New Version Released on July 9

On July 9, 2025, Microsoft released V2.29 of the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK to the PowerShell Gallery (Figure 1). The release notes are available but don’t really throw much light into what’s been updated and the set of issues registered in GitHub for the SDK hasn’t gone down, so it’s hard to know exactly what changes Microsoft has made in V2.29. The only way to check is to install V2.29 and run some cmdlets, which is what I did. I used the script described in this article to refresh my PC and picked up recent updates for SharePoint Online and Teams along with the SDK.

Azure AD PowerShell Finally Going Away

Microsoft recently set the final (no, it won’t be shifted again) retirement date for the Azure AD and Azure AD Preview modules. The underlying infrastructure powering these modules will be turned off in mid-October 2025. It’s not like the slow withdrawal of the MSOL module where some cmdlets (license management) stopped working and others limped on until the module’s retirement in March 2025. Once the shutters come down in mid-October, the Azure AD cmdlets stop working and scripts fail. It’s time to migrate code to use the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK, or if you insist, the Entra module (which is based on the SDK).

Testing Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK V2.29

Migrating to an unstable platform is a bad idea, and the sad fact about the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK is that some recent versions have been unmitigated disasters. Released in May, V2.28 of the SDK fixed many problems. The good news is that the suite of commands that I use to test new SDK versions uncovered no problems in dealing with users, groups, sites, mailboxes, and other objects. The new version seems to be as stable as V2.28.

Given the size of the SDK and the number of cmdlets (44,555 spread across the V1.0 and beta modules according to the Get-Command cmdlet), there’s no way that the tests I do will reveal every potential problem in an SDK release. All I can say is that the code in the scripts that I use for testing work without a problem. You can download many of the scripts that I test with from the Office 365 for IT Pros GitHub repository.

Before committing to upgrading a production environment to V2.29, I suggest that you update a couple of workstations and test scripts there. If everything checks out, you can then proceed with a tenant-wide rollout.

Azure Automation Blues

When Microsoft released V2.28 of the SDK, they acknowledged a problem with PowerShell V7.2/V7.1 runtime support in Azure Automation. In a nutshell, it all comes down to the version of .NET supported by the SDK. Microsoft said that the problem would be resolved when Azure Automation supported the V7.4 PowerShell runtime. At the time, support was supposed to appear around June 15. That date was missed and when I checked today, only Azure Automation runbooks configured for the V5.1 runtime worked. V7.1 and V7.2 runbooks barf with an “Invalid JWT access token” error caused because the Connect-MgGraph cmdlet cannot run to authenticate the session.

Until you hear differently, stay with PowerShell V5.1 for your Azure Automation runbooks. Microsoft will eventually get all of the pieces that it owns and maintains into alignment. It’s just sad when obvious gaps appear between important Microsoft 365 automation components.

Still Positive

Despite the recent issues with the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK, I’m still very positive about the SDK. Sure, there’s a learning curve to master when coming from more traditional modules like Azure AD. Yes, the issues are maddening and Microsoft’s seeming inability to drive quality in an essential component is infuriating. But despite all that, the SDK allows you to get behind the scenes of Microsoft 365 in a PowerShell-friendly manner, and that’s what really counts.

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