Sentinel POC- Architecture and Recommendations For MSSPs (Part 4)

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 





To read part 1, please click here
To read part 2, please click here
To read part 3, please click here
To read part 5, please click here




Agents and Forwarders

Since, the Log Analytics Agent will be retired till August 2024, the new Azure Monitor Agent (AMA), which is a consolidation of all agents, will replace it along with the Telegraf agent and the Diagnostics extension. AMA actively supports Data Collection Rules (DCRs) that not only supports filtering of data during ingestion time not only for agents but also for other types of ingested data.

The AMA and DCRs helps in sending different types of data to different Log Analytic Workspaces, hence, if their is data that is not useful then it is not required to send it to the workspace associated with Sentinel. XPath queries can be used to filter out the events.

AMA agent can be easily installed via VM extensions, Azure Policy, or the Windows installer. However, the most preferable option is Azure Policy via Defender for Cloud (MDC) as it can work for any server on any cloud or on-prem and if any new servers are added then they will automatically get agent.

Partners can also configure a forwarder for CEF via AMA connector while forwarding syslog data to the Sentinel workspace using AMA. A Content hub solution including an AMA migration tracker workbook is also present. 

If migration is done from the Log Analytics agent to the AMA, then there is a script that can remove the previous agent on all Azure VMs. 

Sample Data

Sample data can be generated with the help of various options acting as customer workspaces during the POC. Some of them are:
  • Microsoft Sentinel Training Lab- This solution is available within the Sentinel's Content hub which goes through all the core features of Sentinel. It also include a little bit of sample data and can be considered if not much is required for POC.

  • Microsoft Sentinel To-Go!- It is a community resource that also includes some sample data.

  • Ingest Sample CEF  Data into Azure Sentinel- Microsoft Community Hub-  Although this one is older, its sample events are still very relevant. It can be used while testing a specific analytic rule in which a required specific data can be fed to trigger that rule. 

  • AttackIQ- It can be used to generate sufficient incidents to simulate a multistage attack, a Fusion incident.

Some of the other simulation options with other Microsoft Security services are:
  • Alert Validation in Microsoft Defender for Cloud
  • Deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint on Linux manually (useful if Defender 365 connector is installed)
  • Simulating risk detections in Defender in Azure AD Identity Protection (useful if Defender 365 connector is installed)
  • New ingestion-SampleData-as-a-service solution, for a great Demos and simulation- Microsoft Community Hub (useful for the elsewhere data need to be ingested to other workspaces)








To read part 1, please click here
To read part 2, please click here
To read part 3, please click here
To read part 5, please click here


















































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