Microsoft 365 – Few approaches / options for Connecting to tenant using PnP PowerShell – Connect-PnPOnline – Part 1

Hi All,

Greetings for the day 🙂 LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL 🙂

Today discussion on one more very useful PowerShell CMDLET 🙂

Background : Many times I or my team need write few PowerShell scripts where we need to connect to Microsoft 365 tenant. Sometime we uses PnP PowerShell cmdlet.

So here in 2 part series we will discuss few approaches to connect to Microsoft 365 Tenant using PnP PowerShell cmdlet – Connect-PnPOnline and respective use cases – when to use which approach

Prerequisites :

• If SharePoint PnP module is not installed, kindly please install by using following one of the option
• Execute the following command

Install-Module SharePointPnPPowerShellOnline 

• Download setup files and install. We could download files from https://github.com/pnp/pnp-powershell/releases
  • Detailed documentation – https://github.com/pnp/pnp-powershell/releases

Details :

• To connect Microsoft 365 tenant using PnP PowerShell CMDLET we have CMDLET – Connect-PnPOnline
• Connect-PnPOnline connects to SharePoint site or create context for other PnP commands
• Detailed reference – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/sharepoint-pnp/connect-pnponline?view=sharepoint-ps

Different options available to connect Microsoft 365 tenant using Connect-PnPOnline are

• Using Interactive parameter as
  • When we use –Interactive parameter, we get prompted for user name and password to login
  • Once we connected with valid user name and password we are ready to execute the PnP CMDLETs (context will be ready to execute other PnP commands)
  • We could use this option while
    • testing our PowerShell scripts OR
    • only one time execution OR
    • occasionally manually execution

Connect-PnPOnline -Interactive

• Using Credentials (Get-Credential) parameter
  • When we use -Credential (Get-Credential) parameter, we will get prompted for user name and password
  • Once we entered credentials successfully, we are ready to execute other PnP CMDLETs

Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://knowledgejunction1.sharepoint.com -Credentials (Get-Credential)

• Using client id and client secret key :
  • We could register our App and generate client secret key from Azure Active Directory Admin Center.
  • For step by step details please have a look once – https://knowledge-junction.in/2018/12/20/office-365-azure-active-directory-registering-creating-new-azure-app-detailed-steps/
  • This is also uses Legacy ACS authentication

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://knowledgejunction1.sharepoint.com" -ClientId <MY APP CLIENT ID> -ClientSecret <MY CLIENT SECRET>

• Using ClientId and locally available Certificate :
  • This method uses Azure App client id and X509 certificate
  • For creating certificate please refer – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/solution-guidance/security-apponly-azuread
  • This is the preferable option
  • We could also store the certificate in Azure Key Vault
  • Please have a look at our article for storing keys in Key Vault service and using those in .NET Core application –
    • Azure – Connect to Key Vault from .Net Core application using Managed Identity – Part1 – Introduction to Azure Key Vault
    • Azure – Connect to Key Vault from .Net Core application using Managed Identity – Part2 – App Service – Creating App Service from Azure Portal
    • Azure – Connect to Key Vault from .Net Core application using Managed Identity – Part 3 – Publishing / Deploying .Net core console application as a Azure WebJob and Schedule it
    • Azure – Connect to Key Vault from .Net Core application using Managed Identity – Part 4 – Exploring Managed Identity and Demo

$password = (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText 'myprivatekeypassword' -Force)

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://knowledgejunction1.sharepoint.com" -ClientId <MY CLIENT ID> -CertificatePath 'c:\mycertificate.pfx' -CertificatePassword $password  -Tenant 'knowledgejunction1.onmicrosoft.com'

In next article we will discuss some more approaches 🙂 STAY TUNED…

Thanks for reading 🙂 HAVE A FANTASTIC TIME AHEAD 🙂