Register an App to request authorization tokens and work with APIs

Article
09/24/2024

To access Azure REST APIs such as the Log analytics API, you can generate an authorization token based on a client ID and secret. The token is then passed in your REST API request. This article shows you how to register a client app and create a client secret so that you can generate a token.

Register an App

Create a service principal and register an app using the Azure portal, Azure CLI, or PowerShell.

To register an app, open the Active Directory Overview page in the Azure portal.
Select App registrations from the side bar.
Select New registration
On the Register an application page, enter a Name for the application.
Select Register
On the app's overview page, select Certificates and Secrets
Note the Application (client) ID. It's used in the HTTP request for a token.
In the Client secrets tab Select New client secret
Enter a Description and select Add
Copy and save the client secret Value.

Note

Client secret values can only be viewed immediately after creation. Be sure to save the secret before leaving the page.

Run the following script to create a service principal and app.

az ad sp create-for-rbac -n <Service principal display name>

The response looks as follows:

{
  "appId": "0a123b56-c987-1234-abcd-1a2b3c4d5e6f",
  "displayName": "AzMonAPIApp",
  "password": "123456.ABCDE.~XYZ876123ABcEdB7169",
  "tenant": "a1234bcd-5849-4a5d-a2eb-5267eae1bbc7"
}

Important

The output includes credentials that you must protect. Be sure that you do not include these credentials in your code or check the credentials into your source control.

Add a role and scope for the resources that you want to access using the API

az role assignment create --assignee <`appId`> --role <Role> --scope <resource URI>

The CLI following example assigns the Reader role to the service principal for all resources in the rg-001resource group:

 az role assignment create --assignee 0a123b56-c987-1234-abcd-1a2b3c4d5e6f --role Reader --scope '\/subscriptions/a1234bcd-5849-4a5d-a2eb-5267eae1bbc7/resourceGroups/rg-001'

For more information on creating a service principal using Azure CLI, see Create an Azure service principal with the Azure CLI.

The following sample script demonstrates creating a Microsoft Entra service principal via PowerShell. For a more detailed walkthrough, see using Azure PowerShell to create a service principal to access resources

$subscriptionId = "{azure-subscription-id}"
$resourceGroupName = "{resource-group-name}"

# Authenticate to a specific Azure subscription.
Connect-AzAccount  -Environment AzureChinaCloud -SubscriptionId $subscriptionId

# Password for the service principal
$pwd = "{service-principal-password}"
$secureStringPassword = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $pwd -AsPlainText -Force

# Create a new Azure Active Directory application
$azureAdApplication = New-AzADApplication `
                        -DisplayName "My Azure Monitor" `
                        -HomePage "https://localhost/azure-monitor" `
                        -IdentifierUris "https://localhost/azure-monitor" `
                        -Password $secureStringPassword

# Create a new service principal associated with the designated application
New-AzADServicePrincipal -ApplicationId $azureAdApplication.ApplicationId

# Assign Reader role to the newly created service principal
New-AzRoleAssignment -RoleDefinitionName Reader `
                          -ServicePrincipalName $azureAdApplication.ApplicationId.Guid

Next steps

Before you can generate a token using your app, client ID, and secret, assign the app to a role using Access control (IAM) for resource that you want to access. The role will depend on the resource type and the API that you want to use.
For example,

To grant your app read from a Log Analytics Workspace, add your app as a member to the Reader role using Access control (IAM) for your Log Analytics Workspace. For more information, see Access the API

For more information, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal

Once you've assigned a role, you can use your app, client ID, and client secret to generate a bearer token to access the REST API.

Note

When using Microsoft Entra authentication, it may take up to 60 minutes for the Azure Application Insights REST API to recognize new role-based access control (RBAC) permissions. While permissions are propagating, REST API calls may fail with error code 403.

Register an App to request authorization tokens and work with APIs

Register an App

Next steps

Additional resources