Action Group
What it is
An action group is a named collection of notification/automation actions that an alert invokes when it fires. Common actions: email, SMS, voice call, Azure app (push) notification, webhook, ITSM, Automation runbook, Azure Function, or Logic App. Many alert rules share one action group.
Why it exists
An alert without a receiver does nothing. Action groups decouple “detect the problem” (alert rule) from “who gets told / what runs” (action group), so you configure the notification once and reuse it across many alerts. This avoids duplicating email addresses and webhooks on every rule.
Key ideas
- One alert rule → may reference one or more action groups.
- Actions run in parallel; each has its own configuration (recipients, webhook URL, custom JSON payload).
- Alert processing rules can suppress notifications (e.g. dynamic scale-out ignored) or deselect specific actions.
- Reusable across metric, log, and activity-log alerts — a key exam point.
How it fits (diagram)
Diagrams courtesy of Microsoft Learn / Azure docs: azure-monitor/alerts/action-groups
Exam notes
- Action group = the notification target; alert rule = the detection. Both are needed to actually notify.
- Actions include: email, SMS, push, voice, webhook, ITSM (ServiceNow), runbook, Function, Logic App.
- You can create an action group with no actions and add actions later.
- Same action group reused across multiple alert rules is the “one-to-many” relationship to remember.
Related
metric-alert · azure-monitor · azure-monitor-activity-log · log-analytics · Home
📘 Source: Microsoft Learn — Action Group