Triggering devices to upload (diagnostic) files to cloud storage

This week is all about triggering Windows 10 devices to upload (diagnostic) files to cloud storage. That can be very useful for gathering information and diagnosing potential issues. Starting with Windows 10, version 1903, Microsoft added additional functionality to the DiagnosticLog CSP. The DiagnosticLog CSP is used for generating and collecting diagnostic information from the device and the additional functionality enables triggering devices to upload existing event logs, log files, and registry values to cloud storage. That actually opens the route to some really nice scenarios regarding the collection of information on MDM managed Windows 10 devices. I’ll start this post by providing some information about the required setting, followed by going through the steps of configuring that setting. I’ll end this post by showing the administrator experience.

Available policy settings and configuration options

Let’s start by having a look at the available policy settings. The required policy setting for this post is available as a policy setting in a new node of the DiagnosticLog CSP. The root node of the DiagnosticLog CSP is ./Vendor/MSFT/DiagnosticLog and the table below describes the relevant nodes below.

PolicyDescription
DiagnosticArchive This is the root node for the DiagnosticArchive functionality (only “Get” functionality).
DiagnosticArchive/ArchiveDefinitionThis policy setting can be used to set an XML snippet (as a string) describing what data to gather and where to upload it when done. That XML defines what the data that should be collected and that should be compressed into a zip file to be uploaded to Azure blob storage (“Add” and “Execute” functionality).
DiagnosticArchive/ArchiveResults This policy setting displays the results of the last archive run (only “Get” functionality).

The required policy setting for this post is the DiagnosticArchive/ArchiveDefinition node. That policy setting requires an XML formatted string as input. The format of the XML is shown below. The elements are all wrapped in the Collection element and it contains at least the an ID and SasUrl element. Those elements are required to make sure that the policy setting will be executed and that the collected data is sent to the correct location. The collected data will be uploaded in the format DiagLogs-{ComputerName}-YYYYMMDDTHHMMSSZ.zip. That format is not configurable.

<Collection>
     <ID>{id}</ID>
     <SasUrl>{web address}/{container}{key}</SasUrl>
     <RegistryKey>{registry key}</RegistryKey>
     <Command>{command}</Command>
     <FoldersFiles>{file or folder}</FoldersFiles>
     <Events>{event viewer}</Events>
</Collection>

The usage of the different elements in the XML formatted string is described in the table below.

ElementDescription
IDThe ID element is used to specify a unique GUID value that defines the run of the DiagnosticLog CSP. The ID can be generated by using the New-Guid cmdlet. A new ID is required to trigger a new collection.
Example value: 91d667ae-18d3-46c6-ae43-0bb6d6ac25f4
SasUrl The SasUrl element is used to specify the storage location for the collected data. The SasUrl can be copied from Blob service SAS URL of the storage container, with the addition of the storage container name (make sure to escape special characters).
Example value: <![CDATA[https://{storageaccount}.blob.core.windows.net/{storagecontainer}?sv=2018-03-28&ss=b&srt=o&sp=c&se=2019-10-30T04:19:14Z&st=2019-09-17T19:19:14Z&spr=https&sig=qpVr6NFegQfjIWYV4uwsAqbT1FtgzCtz8P%2Bbrhl6%2FQM%3D]]>
RegistrykeyThe Registrykey element (there can be multiple) can be used to specify a registry key that should be exported and collected.
Example value: HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft
FoldersFilesThe FoldersFiles element (there can be multiple) can be used to specify a file or folder that should exported and collected.
Example value: C:\Windows\Temp\MDM*.*
Command The Command element (there can be multiple) can be used to specify a command that should be executed.
Example value: %windir%\system32\mdmdiagnosticstool.exe -out C:\Windows\Temp\MDM\
Events The Events element (there can be multiple) can be used to specify an Event Log that should exported and collected (specify the name of the log).
Example value: Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration/Admin

Constructing and configuring the policy setting

Now let’s continue by constructing the XML formatted string and by having a look at the configuration. The first step is constructing the XML format string that will be used during the configuration. The main use case of this post is gathering troubleshooting information. For that reason the XML formatted string is constructed with information to gather the policy registry key, to run the MDM diagnostics tool, to gather the result of the MDM diagnostic tool and to gather additional event logs. A nice combination to show all the different options. The example constructed for this post is provided below. It contains the earlier mentioned example values. The only elements that should still be added are the ID and the SasUrl. Those elements are environment specific.

<Collection>
    <ID>{GUID}</ID>
    <SasUrl><![CDATA[{web address}/{container}{key}]]></SasUrl>
    <RegistryKey>HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft</RegistryKey>
    <Command>%windir%\system32\mdmdiagnosticstool.exe -out C:\Windows\Temp\MDM\</Command>
    <FoldersFiles>C:\Windows\Temp\MDM\*.*</FoldersFiles>
    <Events>Microsoft-Windows-User Device Registration/Admin</Events>
</Collection>

After constructing the XML it’s time for the actual configuration of the policy setting. The following four steps walk through the actual configuration steps of a custom device configuration profile. That device configuration profile can be used to configure the ArchiveDefinition policy setting. After creating the device configuration profile, simply assign the profile like any other device configuration profile.

  1. Open the Azure portal and navigate to Microsoft Intune Device configuration Profiles to open the Devices configuration – Profiles blade
  2. On the Devices configuration – Profiles blade, click Create profile to open the Create profile blade
  3. On the Create profile blade, provide the following information and click Create
  • Name: Provide a valid name
  • Description: (Optional) Provide a valid description
  • Platform: Windows 10 and later
  • Profile type: Custom
  • Settings: See step 4
  1. On the Custom OMA-URI Settings blade, provide the following information and click Add to open the Add row blade. On the Add row blade, provide the following information and click OK (and click OK in the Custom OMA-URI blade)
  • Name: Provide a valid name
  • Description: (Optional) Provide a valid description
  • OMA-URI: ./Vendor/MSFT/DiagnosticLog/DiagnosticArchive/ArchiveDefinition
  • Data type: Select String
  • Value: {XML}

Administrator experience

Let’s end this post by having a look at the administrator experience. Below on the first row on the left is an example of the collected data in the storage account. It provides an overview of the devices that collected and uploaded the requested data. All conform the mentioned naming standard. Below on the first row on the right is an example of the same data, but downloaded and extracted. The XML provides an overview of the results of the different actions to gather data. The folders contain the data of the different actions. The number of folders matches the number of actions in the provided XML. The lines even match (line 1 is folder 1, etc.).

Below on the second row is an example of how the information is logged in the registry. The MdmDiagnostics key contains a value that contains the results of the latest run, the Results value, and a value that contains the initial XML, the XML value. That key also contains a key per diagnostics collection run. The ID of the latest run is registered in the earlier mentioned values.

More information

For more information about triggering devices to upload files to cloud storage, see the DiagnosticLog CSP for triggering devices to upload files to cloud section in the DiagnosticLog CSP documentation.

5 thoughts on “Triggering devices to upload (diagnostic) files to cloud storage”

  1. Hi Peter,

    Great post.

    Please can you put this logging/diagnostic info that is gained into context with solutions such as Desktop Analytics/Windows Analytics? ie Why do we need the added additional functionality to the DiagnosticLog CSP – or is this a precursor to Intune clients reporting their diagnostic info to Desktop Analytics later this year?

    Many thanks
    Andrew

    Reply
    • Hi Andrew,
      You can use it trigger the MDM client to sent information to a custom location. That can be easy for troubleshooting MDM specific issues, as shown in my example, or for basically any other information. I’ve just provided one example, but you can basically trigger it to sent whatever information you need. It can be an addition to Analytics. And of course it’s something that a third-party could hook into.
      Regards, Peter

      Reply

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