How to Generate ADR Failure Alerts in SCCM

In this post, I will show you how you can generate ADR failure alerts in SCCM. These alerts notify administrators about SCCM ADR failures along with the error code. I will also show you how to configure subscriptions and email notifications for ADR failure alerts, which are very useful.

An automatic deployment rule in SCCM is used to deploy monthly software updates (generally known as Patch Tuesday) and manage endpoint protection definition updates on your clients.

In some cases, the ADR fails to run and this leads to the updates not being deployed, leaving the computers unpatched. When an ADR fails, it will have an error code, which will be recorded in the ruleengine.log for troubleshooting. For instance, ADR error code 0x87D20417 is commonly observed while deploying Microsoft 365 updates.

How to Generate ADR failure alerts in SCCM

There are two ways to enable the alerts for SCCM ADR failures:

• Enable alerts while creating a new Automatic Deployment Rule
• Turn on failure alerts for existing ADR in SCCM

Both the above methods will be covered. Depending upon the requirement, you can use the method that you need.

Turn on failure alerts for existing ADR

If you have already created an ADR that is deploying software updates automatically, you can turn on the alerts in case it fails. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to Software Library > Software Updates > Automatic Deployment Rules. Right-click the ADR and select Properties. In the ADR properties, switch to the Alerts tab and enable the option “Generate an alert when this rule fails.” Click Apply and OK.

The next time this ADR rule runs and experiences failures, an alert is generated in the Configuration Manager console. This failure alert is shown when the SCCM console is launched.

Enable Failure Alerts for New ADR

If you are creating a new automatic deployment rule to automatically deploy software updates, the ADR wizard provides the option to configure the failure alerts.

On the Alerts page of the Create Automatic Deployment Rule Wizard, you can configure how Configuration Manager generates alerts for this deployment. There are two alert options that can be configured here.

1. Generate an alert when this rule fails: Enable this option to get the alerts for SCCM ADR failures whenever they occur.
2. Generate an alert when the following conditions are met: If you want to generate an alert only when specific conditions are met, this option is for you. For example, you can generate an alert when client compliance falls below a certain percentage.

How to Check ADR alerts in SCCM console

SCCM creates a new critical alert after you enable the failure alerts for an ADR. This alert is triggered whenever the rule criteria are met. To check the ADR alerts, navigate to Monitoring > Alerts > All Alerts. From the list of alerts, double-click the ‘Rule Failure Alert‘ and you will notice that this alert is triggered whenever the ADR fails to run.

Every individual ADR that has been configured to send alerts is triggered with the Rule Failure Alert. The rule’s description should include the ADR name, which indicates which ADR it belongs to.

Create Subscription for ADR Rule Failure Alert

For every ADR alert in ConfigMgr, you can create a subscription, which allows sending notifications to an external system or application. You can then configure the email notification to send out these alerts to users.

In the Configuration Manager console, go to Monitoring > Alerts > All Alerts. Right-click on the ADR Rule Failure Alert and select Create Subscription.

On the New Subscription window, configure the following:

1. Subscription Name: Enter the subscription name, for example, ADR Rule Failure Alert.
2. Email Address: Specify the email address for the subscription.
3. Email Language: Select the language for the email, which is English (United States) in the below example.

Click OK to save the subscription details.

Configure Email Notification for ADR Failures

If you wish to receive an email whenever an ADR fails to run, you can configure the email notification. To accomplish that, go to Monitoring > Alerts > Subscriptions. Select the ADR rule failure alert subscription and in the top ribbon, click Configure Email Notification.

In the Email Notification Component Properties window, configure the following:

1. Enable email notification for alerts: Checkbox this option to configure email alerts for ADR.
2. FQDN or IP Address of the SMTP server to send email alerts: Specify the email address to receive the emails.
3. Enable encrypted SSL
4. SMTP Server Connection Account: Specify the account details that Configuration Manager will use to connect to the email server.
5. Sender address for email alerts: Specify the email address from which ADR alert emails are sent.

Click Apply and OK.

That’s it; you will now receive an email notification whenever the ADR fails to run on your SCCM server. If you wish to send out the ADR failure alerts to a group of people, you can specify an email distribution list.