Table of Contents

Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1

Deploy cost anomaly alert configuration to individual Azure subscriptions with interactive features and validation.

Overview

This PowerShell script deploys the anomaly alert Bicep template to create a subscription-level scheduled action for cost anomaly monitoring. It provides interactive subscription selection, parameter validation, and deployment options suitable for individual subscription management or CI/CD integration.

Key capabilities

  • Interactive subscription selection: Choose target subscription from available list
  • Email validation: Validates email format before deployment
  • What-if deployment: Preview changes without actual deployment
  • Color-coded logging: Timestamped output with visual status indicators
  • Force mode: Skip confirmations for automation scenarios
  • Quiet mode: Suppress verbose output for cleaner logs

When to use this script

  • Deploying anomaly alerts to individual subscriptions
  • Testing alert configurations before bulk deployment
  • CI/CD pipeline integration for specific subscriptions
  • Interactive deployment with validation
  • Small-scale deployments (1-10 subscriptions)

Prerequisites

# Install Azure PowerShell module
Install-Module -Name Az -Force -AllowClobber

# Authenticate to Azure
Connect-AzAccount

# Verify permissions (Contributor or Owner required)
Get-AzRoleAssignment | Where-Object {
    $_.RoleDefinitionName -eq "Contributor" -or
    $_.RoleDefinitionName -eq "Owner"
}

# List available subscriptions
Get-AzSubscription | Select-Object Name, Id, State

Parameters

Parameter Type Description Required
SubscriptionId String Target subscription ID (GUID format) No (interactive)
EmailRecipients String[] Array of recipient email addresses Yes
NotificationEmail String Primary notification email Yes
DeploymentName String Custom deployment name No (auto-generated)
Location String Deployment metadata location No (West US)
Force Switch Skip confirmation prompts No
Quiet Switch Suppress deployment progress No

Usage examples

Interactive subscription selection

# Select subscription interactively
.\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
    -EmailRecipients @("platform@company.com", "finops@company.com") `
    -NotificationEmail "alerts@company.com"

Specific subscription deployment

# Deploy to specific subscription
.\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
    -SubscriptionId "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012" `
    -EmailRecipients @("admin@company.com") `
    -NotificationEmail "alerts@company.com"

What-if preview

# Preview deployment without making changes
.\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
    -SubscriptionId "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012" `
    -EmailRecipients @("admin@company.com") `
    -NotificationEmail "alerts@company.com" `
    -WhatIf

Automated deployment

# Skip all prompts for automation
.\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
    -SubscriptionId "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789012" `
    -EmailRecipients @("admin@company.com") `
    -NotificationEmail "alerts@company.com" `
    -Force `
    -Quiet

Multiple recipients

# Send alerts to multiple email addresses
.\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
    -EmailRecipients @(
        "platform-team@company.com",
        "finance@company.com",
        "cloudops@company.com"
    ) `
    -NotificationEmail "azure-alerts@company.com"

Deployment process

  1. Subscription validation: Verifies subscription exists and is accessible
  2. Email validation: Checks email format for all recipients
  3. Parameter collection: Gathers required parameters
  4. Confirmation prompt: Shows deployment summary (unless -Force)
  5. Template deployment: Deploys anomaly-alert.bicep template
  6. Status reporting: Shows success/failure with deployment ID

What gets deployed

The script deploys:

  • Cost Management scheduled action named "AnomalyAlert"
  • Anomaly detection at subscription level
  • Email notifications to specified recipients

This uses the Azure public Bicep registry module:

br/public:cost/subscription-scheduled-action:1.0.2

Error handling

The script includes comprehensive error handling:

  • Validates subscription ID format (GUID)
  • Validates email address formats
  • Checks Azure authentication status
  • Verifies subscription access permissions
  • Handles deployment failures gracefully

Troubleshooting

Authentication issues

# Clear and re-authenticate
Clear-AzContext -Force
Connect-AzAccount

# Verify current context
Get-AzContext | Select-Object Account, Subscription, Tenant

Permission errors

# Check role assignments
Get-AzRoleAssignment -Scope "/subscriptions/YOUR-SUB-ID" |
    Select-Object DisplayName, RoleDefinitionName

# Minimum required: Contributor or Owner role

Subscription not found

# List all accessible subscriptions
Get-AzSubscription | Format-Table Name, Id, State

# Ensure subscription is enabled
Get-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId "YOUR-SUB-ID" |
    Select-Object State

Deployment failures

# Check deployment history
Get-AzSubscriptionDeployment -Name "YOUR-DEPLOYMENT-NAME" |
    Select-Object ProvisioningState, Timestamp

# Get detailed error
$deployment = Get-AzSubscriptionDeploymentOperation `
    -DeploymentName "YOUR-DEPLOYMENT-NAME"
$deployment.Properties.StatusMessage

CI/CD integration

Azure DevOps pipeline

- task: AzurePowerShell@5
  displayName: 'Deploy Anomaly Alert'
  inputs:
    azureSubscription: 'ServiceConnection'
    ScriptType: 'FilePath'
    ScriptPath: '$(System.DefaultWorkingDirectory)/Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1'
    ScriptArguments: >
      -SubscriptionId $(SubscriptionId)
      -EmailRecipients @("$(EmailRecipients)")
      -NotificationEmail "$(NotificationEmail)"
      -Force
      -Quiet
    azurePowerShellVersion: 'LatestVersion'

GitHub Actions

- name: Deploy Anomaly Alert
  uses: azure/powershell@v1
  with:
    inlineScript: |
      .\Deploy-AnomalyAlert.ps1 `
        -SubscriptionId "${{ secrets.AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID }}" `
        -EmailRecipients @("${{ vars.ALERT_RECIPIENTS }}") `
        -NotificationEmail "${{ vars.NOTIFICATION_EMAIL }}" `
        -Force `
        -Quiet
    azPSVersion: "latest"

Script source

View full script source →

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