This onboarding guide takes you through steps to set up Azure with Workbench.

Wizard vs. Manual Onboarding

You can use our Azure Wizard, which uses Azure templates, to programmatically connect your Azure instance. 

You can easily deploy RBAC subscription roles in Azure, allowing you to decide whether Expel should monitor 1 or more subscriptions. Expel can also connect to existing log storage accounts, or create new ones on your behalf.

Note
Creating and maintaining additional storage logs can result in additional fees from Microsoft Azure. If you enable storage logging, it's applied to all storage accounts deployed in your subscription. 

Prerequisites

Quick Links

About connecting your device

Expel uses API integrations to connect directly to the Microsoft Azure platform. We support authentication through an Microsoft Entra ID app. To collect data, Workbench communicates directly with APIs, including the Microsoft Security Graph API to poll alerts from Microsoft Sentinel. Workbench also queries Azure Log Analytics to enrich Sentinel alerts with the Azure Log Analytics context that originally generated that alert.

Step 1: Enable Console and Cross-Tenant Access for Expel

Note
If your organization has already created a new Expel account for console access and enabled cross-tenant access for another Microsoft integration, you may skip to Step 2. The same "<Your Organization GUID>@soc.expel.io" account provides access across all Microsoft services.

Enable Console Access for a New Account

Expel requires console access to allow analysts to perform investigation and triage. Without this additional level of information, details cannot be verified by our analysts and an investigation cannot be initiated. For more information, see Why Expel Asks for Console Access.

1. Log in to the Microsoft Entra Admin Center as a user assigned the Global Administrator or User Administrator role.
2. Navigate to Entra ID > Users > All Users.
3. Select User > Invite external user.
4. On the Basics tab, include the following:
   • Email - enter  "<Your Organization GUID>@soc.expel.io". For example, a123bc45-aa12-123b@soc.expel.io
     • You can find your Organization GUID in the Organizations tab of Workbench.
   • Display Name - enter "Expel SOC".
5. On the Assignments tab, configure the following:
   • Select Add role.
   • Search for and select Global Reader. Note: This role provides read-only access across most Microsoft 365 and Azure management consoles.
6. Select Review + invite and then Invite.

The user account will be added to your directory as a guest, and an invitation will be sent to the
email provided.

Enable Cross-Tenant Access

In this step you will add Expel as an external organization and configure inbound trust.

1. Still in the Microsoft Entra Admin Center, navigate to Entra ID > External Identities > Cross-tenant access settings.
2. Select the Organizational settings tab.
3. Select Add organization.
4. On the Add organization pane, enter Expel’s tenant ID: 1cde81fd-b430-4035-b24d-709921922876
5. Select Expel from the search results, and then select Add.
6. In the Organizational settings list, locate the Expel row and select Inbound access.
7. On the "Inbound access settings - Expel" page, select the Trust settings tab, and configure the following:
   • Select Customize settings.
   • Enable Trust multifactor authentication from Microsoft Entra tenants.
   • Enable Trust compliant devices.
   • Enable Trust Microsoft Entra hybrid joined devices.
   • Under Automatic redemption, enable Automatically redeem invitations with the tenant Expel.
8. Select Save.

Step 2: Enable Azure Application access

To integrate the technology with Expel, we need to create secure credentials to the API. You have 2 options for enabling API access:

Enabling the Enterprise Application is the recommended approach. However, because the Enterprise Application supports access for multiple Microsoft integrations (Microsoft Sentinel, Azure Log Analytics, and so on), it may be that the permissions granted to the Enterprise Application are more than the minimum required for the Azure integration specifically.

The second option is available if and when the absolute minimum permissions are required. In either case, the table below lists the items to be obtained during this step:

Option 1: Enable Azure Enterprise Application

Option 2: Create custom Microsoft Entra ID application

Step 3: Enable roles within Azure subscriptions

Some event sources within Azure require Role-Based Access (RBAC) roles to be granted to the Microsoft Entra ID Application within each Azure subscription. One of these RBAC roles granted to our Microsoft Entra ID Application should also be granted to the Expel user created in Step 1 to allow Expel to investigate further into any alerts.

This section walks through granting the Azure Log Analytics Reader role to both the Microsoft Entra ID Application from Step 2 and the Expel user from Step 1

Step 4: Route and Enable Azure Resource Logs

To monitor activity within your Azure environment, Expel needs access to diagnostic logs (the "who, what, when" of resource activity). We do not monitor the actual data or files within your production storage accounts; that data remains completely invisible to us.

To set up this access securely, you will configure your existing Azure resources to send their diagnostic logs to a storage account that we can access. You have two options:

• Option 1 (Recommended): Create a new, dedicated storage account to be used only for collecting logs for Expel.
• Option 2: Use an existing centralized storage account (this account must be one where you aggregate diagnostic logs from multiple resources).

Important

We only ask for read-only permissions to one specific log account, whether you choose Option 1 or Option 2.

Option 1 (Recommended): Create a New, Dedicated Storage Account for Logs

This is the most common and recommended approach. You will create a new storage account, grant us read-only access, and then configure your other accounts to send logs to it.

Note

Azure requires the diagnostic setting destination to be in the same region as the resource sending logs. If your production storage accounts span multiple regions, create a dedicated storage account in each region and then grant Expel the same access to each.

Step 1: Create the Storage Account 

Create a new storage account, choosing Standard performance on the Basics tab. This creates a general purpose v2 (StorageV2) account, which is the required type.

• We recommend using a descriptive name, such as expelazurelogcompanyname. Note that storage account names allow only lowercase letters and numbers, of between 3 and 24 characters.
• Make sure to leave Enable hierarchical namespace (Data Lake Storage Gen2) as unchecked on the Advanced tab, as it is not needed for log collection.

Step 2: Grant Expel Access

Note

We will not ask for, and you should not grant, permissions to any of your other storage accounts that contain your business data.

1. Navigate to the new storage account.
2. Select Access Control (IAM). 
3. Select Add > Add role assignment.
4. Locate the Expel Azure Integration app or the custom app you created earlier, and assign the Storage Blob Data Reader role.
5. Select Save.

Step 3: Configure Log Routing

For each existing production storage account that contains data you want us to monitor, you must route its diagnostic logs to the new storage account. You must repeat these steps for each existing storage account you want monitored.

1. Navigate to your existing storage account (e.g. productiondatastorage).
2. From the left-hand menu, navigate to Monitoring > Diagnostic settings.
3. Perform the following steps for each resource (blob, queue, table, and file):
   • Select the first resource (i.e. blob).
   • Select Add diagnostic setting.
   • Give the setting a descriptive name (e.g. route-logs-to-expel; you may use the same name for all resources if you wish).
   • Under Logs, select all of the following categories: Storage Read, Storage Write, Storage Delete.
   • Under Destination details, select Archive to a storage account, and then use the dropdowns to choose the new storage account you created.
   • Select Save.
   • Repeat these steps for the remaining resources within that storage account.

If you have other storage accounts that you want monitored, navigate to the next account and repeat all of these steps. If not, continue to firewall settings.

Step 4: Adjust Firewall Settings

If your newly created log storage account has network restrictions, you must adjust the firewall settings to allow Expel to access the logs.

Note

Access to these logs is still strictly controlled by the Storage Blob Data Reader role you assigned earlier. This setting simply ensures that Azure's network firewall does not block Expel's secure, authenticated access. All requests to this storage account from Expel will originate from our documented static IP addresses.

1. Navigate to the storage account.
2. From the menu, select Security + networking > Networking.
3. Scroll down to Resource settings and then select View.
4. Under Exceptions, make sure the Allow read access to storage logging from any network option is checked.

Option 2: Use an Existing Centralized Log Storage Account

If you already have a storage account that you use as a central destination for diagnostic logs, you can grant Expel access to it instead of creating a new one.

Step 1: Verify Critical Storage Account Settings and Routing

• First, make sure the diagnostic logs from your connected critical storage accounts have the Storage Read, Storage Write, and Storage Delete log categories enabled.
• Next, make sure the diagnostic logs from your critical storage accounts are already being successfully routed to the existing centralized storage account.

Step 2: Grant Expel Access

Note

We will not ask for, and you should not grant, permissions to any of your other storage accounts that contain your business data.

1. Navigate to your existing centralized storage account.
2. Select Access Control (IAM) > Add > Add role assignment.
3. Locate the Expel Azure Integration app or the custom app you created earlier, and assign the Storage Blob Data Reader role.
4. Select Save.

Step 3: Adjust Firewall Settings

If your existing log storage account has network restrictions, you must adjust the firewall settings to allow Expel to access the logs.

Note
Access to these logs is still strictly controlled by the Storage Blob Data Reader role you assigned earlier. This setting simply ensures that Azure's network firewall does not block Expel's secure, authenticated access. All requests to this storage account from Expel will originate from our documented static IP addresses.

1. Navigate to the storage account.
2. From the menu, select Security + networking > Networking.
3. Scroll down to Resource settings and then select View.
4. Under Exceptions, make sure the Allow read access to storage logging from any network option is checked.

Step 5: Configure Azure in Workbench

Now that we have the correct access configured and noted the credentials, we can integrate your tech with Workbench.

Note
Expel secures all login information our SOC analysts need about your devices in an MFA password product. Access to this login information is protected using our internal MFA processes. To learn more about the IP addresses all Expel traffic comes from, go here.