How can I manage users who receive service alerts?

Hello James Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Q&A platform.

Azure Service Health alerts only trigger for subscription-scoped health events (Incidents, Planned Maintenance, Health Advisories, Security Advisories) that appear in the Activity Log. Deprecation or retirement reminders sent to Global Admins are tenant-level communications, not subscription events, so they do not show up in Service Health alerts—even if your alert rule covers all services and regions.

To Configure Who Receives Notifications:

1. Set up Service Health alerts at both scopes:

• Subscription level: Go to Azure Monitor > Service Health > Create alert rule, select all event types, and attach an Action Group with your team’s email/DL.
• Tenant level (Directory): Create an alert rule with Scope = Directory so tenant-wide advisories (including those sent to Global Admins) trigger alerts. Attach an Action Group with the same recipients.
• Review admin contact roles: Microsoft sends mandatory notices (like feature retirements) to Subscription Owners/Admins and Global Admins via azure-noreply@microsoft.com. Ensure these roles use shared mailboxes or distribution lists so your team sees them.
• Use Azure Policy for scale: Assign the built-in policy “Configure subscriptions to enable Service Health Monitoring Alert Rules” to auto-create alert rules and Action Groups across subscriptions.
• Monitor retirements proactively: Check Service Health advisories and use the Service Retirement workbook in Azure Advisor for impacted resources.

Service Health alerts don’t cover every Microsoft communication. Combining tenant-level alerts with proper role-based email routing ensures your team receives both subscription and global notifications.

It does not allow assigning Global Admin or Subscription Owner roles to shared mailboxes or distribution lists, and doing so would violate security best practices. To ensure your team receives these Mandatory service communications (such as feature deprecation reminders) are always sent to role-based accounts (Global Admins, Subscription Owners). You cannot change this in Azure, but you can route those emails internally without elevating permissions:

• Mailbox Forwarding: Configure forwarding from the admin account to your shared mailbox or DL using Exchange Online settings.
• Mail Flow Rules: Create a transport rule to detect messages from azure-noreply@microsoft.com and automatically copy or redirect them to your operations DL.
• Shared Mailbox Access: Assign read access to your ops team for the admin mailbox so they can monitor notifications without granting Global Admin rights.

You cannot change Microsoft’s recipient logic for mandatory notices. The supported approach is tenant-level Service Health alerts + internal mail routing for admin notifications.

Thanks,

Suchitra.