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Microsoft Intune

Microsoft device management, reached through Microsoft Graph. Interchangeable with the other MDM connectors as far as the rest of the product is concerned.

CategoryMDM
AuthenticationOAuth client credentials
Reacheslogin.microsoftonline.com and graph.microsoft.com
Needs an agentNo
Demo modeNo

device.lookupBySerial, device.get

Which lights up device details on a repair, and the device page with live inventory.

  1. Entra admin centre, Applications, App registrations, New registration.
  2. Name it Plugboard. Single tenant is correct. No redirect URI is needed, because this is a daemon flow rather than a user sign-in.
  3. Register, then note the Application (client) ID and the Directory (tenant) ID.
  4. API permissions, Add a permission, Microsoft Graph, Application permissions.
    • Add DeviceManagementManagedDevices.Read.All.
    • Add DeviceManagementManagedDevices.ReadWrite.All only if you later want write operations.
  5. Click Grant admin consent. This step is easy to miss, and without it the permission is requested but not effective.
  6. Certificates and secrets, New client secret.
    • Set an expiry you will actually track. Two years is common; twelve months is more honest about the review you will do.
    • Copy the Value, not the Secret ID. This is the single most common mistake. The value is only shown once.

Admin, Connectors, Microsoft Intune, Configure.

FieldValue
tenantIdYour Entra tenant id, or your domain such as yourschool.edu.au
FieldValue
clientIdThe Application (client) ID
clientSecretThe secret value from step 6

Save and test. Success reports “Authenticated with Microsoft Graph”.

Client secrets expire, and when one does the connector stops working with a 401 and no other warning. Entra will email the application owner shortly before, but that notification goes to whoever is listed as the owner, which is often somebody who has left.

Put the expiry date in a shared calendar with a reminder a month out. Rotating is a two minute job; discovering the expiry at 8:40 on a Monday is not.

FieldNotes
Serial numberThe lookup key
ModelFalls back to the device name when the model is absent
Managed device idUsed for subsequent calls
Assigned userThe user principal name
Warranty expiryWhen Intune has it, which is not always

Intune does not carry AppleCare status. For Apple warranty detail, add Apple GSX alongside.

Common in schools with a mixed fleet: Macs in Jamf, Windows in Intune. Configure both. A device resolves through whichever knows its serial, and the repairs screen is unchanged either way.

SymptomCause
401 on testWrong secret, or you copied the Secret ID instead of the Value
403 or “insufficient privileges”Admin consent was not granted, or the wrong permission type was added. It must be an Application permission, not Delegated
Test passes, no devices foundThe serial is not in Intune, or the device is not enrolled. Lookups match on an uppercased serial
Worked, then stoppedThe client secret expired
AADSTS700016The application id is wrong for that tenant

Jamf Pro, Kandji, Mosyle, Chrome Enterprise.