Microsoft Entra Connect Monitoring Extension
More Performance, Control, and Security
Microsoft Entra Connect Monitoring
Entra Connect, formerly Active Directory (AD), is perse a very sound and reliable solution for ID synchronization between on-prem and cloud applications. However, as with every complex and sensible system, there is room for failure. The Entra Connect Health, especially for large and distributed environments, already provides a lot of information to troubleshoot Entra Connect issues.
What is Microsoft Entra Connect?
Entra Connect synchronizes the identity data between the local on-premise Active Directory and the cloud-based Entra ID ( Azure AD). Users can access on-premise applications and cloud services, such as Microsoft 365, using the same common identity credentials.
Entra Connect is a great relief for IT admins. They do not have to double provision users in on-premise and cloud environments, which could easily cause issues jeopardizing productivity and security.
Monitioring Helps
Monitoring Entra Connect (formerly Azure AD Connect) is crucial for ensuring seamless identity synchronization between on-premises Active Directory and Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). It helps detect sync failures, password replication issues, and connectivity problems before they disrupt user access.
Proactive monitoring ensures smooth authentication processes, prevents login issues, and enhances security by identifying anomalies in sync behavior. Additionally, it supports compliance by providing visibility into directory synchronization health.
By keeping Entra Connect running optimally, organizations can maintain secure and reliable access to cloud and hybrid environments.
Entra Connect Monitoring by NiCE
Service Principals
What are Azure Enterprise Applications and Service Principals?
Azure Enterprise Applications are apps registered via Entra (Azure Active Directory), an Identity and Access Management (IAM) system, to provide secure and orchestrated access. Upon app registration in Entra a service principal, representing a blueprint of the application object, is created. The service principal now represents the local application instance in your tenant or directory, deriving from a global application. As the authorization endpoint, the service principal defines what the application can do in target directories, who can use it, what resources it can access, and so on.
How do they affect your work?
As an IT admin, you want to know if you want to secure any unsecured apps in your tenant. You also want to know for which app registration the application secrets will expire. Preventing the visibility of confidential app registrations will prevent security breaches. If the application secrets expire, non of your users can reach the app, nor will the app itself be operating anymore. Imagine a crucial company-wide app going down, and all services will stop. And your only clue is an end-user support storm pointing to no objective source?
Why you should monitor Service Principals
Monitoring Service Principals of Azure Enterprise Applications helps you keep track of upcoming application secret expiries and check for application compliance. The centralized monitoring of all service principals in a specific tenant is a big advantage in mapping and meeting security policies.
Profiles
Keep track of Profile Syncs that have different time stamps on both systems.
The NiCE Management Pack automatically detects and alerts you on profiles that are not in sync.
Knowing about such details allows for direct issue resolution, and prevents user complaints.
Profile Export
Entra Connect Export information details per profile are helpful to understand if Entra reaches a corrupt state on the Entra Connect site.
Understand Entra Connect Export changes per Profile, such as Adds, Updates, Renames, Deletes, Delete Adds, and Failures.
Stage Failures
A server in staging mode allows you to make changes to the configuration and preview them. It also allows verification of the running of full import and full synchronization before you go into production mode again. Monitoring for Entra Connect stage failures helps you roll out changes faster and more securely.
Export Failures
Errors may happen during any export. These reach from data mismatch errors, duplicate attributes, data validation failures, deletion access violations, password access violation errors, large objects, or exceeded allowed length, through to existing admin role conflicts.
The NiCE Management Pack helps you keep track of any Entra Connect Profile Export Failures by mapping them into SCOM. You can drill down deeper for advanced problem resolution with a right-click on the alert.
Connector Export
Identifying Entra export details per connector is helpful in understanding if Entra reaches a corrupt state on the Entra Connect site.
The Management Pack traces and graphs out Entra Connect export details per Connector, such as Export Adds, Export Updates, Export Deletes, and the total number of objects synced.
Import Stage Details
When importing Entra Connect data, there are several change options you want to keep track of. The NiCE Management Pack provides complete insights into Import Stage details such as No Change, Adds, Updates, Renames, Deletes, Delete Adds, and Failures.
Details per Run Profile
Entra Connect Run-Profiles define how to update the data (Full/Delta Import/Sync, and Export). It is, therefore, important to monitor the health and status of Run-Profiles.
Using the Management Pack, you will get graphs on
Last status per Run-Profile
Last run duration per Run-Profile in seconds
Run-Profiles In Sync
Flow failure per Run-Profile
Embedded Admin Tasks
To ease everyday Entra Connect administrators’ lives, the Management Pack has a pre-set Entra Connect Task to Enable and Disable Firewall Rules for Windows Remote Management.
Seed
State View for AD Connect Seed Computers
Seed Computers are used to discover AD Connect Servers. The AD Connect Seed Computers view visualizes their health state. This helps you to make sure no servers are missed for monitoring.
Server
State View for Entra Connect Servers
Entra Connect Servers represent the several parties of your ID synchronization. The Entra Connect server state view helps you understand the health of your multi-forest environment at a glance.
Sync
State View for Entra Connect Sync Service
The Entra Connect Sync Services does the basic operation of synchronizing data as set in the used Connectors. This view provides insight into which services are running fine and which are encountering problems.
Connector
State View for Entra Connect Connectors
Entra Connectors are a directory gateway for redirecting requests between the connected parties.
The Connectors State View lets you see any Connector anomalies right on the spot.
Profile
State View for Entra Connect Run Profiles
Entra Connect Run Profiles are available as Full Import, Full Synchronization, Delta Import, Delta Synchronization, and Export. This State View helps you understand which Run Profiles are healthy, and which may have issues.
Entra Connect State Views
Entra Connect architecture consists of various objects and services such as seed computers, servers, synchronization services, connectors, and more. The NiCE Active Management Pack for Entra Connect checks and visualizes the state of these various objects and services as Entra Connect State Views.
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