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title: "Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert" date: "2023-06-06" lastmod: 2025-11-01 draft: true categories:

"sql-server"
"powershell"

If you're wondering how to get reliable, actionable notifications when serious problems occur on your SQL Server, SQL Server Agent "admin" alerts are the long-standing, built-in answer. These alerts typically cover severity levels 16–25 and critical errors like 823, 824, and 825 so you hear about corruption, IO issues, and other high-impact events immediately.

The dbatools command named in this post, Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert, automates the tedious bits: creating the set of standard admin alerts and wiring them up to a SQL Agent operator. It’s idempotent, so you can run it repeatedly across servers and only missing pieces will be added.

What you need in place first:

Database Mail configured and working on the instance
A SQL Agent operator to receive notifications (use New-DbaAgentOperator if you don’t have one yet)

Quick start (safe preview):

1# See available parameters and examples
2Get-Help Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert -Detailed
3
4# Preview the changes without applying them
5Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert -SqlInstance 'sql01' -WhatIf

Roll out to multiple instances with a CSV or array and verify as you go:

1$servers = @('sql01','sql02','sql03')
2foreach ($s in $servers) {
3    Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert -SqlInstance $s -WhatIf
4}

Notes and tips:

The command targets the classic “admin” set: severities 16–25 and common critical error numbers (e.g., 823/824/825). This aligns with Microsoft’s long‑recommended practice for SQL Agent alerts.
Use Get-Help Install-DbaAgentAdminAlert -Full to see optional parameters for choosing or creating the operator and notification method.
After previewing with -WhatIf, remove it to apply the configuration.