Azure alerts to Microsoft Teams (and Slack)
I found myself in the position of having to get Azure Monitor alerts notifications into Microsoft Teams. So I thought it would be as easy as creating an Incoming Webhook in Teams and adding its URL to an Azure Action Group, right? Wrong!
After trying that in vain, I’ve ended up “googling” on this subject only to find out that the best way to achieve this is using an Azure Logic App. I’ve also seen others using Function Apps while the easiest approach of them all is that of relying on an alert management system similar to PagerDuty (etc.) or a better monitoring solution.
The only problem with the easiest approach is that the organisation needs to be willing to pay for the tool unless you’re in the fortunate position to have one already, which I wasn’t. Hence, let’s go down the complicated route, the way Microsoft likes to do things anyway (private joke).
One of the most common results when looking for a Logic App approach is this article by Bruno Gabrielli, https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/core-infrastructure-and-security/azure-monitor-alert-notification-via-teams/ba-p/2507676
However, like other attempts on this subject, I don’t think that guide is stupid-proof as I still wasted hours until I’ve eventually figured out how to get it done. So I thought will write down something which I hope might help me (or someone else) if I have to do this again at a later stage.
Logic App
Let’s create a Logic App based on a Consumption plan (I’ve seen reports that this is not going to work with a Standard plan):
Once created and accessed, we are greeted by a Logic App Designer with a few proposed triggers to choose from. Let’s pick “When a HTTP request is received”.
Past the following JSON schema and click Next step (you might want other payloads depending on the type of alert you want to send to Teams):
{
"properties": {
"data": {
"properties": {
"context": {
"properties": {
"condition": {
"properties": {
"allOf": {
"items": {
"properties": {
"dimensions": {
"items": {
"properties": {
"name": {
"type": "string"
},
"value": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"name",
"value"
],
"type": "object"
},
"type": "array"
},
"metricName": {
"type": "string"
},
"metricValue": {
"type": "integer"
},
"operator": {
"type": "string"
},
"threshold": {
"type": "string"
},
"timeAggregation": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"required": [
"metricName",
"dimensions",
"operator",
"threshold",
"timeAggregation",
"metricValue"
],
"type": "object"
},
"type": "array"
},
"windowSize": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"type": "object"
},
"conditionType": {
"type": "string"
},
"description": {
"type": "string"
},
"id": {
"type": "string"
},
"name": {
"type": "string"
},
"portalLink": {
"type": "string"
},
"resourceGroupName": {
"type": "string"
},
"resourceId": {
"type": "string"
},
"resourceName": {
"type": "string"
},
"resourceType": {
"type": "string"
},
"subscriptionId": {
"type": "string"
},
"timestamp": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"type": "object"
},
"properties": {
"properties": {
"key1": {
"type": "string"
},
"key2": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"type": "object"
},
"status": {
"type": "string"
},
"version": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"type": "object"
},
"schemaId": {
"type": "string"
}
},
"type": "object"
}
In the Next step search for Condition. Pick Control and choose Condition, select a status dynamic content and set it is equal to Activated.
Continue and add Teams actions (Post message in a chat or channel) to both True and False conditions (you can do the same with Slack and also send notifications to multiple channels at the same time).
Now, here you can go ahead and complete the Message with dynamic content and/or expressions.
In my case, I wanted a clickable link to the Azure alert. The URL is given by the portalLink dynamic content, however, that doesn’t come clickable in Teams and I’ve only been able to render that clickable by editing the Logic App’s messageBody section via the code view.
Essentially, my messageBody in the True condition looks like this:
"messageBody": "<p>🚨 Azure <strong></strong><strong>@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['name']}</strong><strong></strong><br>\n@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['description']}.<br>\n<a href=\"@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['portalLink']}\">@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['portalLink']}</a></p>",
Then for False I simply have:
"messageBody": "<p>The Azure <strong>@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['name']}</strong> is now <span style=\"color: rgb(65,168,95)\"><strong>Resolved ✔</strong></span><br>\n<a href=\"@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['portalLink']}\">@{triggerBody()?['data']?['context']?['portalLink']}</a></p>",
With all that Saved, we can move on to the Alert.
Alert Rule
For this exercise, I have created a ping URL test from within an App Insights’ Availability and by default that created me an alert for it. Let’s edit this alert rule and add an Action Group:
Now you can either choose an existing Action Group or create a new one which is what I’m doing. Either way, we need to go to the Actions tab and choose Webhook.
You might be tempted to pick the Logic App instead of a Webhook and that’s what you’ll also find in some guides. However, I’ve wasted a lot of time on that and never had it to work as the alerts, although sent to Teams, were coming through empty.
Once Webhook is selected, we have to paste the “HTTP POST URL” from the first Logic App step.
Please note that you do not need to enable the “common alert schema”:
With the alert rule now saved you have it bound to an Action Group coupled with the Webhook pointing at the Logic App HTTP POST URL trigger.
So let’s do some testing.
Teams
As mentioned, in my example I’m using a simple ping URL test against an App Service. I’m going to stop the App Service and once the thresholds are reached I am expecting a notification to my chosen Teams channel.
Here we go:
Starting the App Service back should now trigger a “resolved” notification back to my Teams channel:
