Using the SL1 PowerFlow Control Tower Page

This section describes how to use the PowerFlow Control Tower page () in the PowerFlow user interface to monitor the health of your PowerFlow system and PowerFlow applications.

What is the PowerFlow Control Tower?

The PowerFlow Control Tower page () in the PowerFlow user interface provides visibility into system health and automation health. This page is made up of a group of widgets that provide key information about your PowerFlow system.

The PowerFlow Control Tower page contains the System Health, the Favorite Applications, and the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widgets alongside high-level statistics about the health of the worker services that are being used by the PowerFlow instance.

You can use the widgets on this page to monitor the health of your PowerFlow system, the various workflows you use regularly, and track the PowerFlow applications that you use the most. You can use this information to quickly determine if your PowerFlow instance is performing as expected.

Many of the widgets on the Control Tower page have a Configure icon (). If you click the Configure icon and select the Configure option from the menu, you can customize each widget, including the title and the size of the widget.

The System Health Widget

The System Health widget on the PowerFlow Control Tower page lets you see at a glance the health of the various elements of your PowerFlow system. Before you can view Health Status data on the dashboard, you need to configure PowerFlow.

Configuring the System Health Widget

To populate the system health widget, you need to install and activate the latest version of the "System Utils" SyncPack, which includes the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application that gathers system health data and populates it in the cache.

The latest version of the "System Utils" SyncPack requires the latest version of the "Base Steps" and "Flow Control" SyncPacks. You can download these SyncPacks from the ScienceLogic Support site at https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/powerpacks.

To set up PowerFlow Health Status data:

Ensure that your PowerFlow system has the following SyncPacks activated and installed:
- "Base Steps" SyncPack version 1.5.0 or later
- "System Utils" SyncPack version 1.1.5 or later
- "Flow Control" SyncPack version 1.0.1 or later. This SyncPack ships with the latest version of PowerFlow.
Create a configuration object for the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application. You can make a copy of the "PF Control Tower Configuration Example" to use as a template for this configuration object. For more information, see Creating a Configuration Object.
Align the new configuration object with the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application by clicking the Configure button from the detail page for the application and selecting this configuration object from the Configuration drop-down.

The "PowerFlow Control Tower Healthcheck" Application supports using SSH keys for collecting data from a PowerFlow node. You must select the use_ssh_key option on the Configuration pane for the HealthCheck application to use the ssh_key application variable that is defined in the aligned configuration object.
You can use this the new "steps" key in the Connection_widget field to filter the data that displays on the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget:
- When this field is present, the application filters for runs that used the "test" configuration object.
- When this field is blank, the application filters for apps that did not have a configuration object aligned.
- When the field is left out, the application does not filter, and it fetches and processes all runs regardless of the configuration objects (which is how the application worked by default in previous versions).
- For example, in the Connection_widget field, you can add the following JSON code to display the latest application run with the "test" configuration object, and the application will only show successful or failed runs with that configuration object:
```
        {
          "name": "Integration Template",
          "steps": [
            {
              "app_name": "integration_template",
              "step_name": "Get REST Test",
              "configuration": "test",
              "syncpack": "base_steps_syncpack"
            }
          ]
        }
```
Run or schedule the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application to update the PowerFlow Health Status data.

The System Health widget runs the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application automatically when you are on the PowerFlow Control Tower page, but only if the data saved on the most recent run of the application is older than five minutes. You can override this update by creating a schedule. For more information, see Scheduling Applications.

Configuring the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" Application to Gather pfctl Data

The "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application can trigger the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application, which uses healthcheck data gathered by the powerflowcontrol (pfctl) command-line utility. Both applications are available in the latest version of the "System Utils" SyncPack.

ScienceLogic recommends that you make a copy of the "PF PFCTL Healthcheck Configuration Example" configuration object to use with this application. You can find this configuration object in the "System Utils" SyncPack version 1.1.4 or later, which is available from the PowerPacks & SyncPacks page of the ScienceLogic Support site at https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/.

To configure the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application to gather pfctl data:

Go to the Configurations page (), click the Actions button (), and select Edit for the "PF PFCTL Healthcheck Configuration Example" configuration object. The Configuration pane appears.
Click the Copy as button and provide values for the following fields in the updated Configuration pane:
- Friendly Name. Name of the configuration object that will display in the user interface.
- Description. A brief description of the configuration object.
- Author. User or organization that created the configuration object.
- Version. Version of the configuration object.
- hosts_config. Click the Toggle JSON Editor button to view the JSON code, form which you can edit the node, passphrase, pkey, and user values for the host or hosts. Click the Toggle JSON Editor button again to return to the original Configuration pane fields.
- pf_manager_nodes. For a clustered environment, specify the three manager nodes of the cluster, separated by commas.
- pf_username. The SSH username for the node or nodes.
- ssh_key. The SSH key you want to use in place of a password for the remote location. Use the newline character \n as a separator. If the SSH key needs a paraphrase to be decrypted, set the paraphrase by editing the pf_password variable, below.
  
  You will need to edit the SSH Key values in the JSON Editor for this release to ensure the key is properly set. For example:"{config.ssh_key}". This is a known issue that will be addressed in a future release.
  
  To get a one-line string of the SSH key, run the following command:
  sed -E ':a;N;$!ba;s/\r{0,1}\n/\\n/g' ~/.ssh/id_rsa
- pf_password. Specify the SSH password or paraphrase for the SSH Key.
- node. Specify the hostname or IP address of the node where the pfctl healthcheck action will run.
Click Save.
On the Applications page (), open the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application and click the Configure button. The Configuration pane appears:
In the Configuration field, select the configuration object from step 2 to align it with this application.
To trigger and run the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application as a node-action (running the pfctl healthcheck action on just one node), complete the following fields on the Configuration pane:
- use_ssh_key. Select this option if you want to run the PF Control Tower application using an SSH key for authentication instead of using a password. You will need to provide a ssh_key value in the configuration object you aligned with this application, such as "${config.ssh_key}".
- action_type: Select node-action from the drop-down on the Configuration pane.
To run the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application as a cluster-action (running the pfctl healthcheck action on a cluster), complete the following fields on the Configuration pane:

action_type: Select cluster-action.

Hosts_config: Define a list of hosts in this text box, following the example, below:

{
	"hosts": [
		{
			"node": "10.2.11.241",
			"password": "<password_in_plain_text_or_calling_a_config>",
			"user": "isadmin"
		},
		{
			"node": "10.2.11.234",
			"password": "${config.pf_password}",
			"user": "${config.pf_username}"
		},
		{
			"node": "10.2.11.242",
			"password": "${config.pf_password}",
			"user": "${config.pf_username}"
		}
	]
}

Click Save to close the Configuration pane, and then run the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application. The application will trigger the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application to gather the pfctl healthcheck data from the node or cluster and display that data in the System Health widget.

If you have configured the "PowerFlow Control Tower HealthCheck" application to trigger the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application, you do not need to configure the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck"application.
Click the PFCTL Output link or icon in the System Health widget to view the data gathered by the "PowerFlow PFCTL HealthCheck" application:

Using the System Health Widget

The System Health widget monitors all of the components that make up your PowerFlow system. These components include the Pypi Server, the Dex Server, RabbitMQ, the GUI service, the Content API, Redis, Couchbase, Step Runner and SyncPacks Step Runner, and the Scheduler. If the newest data is unavailable, the System Health widget displays the last available data.

The following image shows an example of a System Health widget:

The left pane of the System Health widget contains the Process Flow View of the components of your PowerFlow system, and the right pane is the Tabular View of those components. The following are the possible health statuses for each component and how they are displayed:

Successful health: The component is working as expected when the component's icon is green in the Process Flow View and a green icon appears in the corresponding line of the Tabular View.
Failed health: The component has errors that need attention (the service is down) when the component's icon is red in the Process Flow View, with a red exclamation point () next to the component's icon. The red exclamation point () also appears in the corresponding line of the Tabular View, along with red ovals for the second and third columns of the table.

At the top left of the System Health widget is the Host Messages button, which you can click to view a pop-up that lists any issues that are currently occurring with the PowerFlow system.

The Tabular View has two behaviors:

In the default display, the information in the Process Flow View on the left is duplicated in a tabular format in the Tabular View on the right.
When you click a component's icon in the Process Flow View or a component's name in the Tabular View, the high-level information for a particular component appears in a pop-up window:

The pop-up displays the current status and related information for all containers in that component. The pop-up also includes a link to the internal user interface for that service within the cluster, such as a link to the Couchbase user interface for the Couchbase component, or the Flower user interface for a step runner.

When the Step Runner service displays a failure in the System Health widget, you can now click the Step Runner to display the following error message: "Step runners are not responding to ping, no health data could be collected.

The Favorite Applications Widget

The Favorite Applications widget on the PowerFlow Control Tower page lets you select the PowerFlow applications that are important to you and track their status:

By displaying the most frequently run applications, you can see how your PowerFlow system is automating your most common use cases.

The number of favorite applications is limited to 16 applications per user.

Contents of the Favorite Applications Widget

The toolbar at the top right of the widget includes the following buttons:

Info (). Displays a pop-up message with data for the Time Stamp, Number of Runs to Display, and the Queue for the widget.
Duplicate the Widget (). Creates a copy of the Favorite Applications widget. The copy is added below the original widget. Making a copy lets you display more than one set of favorite applications, and you can create multiple widgets to group applications that serve a specific purpose.
Actions (). Displays the following options:

Configure. Opens the Configure Widget pane, where you can update the Widget Title, Widget Size, Time Stamp for the application runs (24 hours or 48 hours), Total Number of Application Runs to Display, Queue information, and an editable list of Favorite Applications to display in the widget.
Reorder Items. Reorder the applications currently showing in the Favorite Applications widget. Use the up and down arrows to arrange the applications, and click Save when you are done.
Delete. Deletes that Favorite Applications widget.

The following details are included in this widget:

Application Name. Names and links to favorite applications.
Last Run. Status of the most recent run of a favorite applications; hover over the icon to see more information:

Icon	Status
	The application ran successfully.
	The application failed to run successfully.
	The application has not been run.

Successful. Number of successful runs in the last 24 hours.
Failed. Number of failed runs in the last 24 hours.
Actions. Includes the following icons:

Run (). Runs that PowerFlow application. If you hover over the button, you can select Custom Run to open the Custom Run window, where you can specify logging levels, the configuration object, and custom parameters for the run.
View (). Opens the Application detail page, where you can see the steps that make up the application.
Unfavorite (). Removes the application from the list of favorites.

If you are using a small screen, or if the browser window where you are running PowerFlow is not maximized, the three Actions icons might not display. To access the icons, click the Actions button () and select an icon from the pop-up menu.

Using the Favorite Applications Widget

To add an application to the Favorite Applications widget:

Go to the Applications page and click the Favorite icon () for the application you want to add to the list. A Favorite the App window appears.
Select the group or groups of favorites that will include that application and click Save. The application is added to the list of favorite applications on the Favorite Applications widget.

The data that displays in the widget can be adjusted by editing the Configuration pane, which you can access by clicking the Actions button () and selecting Configure.
To remove an application from the Favorite Applications widget, click the Unfavorite icon ().

If a favorite PowerFlow application is deleted, that application is removed from the Favorite Applications widget.

To run a favorite application in the Favorite Applications widget:

Click the Run button that corresponds to the application in the Actions column. If you hover over the button, you can select Custom Run to open the Custom Run window, where you can specify logging levels, the configuration object, and custom parameters for the run.
If the run succeeded, a green check mark will appear; if the run failed, a red exclamation point will appear.

You can select multiple applications to run them at the same time or remove them from your favorites.

The Workflow Health and Interconnectivity Widget

The Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget on the PowerFlow Control Tower page lets you monitor the connectivity of the third-party applications that you are integrating with SL1. Each pane in the widget represents a workflow that you are monitoring with PowerFlow, such as ServiceNow Business Services or Incident Details.

The color of the panes in the widget change based on the number of failed runs compared to the number of successful runs. More failed runs cause a pane to turn red, while successful runs cause a pane to turn green. If there are a combination of failed and successful runs, the pane might be a lighter shade of green or red.

Configuring the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity Widget

The Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget, you will need to configure the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application, which is available in the "System Utils" SyncPack version 1.1.4 or later. You can download this SyncPack from the ScienceLogic Support site at https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/powerpacks.

The "PowerFlow Check Connections" application gathers system connectivity health data from third-party applications, and that data is used by the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget.

To configure the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application used by the widget:

In the PowerFlow user interface, go to the Applications page () and select the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application.
Click Configure. The Configuration pane for the application appears.
From the Configuration drop-down, select PF Check Connection Configuration Example.
Click the Edit button next to the Configuration drop-down. A new configuration pane appears to the left of the Configuration pane.
In the new pane, click Copy as. A Create Configuration pane appears.
Add the required descriptive information to the fields. For more information, see Creating a Configuration Object.
For the connection_widget field, you can click the Toggle JSON Editor button at the top right of the pane to view and edit the list of existing connections, along with the applications, steps, and SyncPacks aligned with those connections.

You can update the JSON to look for any applications or steps you are running in PowerFlow. By default the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application only searches for ServiceNow CMDB, Incident, and Change Management applications.
Click Save on the Create Configuration pane.
On the Configuration pane, align the new configuration object you just created by selecting it from the Configuration drop-down.
In the number_of_days field, you can edit the number of days of data to query. The default is 2.
If needed, in the Connection_widget JSON text box, you can update the list of existing connections, along with the applications, steps, and SyncPacks aligned with those connections. This is the same content from step 7, above.
Click Save.

ScienceLogic recommends that you schedule the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application to run every 300 seconds (5 minutes), because the connections status and all other related documents will automatically delete themselves every seven days. For more information, see Scheduling Applications.

When a step path is not configured correctly because a step, application, or SyncPack does not exist in the PowerFlow system, the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application will ignore that path and keep checking all the step paths that were configured.

Using the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity Widget

On the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget, you can hover over an endpoint on the widget to view a pop-up with additional information, including the health, last run and the SyncPacks used by the endpoint.

You can click any field in the pop-up to copy its value for troubleshooting purposes.

If you get an error message stating that the data generated is missing runs or health information, either you have not run or scheduled the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application, or you have not run any of applications that the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application is configured to monitor. By default the application only searches for ServiceNow CMDB, Incident, and Change Management applications.

To update the list existing connections, edit the JSON in the connection_widget field on the Configuration pane of the "PowerFlow Check Connections" application. For more information, see Configuring the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity Widget.

A message will display in the PowerFlow user interface if the Workflow Health and Interconnectivity widget or the System Health widget detect a missing or misconfigured SyncPack.

The All Tasks, Workers, and Applications Widgets

The All Tasks, Workers, and Applications widgets on the PowerFlow Control Tower page let you monitor the status of the various tasks, workers, and applications that are running on your PowerFlow system. You can use this information to quickly determine if your PowerFlow instance is performing as expected:

To view more information about your system:

Hover over a circle graph or a bar chart item to view a pop-up field that contains the count for that item on the graph or chart, such as "Success: 48" for successful tasks on the All Tasks graph. Click an item on a circle graph to see more information in the lower pane under the charts.
Click the View all icon () for the All Tasks, Workers, or Applications graphs to view a list of relevant tasks, workers, or applications in the lower pane. Use the left and right arrow icons to move through the list of items. Click the slice of the pie or the bar in one of the graphs to see that specific sub-group.

If a "Scheduled fetch failed" pop-up message appears on this page or any other page in the PowerFlow user interface, your user interface session might have expired. To address this issue, simply log out of the PowerFlow user interface and log back in again.