Listen to this Post
Introduction:
Microsoft Sentinel, the cloud-native SIEM and SOAR solution, is undergoing a monumental shift. As of July 1, 2026, its primary management experience will migrate from the Azure portal to the Microsoft Defender portal. This consolidation signifies a strategic move towards a unified security operations platform, forcing organizations to proactively adapt their customizations, automation, and investigative workflows to ensure continuity.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the critical technical configurations requiring immediate attention for a seamless transition.
- Master the new API endpoints, KQL queries, and automation workflows within the Defender portal context.
- Develop a strategic migration plan to reconfigure analytics, automation, and incident management processes.
You Should Know:
1. Reconfiguring Analytic Rules for the Defender Portal
The logic of your detection rules remains, but their management interface and underlying connections change. Failure to migrate and test these rules can lead to critical security blind spots.
PowerShell: Audit Current Sentinel Analytic Rules
Login-AzAccount
Get-AzSentinelAlertRule -ResourceGroupName "Your-RG" -WorkspaceName "Your-Workspace" | Export-Csv -Path "C:\SentinelRules_Backup.csv" -NoTypeInformation
PowerShell: Connect to Defender Portal (Preview) API
$resource = "https://api.security.microsoft.com"
$token = (Get-AzAccessToken -ResourceUrl $resource).Token
$headers = @{ Authorization = "Bearer $token" }
Step-by-Step Guide:
First, use the provided PowerShell script to export your current analytic rules from Azure. This creates a crucial backup. Next, familiarize yourself with the new Microsoft Graph Security API endpoints, which will be the primary method for interacting with Sentinel in the Defender portal. The script demonstrates how to acquire an access token for this new API surface. You must then begin recreating or validating your rules within the Defender portal interface to ensure they function correctly in the new environment.
2. Automating Incidents with New Playbook Triggers
Automation rules and Logic App playbooks triggered by Azure-native alerts must be updated to respond to the new alert schema and endpoints within the Defender portal.
// Azure Logic App HTTP Trigger (New Schema Example)
{
"type": "Request",
"kind": "Http",
"inputs": {
"schema": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"IncidentId": { "type": "string" },
"IncidentUrl": { "type": "string" },
"ProviderName": { "type": "string" },
"Severity": { "type": "string" }
}
}
}
}
Step-by-Step Guide:
Your existing Logic Apps likely use a trigger based on the Azure Resource Manager (ARM) for Sentinel. You need to update them to use HTTP triggers that can accept the incident payload from the Defender portal. The code snippet shows a basic schema for the new trigger. Reconfigure your playbooks to use the `IncidentId` and `IncidentUrl` from this new payload to perform actions like sending notifications or enriching data via the Graph Security API.
3. API Security & Endpoint Migration
All custom scripts, integrations, and third-party tools using the legacy Azure Log Analytics or Sentinel APIs must be reconfigured to use the unified Microsoft Graph Security API.
Bash: Query Incidents via Microsoft Graph API (Beta) curl -X GET "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/security/incidents" \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $token" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" | jq . Legacy Azure Resource Manager (ARM) API (To be deprecated) curl -X GET "https://management.azure.com/.../incidents?api-version=2022-11-01" ...
Step-by-Step Guide:
Identify all automation and scripts that interact with Sentinel via the ARM API. Begin refactoring them to use the Microsoft Graph Security API endpoints, as shown in the Bash example. The `jq` command is used for parsing the JSON response. This is a critical security hardening step to prevent integration failures post-migration. Test these new API calls thoroughly in a development environment.
4. Incident Triage in the Unified Defender Portal
The incident merging and correlation logic may present data differently. Security analysts must be trained on the new triage workflow within the Defender portal to maintain SOC efficiency.
// Kusto Query Language (KQL): Hunting for logon anomalies across Defender data SecurityEvent | where EventID == 4624 // Successful logon | where TimeGenerated > ago(1h) | join (IdentityLogonEvents | where ActionType == "LogonSuccess" | project LogonTime, AccountName, DeviceName) on AccountName | summarize LogonCount = count() by AccountName, bin(TimeGenerated, 15m) | where LogonCount > 10
Step-by-Step Guide:
Leverage the unified data lake of the Defender portal by using Advanced Hunting with KQL. The provided query correlates Windows Security Events with Defender for Identity logs to detect potential brute-force attacks or account anomalies. This cross-product visibility is a key benefit of the new portal. Analysts should practice building such composite queries to investigate incidents more effectively.
5. Leveraging UEBA and Threat Intelligence
User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) and integrated threat intelligence are now natively embedded within the incident investigation process in the Defender portal, providing richer context.
// KQL: Enrich an incident with Threat Intelligence (TI) SecurityAlert | where TimeGenerated > ago(24h) | extend TI = parse_json(Entities) | mv-expand TI | where TI.Type == "ipv4" | project AlertName, CompromisedEntity, TI.Address | join (ThreatIntelligenceIndicator | where ExpirationDateTime > now() | project TI_IP = Address, ThreatType, Description) on $left.TI.Address == $right.TI_IP
Step-by-Step Guide:
This KQL query demonstrates how to proactively hunt for alerts involving IP addresses that match known indicators of compromise in your threat intelligence feeds. In the Defender portal, this correlation often happens automatically within an incident. Understanding how to construct these queries allows you to validate detections and perform deeper forensic analysis, turning raw alerts into actionable intelligence.
6. Hardening Cloud Infrastructure for the Transition
The underlying infrastructure permissions and identities (Managed Identities, Service Principals) used by Sentinel must be audited and granted appropriate roles in the new context.
Azure CLI: Audit Role Assignments for Sentinel MI az role assignment list --assignee $(az webapp identity show --name Your-Sentinel-App --resource-group Your-RG --query principalId -o tsv) --all --include-inherited Assign necessary 'Microsoft Sentinel Responder' role via Graph API (Conceptual) New role assignments will be managed through the Defender portal's permission model.
Step-by-Step Guide:
Use Azure CLI commands to list all current role assignments for the Managed Identities (MI) used by your Sentinel automation, such as Logic Apps. Document these permissions. While the exact role names for the Defender portal might differ (e.g., built-in roles like “Security Analyst”), the principle remains: you must ensure your automations have the necessary permissions to read and update incidents in the new portal, following the principle of least privilege.
7. Vulnerability Mitigation: Testing the New Workflow
The primary vulnerability introduced by this migration is unplanned downtime and loss of security visibility. A rigorous testing protocol is your primary mitigation.
PowerShell: Synthetic Incident Creation for Testing
$body = @{
title = "Migration Test Incident"
status = "Active"
classification = "TruePositive"
determination = "Malware"
tags = @("Migration_Test")
} | ConvertTo-Json
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/security/incidents" -Method POST -Body $body -Headers $headers
Step-by-Step Guide:
To validate your entire migrated stack, from detection to response, create synthetic incidents. The PowerShell script uses the Microsoft Graph Security API to create a test incident. Once created, you can verify that your new analytic rules trigger, automation rules run, playbooks execute, and your team’s triage process works flawlessly within the Defender portal. Conduct these tests in a development workspace before your production cut-over.
What Undercode Say:
- The integration of Sentinel into the Defender portal is not merely a UI change; it is a fundamental architectural shift that demands a programmatic and proactive migration strategy.
- Organizations that treat this as a simple “lift-and-shift” project risk significant operational disruption and a degradation of their security posture post-2026.
This migration represents a strategic consolidation by Microsoft, pushing the industry towards integrated XDR platforms. The technical debt of custom scripts and unvalidated automations poses the greatest threat. The two-year notice period is a gift that must be used wisely. A phased approach—starting with API and automation updates, followed by parallel running of triage processes, and culminating in comprehensive testing—is essential. The organizations that succeed will be those that view this transition as an opportunity to refine and harden their entire SecOps workflow, rather than just fulfilling a technical requirement.
Prediction:
This forced migration will accelerate the convergence of SIEM and XDR functionalities, creating a new market standard for unified security operations platforms. Organizations that successfully navigate this transition will benefit from tighter integration, faster mean-time-to-response (MTTR), and more intelligent automation. Conversely, those who delay will face increased complexity, higher integration costs, and a fragmented security view, potentially leading to missed detections and compliance gaps as the legacy Azure Sentinel interface eventually loses feature parity and support.
🎯Let’s Practice For Free:
IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Metso Transition – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
