Configure resource health alerts using Resource Manager templates
This article will show you how to create Resource Health Activity Log Alerts programmatically using Azure Resource Manager templates and Azure PowerShell.
Azure Resource Health keeps you informed about the current and historical health status of your Azure resources. Azure Resource Health alerts can notify you in near real-time when these resources have a change in their health status. Creating Resource Health alerts programmatically allow for users to create and customize alerts in bulk.
Note
We recommend that you use the Azure Az PowerShell module to interact with Azure. To get started, see Install Azure PowerShell. To learn how to migrate to the Az PowerShell module, see Migrate Azure PowerShell from AzureRM to Az.
Prerequisites
To follow the instructions on this page, you'll need to set up a few things in advance:
- You need to install the Azure PowerShell module
- You need to create or reuse an Action Group configured to notify you
Instructions
Using PowerShell, log in to Azure using your account, and select the subscription you want to interact with
Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud Select-AzSubscription -Subscription <subscriptionId>You can use
Get-AzSubscriptionto list the subscriptions you have access to.Find and save the full Azure Resource Manager ID for your Action Group
(Get-AzActionGroup -ResourceGroupName <resourceGroup> -Name <actionGroup>).IdCreate and save a Resource Manager template for Resource Health alerts as
resourcehealthalert.json(see details below)Create a new Azure Resource Manager deployment using this template
New-AzResourceGroupDeployment -Name ExampleDeployment -ResourceGroupName <resourceGroup> -TemplateFile <path\to\resourcehealthalert.json>You'll be prompted to type in the Alert Name and Action Group Resource ID you copied earlier:
Supply values for the following parameters: (Type !? for Help.) activityLogAlertName: <Alert Name> actionGroupResourceId: /subscriptions/<subscriptionId>/resourceGroups/<resourceGroup>/providers/microsoft.insights/actionGroups/<actionGroup>If everything worked successfully, you'll get a confirmation in PowerShell
DeploymentName : ExampleDeployment ResourceGroupName : <resourceGroup> ProvisioningState : Succeeded Timestamp : 11/8/2017 2:32:00 AM Mode : Incremental TemplateLink : Parameters : Name Type Value =============== ========= ========== activityLogAlertName String <Alert Name> activityLogAlertEnabled Bool True actionGroupResourceId String /... Outputs : DeploymentDebugLogLevel :
Note that if you are planning on fully automating this process, you simply need to edit the Resource Manager template to not prompt for the values in Step 5.
Resource Manager template options for Resource Health alerts
You can use this base template as a starting point for creating Resource Health alerts. This template will work as written, and will sign you up to receive alerts for all newly activated resource health events across all resources in a subscription.
At the bottom of this article we have also included a more complex alert template which should increase the signal to noise ratio for Resource Health alerts as compared to this template.
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"activityLogAlertName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Unique name (within the Resource Group) for the Activity log alert."
}
},
"actionGroupResourceId": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Resource Id for the Action group."
}
}
},
"resources": [
{
"type": "Microsoft.Insights/activityLogAlerts",
"apiVersion": "2017-04-01",
"name": "[parameters('activityLogAlertName')]",
"location": "Global",
"properties": {
"enabled": true,
"scopes": [
"[subscription().id]"
],
"condition": {
"allOf": [
{
"field": "category",
"equals": "ResourceHealth"
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Active"
}
]
},
"actions": {
"actionGroups":
[
{
"actionGroupId": "[parameters('actionGroupResourceId')]"
}
]
}
}
}
]
}
However, a broad alert like this one is generally not recommended. Learn how we can scope down this alert to focus on the events we care about below.
Adjusting the alert scope
Resource Health alerts can be configured to monitor events at three different scopes:
- Subscription Level
- Resource Group Level
- Resource Level
The alert template is configured at the subscription level, but if you would like to configure your alert to only notify you about certain resources, or resources within a certain resource group, you simply need to modify the scopes section in the above template.
For a resource group level scope, the scopes section should look like:
"scopes": [
"/subscriptions/<subscription id>/resourcegroups/<resource group>"
],
And for a resource level scope, the scope section should look like:
"scopes": [
"/subscriptions/<subscription id>/resourcegroups/<resource group>/providers/<resource>"
],
For example: "/subscriptions/aaaa0a0a-bb1b-cc2c-dd3d-eeeeee4e4e4e/resourcegroups/myRG/providers/microsoft.compute/virtualmachines/myVm"
You can go to the Azure Portal and look at the URL when viewing your Azure resource to get this string.
Adjusting the resource types which alert you
Alerts at the subscription or resource group level may have different kinds of resources. If you want to limit alerts to only come from a certain subset of resource types, you can define that in the condition section of the template like so:
"condition": {
"allOf": [
...,
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "resourceType",
"equals": "MICROSOFT.COMPUTE/VIRTUALMACHINES",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "resourceType",
"equals": "MICROSOFT.STORAGE/STORAGEACCOUNTS",
"containsAny": null
},
...
]
}
]
},
Here we use the anyOf wrapper to allow the resource health alert to match any of the conditions we specify, allowing for alerts that target specific resource types.
Adjusting the Resource Health events that alert you
When resources undergo a health event, they can go through a series of stages that represents the state of the health event: Active, In Progress, Updated, and Resolved.
You may only want to be notified when a resource becomes unhealthy, in which case you want to configure your alert to only notify when the status is Active. However if you want to also be notified on the other stages, you can add those details like so:
"condition": {
"allOf": [
...,
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Active"
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "In Progress"
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Resolved"
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Updated"
}
]
}
]
}
If you want to be notified for all four stages of health events, you can remove this condition all together, and the alert will notify you irrespective of the status property.
Note
Each "anyOf" section should contain just one field type values.
Adjusting the Resource Health alerts to avoid "Unknown" events
Azure Resource Health can report to you the latest health of your resources by constantly monitoring them using test runners. The relevant reported health statuses are: "Available", "Unavailable", and "Degraded". However, in situations where the runner and the Azure resource are unable to communicate, an "Unknown" health status is reported for the resource, and that is considered an "Active" health event.
However, when a resource reports "Unknown", it's likely that its health status has not changed since the last accurate report. If you would like to eliminate alerts on "Unknown" events, you can specify that logic in the template:
"condition": {
"allOf": [
...,
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Available",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Unavailable",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Degraded",
"containsAny": null
}
]
},
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Available",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Unavailable",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Degraded",
"containsAny": null
}
]
},
]
},
In this example, we are only notifying on events where the current and previous health status does not have "Unknown". This change may be a useful addition if your alerts are sent directly to your mobile phone or email.
Note that it is possible for the currentHealthStatus and previousHealthStatus properties to be null in some events. For example, when an Updated event occurs it's likely that the health status of the resource has not changed since the last report, only that additional event information is available (e.g. cause). Therefore, using the clause above may result in some alerts not being triggered, because the properties.currentHealthStatus and properties.previousHealthStatus values will be set to null.
Adjusting the alert to avoid User Initiated events
Resource Health events can be triggered by platform initiated and user initiated events. It may make sense to only send a notification when the health event is caused by the Azure platform.
It's easy to configure your alert to filter for only these kinds of events:
"condition": {
"allOf": [
...,
{
"field": "properties.cause",
"equals": "PlatformInitiated",
"containsAny": null
}
]
}
Note that it is possible for the cause field to be null in some events. That is, a health transition takes place (e.g. available to unavailable) and the event is logged immediately to prevent notification delays. Therefore, using the clause above may result in an alert not being triggered, because the properties.cause property value will be set to null.
Complete Resource Health alert template
Using the different adjustments described in the previous section, here is a sample template that is configured to maximize the signal to noise ratio. Bear in mind the caveats noted above where the currentHealthStatus, previousHealthStatus, and cause property values may be null in some events.
{
"$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2015-01-01/deploymentTemplate.json#",
"contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
"parameters": {
"activityLogAlertName": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Unique name (within the Resource Group) for the Activity log alert."
}
},
"actionGroupResourceId": {
"type": "string",
"metadata": {
"description": "Resource Id for the Action group."
}
}
},
"resources": [
{
"type": "Microsoft.Insights/activityLogAlerts",
"apiVersion": "2017-04-01",
"name": "[parameters('activityLogAlertName')]",
"location": "Global",
"properties": {
"enabled": true,
"scopes": [
"[subscription().id]"
],
"condition": {
"allOf": [
{
"field": "category",
"equals": "ResourceHealth",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Available",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Unavailable",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.currentHealthStatus",
"equals": "Degraded",
"containsAny": null
}
]
},
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Available",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Unavailable",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "properties.previousHealthStatus",
"equals": "Degraded",
"containsAny": null
}
]
},
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "properties.cause",
"equals": "PlatformInitiated",
"containsAny": null
}
]
},
{
"anyOf": [
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Active",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Resolved",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "In Progress",
"containsAny": null
},
{
"field": "status",
"equals": "Updated",
"containsAny": null
}
]
}
]
},
"actions": {
"actionGroups": [
{
"actionGroupId": "[parameters('actionGroupResourceId')]"
}
]
}
}
}
]
}
However, you'll know best what configurations are effective for you, so use the tools taught to you in this documentation to make your own customization.
Next steps
Learn more about Resource Health:
- Azure Resource Health overview
- Resource types and health checks available through Azure Resource Health
Create Service Health Alerts: