Introduction

As an Engineer specialized in Windows Systems, you may wonder how to automate the maintenance of Linux devices in Intune, a popular device management solution for Windows environments. While Intune is primarily designed for managing Windows devices, there are alternative approaches that can be used to automate the maintenance of Linux devices in a Windows environment. This article will explore these alternatives and provide practical examples to help you achieve efficient Linux device management in an Intune-managed Windows environment.

Examples:

1. PowerShell Script for Linux Device Maintenance:

• Use PowerShell to remotely execute commands on Linux devices.


• Example: Use the Invoke-SSHCommand cmdlet from the PowerShell SSH module to execute commands on a Linux device.

# Install the PowerShell SSH module

Install-Module -Name SSH-Sessions



# Establish an SSH connection to the Linux device

$session = New-SSHSession -ComputerName <LinuxDeviceIP> -Credential (Get-Credential)



# Execute a command on the Linux device

Invoke-SSHCommand -SessionId $session.SessionId -Command "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y"



# Close the SSH session

Remove-SSHSession -SessionId $session.SessionId

2. Using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL):

• Install WSL on your Windows machine to run Linux distributions natively.


• Example: Use WSL to execute Linux shell scripts for device maintenance.

#!/bin/bash

# Update and upgrade Linux packages

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y



# Restart the device

sudo reboot

In conclusion, while Intune is primarily designed for managing Windows devices, there are alternative approaches available to automate the maintenance of Linux devices in a Windows environment. By leveraging PowerShell scripts and tools like Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you can effectively manage and maintain Linux devices alongside your Windows devices in Intune.