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Create an unattended installation script for the Microsoft Entra private network connector

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This article helps you create a Windows PowerShell script that enables unattended installation and registration for your Microsoft Entra private network connector.

Unattended installation is useful when you want to:

  • Install the connector on Windows servers that don't have user interface enabled, or that you can't access with Remote Desktop.
  • Install and register many connectors at once.
  • Integrate the connector installation and registration as part of another procedure.
  • Create a standard server image that contains the connector bits but isn't registered.

For the private network connector to work, you must register it with Microsoft Entra ID. Registration is done in the user interface when you install the connector, but you can use PowerShell to automate the process.

There are two steps for an unattended installation. First, install the connector. Second, register the connector with Microsoft Entra ID.

Important

If you are installing the connector for the Microsoft Azure Government cloud, review the prerequisites and installation steps. The Microsoft Azure Government cloud requires enabling access to a different set of URLs and an additional parameter to run the installation.

Install the connector

Use the following steps to install the connector without registering it:

  1. Open a command prompt.

  2. Run the following command, the /q flag means quiet installation. A quiet installation doesn't prompt you to accept the End-User License Agreement.

    MicrosoftEntraPrivateNetworkConnectorInstaller.exe REGISTERCONNECTOR="false" /q

Register the connector with Microsoft Entra ID

There are two methods you can use to register the connector:

  • Register the connector using a Windows PowerShell credential object.
  • Register the connector using a token created offline.

Register the connector using a Windows PowerShell credential object

  1. Create a Windows PowerShell Credentials object $cred that contains an administrative username and password for your directory. Run the following command, replacing <username>, <password>, and <tenantid>:

    $User = "<username>"
$PlainPassword = '<password>'
$TenantId = '<tenantid>'
$SecurePassword = $PlainPassword | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force
$cred = New-Object –TypeName System.Management.Automation.PSCredential –ArgumentList $User, $SecurePassword

  2. Go to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Entra private network connector and run the following script using the $cred object that you created:

    .\RegisterConnector.ps1 -modulePath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Entra private network connector\Modules\" -moduleName "MicrosoftEntraPrivateNetworkConnectorPSModule" -Authenticationmode Credentials -Usercredentials $cred -Feature ApplicationProxy -TenantId $TenantId

Register the connector using a token created offline

  1. Create an offline token using the AuthenticationContext class using the values in this code snippet or PowerShell cmdlets:

    Using C#:

    using System;
using System.Linq;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.Identity.Client;

class Program
{
   #region constants
   /// <summary>
   /// The AAD authentication endpoint uri
   /// </summary>
   static readonly string AadAuthenticationEndpoint = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize";

   /// <summary>
   /// The application ID of the connector in AAD
   /// </summary>
   static readonly string ConnectorAppId = "55747057-9b5d-4bd4-b387-abf52a8bd489";

   /// <summary>
   /// The AppIdUri of the registration service in AAD
   /// </summary>
   static readonly string RegistrationServiceAppIdUri = "https://proxy.cloudwebappproxy.net/registerapp/user_impersonation";

   #endregion

   #region private members
   private string token;
   private string tenantID;
   #endregion

   public void GetAuthenticationToken()
   {
      IPublicClientApplication clientApp = PublicClientApplicationBuilder
         .Create(ConnectorAppId)
         .WithDefaultRedirectUri() // will automatically use the default Uri for native app
         .WithAuthority(AadAuthenticationEndpoint)
         .Build();

      AuthenticationResult authResult = null;

      IAccount account = null;

      IEnumerable<string> scopes = new string[] { RegistrationServiceAppIdUri };

      try
      {
      authResult = await clientApp.AcquireTokenSilent(scopes, account).ExecuteAsync();
      }
      catch (MsalUiRequiredException ex)
      {
      authResult = await clientApp.AcquireTokenInteractive(scopes).ExecuteAsync();
      }

      if (authResult == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(authResult.AccessToken) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(authResult.TenantId))
      {
      Trace.TraceError("Authentication result, token or tenant id returned are null");
      throw new InvalidOperationException("Authentication result, token or tenant id returned are null");
      }

      token = authResult.AccessToken;
      tenantID = authResult.TenantId;
   }
}

    Using PowerShell:

    # Load MSAL (Tested with version 4.7.1) 

Add-Type -Path "..\MSAL\Microsoft.Identity.Client.dll"

# The AAD authentication endpoint uri

$authority = "https://login.microsoftonline.com/common/oauth2/v2.0/authorize"

#The application ID of the connector in AAD

$connectorAppId = "55747057-9b5d-4bd4-b387-abf52a8bd489";

#The AppIdUri of the registration service in AAD
$registrationServiceAppIdUri = "https://proxy.cloudwebappproxy.net/registerapp/user_impersonation"

# Define the resources and scopes you want to call

$scopes = New-Object System.Collections.ObjectModel.Collection["string"] 

$scopes.Add($registrationServiceAppIdUri)

$app = [Microsoft.Identity.Client.PublicClientApplicationBuilder]::Create($connectorAppId).WithAuthority($authority).WithDefaultRedirectUri().Build()

[Microsoft.Identity.Client.IAccount] $account = $null

# Acquiring the token

$authResult = $null

$authResult = $app.AcquireTokenInteractive($scopes).WithAccount($account).ExecuteAsync().ConfigureAwait($false).GetAwaiter().GetResult()

# Check AuthN result
If (($authResult) -and ($authResult.AccessToken) -and ($authResult.TenantId)) {

   $token = $authResult.AccessToken
   $tenantId = $authResult.TenantId

   Write-Output "Success: Authentication result returned."
}
Else {

   Write-Output "Error: Authentication result, token or tenant id returned with null."

}

  2. Once you have the token, create a SecureString using the token:

    $SecureToken = $Token | ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force

  3. Run the following Windows PowerShell command, replacing <tenant GUID> with your directory ID:

    .\RegisterConnector.ps1 -modulePath "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Entra private network connector\Modules\" -moduleName "MicrosoftEntraPrivateNetworkConnectorPSModule" -Authenticationmode Token -Token $SecureToken -TenantId <tenant GUID> -Feature ApplicationProxy

Next steps