user. Once you change the PDL of a user or a group, the respective data will queue for migration and the migration will occur automatically with no impact to the user or their Teams client even if they’re active while the migration occurs.

See also

Microsoft 365 Multi-Geo tenant configuration

Administering a multi-geo environment

Administering Exchange Online mailboxes in a multi-geo environment