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Govern the users of an application that does not support provisioning - Microsoft PowerShell

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There are three common scenarios in which it's necessary to populate Microsoft Entra ID with existing users of an application before you use the application with a Microsoft Entra ID Governance feature such as access reviews.

  • Application migrated to Microsoft Entra ID after using its own identity provider
  • Application that doesn't use Microsoft Entra ID as its only identity provider
  • Application does not use Microsoft Entra ID as its identity provider nor does it support provisioning

For more information on those first two scenarios, where the application supports provisioning, or uses an LDAP directory, SQL database, has a SOAP or REST API or relies upon Microsoft Entra ID as its identity provider, see the article govern an application's existing users. That article covers how to use identity governance features for existing users of those categories of applications.

This article covers the third scenario. For some legacy applications it might not be feasible to remove other identity providers or local credential authentication from the application, or enable support for provisioning protocols for those applications. For those applications, if you want to use Microsoft Entra ID to review who has access to that application, or remove someone's access from that application, you'll need to create assignments in Microsoft Entra ID that represent application users. This article covers that scenario of an application that does not use Microsoft Entra ID as its identity provider and does not support provisioning.

License requirements

Using this feature requires Microsoft Entra ID Governance or Microsoft Entra Suite licenses. To find the right license for your requirements, see Microsoft Entra ID Governance licensing fundamentals.

Terminology

This article illustrates the process for managing application role assignments by using the Microsoft Graph PowerShell cmdlets. It uses the following Microsoft Graph terminology.

Diagram that illustrates Microsoft Graph terminology.

In Microsoft Entra ID, a service principal (ServicePrincipal) represents an application in a particular organization's directory. ServicePrincipal has a property called AppRoles that lists the roles that an application supports, such as Marketing specialist. AppRoleAssignment links a user to a service principal and specifies which role that user has in that application.

You might also be using Microsoft Entra entitlement management access packages to give users time-limited access to the application. In entitlement management, AccessPackage contains one or more resource roles, potentially from multiple service principals. AccessPackage also has assignments (Assignment) for users to the access package.

When you create an assignment for a user to an access package, Microsoft Entra entitlement management automatically creates the necessary AppRoleAssignment instances for the user to each application. For more information, see the Manage access to resources in Microsoft Entra entitlement management tutorial on how to create access packages through PowerShell.

Before you begin

  • You must have one of the following licenses in your tenant:

    • Microsoft Entra ID P2 or Microsoft Entra ID Governance
    • Enterprise Mobility + Security E5 license

  • You need to have an appropriate administrative role. If this is the first time you're performing these steps, you need the Global Administrator role to authorize the use of Microsoft Graph PowerShell in your tenant.

  • Your application needs a service principal in your tenant. If a service principal does not already exist, then you can register an application to represent it in Microsoft Entra ID.

Collect existing users from an application

The first step toward ensuring that all users are recorded in Microsoft Entra ID is to collect the list of existing users who have access to the application.

Some applications might have a built-in command to export a list of current users from the data store. In other cases, the application might rely on an external directory or database.

In some environments, the application might be located on a network segment or system that isn't appropriate for managing access to Microsoft Entra ID. So you might need to extract the list of users from that application, directory or database, and then transfer it as a file to another system that can be used for Microsoft Entra interactions.

If your application has an LDAP directory or SQL database, then see Collect existing users from an application for recommendations on how to extract the user collection.

Otherwise, if the application does not have a directory or database, you will need to contact the owner of the application and have them supply a list of users. This could be in a format such as a CSV file, with one line per user. Ensure that one field of each user in the file contains a unique identifier, such as an email address, that is also present on users in Microsoft Entra ID.

If this system doesn't have the Microsoft Graph PowerShell cmdlets installed or doesn't have connectivity to Microsoft Entra ID, transfer the CSV file that contains the list of users to a system that has the Microsoft Graph PowerShell cmdlets installed.

Confirm Microsoft Entra ID has users that match users from the application

Now that you have a list of all the users obtained from the application, you'll match those users from the application's data store with users in Microsoft Entra ID.

Retrieve the IDs of the users in Microsoft Entra ID

This section shows how to interact with Microsoft Entra ID by using Microsoft Graph PowerShell cmdlets.

The first time your organization uses these cmdlets for this scenario, you need to be in a Global Administrator role to allow Microsoft Graph PowerShell to be used in your tenant. Subsequent interactions can use a lower-privileged role, such as:

  • User Administrator, if you anticipate creating new users.
  • Application Administrator or Identity Governance Administrator, if you're just managing application role assignments.

  1. Open PowerShell.

  2. If you don't have the Microsoft Graph PowerShell modules already installed, install the Microsoft.Graph.Users module and others by using this command:

    Install-Module Microsoft.Graph

    If you already have the modules installed, ensure that you're using a recent version:

    Update-Module microsoft.graph.users,microsoft.graph.identity.governance,microsoft.graph.applications

  3. Connect to Microsoft Entra ID:

    $msg = Connect-MgGraph -ContextScope Process -Scopes "User.ReadWrite.All,Application.ReadWrite.All,AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All,EntitlementManagement.ReadWrite.All"

  4. If this is the first time you have used this command, you may need to consent to allow the Microsoft Graph Command Line tools to have these permissions.

  5. Read the list of users obtained from the application's data store into the PowerShell session. If the list of users was in a CSV file, you can use the PowerShell cmdlet Import-Csv and provide the name of the file from the previous section as an argument.

    For example, if the file obtained from SAP Cloud Identity Services is named Users-exported-from-sap.csv and is located in the current directory, enter this command.

    $filename = ".\Users-exported-from-sap.csv"
$dbusers = Import-Csv -Path $filename -Encoding UTF8

    For another example if you are using a database or directory, if the file is named users.csv and located in the current directory, enter this command:

    $filename = ".\users.csv"
$dbusers = Import-Csv -Path $filename -Encoding UTF8

  6. Choose the column of the users.csv file that will match with an attribute of a user in Microsoft Entra ID.

    If you are using SAP Cloud Identity Services, then the default mapping is the SAP SCIM attribute userName with the Microsoft Entra ID attribute userPrincipalName:

    $db_match_column_name = "userName"
$azuread_match_attr_name = "userPrincipalName"

    For another example if you are using a database or directory, you might have users in a database where the value in the column named EMail is the same value as in the Microsoft Entra attribute userPrincipalName:

    $db_match_column_name = "EMail"
$azuread_match_attr_name = "userPrincipalName"

  7. Retrieve the IDs of those users in Microsoft Entra ID.

    The following PowerShell script uses the $dbusers, $db_match_column_name, and $azuread_match_attr_name values specified earlier. It will query Microsoft Entra ID to locate a user that has an attribute with a matching value for each record in the source file. If there are many users in the file obtained from the source SAP Cloud Identity Services, database, or directory, this script might take several minutes to finish. If you don't have an attribute in Microsoft Entra ID that has the value, and need to use a contains or other filter expression, then you will need to customize this script and that in step 11 below to use a different filter expression.

    $dbu_not_queried_list = @()
$dbu_not_matched_list = @()
$dbu_match_ambiguous_list = @()
$dbu_query_failed_list = @()
$azuread_match_id_list = @()
$azuread_not_enabled_list = @()
$dbu_values = @()
$dbu_duplicate_list = @()

foreach ($dbu in $dbusers) { 
   if ($null -ne $dbu.$db_match_column_name -and $dbu.$db_match_column_name.Length -gt 0) { 
      $val = $dbu.$db_match_column_name
      $escval = $val -replace "'","''"
      if ($dbu_values -contains $escval) { $dbu_duplicate_list += $dbu; continue } else { $dbu_values += $escval }
      $filter = $azuread_match_attr_name + " eq '" + $escval + "'"
      try {
         $ul = @(Get-MgUser -Filter $filter -All -Property Id,accountEnabled -ErrorAction Stop)
         if ($ul.length -eq 0) { $dbu_not_matched_list += $dbu; } elseif ($ul.length -gt 1) {$dbu_match_ambiguous_list += $dbu } else {
            $id = $ul[0].id; 
            $azuread_match_id_list += $id;
            if ($ul[0].accountEnabled -eq $false) {$azuread_not_enabled_list += $id }
         } 
      } catch { $dbu_query_failed_list += $dbu } 
    } else { $dbu_not_queried_list += $dbu }
}

  8. View the results of the previous queries. See if any of the users in SAP Cloud Identity Services, the database, or directory couldn't be located in Microsoft Entra ID, because of errors or missing matches.

    The following PowerShell script will display the counts of records that weren't located:

    $dbu_not_queried_count = $dbu_not_queried_list.Count
if ($dbu_not_queried_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to query for $dbu_not_queried_count records as rows lacked values for $db_match_column_name."
}
$dbu_duplicate_count = $dbu_duplicate_list.Count
if ($dbu_duplicate_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate Microsoft Entra ID users for $dbu_duplicate_count rows as multiple rows have the same value"
}
$dbu_not_matched_count = $dbu_not_matched_list.Count
if ($dbu_not_matched_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_not_matched_count records in Microsoft Entra ID by querying for $db_match_column_name values in $azuread_match_attr_name."
}
$dbu_match_ambiguous_count = $dbu_match_ambiguous_list.Count
if ($dbu_match_ambiguous_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_match_ambiguous_count records in Microsoft Entra ID as attribute match ambiguous."
}
$dbu_query_failed_count = $dbu_query_failed_list.Count
if ($dbu_query_failed_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_query_failed_count records in Microsoft Entra ID as queries returned errors."
}
$azuread_not_enabled_count = $azuread_not_enabled_list.Count
if ($azuread_not_enabled_count -ne 0) {
 Write-Error "$azuread_not_enabled_count users in Microsoft Entra ID are blocked from sign-in."
}
if ($dbu_not_queried_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_duplicate_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_not_matched_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_match_ambiguous_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_query_failed_count -ne 0 -or $azuread_not_enabled_count) {
 Write-Output "You will need to resolve those issues before access of all existing users can be reviewed."
}
$azuread_match_count = $azuread_match_id_list.Count
Write-Output "Users corresponding to $azuread_match_count records were located in Microsoft Entra ID."

  9. When the script finishes, it will indicate an error if any records from the data source weren't located in Microsoft Entra ID. If not all the records for users from the application's data store could be located as users in Microsoft Entra ID, you'll need to investigate which records didn't match and why.

    For example, someone's email address and userPrincipalName might have been changed in Microsoft Entra ID without their corresponding mail property being updated in the application's data source. Or, the user might have already left the organization but is still in the application's data source. Or there might be a vendor or super-admin account in the application's data source that does not correspond to any specific person in Microsoft Entra ID.

  10. If there were users who couldn't be located in Microsoft Entra ID, or weren't active and able to sign in, but you want to have their access reviewed or their attributes updated in SAP Cloud Identity Services, the database, or directory, you'll need to update the application, the matching rule, or update or create Microsoft Entra users for them. For more information on which change to make, see manage mappings and user accounts in applications that did not match to users in Microsoft Entra ID.

    If you choose the option of creating users in Microsoft Entra ID, you can create users in bulk by using either:

    Ensure that these new users are populated with the attributes required for Microsoft Entra ID to later match them to the existing users in the application, and the attributes required by Microsoft Entra ID, including userPrincipalName, mailNickname and displayName. The userPrincipalName must be unique among all the users in the directory.

    For example, you might have users in a database where the value in the column named EMail is the value you want to use as the Microsoft Entra user principal Name, the value in the column Alias contains the Microsoft Entra ID mail nickname, and the value in the column Full name contains the user's display name:

    $db_display_name_column_name = "Full name"
$db_user_principal_name_column_name = "Email"
$db_mail_nickname_column_name = "Alias"

    Then you can use this script to create Microsoft Entra users for those in SAP Cloud Identity Services, the database, or directory that didn't match with users in Microsoft Entra ID. Note that you may need to modify this script to add additional Microsoft Entra attributes needed in your organization, or if the $azuread_match_attr_name is neither mailNickname nor userPrincipalName, in order to supply that Microsoft Entra attribute.

    $dbu_missing_columns_list = @()
$dbu_creation_failed_list = @()
foreach ($dbu in $dbu_not_matched_list) {
   if (($null -ne $dbu.$db_display_name_column_name -and $dbu.$db_display_name_column_name.Length -gt 0) -and
       ($null -ne $dbu.$db_user_principal_name_column_name -and $dbu.$db_user_principal_name_column_name.Length -gt 0) -and
       ($null -ne $dbu.$db_mail_nickname_column_name -and $dbu.$db_mail_nickname_column_name.Length -gt 0)) {
      $params = @{
         accountEnabled = $false
         displayName = $dbu.$db_display_name_column_name
         mailNickname = $dbu.$db_mail_nickname_column_name
         userPrincipalName = $dbu.$db_user_principal_name_column_name
         passwordProfile = @{
           Password = -join (((48..90) + (96..122)) * 16 | Get-Random -Count 16 | % {[char]$_})
         }
      }
      try {
        New-MgUser -BodyParameter $params
      } catch { $dbu_creation_failed_list += $dbu; throw }
   } else {
      $dbu_missing_columns_list += $dbu
   }
}

  11. After you add any missing users to Microsoft Entra ID, run the script from step 7 again. Then run the script from step 8. Check that no errors are reported.

    $dbu_not_queried_list = @()
$dbu_not_matched_list = @()
$dbu_match_ambiguous_list = @()
$dbu_query_failed_list = @()
$azuread_match_id_list = @()
$azuread_not_enabled_list = @()
$dbu_values = @()
$dbu_duplicate_list = @()

foreach ($dbu in $dbusers) { 
   if ($null -ne $dbu.$db_match_column_name -and $dbu.$db_match_column_name.Length -gt 0) { 
      $val = $dbu.$db_match_column_name
      $escval = $val -replace "'","''"
      if ($dbu_values -contains $escval) { $dbu_duplicate_list += $dbu; continue } else { $dbu_values += $escval }
      $filter = $azuread_match_attr_name + " eq '" + $escval + "'"
      try {
         $ul = @(Get-MgUser -Filter $filter -All -Property Id,accountEnabled -ErrorAction Stop)
         if ($ul.length -eq 0) { $dbu_not_matched_list += $dbu; } elseif ($ul.length -gt 1) {$dbu_match_ambiguous_list += $dbu } else {
            $id = $ul[0].id; 
            $azuread_match_id_list += $id;
            if ($ul[0].accountEnabled -eq $false) {$azuread_not_enabled_list += $id }
         } 
      } catch { $dbu_query_failed_list += $dbu } 
    } else { $dbu_not_queried_list += $dbu }
}

$dbu_not_queried_count = $dbu_not_queried_list.Count
if ($dbu_not_queried_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to query for $dbu_not_queried_count records as rows lacked values for $db_match_column_name."
}
$dbu_duplicate_count = $dbu_duplicate_list.Count
if ($dbu_duplicate_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate Microsoft Entra ID users for $dbu_duplicate_count rows as multiple rows have the same value"
}
$dbu_not_matched_count = $dbu_not_matched_list.Count
if ($dbu_not_matched_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_not_matched_count records in Microsoft Entra ID by querying for $db_match_column_name values in $azuread_match_attr_name."
}
$dbu_match_ambiguous_count = $dbu_match_ambiguous_list.Count
if ($dbu_match_ambiguous_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_match_ambiguous_count records in Microsoft Entra ID as attribute match ambiguous."
}
$dbu_query_failed_count = $dbu_query_failed_list.Count
if ($dbu_query_failed_count -ne 0) {
  Write-Error "Unable to locate $dbu_query_failed_count records in Microsoft Entra ID as queries returned errors."
}
$azuread_not_enabled_count = $azuread_not_enabled_list.Count
if ($azuread_not_enabled_count -ne 0) {
 Write-Warning "$azuread_not_enabled_count users in Microsoft Entra ID are blocked from sign-in."
}
if ($dbu_not_queried_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_duplicate_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_not_matched_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_match_ambiguous_count -ne 0 -or $dbu_query_failed_count -ne 0 -or $azuread_not_enabled_count -ne 0) {
 Write-Output "You will need to resolve those issues before access of all existing users can be reviewed."
}
$azuread_match_count = $azuread_match_id_list.Count
Write-Output "Users corresponding to $azuread_match_count records were located in Microsoft Entra ID."

Register the application

If the application is already registered in Microsoft Entra ID, then continue to the next step.

The account you're using must have permission to manage applications in Microsoft Entra ID. Any of the following Microsoft Entra roles include the required permissions:

  1. Create the application and service principal.

    For example, if the enterprise application is named CORPDB1, enter the following commands:

    $azuread_app_name = "CORPDB1"
$azuread_app = New-MgApplication -DisplayName $azuread_app_name
$azuread_sp = New-MgServicePrincipal -DisplayName $azuread_app_name -AppId $azuread_app.AppId

  2. Add a role to the application, and tag the application as integrated with Microsoft Entra ID so that its assignments can be reviewed. For example, if the role name is General, provide that value in the following PowerShell commands:

    $ar0 = New-Object Microsoft.Graph.PowerShell.Models.MicrosoftGraphAppRole
$ar0.AllowedMemberTypes += "User"
$ar0.Description = "General role"
$ar0.DisplayName = "General"
$ar0.id = New-Guid
$ar0.IsEnabled = $true
$ar0.Value = "General"
$ara = @()
$ara += $ar0

$azuread_app_tags = @()
$azuread_app_tags += "WindowsAzureActiveDirectoryIntegratedApp"

$azuread_app_update = Update-MgApplication -ApplicationId $azuread_app.Id -AppRoles $ara -Tags $azuread_app_tags

Check for users who are not already assigned to the application

The previous steps have confirmed that all the users in the application's data store exist as users in Microsoft Entra ID. However, they might not all currently be assigned to the application's roles in Microsoft Entra ID. So the next steps are to see which users don't have assignments to application roles.

  1. Look up the service principal ID for the application's service principal.

    For example, if the enterprise application is named CORPDB1, enter the following commands:

    $azuread_app_name = "CORPDB1"
$azuread_sp_filter = "displayName eq '" + ($azuread_app_name -replace "'","''") + "'"
$azuread_sp = Get-MgServicePrincipal -Filter $azuread_sp_filter -All

  2. Retrieve the users who currently have assignments to the application in Microsoft Entra ID.

    This builds upon the $azuread_sp variable set in the previous command.

    $azuread_existing_assignments = @(Get-MgServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignedTo -ServicePrincipalId $azuread_sp.Id -All)

  3. Compare the list of user IDs from the previous section to those users currently assigned to the application:

    $azuread_not_in_role_list = @()
foreach ($id in $azuread_match_id_list) {
   $found = $false
   foreach ($existing in $azuread_existing_assignments) {
      if ($existing.principalId -eq $id) {
         $found = $true; break;
      }
   }
   if ($found -eq $false) { $azuread_not_in_role_list += $id }
}
$azuread_not_in_role_count = $azuread_not_in_role_list.Count
Write-Output "$azuread_not_in_role_count users in the application's data store are not assigned to the application roles."

    If zero users are not assigned to application roles, indicating that all users are assigned to application roles, you don't need to make any further changes before performing an access review.

    However, if one or more users aren't currently assigned to the application roles, you'll need to continue the procedure and add them to one of the application's roles.

  4. Select the role of the application to assign the remaining users to.

    An application might have more than one role. Use this command to list the available roles:

    $azuread_sp.AppRoles | where-object {$_.AllowedMemberTypes -contains "User"} | ft DisplayName,Id

    Select the appropriate role from the list, and obtain its role ID. For example, if the role name is General, provide that value in the following PowerShell commands:

    $azuread_app_role_name = "General"
$azuread_app_role_id = ($azuread_sp.AppRoles | where-object {$_.AllowedMemberTypes -contains "User" -and $_.DisplayName -eq $azuread_app_role_name}).Id
if ($null -eq $azuread_app_role_id) { write-error "role $azuread_app_role_name not located in application manifest"}

Create app role assignments in Microsoft Entra ID

For Microsoft Entra ID to match the users in the application with the users in Microsoft Entra ID, you need to create application role assignments in Microsoft Entra ID.

When an application role assignment is created in Microsoft Entra ID for a user to an application, and the application does not support provisioning, then

  • The user will remain in the application indefinitely unless they're updated outside Microsoft Entra ID, or until the assignment in Microsoft Entra ID is removed.
  • On the next review of that application's role assignments, the user will be included in the review.
  • If the user is denied in an access review, their application role assignment will be removed.

  1. Create application role assignments for users who don't currently have role assignments:

    foreach ($u in $azuread_not_in_role_list) {
   $res = New-MgServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignedTo -ServicePrincipalId $azuread_sp.Id -AppRoleId $azuread_app_role_id -PrincipalId $u -ResourceId $azuread_sp.Id 
}

  2. Wait one minute for changes to propagate within Microsoft Entra ID.

  3. Query Microsoft Entra ID to obtain the updated list of role assignments:

    $azuread_existing_assignments = @(Get-MgServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignedTo -ServicePrincipalId $azuread_sp.Id -All)

  4. Compare the list of user IDs from the previous section to those users now assigned to the application:

    $azuread_still_not_in_role_list = @()
foreach ($id in $azuread_match_id_list) {
   $found = $false
   foreach ($existing in $azuread_existing_assignments) {
      if ($existing.principalId -eq $id) {
         $found = $true; break;
      }
   }
   if ($found -eq $false) { $azuread_still_not_in_role_list += $id }
}
$azuread_still_not_in_role_count = $azuread_still_not_in_role_list.Count
if ($azuread_still_not_in_role_count -gt 0) {
   Write-Output "$azuread_still_not_in_role_count users in the application's data store are not assigned to the application roles."
}

    If any users aren't assigned to application roles, check the Microsoft Entra audit log for an error from a previous step.

Select appropriate reviewers

When you create each access review, administrators can choose one or more reviewers. The reviewers can carry out a review by choosing users for continued access to a resource or removing them.

Typically a resource owner is responsible for performing a review. If you're creating a review of a group, as part of reviewing access for an application integrated in pattern B, then you can select the group owners as reviewers. As applications in Microsoft Entra ID don't necessarily have an owner, the option for selecting the application owner as a reviewer isn't possible. Instead, when creating the review, you can supply the names of the application owners to be the reviewers.

You can also choose, when creating a review of a group or application, to have a multi-stage review. For example, you could select to have the manager of each assigned user perform the first stage of the review, and the resource owner the second stage. That way the resource owner can focus on the users who have already been approved by their manager.

Before creating the reviews, check that you have sufficient Microsoft Entra ID P2 or Microsoft Entra ID Governance SKU seats in your tenant. Also, check that all reviewers are active users with email addresses. When the access reviews start, they each review an email from Microsoft Entra ID. If the reviewer doesn't have a mailbox, they will not receive the email when the review starts or an email reminder. And, if they are blocked from being able to sign in to Microsoft Entra ID, they will not be able to perform the review.

Create the review of the application role assignments

Once the users are in the application roles, and you have the reviewers identified, then you can configure Microsoft Entra ID to start a review.

Follow the instructions in the guide for creating an access review of groups or applications, to create the review of the application's role assignments. Configure the review to apply results when it completes.

Retrieve the assignments that are updated when the reviews are complete

  1. When the review completes, you can retrieve the updated list of users with application role assignments.

    $res = (Get-MgServicePrincipalAppRoleAssignedTo -ServicePrincipalId $azuread_sp.Id -All)

  2. The columns PrincipalDisplayName and PrincipalId contain the display names and Microsoft Entra user IDs of each user who retains an application role assignment.

Configure entitlement management integration with ServiceNow for ticketing (optional)

If you have ServiceNow then you can optionally configure automated ServiceNow ticket creation, using the entitlement management integration via Logic Apps. In that scenario, entitlement management can automatically create ServiceNow tickets for manual provisioning of users who have received access package assignments.

Next steps