Automation of gathering and importing Windows Autopilot information

On one of my previous blog post Gather Windows 10 Autopilot info in azure blob storage during wipe and reload, I described the gathering of Autopilot information during operating system deployment in a wipe and reload scenario with MDT. Just a short recap of the problem and my initial solution:

If we purchase a new device, the OEM vendor takes care of installing Windows 10 with a signature edition or provisioning ready installation including all necessary drivers. If we buy new hardware the information for Autopilot can be synced into our tenant from the OEM vendor (Lenovo is already capable of doing that and others will follow). We will get the device information in Intune and we can start to assign an Autopilot Deployment Profile and start to enroll the devices.

What if we have a bunch of Windows 7 devices in the environment?

A way to handle this is that we are playing the role of the OEM vendor and do the install of a Windows 10 signature edition on the existing Windows 7 devices, gathering Autopilot information, and let Windows 10 start in the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) again for user enrollment. Depending what is available we can use ConfigMgr or MDT for this. My example uses MDT.

Now imagine a situation where a rollout team is preparing a lot of machines. We would end up in a lot of .csv files on different devices. To make this a little easier for IT to import the hardware information of new devices into the Autopilot service, we build up the following logic:

1. Gather hardware information via PowerShell Script Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo during wipe and reload
2. Upload .csv file via AzCopy to an Azure Blob Storage
3. Gather .csv files from Azure Blob Storage and combine them into a single combined.csv file
   This was a manual step in my previous solution
4. Upload combined .csv file to Autopilot and assign Deployment Profiles
   This was a manual step in my previous solution
5. Device can be delivered to the end user like it where shipped by the OEM vendor

You can read more about the initial solution here: Gather Windows 10 Autopilot info in azure blob storage during wipe and reload

This blog post is all about automating these two steps – gathering and upload of Autopilot information to Intune.

Architecture

First, I will explain the architecture and how it works and then I’m going to describe the way to implement it. The overall architecture is based on an Azure Automation Runbook and looks like this:

The new procedure including the enhanced logic for a complete automation of the import is now as follows (modified steps for complete automation):

1. Gather hardware information via PowerShell Script Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo during wipe and reload scenario
2. Upload .csv file via AzCopy to an Azure Blob Storage
3. Gather .csv files from Azure Blob Storage and combine them into a single .csv file with the help of a scheduled Azure Runbook
4. Upload combined .csv file information to Windows Autopilot Service via PowerShell Script WindowsAutoPilotIntune running in an Azure Automation Runbook 
5. Cleanup Azure Blob Storage (delete all .csv files of successfully imported devices and delete all .csv files of already imported devices)
6. Generate import notification and summary and post it to a Microsoft Teams channel
7. Autopilot information is available for the OOBE user enrollment scenario with Autopilot. The Autopilot profile gets automatically assigned by a dynamic AzureAD device group membership.
8. Device can be delivered to the end user like it where shipped by the OEM vendor

I’ve still chosen the copy via AzCopy of individual .csv files to the Azure Blob Storage approach as we can then limit the access quite well via shared access signature and we can easily limit permission to write blob objects only. No need to provide credentials or Blob Storage keys on the client side. Sure, we could build up a more advanced HTTP endpoint to gather device information, but this approach is quick and simple. I’m pretty sure that the complete solution of this automation task is something which we do not need in future when devices are Windows 10 migrated and we then buy Autopilot ready hardware only.

Guide to build the new solution

The Autopilot Graph API is an API with focus on batch processing. This means we import new device information into a kind of staging area and Windows Autopilot service will pick up the new device information and starts importing it. This process varies in the amount of time it takes and we have to check the status of all devices to get the import result. As soon as the devices are processed we can clean up the staging area and the import is done. Normally we would do this by wrapping the Graph API calls (REST) into some PowerShell functions and build the logic for the described process. Luckily Microsoft released a new PowerShell Module WindowsAutoPilotIntune (thx to @mniehaus) based on the Graph API to import new AutoPilot information into Intune.

In my previous blog post about Process automation for Intune and Azure AD with Azure Automation, I created a Runbook to delete old devices from Intune via Graph API and demonstrated how to do an unattended authentication within the Runbook. All the details how this can be achieved are explained there. Please follow the guide to setup the Azure Automation account. I use the same unattended authentication technique to utilize the PowerShell Module WindowsAutoPilotIntune to import the device information into Autopilot service in the following Runbook. Additionally, the Runbook is built to protect concurrent execution (thx to Tao Yang, I used his implementation for it) to ensure a sequential processing and to keep track of current running imports. If we would design this as a concurrent solution it would get much harder in terms of monitoring and reporting in the end. In addition, there is a max import of 175 devices into the staging area of the API which we are taking care of by limiting the Runbook import to 175 devices during one run.

If the requirements are implemented based on the previous blog post (especially the Intune native app and the automation service account) we simply need to extend the permissions to “Read and write Microsoft Intune configuration” of the automation account which was created during the setup of Process automation for Intune and Azure AD with Azure Automation in section Building the solution.

For the concurrent execution protection, we need our automation credential to have Reader permission and for Blob Storage access we need Contributor permissions on the subscription. As the result we grant Contributor permission to the automation account:

Finally, we can implement the complete Runbook which can be found on my GitHub account here:

https://github.com/okieselbach/Azure-Automation/blob/master/Import-AutoPilotInfo.ps1

The Runbook is written in PowerShell and follows the logic described in the beginning of this post – section architecture.

Create a PowerShell Runbook and paste-in the code.

To make sure the Runbook successfully runs we need to define some additional variables. I assume that the IntuneClientId and Tenant variable are defined as described in the previous blog post.

Additional variables needed for Azure Blob Storage access:

ContainerName: <your-blob-storage-containername>
StorageAccountName: <your-blob-storage-account>
StorageKey: <your-blob-storage-secret-key> * as encrypted variable

Additional variables needed for Microsoft Teams Channel notification:

SubscriptionUrl: <your-subscription-url>

The subscription URL can be found as shown below. Please do not copy the /overview end of the URL. The URL should end with the subscription GUID only (like highlighted):

TeamsWebHookUrl: <your-ms-teams-webhook-url>

Open MS Teams and choose a Channel where the Autopilot notification from the Azure Runbook should be displayed. Click on the three dots and choose Connectors:

Look for Incoming Webhook and click Configure

Type in the details and upload a icon and click Create

Finally copy the Webhook URL:

Paste it into the Azure Automation variable TeamsWebHookUrl and set encrypted value to Yes

This is necessary to get Microsoft Teams notifications with some statistics and information to troubleshoot errors. Below is an example of an import notification in Microsoft Teams:

We have some statistics, detailed error list with device information and a link to the Runbook itself in Azure. All based on Adaptive Cards JSON code. This can be easily modified to fulfill personal needs. Have a look at the Adaptive Cards Designer (https://acdesignerbeta.azurewebsites.net) for experimenting with layouts and adjust the Runbook code.

Enhanced client-side script part

I my previous blog post about Gather Windows 10 Autopilot info in azure blob storage during wipe and reload I have described how to setup the Azure Blob Storage to gather the “<hostname>.csv” files during MDT operating system installation. Please follow the previous guide to setup the Azure Blob Storage and the integration in MDT.

I have an enhanced version of the gather script now which can be found on my GitHub account and is also shown below. The enhanced version does not have the dependency on AzCopy.exe (incl. dependency files) and Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1 in the script directory. If they are not available, they are downloaded from an additional Blob Storage container named resources. The additional container resources must be created and the AzCopy.zip and Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1 must be uploaded there to successfully run the script:

The enhanced Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfoAndUpload.ps1 version:

	<#
	Version: 1.0
	Author: Oliver Kieselbach
	Script: Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfoAndUpload.ps1
	Description:
	Get the AutoPilot information and copy it to an Azure Blob Storage. Use existing AzCopy.exe and
	Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1 files or download them from an Azure Blob Storage named 'resources'.
	If used with an MDT offline media the hash can be written to the offline media as well.
	Release notes:
	Version 1.0: Original published version.
	The script is provided "AS IS" with no warranties.
	#>
	# Supporting archive files needs to be in Blob Storage
	#
	# Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1
	# AzCopy.zip
	Function Start-Command {
	Param([Parameter (Mandatory=$true)]
	[string]$Command,
	[Parameter (Mandatory=$true)]
	[string]$Arguments)
	$pinfo = New-Object System.Diagnostics.ProcessStartInfo
	$pinfo.FileName = $Command
	$pinfo.RedirectStandardError = $true
	$pinfo.RedirectStandardOutput = $true
	$pinfo.CreateNoWindow = $true
	$pinfo.UseShellExecute = $false
	$pinfo.Arguments = $Arguments
	$p = New-Object System.Diagnostics.Process
	$p.StartInfo = $pinfo
	$p.Start() | Out-Null
	$p.WaitForExit()
	[pscustomobject]@{
	stdout = $p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd()
	stderr = $p.StandardError.ReadToEnd()
	ExitCode = $p.ExitCode
	}
	}
	# base parameters
	$containerUrl = "https://ZZZZ.blob.core.windows.net&quot;
	$blobStorageResources = "resources"
	$blobStorageHashes = "hashes"
	$sasToken = "XXXX"
	$scriptPath = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path)
	$fileName = "$env:computername.csv"
	$outputPath = Join-Path $env:windir "temp\AutoPilotScript"
	$outputFile = Join-Path $outputPath $fileName
	if (-not (Test-Path $outputPath)) {
	New-Item -Path $outputPath -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
	}
	# define to search in current script directory for needed files
	$autoPilotScript = Join-Path $scriptPath "Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1"
	$azCopyExe = Join-Path $scriptPath "AzCopy.exe"
	if (-not (Test-Path $autoPilotScript)) {
	# download Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1 from BlobStorage
	Start-BitsTransfer -Source "$containerUrl/$blobStorageResources/Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1" -Destination $outputPath
	# re-define variable to output path as we downloaded the files just in time
	$autoPilotScript = Join-Path $outputPath "Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1"
	}
	# Gather the AutoPilot Hash information
	Start-Command -Command "$psHome\powershell.exe" -Arguments "-ex bypass -file `"$autoPilotScript`" -ComputerName $env:computername -OutputFile `"$outputFile`"" | Out-Null
	if (-not (Test-Path $azCopyExe)) {
	# download AzCopy from BlobStorage
	Start-BitsTransfer -Source "$containerUrl/$blobStorageResources/AzCopy.zip" -Destination $outputPath
	Add-Type -assembly "system.io.compression.filesystem"
	[io.compression.zipfile]::ExtractToDirectory($(Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy.zip"), $(Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy"))
	# re-define variable to output path as we downloaded the files just in time
	$azCopyExe = Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy\AzCopy.exe"
	}
	# Copy the hash information to the Blob Storage
	$url = "$containerUrl/$blobStorageHashes"
	$result = Start-Command -Command "`"$azCopyExe`"" -Arguments "/Source:`"$outputPath`" /Dest:$url /Pattern:$fileName /Y /Z:`"$(Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy")`" /DestSAS:`"$sasToken`""
	# We try to copy the hash information to the scriptpath as the device might be installed from MDT offline media
	# ScriptPath would be pointing to the removable media for the offline install. In failure case we could use the gathered
	# information from the offline media to try the upload again.
	# this can easily be enabled/disabled by defining $offlineMediaCopy = $true/$false
	$offlineMediaCopy = $false
	if ($offlineMediaCopy) {
	try {
	if ($result.stdout.Contains("Transfer successfully: 1")) {
	$path = $(Join-Path $scriptPath "autopilot-script-success")
	if (-not (Test-Path $path)) {
	New-Item -Path $path -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
	}
	Copy-Item -Path $outputFile -Destination $path -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
	}
	else {
	$path = $(Join-Path $scriptPath "autopilot-script-failed")
	if (-not (Test-Path $path)) {
	New-Item -Path $path -ItemType Directory | Out-Null
	}
	Copy-Item -Path $outputFile -Destination $path -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Out-Null
	}
	}
	catch [system.exception]
	{}
	}
	# Cleanup
	Remove-Item -Path $(Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy.zip") -Force | Out-Null
	Remove-Item -Path $(Join-Path $outputPath "AzCopy") -Recurse -Force | Out-Null
	# we keep a copy of the hash in the filesystem (temp) just in case something went wrong, you can uncomment and delete the hash information also
	#Remove-Item -Path $(Join-Path $scriptPath "Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfo.ps1") -Force | Out-Null
	#Remove-Item -Path $outputFile -Force | Out-Null

view raw Get-WindowsAutoPilotInfoAndUpload.ps1 hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Replace ZZZZ with your Blob Storage account name and ZZZZ with your SAS signature in the script above. See here Delegating Access with a Shared Access Signature for more SAS signature details.

This version can also be used to be executed via Microsoft Intune Management Extension to run it on existing Windows 10 devices. It is possible to collect all targeted device information and the Runbook will import the device information. Already imported devices will be skipped. This way we can make sure every device is imported to the Autopilot service.

Sample output of the Runbook

If a device information <hostname>.csv is successfully imported the .csv files will be deleted from the Azure Blob Storage. In case of an error it will be left there untouched but reported via Runbook output and Teams notification. There is one case where the Runbook will delete the .csv file from the Azure Blob Storage also. This is if the Runbook detects an error 806 – ZtdDeviceAlreadyAssigned. In that case we can delete the .csv as it has no consequences. In every other error situation someone needs to resolve the error manually. The Teams notification is only generated if there is some device information in the Azure Blob Storage. The normal procedure would be if operations gets an import notification it should check and in case of errors they should be resolved manually.

Important observations during testing

The Autopilot import via Graph API takes some time and it may also timeout. So, it is not a typical request response REST API in this case. Remember all device information is staged and then the devices are monitored for their success or error state. This led to situations where I had to wait up to 1 hour to get a successful import, even when the UI in Intune tells us it takes up to 15 min. So be prepared that it might take longer or fails during the run. I chose this approach as it is the same procedure as the Azure Portal does the import. In fact, we really automated the import process in Intune but did not invent a complete different process which might cause different problems of device tracking or concurrency and so on. Depending on the use case you can run the Runbook on a recurring schedule. My normal use case for this scenario is to support people who are preparing older devices when they are getting reinstalled from Windows 7 to Windows 10. If someone expects immediate availability of Autopilot information after such a reinstall this might be problematic as the API is not designed for this. Another fact is that the Autopilot Deployment Profile assignment using Intune does take some time also at the moment. I observed that it took several hours sometimes. I suggest to re-arrange the operational processes and hand out reinstalled Windows 10 devices after some additional time and not directly after reinstalling, as this increases the possibility that the Autopilot information is not imported and profile assigned yet.

To run the Runbook on a recurring schedule just go to the Runbook and add a schedule. The max recurrence is limited to every hour.

Just define a schedule (max once per hour) and monitor the recent job overview if it works:

The schedule can even be enhanced by using a simple Logic App and not using the Azure Automation Runbook schedule at all:

Please see Stefan Strangers post for detailed instructions how to implement a simple Logic App to trigger an Azure Automation Runbook:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_stranger/2017/06/23/azur-logic-apps-schedule-your-runbooks-more-often-than-every-hour/

In case something goes wrong I have created a second Runbook to clean up the staging area of the Autopilot Graph API. Get it from my GitHub account and run it in case of fatal errors where you might want to clean up the staging area:

https://github.com/okieselbach/Azure-Automation/blob/master/Cleanup-AutoPilotImportedDevices.ps1

Here is a sample output of the Cleanup Runbook:

UPDATE:
There is a way to gather AutoPilot profiles for existing devices in the meantime (see screenshot below), but this would not give you the AutoPilot Experience during initial setup.

For the initial AutoPilot experience without true registering upfront via this automation or via the OEM vendor you can deploy a AutoPilotConfiguration.json file to C:\windows\provisioning\Autopilot. See a more detailed docs article here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/windows-autopilot/existing-devices

Further information

Azure Logic Apps – Schedule your Runbooks more often than every hour
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/stefan_stranger/2017/06/23/azur-logic-apps-schedule-your-runbooks-more-often-than-every-hour

Preventing Azure Automation Concurrent Jobs In the Runbook
https://blog.tyang.org/2017/07/03/preventing-azure-automation-concurrent-jobs-in-the-runbook

Post notifications to Microsoft Teams using PowerShell
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/privatecloud/2016/11/02/post-notifications-to-microsoft-teams-using-powershell

importedWindowsAutopilotDeviceIdentity resource type
https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/docs/api-reference/beta/resources/intune_enrollment_importedwindowsautopilotdeviceidentity

Autopilot profile assignment using Intune
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mniehaus/2018/06/13/autopilot-profile-assignment-using-intune

Adaptive Cards Designer
https://acdesignerbeta.azurewebsites.net

I published the same article on SCConfigMgr in a more step-by-step guide version, meaning there are not so many cross references to my other articles:

Automation of gathering and importing Windows Autopilot information
http://www.scconfigmgr.com/2018/07/23/automation-of-gathering-and-importing-windows-autopilot-information

I hope this can increase your throughput on the way to an Autopilot Windows 10 modern management environment.

When someone finds bugs or problems with the solution let me know and leave a comment. I will do my best to fix them as it should be a reliable part during preparing old devices with Windows 10.