Category Archives: Azure

Azure update management error

August 13, 2019 Jos 2 Comments

For those googling this error in the Update Management console in Azure:

System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException (0x80240438): Exception from HRESULT: 0x80240438    at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Mom.Modules.ChangeTracking.WUA.IUpdateSearcher2.EndSearch(ISearchJob searchJob)    at Microsoft.EnterpriseManagement.Advisor.PatchManagement.WindowsUpdateHelper.GetUpdateSnapshot(TimeSpan timeout, Boolean onlineSearch, DateTime lastTimeUpdateApplied, IAutomaticUpdates2 automaticUpdates, UpdateModuleState state)

Fix: Exempt the server from group policies (or alternative solutions) that configure Windows Update. GPO’s override Azure Update Management and block the Azure agent from searching for updates.

Azure, AzureAD, Identity, Security

Azure AD sign in and audit log retention

April 11, 2019 Jos 2 Comments

Often we, as cloud admins, need our audit or sign in logs. Usually, we need real-time data because, for example, we’re debugging why that one user has conditional access issues. But sometimes, we need to go back further than 30 days. And that is not something Azure does by default, but can be enabled:

Our options when exporting logs are limited to a Storage account, Log Analytics or an Event Hub. All these options offer multiple extraction methods to cover your transport needs to other systems. The default retention period is then forever, which is nice as we might need audit info going back a bit as hacks are usually discovered after about 206 days.

If you don’t have specific tools or requirements, I recommend setting up a Log Analytics workspace and connecting that to Azure AD:

Whichever method you choose, a P1 or P2 license is required. You only need a single license for the entire tenant when using the export audit / singin log functionality of AzureAD. Once configured, the Logs option directly bring you to the Log Analytics workspace search results:

I’ve briefly shown how to configure AzureAD to send audit and sign in logs to Log Analytics so you can go back further than 30 days. Stay tuned for the next post that will utilize these logs to dive deeper into Guest User activity.

Automation, Azure, Powershell

Programmatically triggering a group licenses refresh for AzureAD

March 11, 2019 Jos 5 Comments

Azure AD allows us to assign licenses to groups, a nifty feature that has made a host of automation scripts dealing with bulk license assignment obsolete.

A problem I’ve encountered is that when you assign users to a group, license assignments are not processed right away, especially if you didn’t have enough licenses when you assigned the user to the group (and added licenses to the tenant later).

Azure AD has a button to trigger an update manually:

But of course, this can also be automated with PowerShell!

function Invoke-AzHAPIReprocessGroupLicenses{
    <#
        .SYNOPSIS
        reprocesses group license assignment

        .NOTES
        Author: Jos Lieben

        .PARAMETER AzureRMToken
        Use Get-azureRMToken to get a token for this parameter

        .PARAMETER groupGUID
        GUID of the group to reprocess licenses of
    
        Requires:
        - Global Administrator Credentials (non-CSP!)
        - AzureRM Module
        - supply result of get-azureRMToken function
    #>
    param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]$AzureRMToken,
        [Parameter(Mandatory = $true)]$groupGUID
    )
    $header = @{
        'Authorization' = 'Bearer ' + $AzureRMToken
        'X-Requested-With'= 'XMLHttpRequest'
        'x-ms-client-request-id'= [guid]::NewGuid()
        'x-ms-correlation-id' = [guid]::NewGuid()
    }   

    $url = "https://main.iam.ad.ext.azure.com/api/AccountSkus/Group/$groupGUID/Reprocess"
    Invoke-RestMethod –Uri $url –Headers $header –Method POST -Body $Null -UseBasicParsing -ErrorAction Stop -ContentType "application/json"
}

Source on GIT: https://gitlab.com/Lieben/assortedFunctions/blob/master/invoke-AzHAPIReprocessGroupLicenses.ps1https://gitlab.com/Lieben/assortedFunctions/blob/master/invoke-AzHAPIReprocessGroupLicenses.ps1

Disclaimer: the ‘hidden azure api’ is not officially supported.

Requires output from the Get-AzureRMToken function

Azure, Office 365, Powershell

Get an Office365 / Azure AD tenant ID from a user’s login name or domain

March 8, 2019 Jos 2 Comments

I often need a tenant ID for a given customer, the usual method to get it is to log in to the Azure portal and find it there. But what if you want to get the tenant ID programmatically? Without actually logging in? And you only know the log in name of a user? Or just one of the customer’s domain names?

Then this’ll help you out!

function get-tenantIdFromLogin(){
    <#
      .SYNOPSIS
      Retrieves an Office 365 / Azure AD tenant ID for a given user login name (email address)
      .EXAMPLE
      $tenantId = get-tenantIdFromLogin -Username you@domain.com
      .PARAMETER Username
      the UPN of a user
      .NOTES
      filename: get-tenantIdFromLogin.ps1
      author: Jos Lieben
      blog: www.lieben.nu
      created: 8/3/2019
    #>
    Param(
        [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)]$Username
    )
    $openIdInfo = Invoke-RestMethod "https://login.windows.net/$($Username.Split("@")[1])/.well-known/openid-configuration" -Method GET
    return $openIdInfo.userinfo_endpoint.Split("/")[3]
}

Obviously, you can also get the tenant ID by just filling out bogus info in front of the user’s login (e.g. bogus@ogd.nl), it’ll still work as only the domain part of the login is really used.

Hope this helps someone 🙂

Git link: https://gitlab.com/Lieben/assortedFunctions/blob/master/get-tenantIdFromLogin.ps1

Automation, Azure, Powershell, Security