Integrate CrowdStrike Falcon with Microsoft Sentinel in Azure GCCH: The First Fully Supported Direct-Ingestion Solution

Introduction

For years, organizations operating in Azure Government Community Cloud High (GCC-High) had no native way to send CrowdStrike Falcon telemetry into Microsoft Sentinel. The official CrowdStrike data connector was never published to the GCC-High Marketplace, leaving security teams in a blind spot for one of their most critical endpoint detection tools.

That changed this month when, after extensive collaboration between SIEMtune and Microsoft support engineers, the underlying platform capabilities were officially enabled in GCC-High. This guide documents the first publicly available, fully tested, and Microsoft-validated solution that brings CrowdStrike Vulnerabilities, Alerts, Incidents, Detections, and Hosts into Microsoft Sentinel in GCC-High using the modern direct-ingestion architecture — no Data Collection Endpoint (DCE) required.

The Breakthrough: Official Microsoft Support Made This Possible

Until this project, attempts to deploy the standard CrowdStrike connector in GCC-High failed at the Marketplace availability layer. After months of joint engineering sessions with Microsoft’s Sentinel and Azure Government teams, the required services were enabled in the sovereign cloud. The solution presented here is the direct result of that collaboration and has been successfully running in multiple production GCC-High environments since Q1 2025.

Why This CrowdStrike-to-Sentinel Integration Is Now a Game-Changer for GCC-High

Federal agencies, defense contractors, and regulated industries operating in GCC-High can finally achieve unified visibility across Microsoft Defender, third-party sources, and CrowdStrike Falcon — all within a single Microsoft Sentinel workspace that meets stringent compliance requirements.

Key advantages of this validated solution:

• First officially supported path for CrowdStrike → Sentinel in GCC-High
• Uses Microsoft’s preferred direct-ingestion architecture (2025 standard)
• Eliminates the need for a separate Data Collection Endpoint
• Single-script deployment completes in under three minutes
• Polling intervals as low as five minutes across all data streams
• Lower cost and simpler management than legacy approaches

Prerequisites

Before proceeding, confirm you have:

• Contributor or Owner permissions on the target resource group
• An existing Microsoft Sentinel workspace in a GCC-High region (usgovvirginia or usgovarizona)
• CrowdStrike Falcon API credentials with read permissions for Vulnerabilities, Alerts, Incidents, Detections, and Hosts
• Access to Azure Cloud Shell (recommended) or a local PowerShell 7+ environment with the Az module

Recommended: Deploy Using Azure Cloud Shell with Persistent Storage

Azure Cloud Shell provides a browser-based, pre-authenticated PowerShell environment that is ideal for GCC-High deployments. It also supports mounting an Azure Files share for persistent storage across sessions.

Official Microsoft guide: Get started with Azure Cloud Shell using existing storage

Quick setup steps:

1. Open Cloud Shell in the Azure portal and select PowerShell
2. Mount an existing GCC-High storage account and file share
3. Upload or git-clone the repository files — they will persist automatically
4. Set your GCC-High subscription: az account set –subscription “Your GCC-High Subscription Name”

Step-by-Step Deployment (Validated in Production GCC-High Environments)

1. Download the tested solution https://github.com/Cyberlorians/GCCH-CrowdStrikeCCP
2. Edit config.json with your GCC-High values (critical fields shown):

JSON

{
  "subscription_id": "your-gcch-subscription-id",
  "resource_group": "your-resource-group",
  "workspace_name": "your-sentinel-workspace",
  "location": "usgovvirginia",
  "crowdstrike_api_base": "https://api.laggar.gcw.crowdstrike.com",
  "crowdstrike_client_id": "your-client-id",
  "crowdstrike_client_secret": "your-client-secret"
}

3. Run the single deployment script (PowerShell):

PowerShell

.\deploy.ps1

The script creates:

• One Direct-kind Data Collection Rule (DCR) with built-in ingestion endpoint
• One connector definition
• All five data connectors (Vulnerabilities, Alerts, Incidents, Detections, Hosts)

Deployment completes in 2–3 minutes.

4. Verify data flow (initial sync 30–45 minutes, then every 5–7 minutes):

kql

union CrowdStrike*
| where TimeGenerated > ago(15m)
| summarize Records = count() by Type
| order by Records desc

Expected tables:

• CrowdStrikeVulnerabilities
• CrowdStrikeAlerts
• CrowdStrikeIncidents
• CrowdStrikeDetections
• CrowdStrikeHosts

Architecture Overview (Direct Ingestion – No DCE Required)

CrowdStrike Falcon API (GCC-High) → 5 Data Connectors → Direct DCR → Microsoft Sentinel Log Analytics

This is the same simplified architecture Microsoft now recommends for all new Sentinel connectors. Reference: Azure Monitor Direct DCR Overview

Data Streams and Polling Intervals

Cleanup (When Needed)

PowerShell

.\cleanup.ps1

Removes all deployed resources while preserving historical data.

Resources & Official References

• Microsoft Sentinel Data Connectors: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/sentinel/data-connectors-reference
• CrowdStrike Falcon API Documentation is behind a paywall, but here is a link to their blog: https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/tech/deep-dive-crowdstrike-api/
• Direct Data Collection Rules: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-monitor/essentials/data-collection-rule-overview

This solution represents the first and only Microsoft-validated method to bring full CrowdStrike Falcon telemetry into Microsoft Sentinel in GCC-High as of 2025. Thousands of ingested events across multiple federal and defense contractor environments confirm its stability and performance.

Ready to eliminate your CrowdStrike blind spot in GCC-High? Deploy today and achieve true unified threat visibility across your sovereign cloud environment.

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FAQ: CrowdStrike Falcon to Microsoft Sentinel in Azure GCC-High (Direct Ingestion)

Q: Was the official CrowdStrike data connector ever available in GCC-High Marketplace?

A: No. Until early 2025 it was never published to the GCC-High or DoD Marketplace. This community solution, developed in direct collaboration with Microsoft support, is the first and currently only fully supported method to get CrowdStrike telemetry into Sentinel in GCC-High.

Q: Is this solution officially supported by Microsoft?

A: Yes. The underlying platform capabilities required for direct-ingestion connectors were explicitly enabled in GCC-High after joint engineering work with Microsoft’s Sentinel and Azure Government teams. The deployment has been validated and is running successfully in multiple production federal and defense contractor environments.

Q: Do I still need a separate Data Collection Endpoint (DCE)?

A: No. This solution uses Microsoft’s modern “Direct” Data Collection Rule (DCR) architecture introduced in 2024. The DCR creates its own ingestion endpoint, eliminating the need for a DCE entirely.

Q: How long does deployment take?

A: Less than 3 minutes for the PowerShell script to complete. First data typically appears in Sentinel within 30–45 minutes (due to backend scheduling), then refreshes every 5–7 minutes thereafter.

Q: What CrowdStrike data streams are ingested?

A:

• Vulnerabilities (Spotlight)
• Alerts
• Incidents
• Detections
• Hosts/Devices

All five major streams are included and land in dedicated tables: CrowdStrikeVulnerabilities, CrowdStrikeAlerts, CrowdStrikeIncidents, CrowdStrikeDetections, and CrowdStrikeHosts.

Q: Can I run this from my local machine or must I use Azure Cloud Shell?

A: You can use either. Azure Cloud Shell (PowerShell) with a mounted file share is strongly recommended for GCC-High because it avoids local credential exposure and provides persistent storage.

Q: Will historical data be deleted if I run cleanup.ps1?

A: No. The cleanup script only removes the connectors, definition, and DCR. All ingested data remains permanently in your Log Analytics workspace.

Q: What happens if I hit CrowdStrike API rate limits?

A: The default is 10 queries per second. If you receive 429 errors, simply lower the rateLimitQPS value in CrowdStrikeAPI_PollingConfig.json and redeploy.

Q: Is this solution compliant with FedRAMP High / DoD IL5+ requirements?

A: Yes. It runs entirely within your GCC-High subscription, uses only Microsoft and CrowdStrike sovereign endpoints, and has been deployed successfully in IL5 and IL6 environments.

Q: Can this be used in commercial Azure or only GCC-High?

A: The same repository works in both commercial and GCC-High. Just change the crowdstrike_api_base to https://api.crowdstrike.com and use a commercial region for non-sovereign deployments.

Q: Where can I get support if something goes wrong?

A: Open an issue on the GitHub repository: https://github.com/Cyberlorians/GCCH-CrowdStrikeCCP/issues Community and original contributors (including those who worked directly with Microsoft) monitor and respond quickly.

Q: Will Microsoft eventually publish the official CrowdStrike connector to GCC-High Marketplace?

A: Microsoft has not announced a timeline. This direct-ingestion solution follows Microsoft’s current recommended architecture and will continue to work even if an official Marketplace connector is released later.

Have additional questions? Add them to the GitHub Discussions page or open an issue — the community is actively maintaining this for the federal and defense community.