Internal server error while deploying an arm template to azure - azure

Question

I am deploying an new metric alert to Azure with an ARM template.
I am following the exact same way of Microsoft doc.
With the only change that I deploy just 1 metric to an Automation account and not to an storage account
Template file
"variables": {
"criterion1": "[array(parameters('criterion1'))]",
"criteria": "[concat(variables('criterion1'))]"
},
"resources": [
{
"name": "[parameters('alertName')]",
"type": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts",
"location": "global",
"apiVersion": "2018-03-01",
"tags": {},
"properties": {
"description": "[parameters('alertDescription')]",
"severity": "[parameters('alertSeverity')]",
"enabled": "[parameters('isEnabled')]",
"scopes": [
"[parameters('resourceId')]"
],
"evaluationFrequency": "[parameters('evaluationFrequency')]",
"windowSize": "[parameters('windowSize')]",
"criteria": {
"odata.type": "Microsoft.Azure.Monitor.SingleResourceMultipleMetricCriteria",
"allOf": "[variables('criteria')]"
},
"actions": [
{}
]
}
}
]
parameter file
"criterion1": {
"value": {
"name": "1st criterion",
"metricName": "TotalJob",
"dimensions": [
{
"name": "Status",
"operator": "Include",
"values": [
"Failed"
]
},
{
"name": "Status",
"operator": "Include",
"values": [
"Completed"
]
}
],
"operator": "GreaterThan",
"threshold": "5",
"timeAggregation": "Total"
}
}
But when i deploy this to Azure my Powershell command get stuck without giving any errors even with -DeploymentDebugLogLevel All parameter on it. In Azure portal I got the error "Internal server error" without any context. The json log gives me following logs:
{
"authorization": {
"action": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts/write",
"scope": "/subscriptions/xxxxxx/resourcegroups/bilalachahbar/providers/Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts/New Metric Alert"
},
"caller": "xxxx",
"channels": "Operation",
"claims": {
"aud": "https://management.azure.com/",
"iss": "https://sts.windows.net/17b5a1d-057c-4ac-a15a-08758f7a7064/",
"iat": "15596014",
"nbf": "15596014",
"exp": "15599914",
"aio": "42RgYDgypS7rfe/Of0l1R+q3TbCgA=",
"appid": "0e4a093a-c6fd-4fba-b4e5-f07ba479f203",
"appidacr": "1",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/identity/claims/identityprovider": "https://sts.windows.net/17xxxxxc5-a15a-08758f7a7064/",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/identity/claims/objectidentifier": "a3db39bf-8c65-4b84-b049-d7af99bfb3e",
"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/ws/2005/05/identity/claims/nameidentifier": "a3db39bf-8c65-4b84-b049-d7af99bfb3e",
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/identity/claims/tenantid": "1xxxxxx057c-4ac5-a15a-087f7a7064",
"uti": "SCkIk235EScz0Hst20AA",
"ver": "1.0"
},
"correlationId": "8013b5-9788-41ed-afcf-0dbd8276349c",
"description": "",
"eventDataId": "e39509-0837-4435-af7a-02ba1462055f",
"eventName": {
"value": "EndRequest",
"localizedValue": "End request"
},
"category": {
"value": "Administrative",
"localizedValue": "Administrative"
},
"eventTimestamp": "2018-12-27T14:11:48.1462445Z",
"id": "/subscriptions/xxxxx/resourcegroups/xxxxxx/providers/Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts/New+Metric+Alert/events/e39509-0837-4435-af7a-02ba1462055f/ticks/815167081462445",
"level": "Error",
"operationId": "e390389-ecc1-4a2-8c2-d94ea635cb",
"operationName": {
"value": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts/write",
"localizedValue": "Create or update metric alert"
},
"resourceGroupName": "xxxxx",
"resourceProviderName": {
"value": "Microsoft.Insights",
"localizedValue": "Microsoft Insights"
},
"resourceType": {
"value": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts",
"localizedValue": "Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts"
},
"resourceId": "/subscriptions/xxxxxx/resourcegroups/bilalachahbar/providers/Microsoft.Insights/metricAlerts/New Metric Alert",
"status": {
"value": "Failed",
"localizedValue": "Failed"
},
"subStatus": {
"value": "InternalServerError",
"localizedValue": "Internal Server Error (HTTP Status Code: 500)"
},
"submissionTimestamp": "2018-12-27T14:12:05.0719055Z",
"subscriptionId": "xxxxxx",
"properties": {
"statusCode": "InternalServerError",
"serviceRequestId": "8613b5-9788-41d-afcf-0dbd27639c",
"statusMessage": "{\"error\":{\"code\":\"InternalServerError\",\"message\":\"The server encountered an internal error, please retry. If the problem persists, contact support.\"}}"
},
"relatedEvents": []
}
An other stack overflow question got an sort of same question.
He got the problem when using an resource that is not supported anymore but I guess that is not the case with me because the official MS documentation is from september this year. I got the same issues when I use the exact same arm template that is provided in the documentation

Answer 1

I found my own error
Action groups are required when you want to deploy metric alerts.
As you can see in the documentation they provide an action ID, and I didn't. As I thought that it wasn't necessary it actually is.
I know this is obvious but unfortunately I did not saw this in the documentation or in the error. After some debugging and looking in the Resource Explorer I've noticed this.
SO future reader I hope this will solve your issue
One little feedback is that there is no depends on value ATM so I can not create an action group resource first in the same arm template