Key Takeaways:
- Microsoft has introduced multi-tenant support for device security settings management in Defender XDR.
- This new feature allows IT admins to manage security policies across multiple tenants from a single platform.
- Administrators must ensure devices are linked to their corresponding Entra tenants and have the correct roles assigned to effectively manage security settings across tenants.
Last year, Microsoft introduced support for device security settings management capabilities within Defender XDR. The company is now extending this functionality to multi-tenant environments, enhancing efficiency for large organizations and service providers.
Microsoft Defender XDR enables IT admins to easily configure and manage security settings for devices across multiple platforms, such as Windows, Linux, and macOS. These settings can be managed through the Microsoft 365 Defender portal or Microsoft Intune admin center.
The multi-tenant view in the Defender XDR portal offers a central hub where administrators can track and manage all security policies across the organization. The key benefit is that IT admins can manage each tenant’s policies without having to switch between different portals.
“Security administrators can now drive even greater efficiencies with simplified security settings management supporting multi-tenancy environments that are common to large enterprises and managed services security providers (MSSPs),” Microsoft explained.
How to manage security settings for multiple tenants in the Defender XDR portal?
To access the multi-tenant view, administrators need to go to Endpoints > Configuration Management > Endpoint Security Policies. From there, security admins can create, edit, or delete policies for individual tenants. They can also search for specific policies across all tenants directly from the Endpoint Security Policies page.
Microsoft emphasizes that admins must ensure security settings for each tenant are properly configured to manage them within the Defender XDR portal. The security administrator role is required for managing settings in Microsoft Defender, while the Endpoint security manager role is needed for managing settings in Microsoft Intune. Furthermore, devices in each Microsoft Defender tenant must be linked to the corresponding Entra tenant.
Currently, the endpoints security policies page is not available for customers with Microsoft Defender for Business licenses. If you’re interested, you can find more details about managing endpoint security policies in multitenant environments on this support page.