Tenants will feel the first effect on March 31, 2023, when Microsoft 365 moves to a new license management platform. At that time, the PowerShell cmdlets for license assignment will stop working. Microsoft’s guidelines for converting from the old cmdlets to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK include the blunt phrase that “there is currently no tool to automatically convert scripts.” In other words, it’s time to get coding, testing, and preparing to switchover. Good documentation is at a premium during conversions, and that’s an issue right now.
With two years’ warning, we can hardly plead a lack of awareness when the change happens., but with time running out, I don’t detect any great pressure. Maybe people will change when license management scripts and products stop working, or users report strange errors. It’s odd.
The Problem Lurking in Microsoft Documentation
One thing that might not be helping is the continued use of Azure AD and MSOL PowerShell examples in Microsoft documentation. After all, if the official documentation gives implicit approval to these modules, why bother changing? And to be fair, apart from license management, all the cmdlets will continue to work past the retirement date. There just won’t be any support or future updates.
Take the documentation to delete or restore user mailboxes in Exchange Online. This includes four references to the old Remove-MsolUser cmdlet as the text explains to readers how to remove an Azure AD user account permanently from the Azure AD recycle bin (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Microsoft documentation recommends the use of the obsolete Remove-MsolUser cmdlet
It would be more impactful if the documentation used Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK cmdlets or Graph API requests. For example, here’s how to use a Graph API request to retrieve the list of deleted Azure AD accounts in the recycle bin:
$Uri = "https://graph.microsoft.com/V1.0/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.user"
[array]$DeletedUsers = Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Uri $Uri -Method Get
ForEach ($Account in $DeletedUsers.Value) { Write-Host $Account.displayname, $Account.id }
… select a user and then
Remove-MgDirectoryDeletedItem -DirectoryObjectId <Guid for deleted account>
This is an example where using a Graph API request is easier than the equivalent Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK cmdlet (Get-MgDirectoryDeletedItem – see this example). The point is that if Microsoft documentation featured methods that customers can use in the future instead of the soon-to-be-deprecated modules, it would encourage tenant administrators to adopt those methods.
To be fair to Microsoft, they have tons of pages to update with new examples. However, it’s something that I think should happen sooner rather than later to nudge people along the path to where they should go.
The Problem with Azure AD Examples Across the Wider Internet
Much the same issue exists across the wider internet. Think of the average administrator who wants to find how to accomplish a task using the Azure AD PowerShell cmdlets. They’ll probably start by searching the internet to see how others did the same thing, and they’ll find many examples of old code. There’s always a big caveat about code you find on the internet: don’t trust anything until after fully testing the code. This advice still holds, but now we’re in a situation where the code that someone finds on August 20 to perform automated license assignment with PowerShell won’t work a week later.
I accept that the other cmdlets in the Azure AD and MSOL modules will continue to work after Microsoft retires the modules, but my point is still valid: examples based on soon-to-be-deprecated modules have a short shelf life.
You can’t expect blog writers to go back and revise every post with a reference to an Azure AD or MSOL cmdlet. Some might update some posts, but in general, it won’t happen. Nor should it. A blog post is a snippet of knowledge captured at a point in time rather than a definite statement about how something works that remains current. What’s different about this situation is that many posts face accelerated degeneration to a point where their content is no more than an interesting look back into the past.
Things Will Improve Over Time
Time heals many things. In this case, as time progresses and old blog posts decay, people will post new information and insights to renew the corpus of knowledge available on the internet. The Office 365 for IT Pros team is keenly aware of the issue and has generated several articles to help, including:
And of course, we’ve just released the 2023 edition of the Office 365 for IT Pros eBook containing over 250 examples of the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK cmdlets in action. In fact, we replaced every instance of using the Azure AD PowerShell cmdlets with the except of connecting to another tenant to update your guest account photo. The permissions model used by the Graph is completely different to the permissions granted when someone connects to Azure AD with Connect-AzureAD, and that’s why we had to leave that example. Over time, we hope to find a workaround and be able to remove the last vestige of Azure AD PowerShell.
2 Replies to “Imminent Deprecation of Azure AD PowerShell Modules Creates Knowledge Gap in Documentation”
Tony, since your team might have a better ‘in’ with MS, do you know if the Azure Active Directory PowerShell public client app will be deprecating at this same time?
We discovered an app that still uses client id: 1b730954-1685-4b74-9bfd-dac224a7b894 to authenticate. I’m not a developer, so I’m not 100% clear if we still have to use this for apps to work. Any help appreciated, thank you.
{"id":null,"mode":"button","open_style":"in_modal","currency_code":"EUR","currency_symbol":"\u20ac","currency_type":"decimal","blank_flag_url":"https:\/\/office365itpros.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/blank.gif","flag_sprite_url":"https:\/\/office365itpros.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/tip-jar-wp\/\/assets\/images\/flags\/flags.png","default_amount":100,"top_media_type":"featured_image","featured_image_url":"https:\/\/office365itpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/cover-141x200.jpg","featured_embed":"","header_media":null,"file_download_attachment_data":null,"recurring_options_enabled":true,"recurring_options":{"never":{"selected":true,"after_output":"One time only"},"weekly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every week"},"monthly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every month"},"yearly":{"selected":false,"after_output":"Every year"}},"strings":{"current_user_email":"","current_user_name":"","link_text":"Virtual Tip Jar","complete_payment_button_error_text":"Check info and try again","payment_verb":"Pay","payment_request_label":"Office 365 for IT Pros","form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","general_server_error":"Something isn't working right at the moment. Please try again.","form_title":"Office 365 for IT Pros","form_subtitle":null,"currency_search_text":"Country or Currency here","other_payment_option":"Other payment option","manage_payments_button_text":"Manage your payments","thank_you_message":"Thank you for supporting the work of Office 365 for IT Pros!","payment_confirmation_title":"Office 365 for IT Pros","receipt_title":"Your Receipt","print_receipt":"Print Receipt","email_receipt":"Email Receipt","email_receipt_sending":"Sending receipt...","email_receipt_success":"Email receipt successfully sent","email_receipt_failed":"Email receipt failed to send. Please try again.","receipt_payee":"Paid to","receipt_statement_descriptor":"This will show up on your statement as","receipt_date":"Date","receipt_transaction_id":"Transaction ID","receipt_transaction_amount":"Amount","refund_payer":"Refund from","login":"Log in to manage your payments","manage_payments":"Manage Payments","transactions_title":"Your Transactions","transaction_title":"Transaction Receipt","transaction_period":"Plan Period","arrangements_title":"Your Plans","arrangement_title":"Manage Plan","arrangement_details":"Plan Details","arrangement_id_title":"Plan ID","arrangement_payment_method_title":"Payment Method","arrangement_amount_title":"Plan Amount","arrangement_renewal_title":"Next renewal date","arrangement_action_cancel":"Cancel Plan","arrangement_action_cant_cancel":"Cancelling is currently not available.","arrangement_action_cancel_double":"Are you sure you'd like to cancel?","arrangement_cancelling":"Cancelling Plan...","arrangement_cancelled":"Plan Cancelled","arrangement_failed_to_cancel":"Failed to cancel plan","back_to_plans":"\u2190 Back to Plans","update_payment_method_verb":"Update","sca_auth_description":"Your have a pending renewal payment which requires authorization.","sca_auth_verb":"Authorize renewal payment","sca_authing_verb":"Authorizing payment","sca_authed_verb":"Payment successfully authorized!","sca_auth_failed":"Unable to authorize! Please try again.","login_button_text":"Log in","login_form_has_an_error":"Please check and fix the errors above","uppercase_search":"Search","lowercase_search":"search","uppercase_page":"Page","lowercase_page":"page","uppercase_items":"Items","lowercase_items":"items","uppercase_per":"Per","lowercase_per":"per","uppercase_of":"Of","lowercase_of":"of","back":"Back to plans","zip_code_placeholder":"Zip\/Postal Code","download_file_button_text":"Download File","input_field_instructions":{"tip_amount":{"placeholder_text":"How much would you like to tip?","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How much would you like to tip? Choose any currency."},"invalid_curency":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please choose a valid currency."}},"recurring":{"placeholder_text":"Recurring","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"How often would you like to give this?"}},"name":{"placeholder_text":"Name on Credit Card","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter the name on your card."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please enter the name on your card."}},"privacy_policy":{"terms_title":"Terms and conditions","terms_body":null,"terms_show_text":"View Terms","terms_hide_text":"Hide Terms","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."},"unchecked":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Please agree to the terms."},"checked":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"I agree to the terms."}},"email":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email address"},"not_an_email_address":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Make sure you have entered a valid email address"}},"note_with_tip":{"placeholder_text":"Your note here...","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"empty":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"not_empty_initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Attach a note to your tip (optional)"},"saving":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Saving note..."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Note successfully saved!"},"error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to save note note at this time. Please try again."}},"email_for_login_code":{"placeholder_text":"Your email address","initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your email to log in."}},"login_code":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"success":{"instruction_type":"success","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"blank":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Check your email and enter the login code."}},"stripe_all_in_one":{"initial":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"empty":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"success":{"instruction_type":"normal","instruction_message":"Enter your credit card details here."},"invalid_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is not a valid credit card number."},"invalid_expiry_month":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration month is invalid."},"invalid_expiry_year":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is invalid."},"invalid_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is invalid."},"incorrect_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incorrect."},"incomplete_number":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card number is incomplete."},"incomplete_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incomplete."},"incomplete_expiry":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration date is incomplete."},"incomplete_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code is incomplete."},"expired_card":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card has expired."},"incorrect_cvc":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's security code is incorrect."},"incorrect_zip":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's zip code failed validation."},"invalid_expiry_year_past":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card's expiration year is in the past"},"card_declined":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The card was declined."},"missing":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"There is no card on a customer that is being charged."},"processing_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"An error occurred while processing the card."},"invalid_request_error":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"Unable to process this payment, please try again or use alternative method."},"invalid_sofort_country":{"instruction_type":"error","instruction_message":"The billing country is not accepted by SOFORT. Please try another country."}}}},"fetched_oembed_html":false}
Tony, since your team might have a better ‘in’ with MS, do you know if the Azure Active Directory PowerShell public client app will be deprecating at this same time?
We discovered an app that still uses client id: 1b730954-1685-4b74-9bfd-dac224a7b894 to authenticate. I’m not a developer, so I’m not 100% clear if we still have to use this for apps to work. Any help appreciated, thank you.
I don’t know what you mean by the PowerShell public client app. Can you point me to a reference?