Exercise - Create an action group

This guided project consists of the following exercises:

• Create an action group
• Create a Service Health alert
• Create an Activity Log alert

In this exercise, you create an action group with email notification and send a test message to verify delivery. Action groups are the notification backbone for Azure alerts—you set them up once and reuse them across multiple alert rules.

This exercise includes the following tasks:

• Prepare the environment
• Create the action group
• Test the action group

Outcome: An action group configured to send email notifications when alerts fire.

Task 1: Prepare the environment

Set up your Azure environment before you begin. You create a resource group to organize the monitoring resources for this project together.

1. Sign in to the Azure portal with an account that has permissions to create monitoring resources.
2. In the portal search bar, search for Resource groups and select Resource groups.
3. Select + Create. Name the resource group rg-gp-monitoring-alerts, choose your preferred region, and select Review + create then Create.
4. Note the email address you want to use for alert notifications.

Task 2: Create the action group

Create an action group that defines who gets notified and how. Action groups are reusable notification channels that you attach to alert rules, so the same team can be notified by multiple different alerts.

1. In the portal search bar, search for Monitor and select Monitor.
2. In the left menu, select Alerts.
3. Select Action groups from the top menu bar.
4. Select + Create.
5. On the Basics tab, select rg-gp-monitoring-alerts as the resource group.
6. For Action group name, enter ag-gp-ops-email.
7. For Display name, enter OpsEmail.
8. Select the Notifications tab.
9. For Notification type, select Email/SMS message/Push/Voice.
10. For Name, enter ops-team-email.
11. In the panel that opens, check Email and enter your email address. Select OK.
12. Select Review + create and then select Create.

Task 3: Test the action group

Send a test notification to verify the action group delivers email successfully. In production environments, you should always test notification channels before relying on them for incident response.

1. After the action group is created, select ag-gp-ops-email from the action groups list to open it.
2. In the top menu bar, select Test action group.
3. For Select sample type, choose Service Health.
4. Make sure the ops-team-email notification is checked.
5. Select Test.
6. Wait for the test results to appear. Confirm the Status column shows Success.
7. Check your email inbox for the test notification from Azure. Open the email and review its content—this is the same format you would receive during a real incident.