Creating and Customizing Automation Policies

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This section describes how to create automation policies using the automation actions in the Network Connectivity Automation PowerPack.

This section covers the following topics:

Prerequisites

Before you create an automation policy using the automation actions in the Network Connectivity Automation PowerPack, you must determine:

  • Which commands (Ping, Traceroute, NSLOOKUP, or NMAP) you want to run on a device when an event occurs. There are 11 automation actions in the PowerPack that run these commands with different options. You can also create your own automation actions using the custom action types supplied in the PowerPack.
  • What event criteria you want to use to determine when the automation actions will trigger, or the set of rules that an event must match before the automation is executed. This can include matching only specific event policies, event severity, associated devices, and so on. For a description of all the options that are available in Automation Policies, see the Run Book Automation section.

Creating an Automation Policy

To create an automation policy that uses the automation actions in the Network Connectivity Automation PowerPack, perform the following steps:

  1. Go to the Automation Policy Manager page (Registry > Run Book > Automation).

  1. Click Create. The Automation Policy Editor page appears.

  1. Complete the following required fields:
    • Policy Name. Enter a name for the automation policy.
    • Policy Type. Select whether the automation policy will match events that are active, match when events are cleared, or run on a scheduled basis. Typically, you would select Active Events in this field.
    • Policy State. Specifies whether the policy will be evaluated against the events in the system. If you want this policy to begin matching events immediately, select Enabled.
    • Policy Priority. Specifies whether the policy is high-priority or default priority. These options determine how the policy is queued.

    • Organization. Select one or more organizations to associate with the automation policy. The automation policy will execute only for devices in the selected organizations (that also match the other criteria in the policy). To configure a policy to execute for all organizations , select System.

    • Aligned Actions. This field includes the actions from the Network Connectivity Automation PowerPack. You should see Run Ping, Run Traceroute, Run Nslookup, and Run NMAP actions in this field.

      To add an action to the Aligned Actions field, select the action in the Available Actions field and click the right arrow (>>). To re-order the actions in the Aligned Actions field, select an action and use the up arrow or down arrow buttons to change that action's position in the sequence. Select an output format action from the Datacenter Automation Utilities PowerPack.

      Remember that you must include an output format action (from the Datacenter Automation Utilities PowerPack) for this action to produce output.

  2. To align the policy with a device group ("IPv4 Devices" or "IPv6 Devices") supplied in the PowerPack, do the following:
    1. In the Align With drop-down menu, select "Device Groups".
    2. In the Available Device Groups field, select the "IPv4 Devices" or "IPv6 Devices" device group, and click the right arrow (>>).
  3. Optionally, supply values in the other fields on this page to refine when the automation will trigger.

  4. Click Save.

    You can also modify one of the automation policies included with this PowerPack. Best practice is to use the [Save As] option to create a new, renamed automation policy, instead of customizing the standard automation policies.

    If you modify one of the included automation policies and save it with the original name, the customizations in that policy will be overwritten when you upgrade the PowerPack unless you remove the association between the automation policy and the PowerPack before upgrading.

Example Automation Configuration

The following is an example of an automation policy that uses the automation actions in the Network Connectivity Automation PowerPack:

The policy uses the following settings:

  • Policy Name. The policy is named "My NC Ping (IPv6)".
  • Policy Type. The policy runs when an event is in an active state. Active Events is selected in this field.
  • Policy State. Enabled is selected in this field.

  • Organization. The policy executes for all organizations, so System is selected in this field.

  • Criteria Logic. The policy is configured to execute immediately when an event matches these criteria: "Severity >= Minor, and no time has elapsed since the first occurrence, and event is NOT cleared, and all times are valid".
  • Aligned Devices. The policy is configured to trigger for all devices in the "IPv6 Devices" dynamic device group.
  • Aligned Events. The policy is configured to trigger only when the following events are triggered:
    • Critical: Poller: Availability and Latency checks failed
    • Critical: Poller: Device not responding to ping (high frequency)
    • Major: Poller: Availability Check Failed
    • Major: Poller: Availability Flapping
    • Major: Poller: TCP/UDP port not responding (SMTP)
    • Major: Transactions: Round trip mail did not arrive within threshold
    • Minor: Poller: Network Latency Exceeded Threshold
    • Minor: Poller: TCP connections time above threshold
  • Aligned Actions. The automation includes the following actions. The formatting action allows you to view the output of ping in the Automation Log, accessed through the SL1 Event Console:
    • Run Ping6: Default options
    • Datacenter Automation: Format Command Output as HTML

Customizing an Automation Policy

To customize an automation policy:

  1. Go to the Automation Policy Manager page (Registry > Run Book > Automation).

  1. Search for the Network Connectivity Automation automation policy you want to edit and click the wrench icon () for that policy . The Automation Policy Editor page appears:

  1. Complete the following fields as needed:
  • Policy Name. Type a new name for the automation policy to avoid overwriting the default policy.
  • Policy Type. Select whether the automation policy will match events that are active, match when events are cleared, or run on a scheduled basis. Typically, you would select Active Events in this field.
  • Policy State. Specifies whether the policy will be evaluated against the events in the system. If you want this policy to begin matching events immediately, select Enabled.
  • Policy Priority. Specifies whether the policy is high-priority or default priority. These options determine how the policy is queued.

  • Aligned Actions. This field includes the actions from the Network Connectivity Automation  PowerPack. You should see Run Ping, Run Traceroute, Run Nslookup, and Run NMAP actions in this field.

    To add an action to the Aligned Actions field, select the action in the Available Actions field and click the right arrow (>>). To re-order the actions in the Aligned Actions field, select an action and use the up arrow or down arrow buttons to change that action's position in the sequence. Select an output format action from the Datacenter Automation Utilities PowerPack.

    Remember that you must include an output format action (from the Datacenter Automation Utilities PowerPack) for this action to produce output.

  • Organization. Select the organization that will use this policy.

  1. To align the policy with a device group ("IPv4 Devices" or "IPv6 Devices") supplied in the PowerPack, do the following:
    1. In the Align With drop-down menu, select "Device Groups".
    2. In the Available Device Groups field, select the "IPv4 Devices" or "IPv6 Devices" device group, and click the right arrow (>>).
  2. Optionally, supply values in the other fields on the Automation Policy Editor page to refine when the automation will trigger.
  1. Click Save.

Removing an Automation Policy from a PowerPack

After you have customized a policy from a Network Connectivity Automation  PowerPack, you might want to remove that policy from that PowerPack to prevent your changes from being overwritten if you update the PowerPack later. If you have the license key with author's privileges for a PowerPack or if you have owner/administrator privileges with your license key, you can remove content from a PowerPack.

To remove content from a PowerPack:

  1. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
  • Find the Network Connectivity Automation  PowerPack. Click its wrench icon ().
  • In the PowerPack Properties page, in the navigation bar on the left side, click Run Book Policies.
  • In the Embedded Run Book Polices pane, locate the policy you updated, and click the bomb icon () for that policy. The policy will be removed from the PowerPack and will now appear in the bottom pane.