Building Microsoft Sentinel Connectors in Minutes with the Sentinel Connector Builder Agent
Overview We previously announced the public preview of the Microsoft Sentinel connector builder agent via VS code extension, that helps developers build Microsoft Sentinel codeless connectors faster with low-code and AI-assisted prompts. This post walks through a hands-on lab using a mock Network Log API to demonstrate how the Sentinel connector builder agent simplifies building Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) pull connectors. Instead of manually creating ingestion infrastructure and configuration files, you’ll use a guided, conversational workflow in VS Code to generate connector artifacts, test them against a live API, and deploy them into Microsoft Sentinel. The lab focuses on the end-to-end experience ranging from API setup to validated connector deployment so you can see how quickly a working integration can be produced. For additional guidance beyond this lab, refer to our MS Learn documentation. The Lab Environment This lab is built around a mock Network Log API hosted as an Azure Function App. The purpose of the lab environment is to give us a live API that we can use to build, validate, and test the Sentinel CCF connector builder agent against end to end. The API exposes 50 synthetic network activity records that look and behave like a real product data source, including web traffic, DNS requests, blocked remote access attempts, malware command-and-control blocks, VPN activity, and other common network events. That makes it a useful stand-in for the type of telemetry many teams want to onboard into Microsoft Sentinel. The API is intentionally shaped like the kind of source a customer might expose for telemetry retrieval. It uses API key authentication through the X-API-Key header, returns paginated results through a nextLink model, and provides a predictable response structure that the builder agent can map into a pull connector configuration. The repo contains everything needed for the walkthrough. There is an ARM template to deploy the Function App, reference documentation for the API, and a sample connector package showing the generated polling config, table schema, DCR, and connector definition. The end goal of the lab is straightforward: use the builder agent to generate a CCF pull connector that ingests this API into the custom NetworkLogAPIGetNetworkLogs_CL table in Sentinel. Prerequisites Before starting, make sure you have the following: Azure subscription -- with Contributor access on a resource group (for deploying the Function App) and Microsoft Sentinel Contributor access on a Sentinel-enabled workspace (for deploying the connector) Microsoft Sentinel workspace -- an existing Log Analytics workspace with Sentinel enabled. See Onboard Microsoft Sentinel to a Log Analytics workspace for more information. Azure CLI -- See How to install the Azure CLI for more information. VS Code with the Microsoft Sentinel for Visual Studio Code extension installed. GitHub Copilot -- with access to premium models. The connector builder agent requires Claude Sonnet 4.5 or 4.6, which uses Copilot premium model credits. Lab Repository -- Once the aforementioned prerequisites are met, you can access the lab repository here: Azure-Sentinel/Tools/CCF-Connector-Builder-Agent-Accelerator at master · Azure/Azure-Sentinel Deploying the Mock API The full CLI commands for this section are available in the repo. For a simpler option, you can use GitHub Copilot to handle the deployment. Enter this prompt: Follow the deployment instructions in Sentinel-CCF-Pull-Connector-Builder-Agent-Accelerator/agent-instructions.md. Let’s deploy the Network Log API and build a CCF pull connector. At a high level, the setup is four steps: clone the repo, create a resource group, ensure you have a Sentinel-enabled workspace, and deploy the Function App using the included ARM template. The template takes two parameters: an ApiKey of your choice (the secret the CCF connector will use to authenticate) and your Log Analytics workspace resource ID for Application Insights. Deployment takes about two to three minutes and outputs the FunctionAppName and endpoint URLs you will need later. Once deployed, verify the API is live: curl -s -H "X-API-Key: <your-api-key>" \ "https://<functionappname>.azurewebsites.net/api/GetNetworkLogs?page=1&pageSize=3" </functionappname></your-api-key> You should see a response like this: The API also exposes an /api/RefreshData endpoint that regenerates the 50 sample records with fresh timestamps. This is useful later in the walkthrough when you want to produce new events and trigger an immediate ingestion cycle without waiting for the next polling interval: curl -s -X POST -H "X-API-Key: <your-api-key>" \ "https://<functionappname>.azurewebsites.net/api/RefreshData" </functionappname></your-api-key> Building the Connector with the Sentinel Connector Builder Agent With the Microsoft Sentinel extension installed and GitHub Copilot running in agent mode, open a Copilot chat and enter a single prompt pointing at the API documentation file: That is the entire invocation. The agent takes it from there. It works through a structured seven-step sequence: preparation, polling config, table schema, DCR, connector definition, package validation, and summary. The agent produces four files in a sentinel-connectors/NetworkLogAPI_CCF/ output folder: NetworkLogAPI_PollingConfig.json – This is the API poller configuration. The agent reads the documentation and correctly identifies the GET /api/GetNetworkLogs endpoint, configures API Key authentication via the X-API-Key header, sets up NextPageUrl pagination using $.metadata.nextLink with a $.metadata.hasNextPage stop condition, and wires up the since query parameter for incremental delta pulls using the timestamp field. The RefreshData endpoint is correctly excluded, which the agent recognizes as a maintenance operation, not a security data stream. NetworkLogAPI_Table.json – This is the custom Log Analytics table schema for NetworkLogAPIGetNetworkLogs_CL . All 20 fields from the API response are mapped to the correct column types, with timestamp promoted to TimeGenerated as the standard Sentinel time column. NetworkLogAPI_DCR.json – This is the Data Collection Rule. This defines the stream declaration, the workspace destination, and the KQL transform that maps the raw snake_case API fields ( sourceIp , destinationIp , threatIndicator , etc.) to their PascalCase table columns. NetworkLogAPI_ConnectorDefinition.json – This is the connector UI configuration. This drives what the connector page looks like in Microsoft Sentinel: the title, description, prerequisite instructions, the BaseUrl and ApiKey input fields, sample KQL queries, and the connectivity status logic. The only point where the agent paused for input was to propose a connector description and ask for confirmation before writing it to the file. Everything else such as endpoint selection, auth type, pagination pattern, schema mapping, KQL transform, cross-file consistency was selected autonomously. To put that in perspective: without the agent, a developer building this connector from scratch would need to manually author four JSON files, understand the CCF schema for polling configs, DCRs, and connector definitions, write the KQL transform by hand, and validate that every cross-file reference lines up correctly. The agent compresses that work, typically hours of reading documentation, trial-and-error, and portal debugging, into a single prompt. Testing the Connector Before deploying anything to a Sentinel workspace, the Microsoft Sentinel connector builder agent lets you validate the generated polling config against the live API directly from your editor. Right-click the sentinel-connectors/NetworkLogAPI_CCF folder, select Microsoft Sentinel → Test Connector (Preview), and a Configuration Variables panel opens asking for the two template variables from the polling config: BaseUrl and apiKey . For other API patterns, there may be additional and different inputs. For example, apiKey input could be swapped with clientID and secret if the API supports OAUTH. Enter the Function App base URL and your API key, and the test runner connects immediately. The panel shows a live polling session. Poll #1 returns HTTP 200 with 50 events, and a countdown timer shows when the next poll will fire. Switching to the Events tab displays the ingested records in a tabular view with columns for timestamp , severity , action , bytesIn , bytesOut , category , and the rest of the mapped fields fresh from the API. Additionally, there are tabs for Headers, Payload, and Response, which can be useful for verifying that your pollerconfig.json configuration provides the expected request to your api with a working response. Data Extracted: The Test Connector feature can be used to visualize the response data in a table format to verify that data will land in a Sentinel table based on your configuration. Request from Poller: The Test Connector feature can be used to validate the request and response headers that will go out to the API based on the generated poller configuration. Request Response: The Test Connector feature shows you the live response from the API with respect to the request going to the API based on the poller configuration. This is a meaningful pre-flight check. It confirms that auth is working, the $.data events path resolves correctly, pagination is functional, and the polling interval fires as configured all before a single file is deployed to Azure. The most common connector configuration issues (wrong base URL, incorrect header name, mismatched JSON path) surface here in seconds rather than after a failed deployment and a 20-minute wait for Sentinel to attempt its first ingestion cycle. It is also the fastest way to troubleshoot if something goes wrong after deployment, far quicker than pushing changes to Azure and waiting for the connector to poll again. Deploying and Enabling the Connector With the connector tested and passing, deployment is the same right-click menu: right-click the sentinel-connectors/NetworkLogAPI_CCF folder, select Microsoft Sentinel → Deploy Connector (Preview). If you are not already signed in to Azure, the extension will prompt you to authenticate. The agent will also provide a clickbox in the chat window to invoke a connector deployment. Right Click Deploy Connector: UI Prompt Based Deploy Method: Once signed in, a workspace picker lists all available Log Analytics workspaces across your subscriptions. Select the one with Sentinel enabled and click Deploy. The extension deploys all four files to the workspace in the correct order: table schema first, then DCR, polling config, and connector definition. Once deployed, navigate to your Sentinel workspace via https://security.microsoft.com, go to Data Connectors, and find the Network Log API connector. The connector page shows the description, prerequisite notes, and the two credential fields generated by the agent: API Base URL and API Key. Enter your Function App base URL and API key and click Connect. The status updates to show the connector is connected and the deployment succeeded. Note: Data will appear in the workspace within 5 to 30 minutes depending on the polling interval. Run this query in Log Analytics to confirm ingestion. Note that the agent derives the table name from the vendor name and endpoint, so yours may differ slightly from the example below. Check the agent's summary output or the NetworkLogAPI_Table.json file for the exact name: NetworkLogAPIGetNetworkLogs_CL | sort by TimeGenerated desc | take 10 If you want to generate a fresh batch of events immediately rather than waiting for the next polling cycle, use the RefreshData endpoint to reset the sample records with new timestamps: curl -s -X POST -H "X-API-Key: " \ "https://.azurewebsites.net/api/RefreshData" Next Steps If you want to go further: Try it with your own API. The lab repo includes documentation on adapting the polling config, schema, and KQL transform to a real data source. Review the CCF connector schema documentation to understand the full range of supported configurations: pagination patterns, auth types, incremental pull strategies, and delta filter expressions. Explore the Microsoft Sentinel content hub to see how published connectors are structured and what the certification requirements look like for production submissions. Conclusion Following these steps, you saw how a working Sentinel connector can be generated, tested, and deployed in minutes rather than requiring days of manual configuration and infrastructure setup. If you are an ISV building a Sentinel integration and want hands-on support, Microsoft’s App Assure program is available to help. We partner with ISVs on connector development, validation, and deployment and provide guidance through implementation, testing, and readiness for production. You can get started by reaching out through our intake form. See our other Sentinel connector feature’s hands-on labs Building a CCF Nested API Pull Connector: A Technical Lab WalkthroughWhat’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: June 2026
Welcome back to What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. In June, Sentinel SIEM’s Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) broadens its normalization, so one analytic rule can reach more sources with less per-source work and, additionally, two new ASIM schemas can now bring asset inventory and AI agent telemetry into common form. In Microsoft Sentinel data lake, the Agent Identities Asset Connector adds the identity context behind your AI agents, helping you see who owns an agent and what permissions it holds. In Sentinel MCP, graph tools help security teams investigate threats and optimize security coverage by visualizing relationships across identities, devices, alerts, and signals in a unified graph experience. Read on for the details, and explore the resources at the end to go deeper. Sentinel innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Sentinel MCP Microsoft Security Store Sentinel SIEM Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) parsers and schemas [Generally available] The Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) in Sentinel normalizes logs into common schemas, so one analytic rule can cover many sources without managing each native schema. ASIM coverage has expanded across more Azure services, broader AWS CloudTrail activity, and a range of third-party firewall, identity, and proxy products, so your detections reach more of your environment with less per-source work. Two schemas also join ASIM: Asset Entities normalizes asset inventory so you can correlate files and assets across investigations, and AI Agent Events normalizes telemetry from AI-driven workflows and autonomous agents. Browse the ASIM parsers on GitHub to explore, file issues, or contribute. Learn more in our blog. Sentinel transition to Defender blog series By March 31, 2027, all Microsoft Sentinel customers transition to Defender. This six-part series guides you through moving your Sentinel experience from the Azure portal to Defender, where SIEM, XDR, threat intelligence, AI, and automation come together in one experience. Your analytics rules, playbooks, workbooks, log analytics workspace, and access assignments all carry forward while the operational layer becomes more connected and intelligent. Starting early matters because you realize the benefits sooner, including a unified incident queue, cross-product correlation, Security Copilot, Sentinel data lake, and SOC optimization. Across the six-part blog series you get 1) the strategic shift, 2) the anatomy of incident and data changes, 3) detection and automation, 4) the governance shift across roles and access, 5) a readiness playbook with the adoption helper and cost guidance, and 6) a look at the AI-first SOC. Each part stands alone, so you can read in order or jump to what matters most to you. Sentinel data lake Agent Identities Asset Connector [Public preview] The Agent Identities Asset Connector brings identity context for AI agents into Sentinel. Activity connectors like Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot already show you what AI agents do, but activity alone cannot tell you who owns an agent, what permissions it holds, or how it is governed. This connector fills that gap with four asset tables covering agent owners, agent identities, agent blueprints, and the service principals tied to those blueprints. Together they form a connected agent identity graph you can trace from owner to identity to blueprint to permissions to the resources an agent touches. Joining this asset data with activity data in Sentinel data lake lets you detect anomalous behavior relative to permissions, spot over-permissioned or misconfigured agents, and follow full execution chains for end-to-end traceability. To get started, install the Agent 365 and Microsoft 365 Copilot solutions in Content Hub and enable the asset and activity connectors. Learn more. Sentinel MCP Sentinel MCP graph tools [Public preview] Microsoft Security Graph MCP tools, recently introduced in the Microsoft Sentinel MCP Server data exploration collection helps security teams investigate threats by exploring relationships between identities and device assets, and threat and activity signals ingested by data connectors and surfaced by analytic rules. Starting from an alert, analysts can follow the exposure path across connected entities — tracing lateral movement, understanding blast radius, and identifying configuration gaps — all from a single, interactive workspace. The tool provides a clear graph view that highlights dependencies and makes it easier to understand how content interacts across your environment. This helps security teams assess coverage, optimize content deployment, and identify areas that may need tuning or additional data sources. Executing graph queries via the MCP tools will trigger the graph meter. Learn more. Microsoft Security Store Partner testimonials from Adaquest and Glueckkanja For partners like Adaquest and Glueckkanja, the Microsoft Security Store helps not only put their years of knowledge, understanding, and best practices into a scalable, packaged solution, it gives them the ability to democratize that expertise and take it to market globally. Security Store operationalizes their expertise as always-on defenses — discoverable, deployable, and driving real outcomes inside the tools that security teams rely on every day. See how the Security Store is helping security teams act on threats faster with the right solutions and to be ready when it matters most: Watch: Adaquest unlocks faster response times for customers (testimonial) Watch: Glueckkanja builds agents with purpose (testimonial) Additional resources Blogs and documentation: The Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) Process Event normalization schema reference How BlueVoyant's ASIM-First Strategy Simplifies Threat Detection in Microsoft Sentinel Migrate Sentinel to Defender – Why It Is a Security Architecture Decision, Not Just a Portal Change Connect Microsoft Sentinel to the Microsoft Defender portal Agent 365 connector: Monitor, hunt, and investigate AI agent activity in Microsoft Sentinel Get started with Microsoft Sentinel MCP server Upcoming webinars and events: July 15–16: Microsoft Virtual Training Day: Predict and Defend Against Cybersecurity Threats July 22: Microsoft Security Immersion Event: Shadow Hunter July 23-24: Microsoft Virtual Training Day: Introduction to Microsoft Security July 28: Tech Brief: Modernize security operations with a unified platform July 29: Security Immersion Event: Into the Breach Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!Microsoft Sentinel data lake FAQ
Microsoft Sentinel data lake (generally available) is a purpose‑built, cloud‑native security data lake. It centralizes all security data in an open format, serving as the foundation for agentic defense, enhanced security insights, and graph-based enrichment. It offers cost‑effective ingestion, long‑term retention, and advanced analytics. In this blog we offer answers to many of the questions we’ve heard from our customers and partners. General questions What is the Microsoft Sentinel data lake? Microsoft has expanded its industry-leading SIEM solution, Microsoft Sentinel, to include a unified, security data lake, designed to help optimize costs, simplify data management, and accelerate the adoption of AI in security operations. This modern data lake serves as the foundation for the Microsoft Sentinel platform. It has a cloud-native architecture and is purpose-built for security—bringing together all security data for greater visibility, deeper security analysis, contextual awareness and agentic defense. It provides affordable, long-term retention, allowing organizations to maintain robust security while effectively managing budgetary requirements. What are the benefits of Sentinel data lake? Microsoft Sentinel data lake is purpose built for security offering flexible analytics, cost management, and deeper security insights. Sentinel data lake: Centralizes security data delta parquet and open format for easy access. This unified data foundation accelerates threat detection, investigation, and response across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Enables data federation by allowing customers to access data in external sources like Microsoft Fabric, ADLS and Databricks from the data lake. Federated data appears alongside native Sentinel data, enabling correlated hunting, investigation, and custom graph analysis across a broader digital estate. Offers a disaggregated storage and compute pricing model, allowing customers to store massive volumes of security data at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional SIEM solutions. Allows multiple analytics engines like Kusto, Spark, and ML to run on a single data copy, simplifying management, reducing costs, and supporting deeper security analysis. Integrates with GitHub Copilot and VS Code empowering SOC teams to automate enrichment, anomaly detection, and forensic analysis. Supports AI agents via the MCP server, allowing tools like GitHub Copilot to query and automate security tasks. The MCP Server layer brings intelligence to the data, offering Semantic Search, Query Tools, and Custom Analysis capabilities that make it easier to extract insights and automate workflows. Provides streamlined onboarding, intuitive table management, and scalable multi-tenant support, making it ideal for MSSPs and large enterprises. The Sentinel data lake is designed for security workloads, ensuring that processes from ingestion to analytics meet evolving cybersecurity requirements. Is Microsoft Sentinel SIEM going away? No. Microsoft is expanding Sentinel into an AI powered end-to-end security platform that includes SIEM and new platform capabilities - Security data lake, graph-powered analytics and MCP Server. SIEM remains a core component and will be actively developed and supported. Getting started What are the prerequisites for Sentinel data lake? To get started: Connect your Sentinel workspace to Microsoft Defender prior to onboarding to Sentinel data lake. Once in the Defender experience see data lake onboarding documentation for next steps. Note: Sentinel is moving to the Microsoft Defender portal and the Sentinel Azure portal will be retired by March 31, 2027. I am a Sentinel-only customer, and not a Defender customer. Can I use the Sentinel data lake? Yes. You must connect Sentinel to the Defender experience before onboarding to the Sentinel data lake. Microsoft Sentinel is generally available in the Microsoft Defender portal, with or without Microsoft Defender XDR or an E5 license. If you have created a log analytics workspace, enabled it for Sentinel and have the right Microsoft Entra roles (e.g. Global Administrator + Subscription Owner, Security Administrator + Sentinel Contributor), you can enable Sentinel in the Defender portal. For more details on how to connect Sentinel to Defender review these sources: Microsoft Sentinel in the Microsoft Defender portal In what regions is Sentinel data lake available? For supported regions see: Geographical availability and data residency in Microsoft Sentinel | Azure Docs. Is there an expected release date for Microsoft Sentinel data lake in GCC, GCC-H, and DoD? While the exact date is not yet finalized, we plan to expand Sentinel data lake to the US Government environments. . How will URBAC and Entra RBAC work together to manage the data lake given there is no centralized model? Entra RBAC will provide broad access to the data lake (URBAC maps the right permissions to specific Entra role holders: GA/SA/SO/GR/SR). URBAC will become a centralized pane for configuring non-global delegated access to the data lake. For today, you will use this for the “default data lake” workspace. In the future, this will be enabled for non-default Sentinel workspaces as well – meaning all workspaces in the data lake can be managed here for data lake RBAC requirements. Azure RBAC on the Log Analytics (LA) workspace in the data lake is respected through URBAC as well today. If you already hold a built-in role like log analytics reader, you will be able to run interactive queries over the tables in that workspace. Or, if you hold log analytics contributor, you can read and manage table data. For more details see: Roles and permissions in the Microsoft Sentinel platform | Microsoft Learn Data ingestion and storage How do I ingest data into the Sentinel data lake? To ingest data into the Sentinel data lake, you can use existing Sentinel data connectors or custom connectors to bring data from Microsoft and third-party sources. Data can be ingested into the analytics tier or the data lake tier. Data ingested into the analytics tier is automatically mirrored to the lake (at no additional cost). Alternatively, data that is not needed in the analytics tier can be ingested directly into the data lake. Data retention is configured directly in table management, for both analytics retention and data lake storage. Note: Certain tables do not support data lake-only ingestion via either API or data connector UI. See here for more information: Custom log tables. What is Microsoft’s guidance on when to use analytics tier vs. the data lake tier? Sentinel data lake offers flexible, built-in data tiering (analytics and data lake tiers) to effectively meet diverse business use cases and achieve cost optimization goals. Analytics tier: Is ideal for high-performance, real-time, end-to-end detections, enrichments, investigation and interactive dashboards. Typically, high-fidelity data from EDRs, email gateways, identity, SaaS and cloud logs, threat intelligence (TI) should be ingested into the analytics tier. Data in the analytics tier is best monitored proactively with scheduled alerts and scheduled analytics to enable security detections Data in this tier is retained at no cost for up to 90 days by default, extendable to 2 years. A copy of the data in this tier is automatically available in the data lake tier at no extra cost, ensuring a unified copy of security data for both tiers. Data lake tier: Is designed for cost-effective, long-term storage. High-volume logs like NetFlow logs, TLS/SSL certificate logs, firewall logs and proxy logs are best suited for data lake tier. Customers can use these logs for historical analysis, compliance and auditing, incident response (IR), forensics over historical data, build tenant baselines, TI matching and then promote resulting insights into the analytics tier. Customers can run full Kusto queries, Spark Notebooks and scheduled jobs over a single copy of their data in the data lake. Customers can also search, enrich and promote data from the data lake tier to the analytics tier for full analytics. For more details see documentation. What does it mean that a copy of all new analytics tier data will be available in the data lake? When Sentinel data lake is enabled, a copy of all new data ingested into the analytics tier is automatically duplicated into the data lake tier. This means customers don’t need to manually configure or manage this process, every new log or telemetry added to the analytics tier becomes instantly available in the data lake. This allows security teams to run advanced analytics, historical investigations, and machine learning models on a single, unified copy of data in the lake, while still using the analytics tier for real-time SOC workflows. It’s a seamless way to support both operational and long-term use cases—without duplicating effort or cost. What is the guidance for customers using data federation capability in Sentinel data lake? Starting April 1, 2026, federate data from Microsoft Fabric, ADLS, and Azure Databricks into Sentinel data lake. Use data federation when data is exploratory, infrequently accessed, or must remain at source due to governance, compliance, sovereignty, or contractual requirements. Ingest data directly into Sentinel to unlock full SIEM capabilities, always-on detections, advanced automation, and AI‑driven defense at scale. This approach lets security teams start where their data already lives — preserving governance, then progressively ingest data into Sentinel for full security value. Is there any cost for retention in the analytics tier? Analytics ingestion includes 90 days of interactive retention, at no additional cost. Simply set analytics retention to 90 days or less. Analytics retention beyond 90 days will incur a retention cost. Data can be retained longer within the data lake by using the “total retention” setting. This allows you to extend retention within the data lake for up to 12 years. While data is retained within the analytics tier, there is no charge for the mirrored data within the lake. Retaining data in the lake beyond the analytics retention period incurs additional storage costs. See documentation for more details: Manage data tiers and retention in Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft Learn What is the guidance for Microsoft Sentinel Basic and Auxiliary Logs customers? If you previously enabled Basic or Auxiliary Logs plan in Sentinel: You can view Basic Logs in the Defender portal but manage it from the Log Analytics workspace. To manage it in the Defender portal, you must change the plan from Basic to Analytics. Once the table is transitioned to the analytics tier, if desired, it can then be transitioned to the data lake. Existing Auxiliary Log tables will be available in the data lake tier for use once the Sentinel data lake is enabled. Billing for these tables will automatically switch to the Sentinel data lake meters. Microsoft Sentinel customers are recommended to start planning their data management strategy with the data lake. While Basic and Auxiliary Logs are still available, they are not being enhanced further. Sentinel data lake offers more capabilities at a lower price point. Please plan on onboarding your security data to the Sentinel data lake. Azure Monitor customers can continue to use Basic and Auxiliary Logs for observability scenarios. What happens to customers that already have Archive logs enabled? If a customer has already configured tables for Archive retention, existing retention settings will not change and will be automatically inherited by the Sentinel data lake. All data, including existing data in archive retention will be billed using the data lake storage meter, benefiting from 6x data compression. However, the data itself will not move. Existing data in archive will continue to be accessible through Sentinel search and restore experiences: o Data will not be backfilled into the data lake. o Data will be billed using the data lake storage meter. New data ingested after enabling the data lake: o Will be automatically mirrored to the data lake and accessible through data lake explorer. o Data will be billed using the data lake storage meter. Example: If a customer has 12 months of total retention enabled on a table, 2 months after enabling ingestion into the Sentinel data lake, the customer will still have access to 10 months of archived data (through Sentinel search and restore experiences), but access to only 2 months of data in the data lake (since the data lake was enabled). Key considerations for customers that currently have Archive logs enabled: The existing archive will remain, with new data ingested into the data lake going forward; previously stored archive data will not be backfilled into the lake. Archive logs will continue to be accessible via the Search and Restore tab under Sentinel. If analytics and data lake mode are enabled on table, which is the default setting for analytics tables when Sentinel data lake is enabled, all new data will be ingested into the Sentinel data lake. There will only be one storage meter (which is data lake storage) going forward. Archive will continue to be accessible via Search and Restore. If Sentinel data lake-only mode is enabled on table, new data will be ingested only into the data lake; any data that’s not already in the Sentinel data lake won’t be migrated/backfilled. Only data that was previously ingested under the archive plan will be accessible via Search and Restore. What is the guidance for customers using Azure Data Explorer (ADX) alongside Microsoft Sentinel? Some customers might have set up ADX cluster for their DIY lake setup. Customers can choose to continue using that setup and gradually migrate to Sentinel data lake for new data that they want to manage. The lake explorer will support federation with ADX to enable the customers to migrate gradually and simplify their deployment. What happens to the Defender XDR data after enabling Sentinel data lake? By default, Defender XDR tables are available for querying in advanced hunting, with 30 days of analytics tier retention included with the XDR license. To retain data beyond this period, an explicit change to the retention setting is required, either by extending the analytics tier retention or the total retention period. You can extend the retention period of supported Defender XDR tables beyond 30 days and ingest the data into the analytics tier. For more information see Manage XDR data in Microsoft Sentinel. You can also ingest XDR data directly into the data lake tier. See here for more information. A list of XDR advanced hunting tables supported by Sentinel are documented here: Connect Microsoft Defender XDR data to Microsoft Sentinel | Microsoft Learn. KQL queries and jobs Is KQL and Notebook supported over the Sentinel data lake? Yes, via the data lake KQL query experience along with a fully managed Notebook experience which enables spark-based big data analytics over a single copy of all your security data. Customers can run queries across any time range of data in their Sentinel data lake. In the future, this will be extended to enable SQL query over lake as well. Note: Triggering a KQL job directly via an API or Logic App is not yet supported but is on the roadmap. Why are there two different places to run KQL queries in Sentinel experience? Advanced hunting queries both XDR and analytics tables, with compute cost included. Data lake explorer only queries data in the lake and incurs a separate compute cost. Consolidating advanced hunting and KQL explorer user interfaces is on the roadmap. This will provide security analysts a unified query experience across both analytics and data lake tiers. Where is the output from KQL jobs stored? KQL jobs are written into existing or new custom tables in the analytics tier. Is it possible to run KQL queries on multiple data lake tables? Yes, you can run KQL interactive queries and jobs using operators like join or union. Can KQL queries (either interactive or via KQL jobs) join data across multiple workspaces? Security teams can run multi-workspace KQL queries for broader threat correlation Pricing and billing How does a customer pay for Sentinel data lake? Billing is automatically enabled at the time of onboarding based on Azure Subscription and Resource Group selections. Customers are then charged based on the volume of data ingested, retained, and analyzed (e.g. KQL Queries and Jobs). See Sentinel pricing page for more details. 2. What are the pricing components for Sentinel data lake? Sentinel data lake offers a flexible pricing model designed to optimize security coverage and costs. At a high level, pricing is based on the volume of data ingested/processed, the volume of data retained, and the volume of data processed. For specific meter definitions, see documentation. 3. How does the business model for Sentinel SIEM change with the introduction of the data lake? There is no change to existing Sentinel analytics tier ingestion business model. Sentinel data lake has separate meters for ingestion, storage and analytics. 4. What happens to the existing Sentinel SIEM and related Azure Monitor billing meters when a customer onboards to Sentinel data lake? When a customer onboards to the Sentinel data lake, nothing changes with analytic ingestion or retention. Customers using data archive and Auxiliary Logs will automatically transition to the new data lake meters. How does data lake storage affect cost efficiency for high volume data retention? Sentinel data lake offers cost-effective, long-term storage with uniform data compression of 6:1 across all data sources, applicable only to data lake storage. Example: For 600GB of data stored, you are only billed for 100GB compressed data. This approach allows organizations to retain greater volumes of security data over extended periods cost-effectively, thereby reducing security risks without compromising their overall security posture. here How “Data Processing” billed? To support the ingestion and standardization of diverse data sources, the Data Processing feature applies a $0.10 per GB (US East) charge for all data ingested into the data lake. This feature enables a broad array of transformations like redaction, splitting, filtering and normalization. The data processing charge is applied per GB of uncompressed data Note: For regional pricing, please refer to the “Data processing” meter within the Microsoft Sentinel Pricing official documentation. Does “Data processing” meter apply to analytics tier data mirrored in the data lake? No. Data processing charge will not be applied to mirrored data. Data mirrored from the analytic tier is not subject to either data ingestion or processing charges. How is retention billed for tables that use data lake-only ingestion & retention? Sentinel data lake decouples ingestion, storage, and analytics meters. Customers have the flexibility to pay based on how data is retained and used. For tables that use data lake‑only ingestion, there is no included free retention—unlike the analytics tier, which includes 90 days of analytics retention. Retention charges begin immediately once data is stored in the data lake. Data lake storage billing is based on compressed data size rather than raw ingested volume, which significantly reduces storage costs and delivers lower overall retention spend for customers. Does data federation incur charges? Data federation does not generate any ingestion or storage fees in Sentinel data lake. Customers are billed only when they run analytics or queries on federated data, with charges based on Sentinel data lake compute and analytics meters. This means customers pay solely for actual data usage, not mere connectivity. How do I understand Sentinel data lake costs? Sentinel data lake costs driven by three primary factors: how much data is ingested, how long that data is retained, and how the data is used. Customers can flexibly choose to ingest data into the analytics tier or data lake tier, and these architectural choices directly impact cost. For example, data can be ingested into the analytics tier—where commitment tiers help optimize costs for high data volumes—or ingested data directly into the Sentinel data lake for lower‑cost ingestion, storage, and on‑demand analysis. Customers are encouraged to work with their Microsoft account team to obtain an accurate cost estimate tailored to their environment. See Sentinel pricing page to understand Sentinel pricing. How do I manage Sentinel data lake costs? Built-in cost management experiences help customers with cost predictability, billing transparency, and operational efficiency. Reports provide customers with insights into usage trends over time, enabling them to identify cost drivers and optimize data retention and processing strategies. Set usage-based alerts on specific meters to monitor and control costs. For example, receive alerts when query or notebook usage passes set limits, helping avoid unexpected expenses and manage budgets. See our Sentinel cost management documentation to learn more. If I’m an Auxiliary Logs customer, how will onboarding to the Sentinel data lake affect my billing? Once a workspace is onboarded to Sentinel data lake, all Auxiliary Logs meters will be replaced by new data lake meters. Do we charge for data lake ingestion and storage for graph experiences? Microsoft Sentinel graph-based experiences are included as part of the existing Defender and Purview licenses. However, Sentinel graph requires Sentinel data lake and specific data sources to build the underlying graph. Enabling these data sources will incur ingestion and data lake storage costs. Note: For Sentinel SIEM customers, most required data sources are free for analytics ingestion. Non-entitled sources such as Microsoft Entra ID logs will incur ingestion and data lake storage costs. How is Entra asset data and ARG data billed? Data lake ingestion charges of $0.05 per GB (US EAST) will apply to Entra asset data and ARG data. Note: This was previously not billed during public preview and is billed since data lake GA. To learn more, see: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/sentinel/datalake/enable-data-connectors When a customer activates Sentinel data lake, what happens to tables with archive logs enabled? To simplify billing, once the data lake is enabled, all archive data will be billed using the data lake storage meter. This provides consistent long-term retention billing and includes automatic 6x data compression. For most customers, this change results in lower long‑term retention costs. However, customers who previously had discounted archive retention pricing will not automatically receive the same discounts on the new data lake storage meters. In these cases, customers should engage their Microsoft account team to review pricing implications before enabling the Sentinel data lake. Thank you Thank you to our customers and partners for your continued trust and collaboration. Your feedback drives our innovation, and we’re excited to keep evolving Microsoft Sentinel to meet your security needs. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out—we’re here to support you every step of the way. Learn more: Get started with Sentinel data lake today: https://aka.ms/Get_started/Sentinel_datalake Microsoft Sentinel AI-ready platform: https://aka.ms/Microsoft_Sentinel Sentinel data lake videos: https://aka.ms/Sentineldatalake_videos Latest innovations and updates on Sentinel: https://aka.ms/msftsentinelblog Sentinel pricing page: https://aka.ms/MicrosoftSentinel_PricingThe Worm in the Supply Chain: How Defender for Endpoint and Sentinel for SAP BTP Caught Shai-Hulud
On 29 April 2026, malicious versions of multiple SAP ecosystem npm packages were briefly published, creating a supply-chain exposure for SAP Cloud Application Programming (CAP) development environments and CI/CD pipelines. For a brief window that morning, affected developers have executed a credential-stealing payload on a workstation or, in higher-impact cases, within a CI/CD pipeline. SAP developers don't usually think of themselves as a juicy npm target. CAP, BTP, Fiori - that's enterprise turf, not crypto-stealer type territory – Until it is. Join me for the ride. See our latest click-video for an even more dynamic experience of SAP compromises. Affected packages and scope Four official npm packages from the SAP development ecosystem were published in malicious versions that day. Security researchers are calling the campaign "Mini Shai-Hulud" - the little cousin of the worm family that has been chewing its way through open-source registries for months. So, the "mini" part is a generous description in my opinion. Shai-Hulud has wriggled directly into the SAP supply chain, and that detail alone deserves a pause... SAP CAP is now interesting enough to have become a target. Four packages, all wearing legitimate SAP branding, all quietly swapped for evil twins: @cap-js/sqlite v2.2.2 @cap-js/postgres v2.2.2 @cap-js/db-service v2.10.1 mbt v1.2.48 These packages are not peripheral dependencies. The @cap-js/* modules are part of the SAP CAP Model used across custom development on SAP BTP, while mbt is the Cloud MTA Build Tool commonly embedded in CI/CD workflows that package and deploy Multi-Target Applications to BTP and on-premises environments. At roughly 930,000 weekly downloads, the combined exposure created meaningful downstream attack surface. The good news: SAP spotted the compromise fast, yanked the bad versions, and shipped clean replacements. The official guidance lives in SAP Security Note 3747787 - which carries the list of indicators of compromise, file hashes, and mitigation steps. Enough theory and evidence talk! Now, SHOW ME the detection! When the worm stirs beneath the sand, weak defenses vanish first. Observed telemetry in Microsoft Security products See below excerpt of Microsoft Defender for Endpoint from a compromised developer machine. The worm was neutralized immediately. Check the detection time (same day of release): Windows Defender AV detected malware ToString: DefenderDetection: File: /Users/User***/Projects/dara-api-manager-ui/node_modules/mbt/File***.js, Sha256: *** [Trojan:JS/SPchnStlr.BB], BlockingStatus: Prevented, BlockingStatusPriority: 900 DetectionTime: 2026-04-29 11:52:11Z DetectorName: Microsoft.Cyber.ObservationDetectors.DefenderConcreteDetector Observations (2): DefenderObservation Description: Defender detected and quarantined 'Trojan:JS/SPchnStlr.BB' in file 'File***.js' ThreatCategory = Trojan, ThreatFamily = SPchnStlr, How the Threat Actors Operationalized the Stolen Data The compromise allowed harvesting GitHub tokens, AWS/Azure/GCP secrets, npm credentials, Kubernetes config, SSH keys, .npmrc and .git-credentials files, and CI/CD environment variables. The hackers created a public GitHub repository on the victim’s own account, tagged with the description “A Mini Shai-Hulud has Appeared“ to exfiltrate their reaping. Within hours, more than a thousand such repositories were visible in public GitHub search. For additional views on the topic check out the blogs of our Sentinel for SAP partners: Onapsis, Pathlock, and SecurityBridge. Containment and Impact Reduction If you were not as lucky as the developer using Defender for Endpoint and VS Code, you need end to end monitoring of your landscape in and around SAP. Once the worm is loose with cloud tokens it may appear in various unexpected places. Microsoft Sentinel Solution for SAP covers your ERP crown jewels, your SAP BTP landscape and allows informed correlation with the rest of your IT estate. Microsoft’s correlation engine: ensures traceability automatic attack disruption and just-in-time hardening of potential attack paths. Developers using the cloud-based IDE SAP Business Application Studio are out of reach by Defender for Endpoint but profit from threat monitoring through Sentinel for SAP BTP integrating SAP BTP’s malware scanner the same way. See this in action in this click-video and in below screenshot. SOC analysts get actionable insights and tailored guidance from Security Copilot once SAP BTP signals are added to the Microsoft incident graph - no matter where the threat involving SAP originates from. Getting Started with Sentinel Solution for SAP Rollout of Sentinel for SAP BTP can happen immediately. Learn more from our deployment guide. Check out the security content reference for more info out-of-the-box detections. Sentinel for SAP which covers your ERP solutions and more, requires configuration of SAP Integration Suite as intermediary step. Learn more from our deployment guide. Check out the security content reference for more info out-of-the-box detections Final Words This incident illustrates how far the SAP BTP attack surface now extends and why patching alone is insufficient once malicious code reaches developer tooling and build infrastructure. Effective defense also requires telemetry, correlation, and response coverage across SAP and non-SAP environments. See you out there folks! #Kudos to Mahesh Mandva and Cameron Gardiner on riding shai-holud with me. Feel free to reach out to talk more about SAP Cyber Security. Cheers, Martin Useful Links SAP Note 3747787 with mitigation guide Mini Shai-Hulud: Multi-Ecosystem Developer Supply Chain Attack – Lab Space Click-Demo for SAP Cyber Security with Microsoft Sentinel for SAP Security Content | Microsoft Learn Sentinel for SAP BTP Security Content | Microsoft LearnWhat’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: May 2026
Welcome to the May edition of What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. This month’s updates focus on unified role-based access control (RBAC), ecosystem breadth, AI-agent security, and high-assurance identity. RBAC and row-level scoping are now generally available, giving security teams a single, granular permissions model across Sentinel and the Microsoft Defender portal and enabling multi-team SOC collaboration. The Sentinel connector catalog has passed 400 connectors, expanding coverage across Microsoft and third-party data sources and helping customers and partners onboard new data faster with the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF). The Agent 365 connector, now in public preview, brings AI agent telemetry into Sentinel data lake as first-class standardized signals so you can monitor agent behavior alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud activity. Finally, Entra Verified ID partner integrations in Microsoft Security Store are now generally available, delivering high‑assurance identity verification that makes account recovery after compromise far safer and significantly reduces the risk of re‑compromise. Read on for the full list of updates across Sentinel in May. Sentinel innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Microsoft Security Store Sentinel SIEM Unified role-based access controls and row level scoping [Generally available] Sentinel now delivers general availability of two powerful access management capabilities: Unified RBAC and row-level data scoping. Together, these innovations provide a consistent, end-to-end model for controlling who can access data and what actions they can take — extending unified permissions management across the Defender portal while enabling granular, row-level visibility within a single Sentinel workspace. With Unified RBAC, organizations can simplify and centralize permissions across security workloads, reducing operational overhead, while row-level scoping enables secure collaboration across multiple teams by ensuring users only see data aligned to their role or scope. This milestone unlocks more scalable, multi-team SOC operations without the need for workspace segmentation, helping us to advance toward fully unified, granular access control across Microsoft Security. Tenant groups [Public preview] Managing security across multiple tenants just got simpler. Tenant Groups in the Microsoft Defender multi-tenant portal (MTO) give managed security service providers (MSSPs), cloud service partners (CSPs), and multi-tenant security teams a flexible way to organize tenants into logical groupings such as customer segment, geography, or operational priority, and instantly switch views with a single click. This streamlined experience reduces noise, improves investigation focus, and aligns to how teams actually work, all while respecting existing permissions and access controls. Learn more. Out-of-the-box integrations for Sentinel automation [Public preview] Out-of-the-box (OOTB) integrations for Sentinel automation brings a centralized catalog to easily discover, configure, and manage both Microsoft and third-party integrations. With simple, authentication-based setup, users can quickly add integrations and seamlessly incorporate them into playbooks. The experience places OOTB and custom integrations side by side, with enhanced with smart search, recommendations, and duplicate prevention to streamline automation workflows end to end. Learn more. UEBA enhancements [Public preview] Microsoft Sentinel UEBA continues to evolve with improvements that simplify management and expand detection coverage. A dedicated UEBA tab view in the Sentinel settings page consolidates UEBA and behaviors settings, making configuration easier to find and manage. Learn more. UEBA insights and anomalies now support the OktaV2_CL table alongside the existing Okta_CL table, extending anomalous activity and anomalous MFA failures detections to customers using the newer Okta connector format, without requiring new anomaly types. Learn more. UEBA extends GCP Audit Logs coverage with five anomaly detections for login activity, privileged actions, resource deployments, secret/KMS key access, and infrastructure usage. Learn more. Together, these updates make UEBA easier to operate while extending its visibility into identity and behavior signals from additional cloud and identity providers. Read the latest blog from the Microsoft Defender Research Team to learn more about Microsoft Sentinel UEBA and binary feature stacking, which uses clear binary signals to help establish behavioral context and inform investigation and detection decisions. Threat Intelligence – TAXII Export connector [Generally available] Sentinel supports threat intelligence export through the built-in Threat Intelligence – Trusted Automated Exchange of Intelligence Information (TAXII) Export connector, giving customers a standards-based way to share curated Structured Threat Information Expression (STIX) objects with supported TAXII 2.1 platforms. Configured from the Defender portal, the connector handles destination setup and intelligence delivery to external platforms. The capability supports cross-organization intelligence sharing for collective defense and centralized management in multi-tenant environments, with use cases across government, critical infrastructure, and large distributed organizations. Additional enhancements are planned, including more export options and expanded destination support. Learn more. Decision-stage resources for SIEM migration to Sentinel The AI-powered SIEM migration experience helps teams analyze detections, identify required data sources and connectors, and plan a phased move to Sentinel. But, customers still need help turning that analysis into a clear decision. To support that step, we’re introducing two new customer-facing resources: the Sentinel SIEM Migration Decision and Planning Guide, which explains the migration journey, outputs, and decision checkpoints before execution, and the Decision-Stage Customer FAQ, which answers common questions around disruption, cost, dual running, detection coverage, and delivery support. Together, these resources help make migration conversations more concrete and move teams more quickly from evaluation to a clearer, lower-risk next step. Learn more: Read the blog: AI-powered SIEM migration experience announcement Download the guide: Decision and planning guide Download the FAQ: Decision-stage customer FAQ Learn more: SIEM migration experience documentation Register for live AMA (Jun 23 at 9am PT): Live Microsoft Tech Community AMA on SIEM migration Sentinel data lake 400+ Sentinel data connectors The Sentinel connector catalog now includes 400+ connectors, providing broad, ready-to-deploy coverage across Microsoft and third-party data sources. Customers can flexibly ingest security data into Microsoft Sentinel analytics tier or the data lake tier. The Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) and VS code-based connector builder agent enables partners and customers to onboard new data sources faster and scale the catalog. Discover connectors in the Sentinel Content hub within the Defender portal or build custom connectors when needed. Learn more. Agent 365 connector [Public preview] Agent 365 connector streams AI agent telemetry from Agent 365 into Sentinel data lake, giving SOC teams visibility into agent behavior alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud signals. With the Agent 365 connector in place, Sentinel data lake becomes the system of record for agent security, turning activity such as data exposure or access drift into first-class security signals that analysts can correlate, hunt across, and investigate. Telemetry is normalized and to mapped to standard Advanced Security Information Model (ASIM) schemas, ready for analytics and detections, and end-to-end investigations can run through KQL, graph, and MCP-powered workflows. Install the connector with a single click from Sentinel Content Hub in the Defender portal. Learn more. CCF support for Azure Blob Storage [Public preview] Sentinel Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) supports Azure Blob Storage as a data source, providing an ingestion pattern designed for high-volume security data. Partners and customers can build CCF connectors that read from Blob Storage through a durable architecture that buffers spikes, handles backpressure, and reduces data loss risk during outages or throttling, making ingestion more reliable for variable or distributed pipelines. The pattern broadens compatibility with partners already streaming logs to Azure as part of their audit data delivery, with Cloudflare and Netskope as early adopters. App Assure further provides engineering-backed support for designing, validating, and remediating the Azure Blob Storage CCF connector integration. Learn more. Data filtering and splitting [Generally available] At RSAC, we announced built‑in filtering and splitting capabilities in Microsoft Sentinel, which is now generally available. As security teams ingest more data, it is important to optimize security data pipeline by controlling what data is ingested and in which tier. With filtering and splitting natively integrated into the Defender portal, security teams can shape data before it reaches Sentinel, without switching tools or managing custom JSON files. Using simple KQL‑based transformations directly in the UI, you can filter low‑value events and intelligently route data, making ingestion optimization faster, more intuitive, and easier to manage at scale. Filtering at ingest time allows you to remove low‑value or benign events to reduce noise, lower unnecessary processing, and ensure high‑signal data drives detections and investigations. Splitting enables intelligent routing of data between the analytics tier and the data lake tier based on relevance and usage. Together, these capabilities help you balance cost and performance while scaling data ingestion sustainably as your digital estate grows. Learn more. Transition your Sentinel connectors to the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) [Action required] Azure has announced that the legacy Azure Data Collection API will be deprecated on September 14, 2026. Sentinel recommends customers review existing connectors and upgrade to the latest Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) versions to ensure continued access to the newest Sentinel capabilities. CCF delivers a fully managed SaaS experience with built-in health monitoring, centralized credential management, and improved performance. This enables partners and customers to onboard new data sources faster and at scale. Microsoft Security Store Entra Verified ID partner integrations via Security Store [Generally available] Security Store helps organizations secure one of the most critical steps in incident response: safe account recovery after compromise. Once a SOC team detects and contains a potential account takeover (ATO), restoring access requires high confidence that the user is legitimate. Through partner integrations with IDEMIA, AU10TIX, CLEAR, 1Kosmos, and WhoAmI, customers can extend Entra Verified ID with high-assurance identity verification (such as document and biometric checks) to validate users during recovery, onboarding, or helpdesk workflows. This helps replace weaker fallback methods that attackers often exploit, enabling SOC and IT teams to safely restore access while reducing risk of re-compromise. Learn more. Purview Data Security Triage Agent in Defender [Public preview] Security Store powers how customers discover and activate data security agents across Defender and Microsoft Purview, starting with the Data Security Triage Agent. This capability delivers AI-generated summaries and prioritization of Data Loss Prevention (DLP) alerts directly into Defender XDR, helping security teams reduce noise and focus on the incidents that matter most. By unifying discovery and activation through Security Store, customers can deploy data security agents in fewer steps and enable more integrated workflows across threat and data protection surfaces. Learn more. Additional resources Blogs and documentation: From idea to production: Building Security Store Advisor with an agentic SDLC Upcoming webinars: June 4: End-to-End Security in the Age of Agentic AI June 10: Deploy, optimize, and implement threat protection with Sentinel June 10: Security Foundations for AI Adoption June 24: Modern Security Made Simple: Stay Ahead of Threats with Sentinel Upcoming events: June 2–3: Microsoft Build, San Francisco (and free online) CEO Satya Nadella Day 1 keynote 90+ sessions, Microsoft Security experts onsite Register: build.microsoft.com Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!
Agent 365 connector: Monitor, hunt, and investigate AI agent activity in Microsoft Sentinel
As enterprises scale the use of AI agents, SOC teams need visibility into AI agent behavior. The Agent 365 connector, now in public preview, streams rich agent telemetry from Agent 365 into Microsoft Sentinel data lake. Agent activity, such as agent data exposure or access drift, is surfaced alongside other security data, giving SOC teams a unified view across digital environments. AI Agent actions are correlated with agent identity, endpoint, and cloud signals, enabling analysts to run end‑to‑end investigations using KQL, graph, and MCP-powered workflows. Why this matters for organizations By centralizing security and AI agent telemetry in Sentinel data lake, organizations establish a unified control plane for securing AI agents. This enables security teams to analyze agent activity in context with broader signals and investigate using familiar Sentinel tools. This unlocks the ability for SOCs to detect risky or anomalous agent behavior early, understand impact quickly, and respond with speed and confidence. As AI agents take on real operational responsibility, this level of visibility is critical to prevent blind spots, reduce risk, and ensure agents operate safely at enterprise scale. End‑to‑end visibility into AI agent behavior: A centralized view of AI agent behavior allows AI agents to be treated as first-class entities alongside users, identities, endpoints, and workloads. Advanced hunting with KQL: Hunt using KQL to proactively uncover unusual AI agent execution patterns, sensitive actions, or activity without clear human context. These hunts help surface potential risk early using the same workflows already used for other security data. Analyzing blast radius and impact with Sentinel graph: Security teams can correlate AI agent activity with identities, endpoints, and cloud resources to understand blast radius and potential impact during an investigation. By pivoting across related entities in Sentinel, analysts can assess how agent actions connect to the broader environment and support deeper, end‑to‑end investigations. Querying agent data through MCP: Use MCP to surface agent observability data through AI assistants, letting analysts pull agent telemetry into investigation workflows alongside other Sentinel data. Agent 365 connector key capabilities Install the Agent 365 connector with a single click using Sentinel Content Hub in the Defender portal. Once enabled, two capabilities come online automatically: Unified agent telemetry across Agent 365 agent experiences: Rich Agent 365 agent telemetry streams into Sentinel data lake, ready to analyze alongside identity, endpoint, and cloud signals using familiar SOC workflows. ASIM unified schema for AI agent observability: Agent 365 agent observability data is normalized into an ASIM-aligned schema so it is consistent, queryable, and ready for analytics and detections. With the connector in place, Sentinel data lake becomes the system of record and the control plane for Agent 365 agent security—turning agent behavior into first-class security signals across SecOps workflows like hunting, investigation, detection engineering, and response. Use cases Prevent sensitive data exposure from misconfigured agents When an AI agent is granted broader access than intended, a crafted prompt could override safeguards and expose confidential data. With agent telemetry, security teams can trace the full execution path—from prompt to tools to data access—to quickly identify the root cause and contain the exposure. Detect and control agent access drift over time As agents take on new tasks, their permissions can expand beyond the original scope, often without clear visibility. Agent telemetry enables continuous behavioral baselining, making it easier to spot abnormal access patterns early and prevent privilege misuse before it escalates. Uncover hidden lateral movement across agent workflows Agents often collaborate and delegate tasks across systems, creating complex chains of execution that are difficult to track. Agent telemetry provides visibility into these interactions, mapping delegation paths and helping teams understand and limit the potential blast radius. Defend against prompt injection and manipulation attacks Attackers can craft prompts to override agent instructions and manipulate behavior. By capturing prompts and reasoning flows, agent telemetry enables detection of these attacks and provides the context needed to investigate and remediate quickly. Accelerate SOC investigations with end-to-end visibility When an agent is involved in a security alert, understanding its actions can be challenging. Agent telemetry correlates prompts, identities, tools, and data access into a unified timeline, giving SOC teams the clarity needed to investigate faster and respond with confidence. Strengthen governance and compliance for AI agents Organizations need visibility into what agents exist and what data they can access. Agent telemetry provides a comprehensive audit trail of agent activity and access patterns, supporting compliance reporting and policy enforcement. Enable proactive threat hunting on agent behavior Security teams need to stay ahead of emerging risks as agent usage grows. Agent telemetry enables advanced hunting across agent activity, helping detect anomalies, uncover patterns, and identify threats before they impact the organization. Get started with Agent 365 connector Getting started is straightforward. In the Microsoft Defender portal, navigate to Microsoft Sentinel Open Content hub and search for Agent 365 Install the Agent 365 Connector (if not already installed) Open the connector page and select Connect to begin ingestion Once connected, AI agent telemetry starts flowing into Sentinel, ready for hunting, investigation, and response. Data ingestion and analytics are billed using existing Sentinel meters. Learn more Find the Agent 365 data connector | Microsoft Learn Discover and manage Sentinel out-of-the-box content | Microsoft Learn Connect data sources to Sentinel by using data connectors | Microsoft Learn Sample KQL queries for Sentinel data lake | Microsoft Learn Watch the Sentinel data lake video playlist | Microsoft Security Get started with Sentinel data lake | Microsoft LearnWhat’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: RSAC 2026
Security is entering a new era, one defined by explosive data growth, increasingly sophisticated threats, and the rise of AI-enabled operations. To keep pace, security teams need an AI-powered approach to collect, reason over, and act on security data at scale. At RSA Conference 2026 (RSAC), we’re unveiling the next wave of Sentinel innovations designed to help organizations move faster, see deeper, and defend smarter with AI-ready tools. These updates include AI-driven playbooks that accelerate SOC automation, Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP) and granular role-based access controls (RBAC) that let you scale your SOC, accelerated data onboarding through new connectors, and data federation that enables analysis in place without duplication. Together, they give teams greater clarity, control, and speed. Come see us at RSAC to view these innovations in action. Hear from Sentinel leaders during our exclusive Microsoft Pre-Day, then visit Microsoft booth #5744 for demos, theater sessions, and conversations with Sentinel experts. Read on to explore what’s new. See you at RSAC! Sentinel feature innovations: Sentinel SIEM Sentinel data lake Sentinel graph Sentinel MCP Threat Intelligence Microsoft Security Store Sentinel promotions Sentinel SIEM Playbook generator [Now in public preview] The Sentinel playbook generator delivers a new era of automation capabilities. You can vibe code complex automations, integrate with different tools to ensure timely and compliant workflows throughout your SOC and feel confident in the results with built in testing and documentation. Customers and partners are already seeing benefit from this innovation. “The playbook generator gives security engineers the flexibility and speed of AI-assisted coding while delivering the deterministic outcomes that enterprise security operations require. It's the best of both worlds, and it lives natively in Defender where the engineers already work.” – Jaime Guimera Coll | Security and AI Architect | BlueVoyant Learn more about playbook generator. SIEM migration experience [General availability now] The Sentinel SIEM migration experience helps you plan and execute SIEM migrations through a guided, in-product workflow. You can upload Splunk or QRadar exports to generate recommendations for best‑fit Sentinel analytics rules and required data connectors, then assess migration scope, validate detection coverage, and migrate from Splunk or QRadar to Sentinel in phases while tracking progress. “The tool helps turn a Splunk to Sentinel migration into a practical decision process. It gives clear visibility into which detections are relevant, how they align to real security use cases, and where it makes sense to enable or prioritize coverage—especially with cost and data sources in mind.” – Deniz Mutlu | Director | Swiss Post Cybersecurity Ltd Learn more about SIEM migration experience. GDAP, unified RBAC, and row-level RBAC for Sentinel [Public preview, April 1] As Sentinel environments grow for enterprises, MSSPs, hyperscalers, and partners operating across shared or multiple environments, the challenge becomes managing access control efficiently and consistently at scale. Sentinel’s expanded permissions and access capabilities are designed to meet these needs. Granular Delegated Admin Privileges (GDAP) lets you streamline management across multiple governed tenants using your primary account, based on existing GDAP relationships. Unified RBAC allows you to opt in to managing permissions for Sentinel workspaces through a single pane of glass, configuring and enforcing access across Sentinel experiences in the analytics tier and data lake in the Defender portal. This simplifies administration and improves operational efficiency by reducing the number of permission models you need to manage. Row-level RBAC scoping within tables enables precise, scoped access to data in the Sentinel data lake. Multiple SOC teams can operate independently within a shared Sentinel environment, querying only the data they are authorized to see, without separating workspaces or introducing complex data flow changes. Consistent, reusable scope definitions ensure permissions are applied uniformly across tables and experiences, while maintaining strong security boundaries. To learn more, read our technical deep dives on RBAC and GDAP. Sentinel data lake Sentinel data federation [Public preview, April 1] Sentinel data federation lets you analyze security data in place without copying or duplicating your data. Powered by Microsoft Fabric, you can now federate data from Fabric, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS), and Azure Databricks into Sentinel data lake. Federated data appears alongside native Sentinel data, so you can use familiar tools like KQL hunting, notebooks, and custom graphs to correlate signals and investigate across your entire digital estate, all while preserving governance and compliance. You can start analyzing data in place and progressively ingest data into Sentinel for deeper security insights, advanced automation, and AI-powered defense at scale. You are billed only when you run analytics on federated data using existing Sentinel data lake query and advanced insights meters. les for unified investigation and hunting Sentinel cost estimation tool [Public Preview, April 9] The new Sentinel cost estimation tool offers all Microsoft customers and partners a guided, meter-level cost estimation experience that makes pricing transparent and predictable. A built-in three-year cost projection lets you model data growth and ramp-up over time, anticipate spend, and avoid surprises. Get transparent estimates into spend as you scale your security operations. All other customers can continue to use the Azure calculator for Sentinel pricing estimates. See the Sentinel pricing page for more information. Sentinel data connectors A365 connector [Public preview, May 5] Bring AI agent telemetry into the Sentinel data lake to investigate agent behavior, tool usage, prompts, reasoning and execution using hunting, graph, and MCP workflows. GitHub audit log connector using API polling [General availability, March 6] Ingest GitHub enterprise audit logs into Sentinel to monitor user and administrator activity, detect risky changes, and investigate security events across your development environment. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) connector [General availability, March 6] Collect Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) audit and workload logs in Sentinel to monitor cluster activity, analyze workload behavior, and detect security threats across Kubernetes environments. Microsoft Entra and Azure Resource Graph (ARG) connector enhancements [Public preview, April 15] Enable new Entra assets (EntraDevices, EntraOrgContacts) and ARG assets (ARGRoleDefinitions) in existing asset connectors, expanding inventory coverage and powering richer, built‑in graph experiences for greater visibility. With over 350 Sentinel data connectors, customers achieve broad visibility into complex digital environments and can expand their security operations effectively. “Microsoft Sentinel data lake forms the core of our agentic SOC. By unifying large volumes of Microsoft and third-party data, enabling graph-based analysis, and supporting MCP-driven workflows, it allows us to investigate faster, at lower cost, and with greater confidence.” – Øyvind Bergerud | Head of Security Operations | Storebrand Learn more about Sentinel data connectors. Sentinel connector builder agent using Sentinel Visual Studio Code extension [Public preview, March 31] Build Sentinel data connectors in minutes instead of weeks using the AI‑assisted Connector Builder agent in Visual Studio Code. This low‑code experience guides developers and ISVs end-to-end, automatically generating schemas, deployment assets, connector UI, secure secret handling, and polling logic. Built‑in validation surfaces issues early, so you can validate event logs before deployment and ingestion. Example prompt in GitHub Copilot Chat: @sentinel-connector-builder Create a new connector for OpenAI audit logs using https://api.openai.com/v1/organization/audit_logs Get started with custom connectors and learn more in our blog. Data filtering and splitting [Public preview, March 30] As security teams ingest more data, the challenge shifts from scale to relevance. With filtering and splitting now built into the Defender portal, teams can shape data before it lands in Sentinel, without switching tools or managing custom JSON files. Define simple KQL‑based transformations directly in the UI to filter low‑value events and intelligently route data, making ingestion optimization faster, more intuitive, and easier to manage at scale. Filtering at ingest time allows you to remove low-value or benign events to reduce noise, cut unnecessary processing, and ensure that high-signal data drives detections and investigations. Splitting enables intelligent routing of data between the analytics tier and the data lake tier based on relevance and usage. Together, these two capabilities help you balance cost and performance while scaling data ingestion sustainably as your digital estate grows. Create workbook reports directly from the data lake [Public preview, April 1] Sentinel workbooks can now directly run on the data lake using KQL, enabling you to visualize and monitor security data straight from the data lake. By selecting the data lake as the workbook data source, you can now create trend analysis and executive reporting. Sentinel graph Custom graphs [Public preview, April 1] Custom graphs let you build tailored security graphs tuned to your unique security scenarios using data from Sentinel data lake as well as non-Microsoft sources. With custom graph, powered by Fabric, you can build, query, and visualize connected data, uncover hidden patterns and attack paths, and help surface risks that are hard to detect when data is analyzed in isolation. These graphs provide the knowledge context that enables AI-powered agent experiences to work more effectively, speeding investigations, revealing blast radius, and helping you move from noisy, disconnected alerts to confident decisions at scale. In the words of our preview customers: “We ingested our Databricks management-plane telemetry into the Sentinel data lake and built a custom security graph. Without writing a single detection rule, the graph surfaced unusual patterns of activity and overprivileged access that we escalated for investigation. We didn't know what we were looking for, the graph surfaced the risk for us by revealing anomalous activity patterns and unusual access combinations driven by relationships, not alerts.” – SVP, Security Solutions | Financial Services organization Custom graph API usage for creating graph and querying graph will be billed starting April 1, 2026, according to the Sentinel graph meter. Creating custom graph Using the Sentinel VS Code extension, you can generate graphs to validate hunting hypotheses, such as understanding attack paths and blast radius of a phishing campaign, reconstructing multi‑step attack chains, and identifying structurally unusual or high‑risk behavior, making it accessible to your team and AI agents. Once persisted via a schedule job, you can access these custom graphs from the ready-to-use section in the graph experience in the Defender portal. Graphs experience in the Microsoft Defender portal After creating your custom graphs, you can access them in the graphs section of the Defender portal under Sentinel. From there, you’ll be able to perform interactive graph-based investigations, such as using a graph built for phishing analysis to help you quickly evaluate the impact of a recent incident, profile the attacker, and trace its paths across Microsoft telemetry and third-party data. The new graph experience lets you run Graph Query Language (GQL) queries, view the graph schema, visualize the graph, view graph results in tabular format, and interactively travers the graph to the next hop with a simple click. Sentinel MCP Sentinel MCP entity analyzer [General availability, April 1] Entity analyzer provides reasoned, out-of-the-box risk assessments that help you quickly understand whether a URL or user identity represents potential malicious activity. The capability analyzes data across modalities including threat intelligence, prevalence, and organizational context to generate clear, explainable verdicts you can trust. Entity analyzer integrates easily with your agents through Sentinel MCP server connections to first-party and third-party AI runtime platforms, or with your SOAR workflows through Logic Apps. The entity analyzer is also a trusted foundation for the Defender Triage Agent and delivers more accurate alert classifications and deeper investigative reasoning. This removes the need to manually engineer evaluation logic and creates trust for analysts and AI agents to act with higher accuracy and confidence. Learn more about entity analyzer and in our blog here. Entity analyzer will be billed starting April 1, 2026, based on Security Compute Units (SCU) consumption. Learn more about MCP billing. Sentinel MCP graph tool collection [Public preview, May 20] Graph tool collection helps you visualize and explore relationships between identities and device assets, threats and activities signals ingested by data connectors and alerted by analytic rules. The tool provides a clear graph view that highlights dependencies and configuration gaps, which makes it easier to understand how content interacts across your environment. This helps security teams assess coverage, optimize content deployment, and identify areas that may need tuning or additional data sources, all from a single, interactive workspace. Executing graph queries via the MCP tools will trigger the graph meter. Claude MCP connector [Public preview, April 1] Anthropic Claude can connect to Sentinel through a custom MCP connector, giving you AI-assisted analysis across your Sentinel environment. Microsoft provides step-by-step guidance for configuring a custom connector in Claude that securely connects to a Sentinel MCP server. With this connection you can summarize incidents, investigate alerts, and reason over security signals while keeping data inside Microsoft's security boundary. Access to large language models (LLMs) is managed through Microsoft authentication and role-based controls, supporting faster triage and investigation workflows while maintaining compliance and visibility. Threat Intelligence CVEs of interest in the Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent [Public preview in April] The Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent delivers curated intelligence based on your organization’s configuration, preferences, and unique industry and geographic needs. CVEs of interest which highlights vulnerabilities actively discussed across the security landscape and assesses their potential impact on your environment, delivering more timely threat intelligence insights. The agent automatically incorporates internet exposure data powered by the Sentinel platform to surface threats targeting technologies exposed in your organization. Together, these enhancements help you focus faster on the threats that matter most, without manual investigation. Microsoft Security Store Security Store embedded in Entra [General availability, March 23] As identity environments grow more complex, teams need to move faster and extend Entra with trusted third‑party capabilities that address operational, compliance, and risk challenges. The Security Store embedded directly into Entra lets you discover and adopt Entra‑ready agents and solutions in your workflow. You can extend Entra with identity‑focused agents that surface privileged access risk, identity posture gaps, network access insights, and overall identity health, turning identity data into clear recommendations and reports teams can use immediately. You can also enhance Entra with Verified ID and External ID integrations that strengthen identity verification, streamline account recovery, and reduce fraud across workforce, consumer, and external identities. Security Store embedded in Microsoft Purview [General availability, March 31] Extending data security across the digital estate requires visibility and enforcement into new data sources and risk surfaces, often requiring a partnered approach. The Security Store embedded directly into Purview lets you discover and evaluate integrated solutions inside your data security workflows. Relevant partner capabilities surface alongside context, making it easier to strengthen data protection, address regulatory requirements, and respond to risk without disrupting existing processes. You can quickly assess which solutions align to data security scenarios, especially with respect to securing AI use, and how they can leverage established classifiers, policies, and investigation workflows in Purview. Keeping integration discovery in‑flow and purchases centralized through the Security Store means you move faster from evaluation to deployment, reducing friction and maintaining a secure, consistent transaction experience. Security Store Advisor [General availability, March 23] Security teams today face growing complexity and choice. Teams often know the security outcome they need, whether that's strengthening identity protection, improving ransomware resilience, or reducing insider risk, but lack a clear, efficient way to determine which solutions will help them get there. Security Store Advisor provides a guided, natural-language discovery experience that shifts security evaluation from product‑centric browsing to outcome‑driven decision‑making. You can describe your goal in plain language, and the Advisor surfaces the most relevant Microsoft and partner agents, solutions, and services available in the Security Store, without requiring deep product knowledge. This approach simplifies discovery, reduces time spent navigating catalogs and documentation, and helps you understand how individual capabilities fit together to deliver meaningful security outcomes. Sentinel promotions Extending signups for promotional 50 GB commitment tier [Through June 2026] The Sentinel promotional 50 GB commitment tier offers small and mid-sized organizations a cost-effective entry point into Sentinel. Sign up for the 50 GB commitment tier until June 30, 2026, and maintain the promotional rate until March 31, 2027. This promotion is available globally with regional variations in pricing and accessible through EA, CSP, and Direct channels. Visit the Sentinel pricing page for details and to get started. Sentinel RSAC 2026 sessions All week – Sentinel product demos, Microsoft Booth #5744 Mon Mar 23, 3:55 PM – RSAC 2026 main stage Keynote with CVP Vasu Jakkal [KEY-M10W] Ambient and autonomous security: Building trust in the agentic AI era Tue Mar 24, 10:30 AM – Live Q&A session, Microsoft booth #5744 and online Ask me anything with Microsoft Security SMEs and real practitioners Tue Mar 24, 11 AM – Sentinel data lake theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 From signals to insights: How Microsoft Sentinel data lake powers modern security operations Tue Mar 24, 2 PM – Sentinel SIEM theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Vibe-coding SecOps automations with the Sentinel playbook generator Wed Mar 25, 12 PM – Executive event at Palace Hotel with Threat Protection GM Scott Woodgate The AI risk equation: Visibility, control, and threat acceleration Wed Mar 25, 1:30 PM – Sentinel graph theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Bringing knowledge-driven context to security with Microsoft Sentinel graph Wed Mar 25, 5 PM – MISA theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 Cut SIEM costs without reducing protection: A Sentinel data lake case study Thu Mar 26, 1 PM – Security Store theater session, Microsoft booth #5744 What's next for Security Store: Expanding in portal and smarter discovery All week – 1:1 meetings with Microsoft security experts Meet with Microsoft Defender and Sentinel SIEM and Defender Security Operations Additional resources Sentinel data lake video playlist Explore the full capabilities of Sentinel data lake as a unified, AI-ready security platform that is deeply integrated into the Defender portal Sentinel data lake FAQ blog Get answers to many of the questions we’ve heard from our customers and partners on Sentinel data lake and billing AI‑powered SIEM migration experience ninja training Walk through the SIEM migration experience, see how it maps detections, surfaces connector requirements, and supports phased migration decisions SIEM migration experience documentation Learn how the SIEM migration experience analyzes your exports, maps detections and connectors, and recommends prioritized coverage Accenture collaborates with Microsoft to bring agentic security and business resilience to the front lines of cyber defense Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!Extending Sentinel Data Integration: Azure Blob Storage Support for CCF Connectors
As organizations scale their security operations, the ability to ingest, process, and analyze high volumes of data reliably becomes increasingly critical. Microsoft Sentinel continues to expand its ecosystem through the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF), enabling ISVs to build and deliver integrations with Sentinel faster while simplifying deployment for customers. Today, CCF extends even further with support for Azure Blob Storage, introducing a new pattern for how data can be delivered into Sentinel. Expanding Connector Patterns with Azure Blob Storage CCF has traditionally enabled connectors that integrate directly with partner APIs and data sources. With this latest enhancement, ISVs can now build connectors that read data from Azure Blob Storage—unlocking new flexibility in how security data is collected and delivered. In this model, an ISV writes data to an Azure Blob Storage account. The Sentinel connector then reads from that storage layer, using Azure-native components such as Event Grid and storage queues to process events and forward them through data collection rules (DCR) into Log Analytics workspace. This approach introduces a durable data layer between the data source and Sentinel, enabling more resilient and scalable ingestion scenarios. Why a durable data layer matters By leveraging Azure Blob Storage as part of the ingestion pipeline, CCF connectors gain important operational advantages. This architecture allows data to be buffered and processed asynchronously, helping manage fluctuations in data volume and ensuring consistent delivery. Key benefits include: Resilience: Buffers spikes and handles backpressure to maintain steady ingestion Improved Compatibility: Supports widely adopted Azure Blob-based log streaming, enabling seamless integration with partners that already use Azure for audit data delivery Data protection: Reduces risk of data loss during outages or throttling Scalability: Supports high-volume ingestion scenarios across tenants Flexibility: Enables architectures that can support multiple SIEMs or data consumers Together, these capabilities make CCF Azure Blob Storage based connectors a strong fit for partners managing large, variable, or distributed data pipelines. Partner adoption Early partners are already taking advantage of this capability to modernize their integrations and support evolving customer needs. Cloudflare Cloudflare integrates with Microsoft Sentinel using the Codeless Connector Framework (CCF) to bring Cloudflare log data into centralized security operations workflows. The connector ingests Cloudflare logs—delivered via Logpush to Azure Blob Storage—into Sentinel for analysis, enabling security teams to correlate web, network, and application activity with other security signals. By combining Cloudflare’s global threat visibility with Sentinel analytics and automation, this integration supports more effective threat detection, investigation, and incident response across Cloudflare‑protected environments. Netskope Web Transaction Events Netskope integrates with Microsoft Sentinel to provide detailed visibility into web and cloud activity across users, applications, and SaaS services. The connector ingests Netskope web transaction logs into Sentinel—leveraging Azure Blob Storage as a staging layer for log streaming and ingestion—to enable near real‑time analysis of user behavior, policy violations, and potential threats. By combining Netskope’s inline web inspection with Sentinel’s analytics and correlation capabilities, this integration helps security teams detect risky activity, investigate incidents, and strengthen monitoring across modern cloud environments. These integrations demonstrate how Azure Blob Storage support can simplify ingestion architectures while improving reliability and scalability for customers. Here is what our partners say about the functionality. Cloudflare: Netskope: Get started Developers can begin building CCF Azure Blob Storage -enabled connectors today using the guidance on Microsoft Learn. This documentation provides step-by-step instructions for configuring storage, processing events, and connecting data to Sentinel. In the unlikely event that you encounter any issues in building or updating your connector, App Assure is here to help. We are an engineering-backed team committed to supporting customers and software development companies throughout their journey with Sentinel to streamline integration and accelerate time to market. Reach out to us via our intake form for assistance.What’s new in Microsoft Sentinel: April 2026
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of What's new in Microsoft Sentinel. April brings a broad set of updates, with RSAC 2026 announcements rolling out alongside new features. Highlights include cost limit enforcement to prevent runaway query costs, curated open-source intelligence in Threat Analytics, and new data connectors for CrowdStrike, Imperva, AWS, and Logstash. Together, these innovations help security teams control costs, stay ahead of emerging threats, and broaden visibility without added complexity. Read on to learn what's new with Sentinel. What's new OSINT reports in Threat Analytics [Preview] Customers can now consume curated OSINT articles alongside Microsoft-authored Threat Analytics reports, all in one place. (OSINT, or open-source intelligence, is any information readily available to the public.) These OSINT articles come enriched, as detailed in the following list, to help security teams move quickly from awareness to action. What’s included: Curated OSINT articles derived from trusted open-source research Clear summaries with links back to original sources Extracted indicators of compromise (IOCs) Mapped MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques Microsoft enrichment, analysis, and recommended actions (when available) By bringing OSINT directly into Threat Analytics, we’re reducing context switching, improving analyst efficiency, and helping customers operationalize open-source intelligence faster within their Defender workflows. Learn more. Cost limit enforcement for KQL queries and notebooks [Preview] Sentinel data lake cost policies do more than just send an alert when usage gets too high. You can set hard limits for KQL queries, jobs, and notebook sessions that block new work once a threshold is exceeded, eliminating surprise bills from runaway queries or heavy workloads. For example, instead of finding out about cost spikes after you run large queries against the data lake tier, enforcement stops further queries before the damage is done. Anything already running still finishes normally, and you get clear messaging about what happened and what to do next. You can lift guardrails temporarily, adjust thresholds, or disable enforcement on the fly. Learn more. Sentinel data connectors With 380 Sentinel data connectors, customers achieve broad visibility into complex digital environments and can expand their security operations effectively. Below are the latest updates. CrowdStrike API Connector [Generally Available] The CrowdStrike API Connector ingests logs from CrowdStrike APIs into Sentinel, fetching details on hosts, detections, incidents, alerts, and vulnerabilities from your CrowdStrike environment. Imperva Cloud WAF [Preview] The Imperva Cloud WAF data connector ingests Imperva logs into Sentinel through AWS S3 buckets, giving you visibility into web application traffic and threats detected by your Imperva deployment for monitoring, investigation, and threat hunting in Sentinel. AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) [Preview] This connector allows you to ingest AWS Elastic Load Balancer (ALB, NLB, and GLB) logs into Sentinel. These logs contain detailed records for requests handled by your load balancers, including client IPs, latencies, request paths, and status codes. These logs are useful for monitoring traffic patterns, investigating anomalies, and ensuring security compliance. Logstash Output Plugin [Preview] For organizations that rely on Logstash to collect from on-premises, legacy, or air-gapped environments, the Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin has been rebuilt in Java to align with Microsoft's Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and provide improved security and long-term maintainability. The plugin uses the Azure Monitor Logs Ingestion API with Data Collection Rules (DCRs), giving you full schema control and the ability to ingest directly into Sentinel data lake as well as standard Sentinel tables. Learn more. Sentinel data federation [Preview] Sentinel data federation enables unified visibility and security analytics across federated and ingested data, without compromising data governance. Security teams can quickly query data in Microsoft Fabric, Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen2, and Azure Databricks directly from Sentinel, no data movement required. This approach allows teams to explore data broadly through federation, then selectively ingest what matters most into Sentinel to unlock advanced detections, automation, and AI‑powered analytics. Learn more. Sentinel cost estimation tool [Preview] Customers and partners can confidently estimate Sentinel costs using the cost estimation tool. With meter-level guidance, you can model ingestion across analytics and data lake tiers, compare retention options, and estimate compute costs. Built‑in projections of up to three years offer transparency into spend, making it easier to plan, optimize, and share estimates. Try the Sentinel Cost Estimator. Microsoft Entra and Azure Resource Graph (ARG) connector enhancements [Preview] Enable new Entra assets (EntraDevices, EntraOrgContacts) and ARG assets (ARGRoleDefinitions) in existing asset connectors, expanding inventory coverage and powering richer, built‑in graph experiences for greater visibility. Create workbook reports directly from the data lake [Preview] Sentinel workbooks can directly run on the data lake using KQL, enabling you to visualize and monitor security data straight from the data lake. By selecting the data lake as the workbook data source, you can create trend analysis and executive reporting. Custom graphs [Preview] Custom graphs let you model relationships unique to your organization using data from Sentinel data lake, non-Microsoft sources, and federated data sources, all powered by Fabric. Instead of stitching together dozens of tables manually, you can build graphs that surface blast radius, trace attack paths, map privilege chains, and spot structural outliers like unusually broad access or anomalous email exfiltration. You can generate custom graphs using AI-assisted coding in the Microsoft Sentinel VS Code extension, persist them via a schedule job, and access them in the graphs experience in the Defender portal. Run Graph Query Language (GQL) queries, visualize results, and interactively traverse the graph to the next hop with a single click. These graphs also provide the knowledge context that enables AI-powered agent experiences to work more effectively, speeding investigations and helping you move from disconnected alerts to confident decisions at scale. Custom graph API usage for creating and querying graphs is billed according to the Sentinel graph meter. Learn more. MCP entity analyzer [General availability] Entity analyzer provides reasoned, out-of-the-box risk assessments that help you quickly understand whether a URL or user identity represents potential malicious activity. It analyzes data across threat intelligence, prevalence, and organizational context to generate clear, explainable verdicts you can trust. Entity analyzer integrates with your agents through Sentinel MCP server connections to first-party and third-party AI runtime platforms, or with your SOAR workflows through Logic Apps. It also serves as a trusted foundation for the Defender Triage Agent, delivering more accurate alert classifications and deeper investigative reasoning. Entity analyzer is billed based on Security Compute Units (SCU) consumption. Learn more about entity analyzer and MCP billing. Claude MCP connector [Preview] Anthropic Claude can connect to Sentinel through a custom MCP connector, giving you AI-assisted analysis across your Sentinel environment. Microsoft provides step-by-step guidance for configuring a custom connector in Claude that securely connects to a Sentinel MCP server. With this connection you can summarize incidents, investigate alerts, and reason over security signals while keeping data inside Microsoft's security boundary. Access to large language models (LLMs) is managed through Microsoft authentication and role-based controls, supporting faster triage and investigation workflows while maintaining compliance and visibility. CVEs of interest in the Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent [Preview] The Threat Intelligence Briefing Agent delivers curated intelligence based on your organization’s configuration, preferences, and unique industry and geographic needs. The agent surfaces Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) of interest, highlighting vulnerabilities actively discussed across the security landscape and assessing their potential impact on your environment for more timely threat intelligence insights. The agent automatically incorporates internet exposure data powered by the Sentinel platform to surface threats targeting technologies exposed in your organization. Together, these enhancements help you focus faster on the threats that matter most, without manual investigation. Additional resources Blogs and documentation: Featured blog: App Assure launches its Sentinel Advisory Service Agentic use cases for developers on Microsoft Sentinel The Unified SecOps Transition: Why It Is a Security Architecture Decision, Not Just a Portal Change What's new in Microsoft Defender – April 2026 Webinars and training: Featured webinar: Powering the Agentic SOC with Scott Woodgate, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Protection Featured training: Introducing the Microsoft Sentinel Training Lab. Hands-On Security Operations in Minutes Beyond KQL – Unlocking SOC Insights with Sentinel data lake Jupyter Notebooks Hyper scale your SOC: Manage delegated access and role-based scoping in Microsoft Defender Stay connected Check back each month for the latest innovations, updates, and events to ensure you’re getting the most out of Microsoft Sentinel. We’ll see you in the next edition!Introducing the New Microsoft Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin (Public Preview!)
Many organizations rely on Logstash as a flexible, trusted data pipeline for collecting, transforming, and forwarding logs from on-premises and hybrid environments. Microsoft Sentinel has long supported a Logstash output plugin, enabling customers to send data directly into Sentinel as part of their existing pipelines. The original plugin was implemented in Ruby, and while it has served its purpose, it no longer meets Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) standards and has limited engineering support. To address both security and sustainability, we have rebuilt the plugin from the ground up in Java, a language that is more secure, better supported across Microsoft, and aligned with long-term platform investments. To ensure a seamless transition, the new implementation is still packaged and distributed as a standard Logstash Ruby gem. This means the installation and usage experience remains unchanged for customers, while benefiting from a more secure and maintainable foundation. What's New in This Version Java‑based and SFI‑compliant Same Logstash plugin experience, now rebuilt on a stronger foundation. The new implementation is fully Java‑based, aligning with Microsoft’s Secure Future Initiative (SFI) and providing improved security, supportability, and long-term maintainability. Modern, DCR‑based ingestion The plugin now uses the Azure Monitor Logs Ingestion API with Data Collection Rules (DCRs), replacing the legacy HTTP Data Collection API (For more info, see Migrate from the HTTP Data Collector API to the Log Ingestion API - Azure Monitor | Microsoft Learn). This gives customers full schema control, enables custom log tables, and supports ingestion into standard Microsoft Sentinel tables as well as Microsoft Sentinel data lake. Flexible authentication options Authentication is automatically determined based on your configuration, with support for: Client secret (App registration / service principal) Managed identity, eliminating the need to store credentials in configuration files Sovereign cloud support: The plugin supports Azure sovereign clouds, including Azure US Government, Azure China, and Azure Germany. Standard Logstash distribution model The plugin is published on RubyGems.org, the standard distribution channel for Logstash plugins, and can be installed directly using the Logstash plugin manager, no change to your existing installation workflow. What the Plugin Does Logstash plugin operates as a three-stage data pipeline: Input → Filter → Output. Input: You control how data enters the pipeline, using sources such as syslog, filebeat, Kafka, Event Hubs, databases (via JDBC), files, and more. Filter: You enrich and transform events using Logstash’s powerful filtering ecosystem, including plugins like grok, mutate, and Json, shaping data to match your security and operational needs. Output: This is where Microsoft comes in. The Microsoft Sentinel Logstash Output Plugin securely sends your processed events to an Azure Monitor Data Collection Endpoint, where they are ingested into Sentinel via a Data Collection Rule (DCR). With this model, you retain full control over your Logstash pipeline and data processing logic, while the Sentinel plugin provides a secure, reliable path to ingest data into Microsoft Sentinel. Getting Started Prerequisites Logstash installed and running An Azure Monitor Data Collection Endpoint (DCE) and Data Collection Rule (DCR) in your subscription Contributor role on your Log Analytics workspace Who Is This For? Organizations that already have Logstash pipelines, need to collect from on-premises or legacy systems, and operate in distributed/hybrid environments including air-gapped networks. To learn more, see: microsoft-sentinel-log-analytics-logstash-output-plugin | RubyGems.org | your community gem host
