What is a Azure AD Stale Device
In Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), a stale device is a device that has not been used to authenticate with Azure AD for a certain period of time. By default, a device is considered stale if it has not been used to authenticate with Azure AD for 90 days, but this threshold can be customized by the administrator.
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Stale devices can be a security concern, as they may no longer be under the control of the original owner and could potentially be used to gain unauthorized access to company resources. To address this concern, Azure AD provides the ability to detect and manage Azure AD Clean Up Stale Devices.
To detect stale devices in Azure AD, you can use the Azure AD PowerShell module and the Get-AzureADDevice cmdlet. This cmdlet allows you to retrieve a list of devices registered with Azure AD and filter the list by various criteria, including the last time the device authenticated with Azure AD.
Clean Up Stale Devices with PowerShell
To clean up stale devices in Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) using PowerShell, you can use the Azure AD PowerShell module and the Remove-AzureADDevice cmdlet. Here is an example of how you can use this cmdlet to delete stale devices from Azure AD:
#Get List
$dt = (Get-Date).AddDays(-180)
Get-AzureADDevice -All:$true | Where {$_.ApproximateLastLogonTimeStamp -le $dt} | select-object -Property AccountEnabled, DeviceId, DeviceOSType, DeviceOSVersion, DisplayName, DeviceTrustType, ApproximateLastLogonTimestamp
#deactivate
Get-AzureADDevice -All:$true | Where {$_.ApproximateLastLogonTimeStamp -le $dt} | Set-AzureADDevice -AccountEnabled $false
#delete
Get-AzureADDevice -All:$true | Where {$_.ApproximateLastLogonTimeStamp -le $dt} | Remove-AzureADDevice
Conclusion
Removing stale devices from Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) can be a useful way to maintain the security of your organization’s resources and prevent unauthorized access. Some potential benefits of removing stale devices from Azure AD include:
- Improved security: Stale devices may no longer be under the control of the original owner and could potentially be used to gain unauthorized access to company resources. Removing stale devices from Azure AD can help reduce this risk and improve the overall security of your organization.
- Reduced clutter: Keeping a large number of stale devices registered in Azure AD can make it more difficult to manage and maintain your device list. Removing stale devices can help reduce clutter and make it easier to manage your device list.
- Improved performance: A large number of stale devices registered in Azure AD can impact the performance of Azure AD-based services, such as Azure AD Join and Azure AD Domain Services. Removing stale devices can help improve the performance of these services.
Overall, removing stale devices from Azure AD can be a useful way to improve the security and management of your organization’s resources.
