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Integrating with SailPoint IdentityNow Private (v1) API’s using PowerShell

How to generate the ‘Password Hash’ to leverage the IdentityNow Private API’s

Recently I’ve posted about integrating with the SailPoint IdentityNow API’s. Specifically;

So why another post on a very similar subject? Well, not all IdentityNow API’s are exposed on the v2 API Endpoints that were leveraged in the previous posts. The v1 (Private API List) is detailed on SailPoint Compass here and contains a number of functions that are extremely useful. And here is where it gets interesting. The authentication methods between v1 and v2 are not the same. There is a document that gives you most of what you need also on SailPoint Compass here that describes IdentityNow’s oAuth methods.

But here is the kicker. In order to use the older v1 API endpoints you need to generate a hash for the user associated with oAuth2.0 authentication which is in addition to the Client ID and Client Secret. The only method that I’m aware of (and believe me I lost time and effort searching) that SailPoint provide to generate the hash is to use the File Upload Utility which is available on Compass here. And that method only came to my attention after posting to the IdentityNow Community.

Now let’s say you run into the problem I did with the version of Java (yes it is a Java Utility) I had installed (v1.7);

java version "1.7.0_71"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_71-b14)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.71-b01, mixed mode)
Wrong Version of Java.PNG
identitynow fileuploader hash generator – idnFileUploader.jar

I didn’t have a need for Java, in fact I was surprised it was even installed on my laptop. Seems it was from an installation of Virtual Box some time ago. I didn’t want to go and get another version etc etc. But I did spin up a VM and get the Java App to run and generate the hashed password. A hashed password for IdentityNow v1 API integration looks like this;

160a028019a1ce58c679f2216a7f707fa666a674772b4742cef7b08eab99de7b

Looking at that I guessed SHA256, but there was something else going on (check the case).

The Premise and Intent

I’ve generated the password hash, why not just move on? What I was looking to achieve was the ability for a number of services to interact with IdentityNow via v1 Private API’s. As part of those processes and for management of that privileged access, it needs to be automated. Running a Java app to generate the hashed password for each identity and on each password change wasn’t an option.

The Solution

What I ended up doing, as there was no accessible documentation around how the hashed password is generated for v1 API integration still makes me feel a bit dirty and guilty that I had to do it. Maybe I shouldn’t even be documenting it? But we are licensed for this service and integration with it is still limited to what functions are available via the API and identity you are authenticating with.

I decompiled the Java App, peeked inside and looked to see how the hash was being generated. Then mimicked the process in PowerShell.

Direct Integration with IdentityNow Private (v1) API’s

Direct integration is essentially like any other API. What you need is;

  • Client ID and Client Secret (enabled via the Admin => Global => Security Settings => API Management)
  • Admin Account and Password (account name and password of an account granted Admin permissions in IdentityNow)
    • this is passed in the WebRequest Header as Digest AuthN (Base64 Encoded)
  • Token End Point to get a Token
    • “https://orgname.identitynow.com/api/oauth/token?grant_type=password&username=AdminUser&password=HashedAdminPassword”

The process is;

  1. Generate the Request to the Token Endpoint
  2. Submit the request and obtain a token
  3. Execute subsquent requests with the Bearer Token received in Step 2
  4. Renew token before it expires if continuing to make requests longer than the token life (default 60 mins)

That all looks simple right. Except for that bit about ‘hashed password’.

The Special Sauce

You’ve made it this far, so you’re probably looking to do this. Here it is. The inputs are the IdentityNow Login Name for an Admin account and the plaintext password for that account.

In order to simplify generating the hash you will need to install the PowerShell Community Extensions (PSCX) Module which is in the PowerShell Gallery here. This provides the super handy Get-Hash cmdlet that I use extensively in a number of my scripts. Here I’m using it to generate the SHA256 hashes.

You should be on PowerShell 5.1 or later so the following will install it for you (from an elevated PowerShell console);

install-module -name pscx

Generate passwordhash Script

Update lines 2 and 3 for the Admin Identity you are generating the hash for. Line 8 and 9 are the lines that generate the hash and prepare it for use in requesting a token.

Calling IdentityNow Private API’s with PowerShell

Here is an example of using PowerShell to generate the hashed Password, obtain a token then call the API to return the list of Profiles in IdentityNow.

  • Update the obvious lines for your instance (Lines 2, 4, 8, 10, 11)
  • Update Line 25 if you want to call a different v1 API

Summary

Hopefully I’ve saved others the couple of hours of messing around to workout how to programatically generate the needed password hash to allow automated integration with the SailPoint IdentityNow v1 Private API’s.

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Lifecycle Management of Identities in SailPoint IdentityNow via API and PowerShell

Introduction

If you’ve been following along I’ve been posting about leveraging the SailPoint IdentityNow API for;

Now that I’ve covered Searching and Authoring all that is left is lifecycle management. And that’s what I’ll cover in this post. Updating and Deleting Entities via the API.

Updating SailPoint IdentityNow Entities

If you have not read the first post in this series, start there as ‘updating’ builds on top of Search/Reporting. It also covers enabling the API.

My quick start guide to updating IdentityNow Entities starts with searching to find the Entities (probably Users) you want to update. In my example below I’m searching for all objects on a Source. Then I iterate through the results and update them. I’m updating the Country attribute.

When updating an entity (e.g User) you need to perform a PATCH webrequest specifying the underlying ID (objectID) of the object. The URI format looks like;

https://orgName.api.identitynow.com/v2/accounts/2c91808365bd1f010165caf761625bcd?org=orgName

Example Script

Here is an example script. As per the previous two posts, change all the lines for your tenant and your API details.

  • Line 16 is the query for objects to update
  • Lines 39-41 is the attribute to update

Updating Manager

For manager, the attribute is a reference on the IdentityNow Source to the Manager. On my “External Entities” Source I locate the object representing the Manager and obtain their accountId (which in my case is firstname.lastname) and set that as the ManagerID. I then find the users that I want to update for this manager and update them as we did in the previous example, but with a reference to accountId of the Manager for the Manager attribute.

NOTE: When querying IdentityNow via the API the syntax is very important. Especially when also incorporating variables. If I have a variable $manager with a displayName value, that would normally contain a space. So we need to capture the whole string. Here is an example of doing that. So in order to query for $manager = “Rick Sanchez” in PowerShell that would be:

$queryManager = "attributes.displayName:"+'"'+"$($manager)"+'"'

which will give us attributes.displayName:”Rick Sanchez” which will return in my case the single object for Rich Sanchez not a list of references to Rick Sanchez.

Deleting SailPoint IdentityNow Entities

Deleting is very similar to Updating. Again the easiest method is to search and obtain the object(s) to be deleted and then delete via a DELETE webrequest specifying the underlying ID (objectID) of the object to be deleted. The URI looks like;

https://orgName.api.identitynow.com/v2/accounts/2c91808565bd1f110165cb628d1a702f?org=orgName

Example Script

Here is an example script. It searches IdentityNow based on object naming (see line 14), then finds the Source that the object is connected to that we wish to delete. In this example the Source is the one I created in the last post “External Entities”. Update for the name of your Source (line 25).

Summary

Using the API we can Search for Identities, Author and Update them.

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Authoring Identities in SailPoint IdentityNow via the API and PowerShell

Introduction

A key aspect of any Identity Management project is having an Authoritative Source for Identity. Typically this is a Human Resources system. But what about identity types that aren’t in the authoritative source? External Vendors, contingent contractors and identities that are used by End User Computing systems such as Privileged Accounts, Service Accounts, Training Accounts.

Now some Identity Management Solutions allow you to Author identity through their Portals, and provide a nice GUI to create a user/training/service account. SailPoint IdentityNow however doesn’t have that functionality. However it does have an API and I’ll show you in the post how you can use it to Author identity into IdentityNow via the API.

Overview

So, now you’re thinking great, I can author Identity into IdentityNow via the API. But, am I supposed to get managers to interface with an API to kick off a workflow to create identities? Um, no. I don’t think we want to be giving them API access into our Identity Management solution.

The concept is this. An Identity Request WebApp would collect the necessary information for the identities to be authored and facilitate the creation of them in IdentityNow via the API. SailPoint kindly provide a sample project that does just that. It is available on Github here. Through looking at this project and the IdentityNow API I worked out how to author identity via the API using PowerShell. There were a few gotchas I had to work through so I’m providing a working example for you to base a solution around.

Getting Started

There are a couple of things to note.

  • Obviously you’ll need API access
  • You’ll want to create a Source that is of the Flat File type (Generic or Delimited File)
    • We can’t create accounts against Directly Connected Sources
  • There are a few attributes that are mandatory for the creation
    • At a minimum I supply id, name, givenName, familyName, displayName and e-mail
    • At an absolute bare minimum you need the following. Otherwise you will end up with an account in IdentityNow that will show as “Identity Exception”
      • id, name, givenName, familyName, e-mail*

* see note below on e-mail/email attribute format based on Source type

Creating a Flat File Source to be used for Identity Authoring

In the IdentityNow Portal under Admin => Connections => Sources select New.

Create New Source.PNG

I’m using Generic as the Source Type. Give it a name and description. Select Continue

New Generic Source.PNG

Assign an Owner for the Source and check the Accounts checkbox. Select Save.

New Source Properties.PNG

At the end of the URL of the now Saved new Source get and record the SourceID. This will be required so that when we create users via the API, they will be created against this Source.

SourceID.PNG

If we look at the Accounts on this Source we see there are obviously none.

Accounts.PNG

We’d better create some. But first you need to complete the configuration for this Source. Go and create an Identity Profile for this Source, and configure your Identity Mappings as per your requirements. This is the same as you would for any other IdentityNow Source.

Authoring Identities in IdentityNow with PowerShell

The following script is the bare minimum to use PowerShell to create an account in IdentityNow. Change;

  • line 2 for your Client ID
  • line 4 for your Client Secret
  • line 8 for your Tenant Org Name
  • line 12 for your Source ID
  • the body of the request for the account to be created (lines 16-21)

NOTE: By default on the Generic Source the email attribute is ’email’. By default on the Delimited Source the email attribute is ‘e-mail’. If your identities after executing the script and a correlation are showing as ‘Identity Exception’ then it’s probably because of this field being incorrect for the Source type. If in doubt check the Account Schema on the Source.

Execute the script and refresh the Accounts page. You’ll see we now have an account for Rick.

Rick Sanchez.PNG

Expanding Rick’s account we can see the full details.

Rick Full Details.PNG

Testing it out for a Bulk Creation

A few weeks ago I wrote this post about generating user data from public datasets. I’m going to take that and generate 50 accounts. I’ve added additional attributes to the Account Schema (for suburb, state, postcode, street). Here is a script combining the two.

Running the script creates our 50 users in conjunction to the couple I already had present.

Bulk Accounts Created.PNG

Summary

Using the IdentityNow API we can quickly leverage it to author identity into SailPoint IdentityNow. That’s the easy bit sorted. Now to come up with a pretty UI and a UX that passes the End-User usability tests. I’ll leave that with you.

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Reporting on SailPoint IdentityNow Identities using the ‘Search’ (Beta) API and PowerShell

Introduction

SailPoint recently made available in BETA their new Search functionality. There’s some great documentation around using the Search functions through the IdentityNow Portal on Compass^. Specifically;

^ Compass Access Required

Each of those articles are great, but they are centered around performing the search via the Portal.  For some of my needs, I need to do it via the API and that’s what I’ll cover in this post.

*NOTE: Search is currently in BETA. There is a chance some functionality may change. SailPoint advise to not use this functionality in Production whilst it is in Beta.  

Enabling API Access

Under Admin => Global => Security Settings => API Management select New and give the API Account a Description.

New API Client.PNG

Client ID and Client Secret

ClientID & Secret.PNG

In the script to access the API we will take the Client ID and Client Secret and encode them for Basic Authentication to the IdentityNow Search API. To do that in PowerShell use the following example replacing ClientID and ClientSecret with yours.

$clientID = 'abcd1234567'
$clientSecret = 'abcd12345sdkslslfjahd'
$Bytes = [System.Text.Encoding]::utf8.GetBytes("$($clientID):$($clientSecret)")
$encodedAuth =[Convert]::ToBase64String($Bytes)

Searching

With API access now enabled we can start building some queries. There are two methods I’ve found. Using query strings on the URL and using JSON payloads as an HTTP Post. I’ll give examples of both.

PowerShell Setup

Here is the base of all my scripts for using PowerShell to access the IdentityNow Search.

Change;

  • line 3 for your Client ID
  • line 5 for your Client Secret
  • line 10 for your IdentityNow Tenant Organisation name (by default the host portion of the URL e.g https://orgname.identitynow.com )

Searching via URL Query String

First we will start with searching by having the query string in the URL.

Single attribute search via URL

$query = 'firstname EQ Darren'
$Accounts = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "$($URI)limit=$($searchLimit)&query=$($query)" -Headers @{Authorization = "Basic $($encodedAuth)" }

Single Attribute URL Search.PNG

Multiple attribute search via URL

Multiple criteria queries need to be constructed carefully. The query below just looks wrong, yet if you place the quotes where you think they should go, you don’t get the expected results. The following works.

$query = 'attributes.firstname"="Darren" AND attributes.lastname"="Robinson"'

and it works whether you Encode the URL or not

$queryEncoded = [System.Web.HttpUtility]::UrlEncode($query)
$Accounts = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "$($URI)limit=$($searchLimit)&query=$($queryEncoded)" -Headers @{Authorization = "Basic $($encodedAuth)"

Multiple Attribute Query Search.PNG

Here is another searching based on identities having a connection to a source containing the word ‘Directory’ AND having less the 5 accounts

$URI = "https://$($org).api.identitynow.com/v2/search/identities?"
$query = '@access(source.name:*Directory*) AND entitlementCount:<5'
$Accounts = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri "$($URI)limit=$($searchLimit)&query=$($query)" -Headers @{Authorization = "Basic $($encodedAuth)" }

Multiple Attribute Query Search2.PNG

Searching via HTTP Post and JSON Body

Now we will perform similar searches, but with the search strings in the body of the HTTP Request.

Single attribute search via POST and JSON Based Body Query

$body = @{"match"=@{"attributes.firstname"="Darren"}}
$body = $body | convertto-json 
$Accounts = Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -Uri "$($URI)limit=$($searchLimit)" -Headers @{Authorization = "Basic $($encodedAuth)" } -ContentType 'application/json' -Body $body
Single Attribute JSON Search.PNG

Multiple attribute search via POST and JSON Based Body Query

If you want to have multiple criteria and submit it via a POST request, this is how I got it working. For each part I construct it and convert it to JSON and build up the body with each search element.

$body1 = @{"match"=@{"attributes.firstname"="Darren"}}
$body2 = @{"match"=@{"attributes.lastname"="Robinson"}}
$body = $body1 | ConvertTo-Json
$body += $body2 | ConvertTo-Json

$Accounts = Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -Uri "$($URI)limit=$($searchLimit)" -Headers @{Authorization = "Basic $($encodedAuth)" } -ContentType 'application/json' -Body $body
Multiple Attribute JSON Search.PNG

Getting Full Identity Objects based off Search

Lastly now that we’ve been able to build queries via two different methods and we have the results we’re looking for, lets output some relevant information about them. We will iterate through each of the returned results and output some specifics about their sources and entitlements. Same as above, update for your ClientID, ClientSecret, Orgname and search criteria.

Extended Information.PNG

Summary

Once you’ve enabled API access and understood the query format it is super easy to get access to the identity data in your IdentityNow tenant.

My recommendation is to use the IdentityNow Search function in the Portal to refine your searches for what you are looking to return programmatically and then use the API to get the data for whatever purpose it is.

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Using Azure Cognitive Services to Empower the IT Service Desk

Tonight (29 August 2018) I presented the following presentation on using Azure Cognitive Services to Empower the IT Service/build Business Applications to the Sydney Azure User Group.

I walked through how to leverage the following Azure Cognitive API Services;

  • Speech to Text
  • Text to Speech
  • Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS)
  • Text Language Translation

For each I show a working example and demo.

I then walked through my Voice Assistant for Microsoft Identity Manager and how I integrated three of those services along with Azure IoT, Azure Serverless and Azure PaaS Services.

GitPitch Presents: github/darrenjrobinson/SydAzureUG-CognitiveServices

The Markdown Presentation Service on Git.

If you weren’t present I hope this presentation can still give you a start to integrating and leveraging Azure Services.

Find me on Twitter @darrenjrobinson

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Using Azure Cognitive Services Language Text Translation with PowerShell

Introduction

Over the last few months whilst developing my Voice Assistant for Microsoft Identity Manager I’ve been leveraging a number of the Azure Cognitive Services. Each one has its own nuance as they all appear to be in differing iterations of maturity. My first hurdle when looking to leverage one, is the examples provided. Often the samples are in languages I’m not fluent in and pretty much always there is no examples of using PowerShell and the awesome Invoke-RestMethod call to interact with them. Of course there are the PowerShell Modules, but I normally like to go direct and not have dependancies on a module.

Once I’ve worked it out how to leverage each service with PowerShell I’ve posted how to set up an API call for future reference. Here are the previous ones;

The final service I was looking to leverage (with respect to Audio and Text) is the Language Translator. This is yet another API with its own quirks and it took me longer than it should have. So as I know I’ll need it again in the future and I’m sure it will help others, I’m detailing it here.

Getting Started with the Microsoft Translate Text Cognitive Service

Like the other Cognitive Services I’ve detailed in the past, the Translator has its own API which is currently up to version 3. Obtain a Translator Text API Key free trial from here.

Here is an example PowerShell script that you will be able to leverage as a getting started guide to interfacing with the Translator Text API with PowerShell. Once I got it working it is quite simple. Here it is;

  • update Line 2 for your API key
  • update Lines 6 and 9 for your From and To languages
  • update Line 17 for the text string you want to convert

Summary

Updating a few lines and stepping through the script we can see that it is possible to quickly leverage the Text Translator service to convert (in this example) from English to German.

Translating Language Text with PowerShell.PNG

Interestingly Klingon is an option to convert to too. Change Line 9 from ‘de‘ to ‘tlh‘ if you want to try it for yourself. It looks like quite a concise language 😉

'Translating between languages is easy with Azure' converted to 'mugh SabtaHbogh Hol ngeD Azure'
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Automating Azure AD B2B Guest Invitations using Microsoft Identity Manager

Introduction

Earlier this year Microsoft released the Microsoft Identity Manager Azure AD B2B Management Agent. I wrote about using it to write to Azure AD in this post here. As detailed in that post my goal was to write to Azure AD using the MA. I provided an incomplete example of doing that for Guests. This post fills in the gap and unlike the note preceding the post indicates, I’ve updated my MA to use the Graph API over the Azure AD PowerShell Module. It does though work in unison with the Microsoft Azure AD B2B Management Agent.

Overview

The process is;

  • Using the Microsoft Azure B2B Management Agent connect to an Azure AD Tenant that contains users that you want to invite as Guests to your Tenant. Flow in the naming information for users and their email address and any other metadata that you need to drive the logic for who you wish to invite
  • Use my Azure AD B2B Invitation Management Agent to automate the invitation of users to your Azure AD Tenant using Azure AD B2B

My Azure AD B2B Invitation Management Agent works in two phases;

  1. Invitation of Users as Guests
  2. Update of Guests with naming information (Firstname, Lastname, DisplayName)

The Azure AD B2B Invite Management Agent uses my favorite PowerShell Management Agent (the Granfeldt PSMA). I’ve posted many times on how to configure it. See these posts here if you are new to it.

Prerequisites

Setting up an Azure AD User Account for the Management Agent

In your Azure AD create a New User that will be used by the Management Agent to invite users to your Azure AD. I named mine B2B Inviter as shown below.

Inviter Account.PNG

You then want to assign them the Guest inviter role as shown below. This will be enough permissions to invite users to the Azure AD.

Inviter Role.PNG

However depending on how you want these invitee’s to look, you probably also want their names to be kept consistent with their home Azure AD. To also enable the Management Agent to do that you need to also assign the User administrator role as shown below.

Add User Admin Role.PNG

Now log in using that account to Azure AD and change the password. The account is now ready to go.

Management Agent Scripts

The Management Agent uses the Granfeldt PowerShell Management Agent. This is a cut down version of my MIM Azure AD Management Agent. 

Schema Script

I’ve kept the schema small with just enough interesting info to facilitate the functionality required. Expand it if you need additional attributes and update the import.ps1 accordingly.

Import.ps1

The Import script imports users from the Azure AD Tenant that you will be inviting remote Azure AD users too (as Guests).

  • Change line 10 for your file path
  • Change line 24 for the version of an AzureAD or AzureADPreview PowerShell Module that you have installed on the MIM Sync Server so that the AuthN Helper Lib can be used. Note if using a recent version you will also need to change the AuthN calls as well as the modules change. See this post here for details.
  • Change line 27 for your tenant name
  • Change line 47/48 for a sync watermark file
  • The Import script also contains an attribute from the MA Schema named AADGuestUser that is a boolean attribute. I create the corresponding attribute in the MetaVerse and MIM Service Schemas for the Person/User objectClasses. This is used to determine when a Guest has been successfully created so their naming attributes can then be updated (using a second synchronisation rule).

Export.ps1

The Export script handles the creation (invitation) of users from another azure AD Tenant as Guests as well synchronizing their naming data. It doesn’t include deletion logic, but that is simple enough include a deletion  API call based on your MA Deprovisioning logic and requirements.

  • By default I’m not sending invitation notifications. If you want to send invitation notifications change “sendInvitationMessage“= $false to $true on Line 129. You should then also change the Invitation Reply URL on line 55 to your Tenant/Application.
  • Change Line 10 for the path for the debug logging
  • Change Line 24 as per the Import Script if you are using a different version of the help lib
  • Change Line 27 for your Azure AD Tenant Name

Declarative Sync Rules

I’m not going to cover import flow configurations on the MS Azure AD B2B MA here. See here for that. Below details how I’ve configured my Invitation MA for the Creation/Export functions. My join rule (configured in the Sync Engine Invitation MA Config) is email address as shown below. Not the best anchor as it isn’t immutable. But as we don’t know what the DN is going to be until after it is created this is the next best thing.

Join Rule.PNG

Creation Sync Rule

Here are the three attributes I’m syncing to the B2B Invite Management Agent to perform the invitation. I’m using the mail attribute for the DN as it matches the anchor for the schema. We don’t know what objectID will be assigned until the directory service does it. By using email/upn once created we will get the join and won’t end up with two objects on the MA for the same user.

Outbound Flow for Create 2.PNG

For Inbound I’m flowing in the AADGuestUser boolean value. You will need to create this attribute in the MetaVerse and then the MIM Service. In the MIM Service allow the Sync Service Account to manage the attribute and change the MIM Service Filter Permissions to allow Admins to use the attribute in Sets. Also on the MIM Service MA add an Export flow from the MV to the MIM Service for AADGuestUser.

Inbound Flow Create.PNG

Naming Update Sync Rule

The second Sync Rule is to update the guests GivenName, Surname and DisplayName. This sync rule has a dependency on the creation sync rule and has a corresponding Set, Workflow and MPR associated with value of the AADGuestUser boolean attribute populated by the Import script. If True (which it will be after successful creation and the confirming import) the second synchronization rule will be applied.

Sync Naming Synchronisation Rule.PNG

I will trigger an export flow for the three naming attributes.

Outbound Flow for Naming.PNG

Example of Inviting Guests

In this example Rick Sanchez is a member of a guest organisation and meets the criteria of my rules to be invited as a guest to our Tenant. We then, that we get an Add for Rick on the B2B Invite MA.

Create Rick Sanchez.PNG

On export Rick is created in our Azure AD as a Guest User

Rick Created Sync Engine.PNG

Rick appears in Azure AD as a Guest via the Azure Portal.

Rick Created AzureAD.PNG

Following the confirming import our second sync rule fires and flows through an update to DisplayName and adds GivenName and Surname.

Update Rick.PNG

This naming attributes are then successfully exported.

Success Export.PNG

Going to the Azure AD Portal we see that Rick has indeed been updated.

Rick Updated.PNG

Notification Emails

If you enable notification emails a generic notification email is sent like shown below. The import.ps1 MA script has them disabled by default.

Email Invite Notification2.PNG

Summary

Using a combination of the Microsoft Azure AD B2B Management Agent and my Azure AD B2B Invitation Management Agent you can automate the invitation of Guest users to your Azure AD Tenant.

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Quickly generating a dataset of fictitious Users using Randomised Real Data and PowerShell

Introduction

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve had the need to generate a representative dataset of users. Of course I have access to many production datasets but for many reasons they can’t be used. Finding previous datasets I’ve randomly generated always seems to take longer than it should, so with my most recent iteration of having to generate a fictitious list of users with Australian addresses, I’ve documented how I went about it, along with the source data I used and the script to create it.

Source Data

For my data sources to base my dataset off, I wanted representative data for Australia for both people names and locations. After a few quick searches I found;

  • that Data South Australia has lists of baby names for both male and female babies in SA. I downloaded the 2017 lists as CSV’s.
  • for Surname, also from Data South Australia I borrowed the 19th Century Arrivals list and manipulated the Fullname column to separate it on “,” then used the Excel Function to remove duplicates. I deleted all other columns so that I was left with just over 13,000 surnames in a CSV file.
  • Matthew Proctor’s list of Australian Postcodes as a CSV. This provides Postcode, Suburb and State.
  • Brisbane City Council (Australia’s largest Council) has a dataset with all bus locations that includes Street names as a CSV. Like I did for Surname I used the Excel Function to remove duplicates, removed the blanks and the other columns and then had just over 1600 street names.

The Script

The script is pretty simple. It imports each of the CSV’s listed above and generates a random number based on the number of records in each file.

The GitHub Repo contains the PowerShell script along with the source files. Change line 3 for the location where you store the CSV files and change line 66 for the number of users to generate. I’ve left the end of the script empty. I either insert the API call to create the users, or the PowerShell cmdlet with the data to do the creation depending on where I’m creating the users.

darrenjrobinson/Generate-Random-Users

Using real data, randomise it to create realistic users with Australian addresses – darrenjrobinson/Generate-Random-Users

The Output

Here is a sample output in JSON format.

{
"Street": "370 Miskin St",
"Surname": "Burne",
"Suburb": "WOODBROOK",
"Postcode": "3451",
"State": "VIC",
"GivenName": "Miro"
}
{
"Street": "293 Preston Rd",
"Surname": "Partingale",
"Suburb": "MARRARA",
"Postcode": "812",
"State": "NT",
"GivenName": "Daniella"
}
{
"Street": "409 Orchard St",
"Surname": "Liaseyer",
"Suburb": "THURGOONA",
"Postcode": "2640",
"State": "NSW",
"GivenName": "Ariana"
}
{
"Street": "775 Station Rd",
"Surname": "Nevin",
"Suburb": "AVON DOWNS",
"Postcode": "862",
"State": "NT",
"GivenName": "Naria"
}

Summary

Using data publicly available and PowerShell it is possible to quickly generate a dataset of representative users and addresses. Generating other attributes is as easy as extrapolating from the existing data or supplementing it with additional source data files.

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A Voice Assistant for Microsoft Identity Manager

This is the third and final post in my series around using your voice to query/search Microsoft Identity Manager or as I’m now calling it, the Voice Assistant for Microsoft Identity Manager.

The two previous posts in this series detail some of my steps and processes in developing and fleshing out this concept. The first post detailed the majority of the base functionality whilst the second post detailed the auditing and reporting aspects into Table Storage and Power BI.

My final architecture is depicted below.

Identity Manager integration with Cognitive Services and IoT Hub 4x3
Voice Assistant for Microsoft Identity Manager Architecture

I’ve put together more of an overview in a presentation format embedded here.

GitPitch Presents: github/darrenjrobinson/MIM-VoiceAssistant/presentation

The Markdown Presentation Service on Git.

If you’re interested in building the solution checkout the Github Repo here which includes the Respeaker Python Script, Azure Function etc.

Let me know how you go @darrenjrobinson

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Using your Voice to Search Microsoft Identity Manager – Part 2

Introduction

Last month I wrote this post that detailed using your voice to search/query Microsoft Identity Manager. That post demonstrated a working solution (GitHub repository coming next month) but was still incomplete if it was to be used in production within an Enterprise. I hinted then that there were additional enhancements I was looking to make. One is an Auditing/Reporting aspect and that is what I cover in this post.

Overview

The one element of the solution that has visibility of each search scenario is the IoT Device. As a potential future enhancement this could also be a Bot. For each request I wanted to log/audit;

  • Device the query was initiated from (it is possible to have many IoT devices; physical or bot leveraging this function)
  • The query
  • The response
  • Date and Time of the event
  • User the query targeted

To achieve this my solution is to;

  • On my IoT Device the query, target user and date/time is held during the query event
  • At the completion of the query the response along with the earlier information is sent to the IoT Hub using the IoT Hub REST API
  • The event is consumed from the IoT Hub by an Azure Event Hub
  • The message containing the information is processed by Stream Analytics and put into Azure Table Storage and Power BI.

Azure Table Storage provides the logging/auditing trail of what requests have been made and the responses.  Power BI provides the reporting aspect. These two services provide visibility into what requests have been made, against who, when etc. The graphic below shows this in the bottom portion of the image.

Auditing Reporting Searching MIM with Speech.png
Voice Search for Microsoft Identity Manager Auditing and Reporting

Sending IoT Device Events to IoT Hub

I covered this piece in a previous post here in PowerShell. I converted it from PowerShell to Python to run on my device. In PowerShell though for initial end-to-end testing when developing the solution the body of the message being sent and sending it looks like this;

[string]$datetime = get-date
$datetime = $datetime.Replace("/","-")
$body = @{
 deviceId = $deviceID
 messageId = $datetime
 messageString = "$($deviceID)-to-Cloud-$($datetime)"
 MIMQuery = "Does the user Jerry Seinfeld have an Active Directory Account"
 MIMResponse = "Yes. Their LoginID is jerry.seinfeld"
 User = "Jerry Seinfeld"
}

$body = $body | ConvertTo-Json
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $iotHubRestURI -Headers $Headers -Method Post -Body $body

Event Hub and IoT Hub Configuration

First I created an Event Hub. Then on my IoT Hub I added an Event Subscription and pointed it to my Event Hub.

IoTHub Event Hub.PNG
Azure IoT Hub Events

Streaming Analytics

I then created a Stream Analytics Job. I configured two Inputs. One each from my IoT Hub and from my Event Hub.

Stream Analytics Inputs.PNG
Azure Stream Analytics Inputs

I then created two Outputs. One for Table Storage for which I used an existing Storage Group for my solution, and the other for Power BI using an existing Workspace but creating a new Dataset. For the Table storage I specified deviceId for Partition key and messageId for Row key.

Stream Analytics Outputs.PNG
Azure Stream Analytics Outputs

Finally as I’m keeping all the data simple in what I’m sending, my query is basically copying from the Inputs to the Outputs. One is to get the events to Table Storage and the other to get it to Power BI. Therefore the query looks like this.

Stream Analytics Query.PNG
Azure Stream Analytics Query

Events in Table Storage

After sending through some events I could see rows being added to Table Storage. When I added an additional column to the data the schema-less Table Storage obliged and dynamically added another column to the table.

Table Storage.PNG
Table Storage Events

A full record looks like this.

Full Record.PNG
Voice Search Table Storage Audit Record

Events in Power BI

Just like in Table Storage, in Power BI I could see the dataset and the table with the event data. I could create a report with some nice visuals just as you would with any other dataset. When I added an additional field to the event being sent from the IoT Device it magically showed up in the Power BI Dataset Table.

PowerBI.PNG
PowerBI Voice Search Analytics

Summary

Using the Azure IoT Hub REST API I can easily send information from my IoT Device and then have it processed through Stream Analytics into Table Storage and Power BI. Instant auditing and reporting functionality.

Let me know what you think on twitter @darrenjrobinson