Continuing on our series of blog posts for Azure Site Recovery we will be configuring the Automation Account and greater flexibilkity to our Recover Plan.

Create Automation Account

  1. In the Azure Portal, click on the “+” sign and search for Automation
  2. Select Automation where the publisher is Microsoft.
  3. Click Create
  4. Enter the required information and ensure that “Create Azure Run As account” is set to yes.
  5. Click Create

Create sample runbook for email notifications

  1. In the Azure portal, open your Automation account.
  2. Under Process Automation, click Runbooks
  3. Click Add a runbook and select Create a new runbook
  4. Provide the runbook the name of ASR-EmailNotification and select PowerShell for runbook type. Click Create.
  5. Once the runbook is created, the editor will open automatically.
  6. Add the following code, Under $MailParameters ensure that the FROM, TO and Credential fields are modified for your purpose. Click Publish.
param ( 
    [Object]$RecoveryPlanContext
)

$MailParameters = @{
    From       = ''
    To         = ''
    SmtpServer = 'smtp.office365.com'
    Port       = '587'
    Credential = Get-AutomationPSCredential -Name "AutomationAccount"
    UseSsl     = $true
}

$RecoveryPlanName = $RecoveryPlanContext.RecoveryPlanName
$GroupID = $RecoveryPlanContext.GroupID

switch ($RecoveryPlanContext.FailoverType)
{
"Test" {
    $MailParameters.add("Subject","Test Failover for $RecoveryPlanName")
    $MailParameters.add("Body","$GroupID is now running.")
}
"Planned" {
    $MailParameters.add("Subject","Planned Failover for $RecoveryPlanName")
    $MailParameters.add("Body","$GroupID is now running.")
 }
"Unplanned" { 
    $MailParameters.add("Subject","Unplanned Failover for $RecoveryPlanName")
    $MailParameters.add("Body","$GroupID is now running.")
 }
default { Write-Output ("Runbook aborted because there no failover type was specified") }
}

Send-MailMessage @MailParameters

Customize the Recovery Plan

  1. Go to your Recovery Vault your created in the previous article.
  2. Under Manage, click Recovery Plans
  3. Click on your Recovery Plan and select Customize
  4. Right-click Group 1: Start, and then select Add pre-action.
  5. Enter name for the action, select the appropriate Automation Account and select ASR-EmailNotification runbook. Click Ok.

Once you have completed all the steps, you can perform a test failover and see your runbook in action.

Other Resources

Microsoft also has some great sample runbooks to get you started. https://github.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/tree/master/asr-automation-recovery