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Send an email from an Automation runbook

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You can send an email from a runbook with SendGrid using PowerShell.

If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a free account before you begin.

Prerequisites

Create an Azure Key Vault

Create an Azure Key Vault and Key Vault access policy that allows the credential to get and set key vault secrets in the specified key vault.

  1. Sign in to Azure interactively using the Connect-AzAccount cmdlet and follow the instructions.

    # Sign in to your Azure subscription
$sub = Get-AzSubscription -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if(-not($sub))
{
    Connect-AzAccount
}

# If you have multiple subscriptions, set the one to use
# Select-AzSubscription -SubscriptionId <SUBSCRIPTIONID>

  2. Provide an appropriate value for the variables below and then execute the script.

    $resourceGroup = "<Resource group>"
$automationAccount = "<Automation account>"
$region = "<Region>"
$SendGridAPIKey = "<SendGrid API key>"
$VaultName = "<A universally unique vault name>"

$userAssignedManagedIdentity = "<User-assigned managed identity>"

  3. Create Key Vault and assign permissions

    # Create the new key vault
$newKeyVault = New-AzKeyVault `
    -VaultName $VaultName `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
    -Location $region

$resourceId = $newKeyVault.ResourceId

# Convert the SendGrid API key into a SecureString
$Secret = ConvertTo-SecureString -String $SendGridAPIKey `
    -AsPlainText -Force

Set-AzKeyVaultSecret -VaultName $VaultName `
    -Name 'SendGridAPIKey' `
    -SecretValue $Secret

# Grant Key Vault access to the Automation account's system-assigned managed identity.
$SA_PrincipalId = (Get-AzAutomationAccount `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
    -Name $automationAccount).Identity.PrincipalId

Set-AzKeyVaultAccessPolicy `
    -VaultName $vaultName `
    -ObjectId $SA_PrincipalId `
    -PermissionsToSecrets Set, Get

# Grant Key Vault access to the user-assigned managed identity.
$UAMI = Get-AzUserAssignedIdentity `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
    -Name $userAssignedManagedIdentity

Set-AzKeyVaultAccessPolicy `
    -VaultName $vaultName `
    -ObjectId $UAMI.PrincipalId `
    -PermissionsToSecrets Set, Get

    For other ways to create an Azure Key Vault and store a secret, see Key Vault quickstarts.

Assign permissions to managed identities

Assign permissions to the appropriate managed identity. The runbook can use either the Automation account system-assigned managed identity or a user-assigned managed identity. Steps are provided to assign permissions to each identity. The steps below use PowerShell. If you prefer using the Portal, see Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal.

  1. Use PowerShell cmdlet New-AzRoleAssignment to assign a role to the system-assigned managed identity.

    New-AzRoleAssignment `
    -ObjectId $SA_PrincipalId `
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
    -RoleDefinitionName "Reader"

  2. Assign a role to a user-assigned managed identity.

    New-AzRoleAssignment `
    -ObjectId $UAMI.PrincipalId`
    -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup `
    -RoleDefinitionName "Reader"

  3. For the system-assigned managed identity, show ClientId and record the value for later use.

    $UAMI.ClientId

Create the runbook to send an email

After you've created a Key Vault and stored your SendGrid API key, it's time to create the runbook that retrieves the API key and sends an email. Let's use a runbook that uses the system-assigned managed identity to authenticate with Azure to retrieve the secret from Azure Key Vault. We'll call the runbook Send-GridMailMessage. You can modify the PowerShell script used for different scenarios.

  1. Sign in to the Azure portal and navigate to your Automation account.

  2. From your open Automation account page, under Process Automation, select Runbooks

  3. Select + Create a runbook.

    1. Name the runbook Send-GridMailMessage.
    2. From the Runbook type drop-down list, select PowerShell.
    3. Select Create.

    Create Runbook

  4. The runbook is created and the Edit PowerShell Runbook page opens. Edit the Runbook

  5. Copy the following PowerShell example into the Edit page. Ensure that the VaultName specifies the name you've chosen for your Key Vault.

    Param(
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [String] $destEmailAddress,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [String] $fromEmailAddress,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [String] $subject,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [String] $content,
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$True)]
  [String] $ResourceGroupName
)

# Ensures you do not inherit an AzContext in your runbook
Disable-AzContextAutosave -Scope Process

# Connect to Azure with system-assigned managed identity
$AzureContext = (Connect-AzAccount -Identity).context

# set and store context
$AzureContext = Set-AzContext -SubscriptionName $AzureContext.Subscription -DefaultProfile $AzureContext 

$VaultName = "<Enter your vault name>"

$SENDGRID_API_KEY = Get-AzKeyVaultSecret `
    -VaultName $VaultName `
    -Name "SendGridAPIKey" `
    -AsPlainText -DefaultProfile $AzureContext

$headers = New-Object "System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary[[String],[String]]"
$headers.Add("Authorization", "Bearer " + $SENDGRID_API_KEY)
$headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

$body = @{
personalizations = @(
    @{
        to = @(
                @{
                    email = $destEmailAddress
                }
        )
    }
)
from = @{
    email = $fromEmailAddress
}
subject = $subject
content = @(
    @{
        type = "text/plain"
        value = $content
    }
)
}

$bodyJson = $body | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 4

$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send -Method Post -Headers $headers -Body $bodyJson

  6. If you want the runbook to execute with the system-assigned managed identity, leave the code as-is. If you prefer to use a user-assigned managed identity, then:

    1. From line 18, remove $AzureContext = (Connect-AzAccount -Identity).context,
    2. Replace it with $AzureContext = (Connect-AzAccount -Identity -AccountId <ClientId>).context, and
    3. Enter the Client ID you obtained earlier.

  7. Select Save, Publish and then Yes when prompted.

To verify that the runbook executes successfully, you can follow the steps under Test a runbook or Start a runbook.

If you don't initially see your test email, check your Junk and Spam folders.

Clean up resources

  1. When the runbook is no longer needed, select it in the runbook list and select Delete.

  2. Delete the Key Vault by using the Remove-AzKeyVault cmdlet.

    $VaultName = "<your KeyVault name>"
$resourceGroup = "<your ResourceGroup name>"
Remove-AzKeyVault -VaultName $VaultName -ResourceGroupName $resourceGroup

Next steps