Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Extension - Tanium Tech Talks #122

Virtual machines are everywhere—on-premises and in the cloud—and ensuring they’re properly managed is essential for visibility and control. Whether you’re working with newly created or existing VMs, this episode of Tanium Tech Talks features Tanium Domain Architect Rob Broughall demonstrating how to use VM extensions, Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates, and Azure policies to ensure the Tanium Client is deployed consistently and efficiently.

From walking through the Azure UI to embedding the client in automated templates and policies, Rob offers a practical, step-by-step guide to bringing your Azure VMs under Tanium management. Watch the video below to see how it works and learn how to apply these techniques in your own environment.

Key takeaways

• Multiple deployment options: Rob shows how to install the Tanium Client on Azure VMs using the Azure UI, VM extensions, and ARM templates—each suited to different stages of the VM lifecycle.
• Policy-based automation: Azure policies can be configured to automatically deploy the Tanium Client to new VMs or remediate existing ones that are missing it, reducing the reliance on manual oversight.

You have some VMs in Azure… How do we ensure the Tanium Client is on them? We’ve got things like Discover… There are some challenges in cloud with that, and actually, there are native capabilities in Azure that make this even easier for us.

• Customer validation: Financial services customers are already using these methods to replace scripting engines with low-code, policy-driven deployments that are easier to maintain and audit.
• Built-in flexibility: The walkthrough provides guidance for both Windows and Linux VMs, highlighting how to utilize Tanium’s cloud initialization file (DAT) to simplify configuration.
• Troubleshooting tips: Rob shares practical advice for debugging deployment failures, including where to find logs and how to validate field inputs in the Azure portal.

Typically within the Azure portal… it will tell you what’s gone wrong if there’s an issue with field validation or something. The developers have tried to be clear about the field names… it makes it quite easy for you to see where you might have gone wrong.

• On-premises compatibility: These methods are compatible with both Tanium Cloud and on-premises environments, provided the VM can reach the Tanium server.

Additional resources

• Simplify Tanium client deployments in Microsoft Azure with VM Extensions
• Azure VM Extension how-to guide
• Enhancing Microsoft Entra ID Conditional Access with Tanium Zero Trust – Tanium Tech Talks #119
• How to configure and deploy Microsoft Defender for Endpoint in 20 minutes – Tanium Tech Talks #77