Manage Linux with Microsoft Endpoint Manager

Linux systems can be managed quickly through Microsoft’s Endpoint Manager. The latter is a cloud tool for the management and monitoring of PCs and mobile devices, which until now can only work with Windows, MacOS, Android and iOS.

In particular, under Linux, among other things, the operating system and applications can be configured remotely. Additionally, administrators can assign central guidelines, for example, password protection and distribute profiles for WLANs.

To launch Ubuntu, more dystros are to be followed

Microsoft wants to confront different types of Linux distributions with scripts. You can adjust the system administrator accordingly. However, Endpoint Manager can only handle Ubuntu at startup; Support for RHEL, CentOS and Fedora will continue.

Finally, Microsoft insists that you check if the final device’s antivirus software is enabled. See more details In the announcement No. Microsoft aims for preview support for Linux in the spring of 2022.

Please download Intune before accessing

Additionally, access to Microsoft 365 applications may be better controlled for Linux in the future: Conditional Access Guidelines may be used to verify that Linux systems meet the minimum requirements for these Internet applications. As the notification shows, the user has to call the latter in the Edge browser and then download Intune to his computer. This is to ensure that the system meets security requirements.

In addition to the Linux announcement, Microsoft is expanding its Endpoint Manager. In the future, compatibility controls can be configured separately beyond what is provided in Intune. For starters, you can perform your own tests for Windows using the PowerShell script. A preview of this should be included in the November release of Endpoint Manager.

(Pho)