I recently started playing around with Microsoft Purview, the latest Data Protection Solution in Microsoft’s suite of security and compliance products. One of the features Purview offers is the ability to scan on-premises data repositories, which involves deploying the scanner utility to an on-prem system. The instructions are fairly straightforward, however when it came time to authenticate the scanner to Azure AD, I ran into an error!
Before continuing, it’s important to note that the version of the Unified Labeling Client that was installed is 2.16.73.0.
Thinking it must have been a simple mistake in the command, I tried again a few times. No luck. I re-checked all the permissions of the Azure AD app, reviewed the setup documents. Everything matched exactly. What gives?
After getting nowhere with the available online resources, I took a look at the error again. The problem starts exactly at character 1 of the underlying script when running Set-AIPAuthentication. It was at this point I started to wonder if maybe there was an issue with the Unified Labeling Client itself. To test this idea, I figured it would be a good idea to try an older version of the client.
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t make it easy to obtain previous versions of this client. After giving up trying to find it via “official” means, I thought to try one of the internets greatest gifts: the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
After entering the URL of the download link (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53018), I was delighted to see that there were plenty of snapshots to pick from. Checking the release history of the client, the previous version 2.15.33.0 was released in February 2023. I selected a snapshot closest to the release date, and the download worked! (Note: screenshot below shows version 2.13.49.0, but concept still applies)
I then re-ran the setup process, and surprise - no errors!
TL;DR: Trying to setup the on-prem scanner for Microsoft Purview and having issues installing the latest version Unified Labeling Client? Try installing a previous version. Also, the Internet Archive is awesome.