Azure Action Groups are essential components in Azure Monitor and Azure Alerts. They define a collection of notification preferences and actions that are used by both Azure Monitor and service alerts. While "New-AzActionGroup" is a cmdlet from the Azure PowerShell module and not a native Windows command, it can be used effectively within a Windows environment to manage Azure resources. This article will guide you through creating and managing Azure Action Groups using PowerShell on a Windows system.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following:

1. An active Azure subscription.
2. Azure PowerShell module installed. You can install it using the following command in PowerShell:

   Install-Module -Name Az -AllowClobber -Scope CurrentUser

Steps to Create an Azure Action Group

Step 1: Connect to Your Azure Account

First, you need to connect to your Azure account using the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet:

Connect-AzAccount

Step 2: Create an Action Group

You can create an action group using the New-AzActionGroup cmdlet. Below is an example of how to create an action group with an email receiver.

# Define variables
$resourceGroupName = "MyResourceGroup"
$actionGroupName = "MyActionGroup"
$receiverName = "MyEmailReceiver"
$emailAddress = "user@example.com"

# Create the action group
New-AzActionGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $actionGroupName -ShortName "MyAG" -Receiver `
    @{ Name = $receiverName; EmailAddress = $emailAddress; Type = "Email" }

Step 3: Add Additional Receivers

You can add different types of receivers to the action group, such as SMS, Webhook, or ITSM. Here’s an example of adding an SMS receiver:

# Define additional receiver
$smsReceiverName = "MySMSReceiver"
$countryCode = "1" # Country code for the phone number
$phoneNumber = "1234567890"

# Add the SMS receiver to the action group
Add-AzActionGroupReceiver -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $actionGroupName -Receiver `
    @{ Name = $smsReceiverName; CountryCode = $countryCode; PhoneNumber = $phoneNumber; Type = "SMS" }

Step 4: Verify the Action Group

To verify that your action group has been created and to list its details, use the Get-AzActionGroup cmdlet:

# Retrieve the action group details
$actionGroup = Get-AzActionGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $actionGroupName
$actionGroup.Receivers

Managing Azure Action Groups

You can update, remove, or list action groups using respective cmdlets. Here are some examples:

Update an Action Group

To update an existing action group, for example, to change the email address of an email receiver:

# Update the email receiver
Set-AzActionGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $actionGroupName -Receiver `
    @{ Name = $receiverName; EmailAddress = "newemail@example.com"; Type = "Email" }

Remove an Action Group

To remove an action group, use the Remove-AzActionGroup cmdlet:

# Remove the action group
Remove-AzActionGroup -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroupName -Name $actionGroupName

Conclusion

Creating and managing Azure Action Groups using PowerShell on a Windows environment is a straightforward process. With the New-AzActionGroup cmdlet, you can easily define and manage notification preferences and actions for your Azure resources.