News

Microsoft Brings Troubleshooting Features to Intune

• By Kurt Mackie
• October 31, 2017

Microsoft recently added a new troubleshooting capability to Intune, its mobile device and application management service.

Organizations manage Intune using the Azure Portal interface in a Web browser. Microsoft moved Intune's management functions were to the Azure Portal back in June, although there's still a "classic portal" that can be used for Intune management.

Late last month, Microsoft announced the addition of a new Troubleshooting Portal to Intune, but it's specifically just for Azure Portal users.

The new Troubleshooting Portal is designed for use by IT pros that have "Helpdesk Operator" status assigned. IT pros get that status via Intune's role-based access control (RBAC) capability. The RBAC capability is based on the Azure Active Directory identity management service and was turned on for Intune back in August.

The Troubleshooting Portal shows details about an end user's status. It also displays group, application and policy assignments. Device status is shown, including the operating system and version. Compliance and "app protection status" are viewable.

The portal also has some drill-down capabilities.

"If you need to investigate specific policies or apps, simply click the policy or app and it will open on the right next to the troubleshooting blade," Microsoft's announcement explained. 

The next additions coming to the Troubleshooting Portal will let IT pros "review applications installation status and enrollment status for devices," according to the announcement. It didn't indicate when those improvements would arrive.

The Intune Troubleshooting portal should prove helpful because, "for many people, troubleshooting Intune has long been a bit of a black box situation," commented Peter Egerton, a consultant for Inframon Ltd., in a Windows Management User Group post. Egerton is author of the book, "Troubleshooting System Center Configuration Manager."