🔧 Extension Attributes Automation Worker Service

A complete and highly resilient solution for automating Microsoft Entra AD (Azure AD) Extension Attributes management based on information from Active Directory and/or Microsoft Intune.

📋 Table of Contents

• Overview
• Key Features
• Architecture
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage
• Web Dashboard & API
• Health Checks and Monitoring
• Configuration Examples
• Available Properties
• Resilience and Retry Logic
• Multi-Channel Notifications
• Troubleshooting
• Testing and Debug
• Contributing
• Documentation
• License

🔍 Overview

The Extension Attributes Automation Worker Service is a powerful and highly resilient tool that automates the synchronization of Microsoft Entra AD Extension Attributes using data from:

• Active Directory on-premise - AD computer attributes
• Microsoft Intune - Hardware, software, and compliance information from managed devices

The solution supports regular expressions for extracting specific values, default values, a unified configuration that prevents collisions, comprehensive monitoring, automatic retry, multi-channel notifications, and a web dashboard with REST API.

✨ Key Features

🎯 Unified Configuration

• Single configuration section for all Extension Attributes
• dataSource field to specify whether to use Active Directory or Intune
• Automatic collision prevention - impossible to configure the same Extension Attribute with multiple sources

🚀 Multiple Data Sources

• Active Directory: Uses AD computer attributes like OU, company, location, department
• Microsoft Intune: Uses device information like manufacturer, model, compliance state, storage info

🔧 Advanced Processing

• Regular Expressions: Extract specific parts from attribute values
• Default Values: Automatic fallback when data is not available
• Concurrent Processing: Efficient handling of thousands of devices
• Detailed Logging: Complete operation tracking with Serilog
• 🆕 Single Device Processing: Debug and test on specific devices

🔄 Execution Modes

• Windows Service: Automatic scheduled execution in background
• Console Application: Manual execution for testing and debugging
• 🆕 Device-Specific: Processing individual devices for troubleshooting
• 🆕 Device by ID: Processing via Entra AD Device ID
• 🆕 Web Dashboard: Interactive web interface with real-time monitoring

📅 Flexible Scheduling

• Quartz.NET Integration: Advanced scheduling with CRON expressions
• Separate Jobs: Ability to schedule AD and Intune independently
• Unified Job: Combined processing of all sources

🩺 Health Checks and Monitoring

• 4 Integrated Health Checks: Configuration, Entra AD, Active Directory, Intune
• Real-time monitoring of service status
• Detailed metrics for each component
• Automatic alerting for critical issues

🔄 Resilience and Retry Logic

• Polly Integration: Automatic retry for transient errors
• Circuit Breaker: Prevention of cascading failures
• Graph API Throttling: Intelligent handling of Microsoft rate limits
• Exponential Backoff: Optimization of retry strategies

📢 Multi-Channel Notification System

• Microsoft Teams: Notifications via webhook with formatted cards
• Slack: Structured messages with attachments
• Email: Support for SMTP/SendGrid/Azure Communication Services
• Intelligent Alerting: Configurable thresholds to avoid spam

🌐 Web Dashboard & REST API

• 🆕 Interactive Dashboard: Real-time monitoring and device processing
• 🆕 REST API: Comprehensive endpoints for system integration
• 🆕 Health Checks UI: Visual health status monitoring
• 🆕 Swagger Documentation: Complete API documentation
• 🆕 Remote Device Processing: Process devices via web interface

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                           Entra AD (Azure AD)                                │
│                       ┌─────────────────────┐                               │
│                       │  Extension          │                               │
│                       │  Attributes 1-15    │                               │
│                       └─────────────────────┘                               │
└─────────────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                                  ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                Extension Attributes Automation Worker                       │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │               🌐 Web Dashboard & REST API                              │ │
│  │  ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│  │  │  Status API     │ │   Health UI     │ │     Device Processing       │ │ │
│  │  └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │                  UnifiedExtensionAttributeHelper                       │ │
│  │  ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │ │
│  │  │   AD Helper     │ │  Intune Helper  │ │    Notification Service     │ │ │
│  │  └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────────┘ │ │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │                        Health Checks                                   │ │
│  │  ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐ │ │
│  │  │    Config   │ │  Entra AD   │ │     AD      │ │      Intune         │ │ │
│  │  └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────────┘ │ │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│  │                      Polly Resilience                                  │ │
│  │  ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐ │ │
│  │  │   Retry     │ │Circuit Break│ │   Timeout   │ │  Graph Throttling   │ │ │
│  │  └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────────┘ │ │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────┬─────────────────┬─────────────────┬───────────────────┘
                      │                 │                 │
                      ▼                 ▼                 ▼
        ┌─────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────┐
        │   Active Directory  │ │ Microsoft Intune│ │    Notifications    │
        │                     │ │                 │ │                     │
        │ • Computer Objects  │ │ • Device Info   │ │ • Teams Webhooks    │
        │ • OU Structure      │ │ • Hardware Info │ │ • Slack Integration │
        │ • Attributes        │ │ • Compliance    │ │ • Email SMTP        │
        └─────────────────────┘ └─────────────────┘ └─────────────────────┘

🚀 Installation

Prerequisites

• .NET 10.0 Runtime/SDK (LTS — supported until November 2028)
• Windows Server 2019 or higher (for AD integration)
• Active Directory access (if used)
• Microsoft Graph API permissions for Entra AD and Intune
• Certificate or Client Secret for Azure authentication

Quick Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/robgrame/ExtensionAttributes.Automation.git
cd ExtensionAttributes.Automation

2. Build the solution:

dotnet build --configuration Release

3. Install as Windows Service:

cd Nimbus.ExtensionAttributes.Worker\bin\Release\net10.0-windows
Nimbus.ExtensionAttributes.WorkerSvc.exe --service

⚙️ Configuration

Base Configuration

The appsettings.json file contains all necessary configurations:

{
  "AppSettings": {
    "ExportPath": "C:\\Temp\\Automation\\Export",
    "ExportFileNamePrefix": "DevicesProcessed",
    "DataSources": {
      "EnableActiveDirectory": true,
      "EnableIntune": true,
      "PreferredDataSource": "Both"
    },
    "ExtensionAttributeMappings": [
      {
        "extensionAttribute": "extensionAttribute1",
        "sourceAttribute": "distinguishedName",
        "dataSource": "ActiveDirectory",
        "regex": "(?<=OU=)(?<value>[^,]+)(?=,OU=(?i:Locations))",
        "defaultValue": "Unknown Department"
      },
      {
        "extensionAttribute": "extensionAttribute5",
        "sourceAttribute": "manufacturer",
        "dataSource": "Intune",
        "useHardwareInfo": true,
        "defaultValue": "Unknown"
      }
    ]
  },
  "EntraADHelperSettings": {
    "TenantId": "<your-tenant-id>",
    "ClientId": "<your-client-id>",
    "UseClientSecret": false,
    "CertificateThumbprint": "<your-cert-thumbprint>",
    "PageSize": 1000
  },
  "ADHelperSettings": {
    "RootOrganizationalUnitDN": "OU=Computers,DC=contoso,DC=com",
    "PageSize": 1000
  }
}

🧪 Testing and Debug

# Run all tests
dotnet test

# Run in console mode with dry-run
dotnet run --project Nimbus.ExtensionAttributes.Worker -- --dry-run

# Process a specific device
dotnet run --project Nimbus.ExtensionAttributes.Worker -- --device "WORKSTATION01"

# Run the web dashboard
dotnet run --project Nimbus.ExtensionAttributes.Worker -- --webapp

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
5. Open a Pull Request

📚 Documentation

Detailed guides are available in the docs/ folder:

Guide	Description
Authentication Setup	Azure AD app registration, certificate and client secret configuration
CMTrace Logging Guide	SCCM/CMTrace-compatible logging configuration and usage
Implementation Summary	Technical overview of the architecture and implementation details
Service Web Integration	REST API endpoints, SignalR integration, and service hooks
Web Interface Guide	Web dashboard setup, features, and usage instructions

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see the LICENSE.txt file for details.