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HPE XP7 Automation Director User Guide
Abstract
Automation Director is a software solution that provides the necessary tools to automate and
simplify the end-to-end storage provisioning process for storage and data center
administrators. The building blocks of the product are pre-packaged automation templates
known as service templates.
Part Number: P03776-005
Published: February 2019
Edition: 5
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©
Copyright 2018, 2019 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP
The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Hewlett Packard Enterprise products
and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be
construed as constituting an additional warranty. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or
omissions contained herein.
Confidential computer software. Valid license from Hewlett Packard Enterprise required for possession, use, or copying. Consistent
with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for
Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.
Links to third-party websites take you outside the Hewlett Packard Enterprise website. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has no control
over and is not responsible for information outside the Hewlett Packard Enterprise website.
Acknowledgments
Microsoft® and Windows® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other
countries.
Java® and Oracle® are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
UNIX® is a registered trademark of The Open Group.
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Contents
Getting started with Automation Director ............................................8
About Automation Director............................................................................................................8
User responsibilities ........................................................................................................ 10
Operational workflow for service administrators and service users..................................11
Built-in user accounts..................................................................................................................12
Logging on.................................................................................................................................. 13
Accessing user profiles............................................................................................................... 13
Editing a user profile ....................................................................................................... 14
Changing the password for a user account......................................................................14
Changing the system account password.................................................................................... 14
Registering a license...................................................................................................................15
Logging off.................................................................................................................................. 15
Navigating the interface.............................................................................................................. 15
Navigating help........................................................................................................................... 17
Using search features ................................................................................................................ 18
Using column filters in tables........................................................................................... 18
Using instant filters...........................................................................................................18
About tags........................................................................................................................ 19
User workflows by role................................................................................................................20
Admin user workflow........................................................................................................ 20
Develop user workflow..................................................................................................... 21
Modify user workflow........................................................................................................21
Submit user workflow....................................................................................................... 22
Launching Service Builder.......................................................................................................... 22
Service Builder workflow.................................................................................................. 23
Viewing service and task summaries..................................................24
Viewing the dashboard................................................................................................................24
Viewing dashboard reports......................................................................................................... 25
Most Frequently Failed Services report........................................................................... 25
Most Frequently Used Services report ............................................................................25
Tasks Waiting for Action report.........................................................................................26
My Tasks report................................................................................................................27
My Favorite Services report............................................................................................. 27
Managing services................................................................................ 29
Overview of Automation Director services.................................................................................. 29
Services tab......................................................................................................................29
Workflow for creating a service...................................................................................................31
Creating or editing a service....................................................................................................... 32
Create Service window.....................................................................................................33
Testing a new service..................................................................................................................35
Releasing a service.....................................................................................................................36
Submitting a service....................................................................................................................36
Disabling a service......................................................................................................................37
Deleting a service....................................................................................................................... 37
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Managing scheduled tasks.................................................................. 38
About tasks................................................................................................................................. 38
Tasks tab.......................................................................................................................... 38
About task status........................................................................................................................ 40
Viewing task details.....................................................................................................................42
Responding to tasks................................................................................................................... 43
Suspending scheduled tasks...................................................................................................... 43
Resuming scheduled tasks......................................................................................................... 43
Canceling scheduled tasks......................................................................................................... 44
Stopping tasks............................................................................................................................ 44
Forcibly stopping tasks............................................................................................................... 44
Retrying the task from the failed step......................................................................................... 45
Retrying a task from the step after the failed step...................................................................... 45
Creating a similar task request................................................................................................... 45
Archiving tasks............................................................................................................................46
Deleting tasks from history..........................................................................................................46
Working with service templates.......................................................... 47
Viewing service template information..........................................................................................47
Service Templates tab......................................................................................................47
Importing a released service template........................................................................................ 49
Creating a service from the Service Templates tab.................................................................... 50
Exporting a service template.......................................................................................................51
Deleting a service template.........................................................................................................51
Updating a service template version...........................................................................................51
About provisioning service templates......................................................................................... 52
About data mobility service templates........................................................................................ 52
About ESX cluster service templates..........................................................................................53
About ServiceNow ticketing service templates........................................................................... 54
About High Availability................................................................................................................ 54
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Administering Automation Director.................................................... 56
Viewing the Administration tab....................................................................................................56
Setup workflow............................................................................................................................56
Managing groups in Automation Director....................................................................................57
About user groups............................................................................................................57
About service groups....................................................................................................... 58
About infrastructure groups..............................................................................................59
Managing your user profile......................................................................................................... 61
Viewing your user profile..................................................................................................62
Changing your own password..........................................................................................62
Editing your own user profile............................................................................................62
Managing users and permissions............................................................................................... 62
About user roles............................................................................................................... 62
Viewing users...................................................................................................................63
Creating a user account................................................................................................... 63
Editing the profile for a user account................................................................................64
Viewing permissions.........................................................................................................64
Changing permissions for a user account........................................................................64
Changing the lock status of user accounts...................................................................... 65
User ID and password policies.........................................................................................65
Configuring external authentication for users...................................................................65
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Configuring external authentication for groups................................................................ 66
Deleting users.................................................................................................................. 67
Configuring connection settings..................................................................................................67
Configuring VMware vCenter connections.......................................................................68
Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections............................................68
Configuring Web Service connections............................................................................. 70
Configuring a Web Service connection for ServiceNow...................................................71
Configuring remote connections...................................................................................... 72
Registering storage systems to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection.............. 73
Registering a local storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API
connection........................................................................................................................73
Registering a remote storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API
connection........................................................................................................................75
Deleting local storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager REST
API connection................................................................................................................. 76
Deleting remote storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager
REST API connection...................................................................................................... 76
Using shared properties..............................................................................................................76
Built-in shared properties................................................................................................. 77
Modifying the shared service properties ......................................................................... 78
Modifying shared service properties for Data Mobility services....................................... 78
Configuring email and log settings..............................................................................................79
Setting up an external resource provider.................................................................................... 80
ServiceNow workflow integration................................................................................................ 81
Prerequisite products for workflow integration................................................................. 81
Creating a REST Message.............................................................................................. 81
Installing a MID server......................................................................................................82
Importing an update set................................................................................................... 83
Creating a service catalog item........................................................................................83
Creating a workflow..........................................................................................................83
Running the workflow.......................................................................................................85
Importing and exporting properties.................................................... 86
Importing property values........................................................................................................... 86
Exporting property values........................................................................................................... 87
CLI commands...................................................................................... 90
Hewlett Packard Enterprise XP7 Command View Advanced Edition CLI commands................ 90
hcmds64chgtsid command.............................................................................................. 90
hcmds64trust command...................................................................................................91
Automation Director CLI commands........................................................................................... 96
submittask command..................................................................................................... 101
listremoteconnections command....................................................................................109
setremoteconnection command..................................................................................... 113
deleteremoteconnection command................................................................................ 118
Services catalog..................................................................................120
Service template prerequisites..................................................................................................120
Service template supported platforms...................................................................................... 128
General settings for services.................................................................................................... 129
Allocate volumes service templates..........................................................................................130
Allocate Fabric Aware Volumes with Configuration Manager: Service details............... 131
Allocate Volumes with Configuration Manager: Service details..................................... 140
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Allocate Like Volumes service templates..................................................................................143
Allocate Like Volumes with Configuration Manager: Service details..............................143
Data mobility service templates................................................................................................ 147
Allocate Volumes from Virtual Storage Machine: Service details...................................147
Export Virtual Storage Machine Configuration Across Sites: Service details.................152
Create High Availability Pair for Migration: Service details............................................ 154
Migrate Data Using High Availability Pair: Service details............................................. 160
ESX cluster service templates.................................................................................................. 163
Installing Python and Python Library (Windows OS)..................................................... 163
Installing Python and Python Library (Linux OS)........................................................... 164
Allocate Fabric Aware Volumes and Create Datastore for ESX Cluster: Service
details.............................................................................................................................165
Add Host to Cluster in vCenter: Service details............................................................. 175
Remove Host from Cluster in vCenter: Service details.................................................. 181
ServiceNow ticketing service templates....................................................................................185
Call ServiceNow Table API: Service details................................................................... 185
Create ServiceNow Incident Ticket: Service details.......................................................187
Update ServiceNow Incident Ticket: Service details......................................................195
Retrieve ServiceNow Incident Tickets: Service details.................................................. 203
Task Settings for services ........................................................................................................ 207
Additional service templates............................................................. 208
VSphere service templates....................................................................................................... 208
Modify Virtual Machine Configuration: Service details................................................... 209
Clone Virtual Machine: Service details...........................................................................215
Delete Cloned Virtual Machine: Service details............................................................. 220
Delete Datastore on VMware vSphere: Service details................................................. 223
Migrate Virtual Machine: Service details........................................................................ 226
Stop Virtual Machine: Service details.............................................................................229
Start Virtual Machine: Service details.............................................................................231
Restart Virtual Machine: Service details.........................................................................234
Create Snapshot of Virtual Machine: Service details..................................................... 237
Add Virtual Disk to Virtual Machine: Service details.......................................................241
Remove Virtual Disk from Virtual Machine: Service details........................................... 246
Delete Virtual Machine: Service details..........................................................................250
Deploy and Setup OS on Virtual Machine: Service details............................................ 254
Get List of Virtual Machines from VMware vSphere: Service details............................. 264
Pre-check for OS Deployment on Virtual Machine: Service details............................... 267
Script execution through the vCenter server: Service details........................................ 270
OS service templates................................................................................................................275
Get List of Users from Server: Service details............................................................... 275
Get Lists of Users from Multiple Servers: Service details.............................................. 277
Execute Remote Command: Service details..................................................................280
Windows update program installation: Service details...................................................281
OpenStack service templates................................................................................................... 287
Addition of a virtual server (deployment/OS initial setup): Service details..................... 288
Add Virtual Server (virtual disk): Service details............................................................ 294
Back Up Volumes: Service details................................................................................. 298
Delete a Virtual Server: Service details..........................................................................303
Delete a Virtual Server (virtual disk): Service details..................................................... 305
Start Virtual Server: Service details................................................................................308
Obtain a virtual server information list: Service details...................................................311
AWS service templates.............................................................................................................313
Add a virtual server (deploy): Service details.................................................................314
Delete a virtual server: Service details...........................................................................318
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Start virtual servers: Service details...............................................................................320
Stop virtual servers: Settings......................................................................................... 321
Hyper-V 2012 service templates...............................................................................................323
Add a virtual server (deploy/OS initial settings): Service details.................................... 324
Change virtual server specifications (CPU and memory): Service details..................... 335
Delete virtual server: Service details..............................................................................341
Add virtual server (virtual disk): Service details............................................................. 346
Start virtual server: Service details.................................................................................350
Stop virtual server: Service details.................................................................................353
Restart virtual server: Service details.............................................................................354
Obtain virtual server information list: Service details..................................................... 356
Plug-in components for developers.......................................................................................... 358
Importing service templates........................................................................................... 358
AWS Components..........................................................................................................359
HCS Components: Service details.................................................................................359
Hyper-V Components: Service details........................................................................... 359
OpenStack Components: Service details.......................................................................359
Oracle Components: Service details..............................................................................359
vSphere Components: Service details........................................................................... 359
Websites.............................................................................................. 360
Support and other resources.............................................................361
Accessing Hewlett Packard Enterprise Support....................................................................... 361
Accessing updates....................................................................................................................361
Customer self repair..................................................................................................................362
Remote support........................................................................................................................ 362
Warranty information.................................................................................................................362
Regulatory information..............................................................................................................363
Documentation feedback.......................................................................................................... 363
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Getting started with Automation Director
About Automation Director
As a storage administrator, you spend a lot of time performing repetitive manual tasks. These tasks are
not only time-consuming, but they also can be error-prone. Considering the changing landscape of data
center operation, you must spend your time on mission-critical tasks that assure the smooth functioning of
the data center. To fulfill the demand of data center tasks, you need software that can automate the
common infrastructure requirements and processes. With Automation Director, you can easily automate
time-consuming manual tasks and streamline workflows, such as provisioning, that otherwise take hours
to complete.
Automation Director is a software solution that provides the necessary tools to automate and simplify the
end-to-end processes, such as storage provisioning, for storage and data center administrators. The
building blocks of the product are prepackaged automation templates known as service templates.
Automation Director integrates with existing Hewlett Packard Enterprise XP7 Command View Advanced
Edition applications to automate common infrastructure management tasks by utilizing your existing
infrastructure services.
Some of the supported features of Automation Director are:
• Preconfigured service templates that help you customize automation services.
• Role-based access to defined services.
• Common service management attributes that can be assigned and shared across all automation
services.
• A customizable service catalog that users can create to address specific data needs.
• A RESTful API.
Before getting started with Automation Director, understand the following key concepts:
Service templates
A service template is a deployment blueprint for the application-based storage capacity provisioning
process. It is designed to encapsulate configuration settings, instructions, and tasks needed to automate
requests such as provisioning. The default configuration settings and tasks that are used in designing
service templates are based on best practices and real-world data center scenarios including resource
allocation, optimization, and configuration. When you install Automation Director, service templates are
automatically installed and are preconfigured for use.
Services
A service is an instance of a service template that is configured to work with your needs. When you
create a new service, you are creating a copy of the selected template and reusing the configuration
settings, tasks, and processes defined in the template. A service template is used as the starting point for
creating a new service and a service is the starting point for automating storage provisioning requests.
You can create as many instances of a service template as required. You can classify services by usage
and type categories and display them in a hierarchical structure. Because Automation Director enables
you to tag a service with multiple categories, you can filter services according to purpose, such as for
displaying services by workload or business unit.
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Tasks
A task is an instance of a service. When you submit a service, Automation Director creates a
corresponding task that can be scheduled to run immediately or based on a schedule. A task can also be
suspended, resumed, stopped, and archived based on your needs.
The following figure shows the relationship between templates, services, and tasks.
Infrastructure groups
An infrastructure group organizes storage resources and enables you to associate them with services and
grant access to users. Resource groups that contain pools for storage are assigned to infrastructure
groups. The infrastructure groups are associated with service groups. The services in a service group can
access the resources in the associated infrastructure group.
Service groups
A service group is a collection of services. A service group is associated with a user group and a role is
assigned to give the users permission to use the services in the service group. In addition, the service
group is associated with an infrastructure group, to enable the services in the service group to use
resources in the Infrastructure groups.
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User groups
A user group is a set of users with a defined level of access. User groups are associated with service
groups to enable users to access the services in the service group. Automation Director includes
predefined user groups and users can also create new user groups.
User responsibilities
System administrator
After installing Automation Director, the system administrator completes the initial setup tasks of creating
pools, discovering storage systems, registering hosts, creating users and defining user permissions.
When the initial setup is complete, the service administrator and service user take over management of
the system.
Service administrator
The service administrator is an administrator who has advanced knowledge of data center operations and
is responsible for managing end-to-end IT infrastructure including prioritizing and routing service requests
to service users, attending to all critical service requests, and meeting Service Level Objectives (SLO). In
Automation Director, this type of storage administrator is responsible for creating and managing all
automation services and delegating the responsibility of running services to service users as needed.
Service user
The service user is an administrator who is responsible for the management of automation requests,
which consists of submitting and verifying the completion of automation services and monitoring all
pending and scheduled tasks.
User Actions
The actions that users can complete after the initial setup depend on the Automation Director user role as
follows.
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Users Available Actions Automation Director User Roles
System administrators Modify shared property settings.
Create users and user groups.
Create service groups and
associate services with the groups.
Create infrastructure groups and
add storage resources with the
groups.
Associate infrastructure groups
with service groups to enable the
services in the service groups to
use resources in the infrastructure
groups.
Service administrators
Service users
Create requests.
Stop tasks.
Suspend schedules.
Cancel schedules.
Resume schedules.
Resubmit tasks.
Admin
Admin, Develop, Modify, or Submit
Service administrators Archive tasks.
Create services.
Edit services.
Service administrators Service Builder actions:
Create, modify, build, and release
templates and plug-ins.
Admin, Develop, or Modify
Admin or Develop
Operational workflow for service administrators and service users
The following figure shows the basic prerequisite tasks and high-level flow of operations for a service
administrator.
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The following figure shows the high-level flow of operations for a service user.
Built-in user accounts
The System account (default password: manager) is for administering user management tasks, such as
registering users, enabling access, and managing roles and permissions. It is also used to manage XP7
Command View Advanced Edition tasks and provides access to the XP7 Command View Advanced
Edition UI. By logging on using the System account, you can access the user management window in
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Automation Director and manage user access to storage systems registered in XP7 Command View
Advanced Edition. The System account does not belong to any user group.
NOTE: For information on how to change the system account password, see the HPE XP7 Automation
Director Installation and Configuration Guide.
Logging on
Prerequisites
To log on to Automation Director, have the following information available:
• Automation Director web URL
• User ID
• Password
Procedure
1. In a web browser, enter the Automation Director URL:
http://Automation-Director-server-address:port-number/Automation/
where
• Automation-Director-server-address is the IP address or host name of the Automation Director
server.
• port-number is the port number of the Automation Director server. The default port number is
22015.
To access Automation Director in secure mode, enter:
https://Automation-Director-server-address:port-number/Automation/
where:
• Automation-Director-server-address is the IP address or host name of the Automation Director
server.
• port-number is the SSL port number of the Automation Director server. The default port number is
22016.
2. Enter a user ID and password to log on.
3. Click Login.
Accessing user profiles
Procedure
1. Access your User Profile in one of the following ways:
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• In the global toolbar, click Tools > User Profile.
• If you are an Admin user, you can click User Profile in the Administration tab.
• An Admin user can also access user profiles in the Administration tab by navigating to Resources
and Permissions > Users and Permissions > Users. Click a User ID link to open the profile.
2. Perform one or both of the following:
• Click Edit Profile to open the Edit Profile dialog box and change the name, email address, and
description. Click OK.
• Click Change Password to open the Change Password dialog box and enter the old and new
passwords. Click OK.
3. Click Close to close the User Profile window.
Editing a user profile
Procedure
1. From the User Profile window, click Edit Profile.
2. Edit the profile information and click OK.
3. Confirm that the updated user profile information appears in the Users area.
More information
Changing the password for a user account on page 14
Changing the password for a user account
As user passwords expire or are compromised, they can be changed.
Procedure
1. From the User Profile window, click Change Password.
2. Enter the old and new passwords and verify the new password.
3. Click OK.
Changing the system account password
Procedure
1. From a management client, log on using the following credentials:
User ID: system
Password (default): manager
2. On the Administration tab, click User Profile.
3. Click Change Password, type the required passwords, and click OK.
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Registering a license
Register a license when accessing Automation Director for the first time after installation or when a
license is expired.
NOTE: You must obtain the Automation Director server license from your HPE representative.
Procedure
1. Enter the Automation Director URL in a web browser.
2. In the logon window, click License.
3. In the License Information by Product dialog box, enter the license key using one of the following
methods:
• Click Key and enter the license key.
• Click File, then click Browse to upload the license file.
4. Click Save.
Logging off
On the Automation Director global task bar, click Log Out.
Navigating the interface
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Global task bar
The global task bar provides menus for accessing various features provided by Automation Director and,
in the upper, right area of the task bar, includes your user name and details about when you last logged
on. A button is also included that you can use to quickly log off the system.
The global task bar is always visible, regardless of which window is active. Its three menus provide
access to high-level actions and online help. The menus are:
• File: Click this menu to close the application or log off.
• Tools: Click and choose from the following:
◦ Service Builder: Open Service Builder. This option is available to Admin and Develop users.
◦ User Profile: Open the user profile.
◦ Reset Preferences: If you have changed some display settings such as customized dashboard
layout to display your preferred reports or modified the column settings in the Services tab, and you
want to undo your changes, you can restore the display setting to the original (default) settings. To
do so, select Tools > Reset Preferences. This action logs you off of the current session. You must
log on again to view the default settings.
• Help: Click to select one of the following options:
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◦ Select Online Manual and open Help with the navigation pane visible.
◦ Select About to open the About window to view license information.
Global tabs
The Dashboard and Tasks tabs are always visible, regardless of which window is active. Access to
Services, Service Templates, and Administration tabs is dependent on the user role assigned. The tabs
provide access to services, tasks, and administrative functions.
Navigation pane
This pane varies with the active tab. From the navigation pane, you can access resources and frequently
used tasks.
Application pane
This pane varies with the active tab. The application pane shows summary information, resource objects,
and details about the current task.
Global monitoring bar
This bar is always visible, regardless of which window is active. It provides links to information about
submitted tasks.
Search
This box is available on the Service, Tasks, and Service Templates tab and provides keyword and criteriabased search functions.
Navigating help
When you access Help > Online Manual from the global task bar, or select the help icon [?] from the
application pane or a dialog box, you can see the Automation Director help and access the Contents,
Index, and Search.
Navigating
To navigate between topics, use the navigation pane, or right-click the topic (left pane) and select Back or
Forward.
Use the breadcrumb trail at the top of each topic to see your location, or to return to a higher-level topic.
To find information for a specific topic, click the Related topics links.
Using navigation buttons
• Contents
Click the topic of interest to reveal topic entries and subsections. As you move through Help, the
current topic is highlighted.
• Index
Provides an alphabetical list of topics. Click an Index entry for complete details.
• Search
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Provides a list of topics based on the search criteria entered in the search text box. Click topics
returned by the search for details.
Printing topics
To print topics, right-click the topic and select Print or click the printer icon on the button bar.
Role-based help
Throughout Automation Director, help is provided based on the current user's logon ID and the assigned
role and permissions. Role-based help is on the Guidance menu and on various windows, views, and
dialog boxes. The help content is focused on the visible features or actions based on the role assigned to
the current user.
Using search features
Using column filters in tables
Column filters
You can turn on the column filters to customize the table view. Select one or more column attributes and
apply filter conditions, if required. The view continues to display its contents using the column filters until
the feature is turned off. When the column filters are turned off, the view is visible using the default
settings.
Column settings
Column settings allow you to customize the view by choosing the attributes you want to display in the
view columns. Click Column Settings on the table view to see the available column attributes and their
descriptions and make selections.
Using instant filters
Mark as Favorite
You can mark services that you frequently use as a Favorite. You can mark a service as a Favorite using
any of the following methods:
• In the Card View of the Services tab, do one of the following:
◦ Click the Favorite (star) icon for the service.
◦ Click the service to open the service preview and click the Favorite (star) icon.
◦ Click the service to open the service preview. Click More Actions and select Mark as Favorite.
• In the Table View of the Services tab, do one of the following:
◦ Click the Favorite (star) icon for the service.
◦ Click the service and select More Actions > Mark as Favorite.
The services marked as Favorite appear on the dashboard. You can quickly access the services that you
marked as Favorite by using the instant filter located next to the text search box on the Services tab, or
sorting by the Favorite column in the view.
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Mark as To Do
If you must pay attention to a task or respond to a task, you can mark it as To Do. You can mark a task as
To Do using any of the following methods:
• In the Table View in the Tasks tab:
◦ Select More Actions > Mark as To Do for the task, or:
◦ Click the Mark as To Do flag for the task in the To Do column.
• In the Task Details window, click the Mark as To Do button.
You can quickly access the tasks that you marked as To Do by using the instant filter (red flag) located
next to the text search box on the Tasks tab, or sorting tasks by the To Do column in the view. Tasks
marked as To Do are seen by all users.
About tags
Tags are available on the navigation pane of the Services, Tasks, and Service Templates tabs. Only tags
used in the tab are visible. You can click one or more tags to filter and quickly view the content by the
associated tag. Click Clear to reset the view to the default settings.
More information
Services tab on page 29
Tasks tab on page 38
Service Templates tab on page 47
Creating and assigning tags to services
You can assign tags to a service in the Edit Service window of a service. When a service is submitted,
the associated tasks inherit the tags from its service and cannot be modified.
When a service is created from a service template, the service inherits the tags from the service template.
The Admin or Develop role is required to create and update a tag for a service template. You cannot
change the tags that are assigned by a predefined service template.
When creating a custom tag, assign a unique tag name. Duplicate tag names are not allowed. You can
assign multiple tags to services templates and services.
Procedure
1. On the Services tab, click the service whose tags you want to modify to open the service preview
window for that service.
2. Click Edit to open Edit Service window.
3. In the Settings pane, modify tags for the service in the Tags box. You can perform any of the
following:
• To add tags, expand the list and select the tags.
• To remove a tag, click the "X" next to the tag.
About tags 19
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• To create a tag, scroll to the end of the tag list, select Create Tag, enter a name and tag group for
the new tag, and click OK.
• To create a tag group, first create a tag. Then scroll to the bottom of the Tag Group list and click
Create Tag Group to enter a tag group name. Click OK.
4. Click Save.
Creating tag groups
You can organize tags in tag groups by dragging and dropping the tags to the desired group. Each tag
can belong to only one tag group. A tag group cannot belong to another tag group. Tags without a tag
group are listed as Uncategorized.
Procedure
1. Create a custom tag group by using one of the following methods:
• On the Tag Search navigation pane:
a. Click Organize Tags.
b. In the Organize Tags dialog box, go to the tag group section and enter the new tag group.
• When creating or modifying a service:
a. In the Edit Service window, go to the General Information section Settings pane and click
inside the Tags area to open the list of tag groups and tags.
b. Scroll to the bottom of the list and click Create Tag .
c. In the Create Tag dialog box, enter a tag name and click the Tag Group list to open it. At the
end of the list, click Create Tag Group and enter a tag group name.
d. Click OK to save the tag group and the tag.
2. Click OK to save the tag group.
You can search for tags and tag groups from the Tag Search navigation pane located on the Services,
Tasks, or Service Templates tab.
User workflows by role
Admin user workflow
The Admin user role is the only one that confers access to the Administration tab and the Admin user is
responsible for configuring Automation Director. The Admin user also has access to all parts of
Automation Director and Service Builder.
The Admin user workflow in the Administration tab is as follows:
1. Log on to Automation Director.
2. Click the Administration tab.
3. Configure remote connections, if needed.
20 Creating tag groups
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4. Create users. This step is not necessary if you have integrated users from XP7 Command View
Advanced Edition with Active Directory.
5. Configure user groups, if needed. Automation Director includes four built-in user groups.
6. Create infrastructure groups and assign resources to them. If necessary, you can also assign Web
Service Connections and Agentless Remote Connections to infrastructure groups.
7. Create service groups and associate user groups with service groups. This step also assigns the user
role (Admin, Develop, Modify, Submit) associated with the user group.
8. Associate infrastructure groups with the service groups to enable the services in the service group to
use the resources in the infrastructure groups.
More information
Configuring VMware vCenter connections on page 68
Configuring remote connections on page 72
Viewing the Administration tab on page 56
Develop user workflow
Much of the Develop user's workflow takes place in Service Builder. The Develop user has access to all
parts of Automation Director except the Administration tab.
The Develop user workflow is as follows:
1. Log on to Automation Director and launch Service Builder.
2. Create or modify a service template in Service Builder.
3. Build the service template in Service Builder.
4. Test the service template in Automation Director.
At this point the template in not available for use.
5. Release the template from Service Builder.
After the template is released, you can access it in Automation Director and use it to create services.
More information
Working with service templates on page 47
Modify user workflow
The Modify user role is designed to enable expert users to create services from within their service
groups. This means that the Modify user can only create services that are in the service group that is
associated with the Modify user's user group.
The Modify user can access the Dashboard, the Services tab, the Tasks tab and the Service Templates
tab.
The Modify user workflow is as follows:
1. Log on to Automation Director and access the Service Templates tab to find a service template.
The Modify user can only view service templates that are released.
2. Locate a service template that matches the service requirements.
3. Use the service template to create a service.
Develop user workflow 21
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4. Test the service.
5. Release the service for use.
More information
Creating or editing a service on page 32
Releasing a service on page 36
Testing a new service on page 35
Services tab on page 29
Submit user workflow
The Submit user can only access services that have already been released and does not have access to
the Debug tab in the Tasks tab. The Submit user can access the Dashboard, the Services tab and the
Tasks tab.
The workflow for the Submit user is as follows:
1. Log on to Automation Director and access the Services tab.
2. Select the service that you want to submit and create a request. Submit the service.
3. Click the Tasks tab to verify that tasks associated with the service are in the Tasks tab.
4. (Optional) Monitor the tasks and their status.
More information
About tasks on page 38
Submitting a service on page 36
Services tab on page 29
Launching Service Builder
Service Builder can be launched from three different points.
Open Service Builder in one of these three ways:
• Click the Dashboard tab and click one of the options under Manage Template in the Guidance
Menu:
◦ Create New Template
◦ Edit Template
◦ Copy Template
• In the global toolbar, click Tools and select Service Builder.
• Click the Templates menu and in the Templates pane, click one of the following: Create, Copy and
Edit, View Flow, or More Actions > Update Service Template.
NOTE: Update the Service Template if there is a more recent revision of the template available.
Service Builder opens in a separate browser window.
22 Submit user workflow
Page 23
More information
Service Builder workflow on page 23
Service Builder workflow
Phase 1 - Preparing
• Decide on the need and purpose of the service template. Consider the steps involved to automate the
process and determine if the steps require creating a new template or modifying an existing template.
• Prepare to create the service template. This involves identifying existing plug-ins, or creating new
plug-ins (preparing icon files, and setting definition, resource files and script files).
Phase 2 - Creating
• Create new plug-ins, or copy and modify existing plug-ins, in the Service Builder Edit view of the
service template.
• Create the service template as new, or copy and modify an existing service template, in the Service
Builder Edit view. The service template is in Under Development status.
• Set the process flow of the service template.
• Create and map the data flow of the service template.
• Set the service definitions of the service template.
Phase 3 - Testing
• Build the service template for testing.
• Perform testing. Create services based on the debug configuration of the service template.
• Make corrections as the result of testing.
• Rebuild and retest the service template until it performs properly.
Phase 4 - Releasing
Release the service template. A service template must be in Released status to submit the service
template to the operating environment.
Service Builder workflow 23
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Viewing service and task summaries
Viewing the dashboard
Guidance Menu
The Guidance menu serves as a navigation pane and provides links to information on how to perform
common functions in Automation Director. The current user role determines which categories are visible.
This menu pane can be turned on or off using the Dashboard Settings.
Dashboard reports
The dashboard reports show information based on status and performance. You can quickly access
services and tasks by clicking the links in these reports.
The dashboard reports refresh every 10 minutes.
The following reports appear on the dashboard:
• Most Frequently Failed Services
• Most Frequently Used Services
• Tasks Waiting for Action
• My Tasks
• My Favorite Services
Customizing the dashboard display
You can customize what is visible on the dashboard. Either select or clear the check boxes for the items
that must appear on the dashboard. You can also click the Settings icon to open the Settings dialog box
and select the reports you must see.
Dashboard tips
Helpful tips are provided when following links from the dashboard. These tips can be turned off as you
become more familiar with Automation Director.
24 Viewing service and task summaries
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Viewing dashboard reports
The following sections provide information about each dashboard report.
Most Frequently Failed Services report
The Most Frequently Failed Service report can be viewed by Admin, Develop, and Modify users.
You can click a link to open the Service Preview, where you can access further actions to take.
More information
Services tab on page 29
Most Frequently Used Services report
This report helps users to analyze the success/failure rate of their most frequently used services and take
any necessary action.
The first row at the top of the window shows the number of times the service has been run and the
number of days since Automation Director was installed. The second row shows the number of times the
service was run in either 7 or 30 days. You can use the Time Range list to choose one or the other.
Viewing dashboard reports 25
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You can click a link to open the Service Preview, where you can access further actions.
More information
Services tab on page 29
Tasks Waiting for Action report
The Tasks Waiting for Action report lists tasks that require your attention, which includes the following:
• Tasks that require your input to proceed.
• Recently failed tasks, so you can fix the problem that caused the task to fail and run the task again.
• Long running tasks that can affect system performance.
If any tasks exist, the link provides a list of the specific tasks. Otherwise, the link opens the Tasks tab,
filtered by the status.
More information
Tasks tab on page 38
26 Tasks Waiting for Action report
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My Tasks report
The task states and corresponding statuses are as follows.
Task state Task status
Active
Scheduled
Finished
If any tasks exist, the link provides a list of the specific tasks. Otherwise, the link opens the Tasks tab,
filtered by the status.
More information
Tasks tab on page 38
• In Progress
• In Progress (with Error)
• In Progress (Terminating)
• Waiting for Input
• Long Running
• Waiting
• Suspended
• Completed
• Failed
My Favorite Services report
The My Favorite Services report is available on the dashboard. You can add to this list by marking
services as favorites on the Services tab.
You can click a link to open the Submit Service Request window for that service.
My Tasks report 27
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More information
Submitting a service on page 36
Services tab on page 29
28 Viewing service and task summaries
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Managing services
Overview of Automation Director services
A service is a customized set of instructions that follow a process flow to automate data center tasks such
as provisioning. Services are integrated with infrastructure groups so they operate within the designated
storage profiles to help manage resources. A storage administrator can create a service and then allow
users to run it. Access to services is managed by user groups and service groups.
Services are classified by tags to indicate the purpose or type and to display them in a hierarchical
structure. Because Automation Director lets you register the same service in multiple tags, you can
display a list of services according to usage, such as by workload or business unit.
More information
Workflow for creating a service on page 31
Creating or editing a service on page 32
Services tab
The Services tab enables users to do the following:
• View services and filter them using tags.
• Create custom tags or tag groups using Organize Tags.
• Using the Card view or Table view, see service details, status, and actions.
• Create and submit service requests.
• Copy a service to make a new service.
Tag Search pane
The Tag Search pane enables users to filter services that have been tagged.
Tags are organized into groups, such as Applications, Hypervisors, and Storage Services. Each group
has one or more tags.
To use tags, click a tag name to see only services tagged with that name in the Services pane. Click the
tag again to expose all tags in that group and all services that were filtered out.
You can only use one Service Group tag at a time.
You can click Organize Tags to create your own tag groups and then add tags to the groups. You can also
add tags to the provided groups.
Services pane
The Services pane displays all the services that a user can use, based on the user's permissions.
The Services pane has two views; Card View and Table View. You can toggle between them using the
buttons at the top of the Services pane.
The Card View includes graphical representations of services that can include badges and watermarks.
The following table contains the watermarks that are visible in the services Card View.
Managing services 29
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Watermark Description
Service is in Debug status.
Service is in Test status or Maintenance status.
Service is in Disable status.
The following table contains the badges that are visible in the services Card View.
Graphic Description
OUTDATED The service is using an outdated version of a service template. You can
use Apply Latest Version to update the service.
NEW The service is fewer than 14 days old.
You can click a service card to open the service preview and view information about the service and
access additional controls as shown in the following figure.
The following table lists the actions that are available to manage services in the Services tab or in the
service preview.
30 Managing services
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Action Description
Create Opens the Select Service Template window, where Admin, Develop
and Modify users can select a template and use it to create new
services.
Create Request Runs the service by creating the tasks required to perform the service.
Edit Modifies a service.
Delete Deletes a service.
Copy Copies a service to create a new service.
Release Changes the status of the service to Released.
Enable Allows the service to be submitted.
Disable Prevents the service from being submitted and changes its status to
Disable.
Maintenance Allows only the Admin, Develop, or Modify roles to submit the service
for maintenance purposes.
Edit tags Allows modification of the tags associated with the service.
Mark as Favorite Adds the service to the My Favorite Services list of reports on the
Dashboard for quick access.
Unmark as Favorite Removes the service as a favorite.
Related Tasks Displays the tasks related to the service under the Tasks tab.
Reset Counter Resets the count for the number of executed, successes, and failures.
Apply Latest Version Applies the latest version of the template on which the service is based.
Apply Specified Version Enables user to choose among version of the template on which the
service is based.
Workflow for creating a service
1. Choose at template or an existing service as a starting point.
2. In the Create Service window, fill out the required and optional fields. Preview the service and then
save it.
3. Test the service.
4. Release the service. After the service and its tasks successfully complete the testing, the service can
move to Release status. In Release status, users with the Submit role (or higher) can submit the
service.
5. Submit the service.
More information
Creating or editing a service on page 32
Testing a new service on page 35
Releasing a service on page 36
Submitting a service on page 36
Workflow for creating a service 31
Page 32
Creating or editing a service
You can create a new service, edit a service, or copy an existing service.
Procedure
1. Determine whether you want to copy or edit an existing service or create a new service:
• To copy a service, go to step 8.
• To edit a service, go to step 9.
• To create a new service, go to the following step.
2. Create a new service by accessing the service template preview using one of the following paths:
• On the Dashboard, in the Guidance Menu, click Create New Service. In the Select Service
Template window, click a template to open the service template preview.
• On the Service Templates tab, click the service template you want to use to open the service
template preview.
• On the Services tab, in the Services pane, click the Create to open the Select Service Template
window and the click a template to open the service template preview.
• On the Administration tab, under Resources and Permissions, click Service Groups. In the
Services pane, click Create to open the Select Service Template window. Click a template to
open the service template preview.
3. Click Create Service.
4. In the Create Service window, in the Settings pane, enter the following information, which is
summarized in the General Settings area of the Navigation pane:
NOTE: If you copy an existing service, the default parameter values are different than if you are
creating a new service.
• Name of the service.
• Description of the service.
• Status: Select Test for new services to allow only users in the Admin, Develop, or Modify role to
submit the service.
• Tags: Specify one or more tags for the service (to a maximum of 256 characters.) The tags you
select for the service also apply to the tasks the service generates.
• Service Group: Select the service group of users who can access the service.
NOTE: If you are editing an existing service, you cannot change the service group. Use the Copy
action instead to copy the service and change the Service Group.
• Service Template: The template on which the service is based. Click the template name to open
the Template Preview, which includes detailed information about the template.
In the Template Preview, you can click View Flow to open the flow window for the template.
5. Expand Advanced Options and select the options you want:
32 Creating or editing a service
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Scheduling Options:
Immediate: Run the service when it is submitted.
Scheduled: Run the service once.
Recurrence: Run the service multiple times.
6. In the Navigation pane, click each settings group and configure the required and optional parameters.
You can also navigate through the settings groups using the links at the bottom of the Settings pane.
You can choose to retain default settings from the service or template you started with. For Volume
settings, you can choose whether to allow users to change specific settings or to hide them
completely.
7. After configuring the settings, do one of the following:
• Click Preview to open a view of the service as it would appear to users. Then click Save and
Close to save the service.
• In some cases, you may want to use the Import or Export buttons to save the property values
associated with the current service for later access or to access property values that have
previously been saved to a properties files.
• Click Cancel to close the window without saving any changes.
8. To copy an existing service, do the following:
a. Go to the Services tab to access the service list.
b. Click the service that you want to copy.
c. In the service preview pane, click More Actions > Copy.
d. Modify the service name and settings as needed.
9. To edit a service, do the following:
a. Go the Services tab, select the service to edit, and click Edit.
b. From the Edit Services window, modify the setting as needed.
More information
Workflow for creating a service on page 31
Importing property values on page 86
Exporting property values on page 87
Testing a new service on page 35
Releasing a service on page 36
Submitting a service on page 36
Create Service window
The Create Service window includes the following areas:
Overview pane
The Overview pane includes a written description of the template and a graphical representation of the
hardware and data structure.
Create Service window 33
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Navigation pane
The Navigation pane has settings groups that include General Settings and any other settings that are
required or optional for the service. You can click a settings group to display and edit the settings in the
Settings pane. You can also navigate through the settings groups using the links at the bottom of the
Settings pane.
The settings groups vary according to the template or service upon which the service is based. If settings
are required, a graphic warning will display in the settings group.
Settings pane
Use the Settings pane to edit or create the parameters for your service.
NOTE: If you are copying an existing service, the default values for the parameters will be different than if
you are creating a service.
Settings/Parameters Description
Name Name to display in the Services tab.
Description Description of the service.
Status The status of the service. There are two options when creating a
service. Select Test for new services to allow only users in the Admin,
Develop, or Modify role to submit the service.
Tags Tags act as filters in the Tag Search pane of the Services window. A
service has one or more tags for the service (to a maximum of 256
characters). The tags you select for the service also apply to the tasks
generated by the service.
Service Group
Service Template The service template used by the service. You can click the template
Advanced Options Scheduling options for the service.
Import Imports property values from a specified file.
The service group of users who can access the service.
Note: If you are editing a service instead of creating a new service, you
cannot change the Service Group. If you want to change the Service
Group, use the Copy action to copy the service.
name to open the Template Preview, which includes detailed
information about the template.
In the Template Preview, you can click View Flow to open the flow
window for the template.
• Scheduling Options:
Immediate: Run the service when it is submitted.
Scheduled: Run the service once.
Recurrence: Run the service multiple times.
• Display Flow Detail for Submit User: Select to display.
Export Exports property values to a specified file.
34 Managing services
Table Continued
Page 35
Settings/Parameters Description
Preview Opens a view of the service as it will appear to a user.
Save and Close Saves the service to the system and closes the window.
Cancel Cancels any changes and closes the window.
More information
Workflow for creating a service on page 31
Importing property values on page 86
Exporting property values on page 87
Creating or editing a service on page 32
Deleting a service on page 37
Releasing a service on page 36
Disabling a service on page 37
Testing a new service
New services are created in Test status, so that only users with the Admin, Develop, or Modify role can
submit them. When a service in the Test status is submitted, tasks are created in the Test status to allow
testing. Tasks in the Test status are located on the Debug view under the Tasks tab. During testing, you
can change the service parameters as needed and continue testing until the tasks run successfully.
Procedure
1. To begin testing, submit the service.
a. On the Services tab, select the service to test and in the service preview pane, click Create
Request.
b. In the Submit Task window, keep or modify the volume, host, and task settings, and click Submit
to submit the service or Submit & View Task to view the tasks.
2. On the Tasks tab, click the Debug tab and review the status of the tasks related to the service.
3. If the task status is anything other than Completed, repeat steps 1 and 2 until all of the tasks are
successful.
What to do next
Release the service.
More information
Importing property values on page 86
Exporting property values on page 87
Releasing a service on page 36
Testing a new service 35
Page 36
Releasing a service
Procedure
1. On the Services tab, select the service to release.
2. From the table view or from the service preview pane of the card view, click More Actions > Release.
Submitting a service
Prerequisites
• If the service is in Release status, you must have the Submit (or higher) role.
• If the service is in Maintenance status, you must have the Admin, Develop, or Modify role.
Procedure
1. On the Services tab, select the service that you want to submit, and in the service preview pane, click
Create Request.
2. In the Submit Service Request window, in the Settings pane, configure the volume, host, and task
settings required by the service.
NOTE: In Task Settings, a schedule is interpreted as a server time. Be aware if the server is in a
different time zone from the client.
3. Click Submit to submit the service immediately, or Submit & View Task to submit the service and go
to the Tasks tab.
4. Verify that the tasks that are associated with the submitted service are listed on the Tasks tab.
5. (Optional) Monitor the task status.
NOTE: You can only run 10 plug-ins concurrently. After you reach that limit, the next plug-in waits until
another one finishes.
Effect on scheduling when switching between standard and daylight savings time (U.S and Canada only)
When a server is in a region of the world that has adopted daylight savings time, you must understand
how the scheduling time is affected when the system switches between standard and daylight savings
time. Daylight savings time begins at 2:00 AM (Central Time) on the 2nd Sunday of March and ends at
2:00 AM on the 1st Sunday of November.
To accommodate switching between standard time to daylight savings time, the time between 2:00 AM to
2:59 AM is omitted and any services that are scheduled during standard time will instead start at 2:00 to
2:59 AM daylight savings time.
Conversely, when switching back from daylight savings to standard time, the time between 1:00 AM and
1:59 is increased so any services scheduled to run during daylight savings time are ignored (not
processed twice) according to the original schedule, but are run when the time is switched back from
daylight savings to standard time.
Services that are scheduled outside of these switching time are not affected and are run according to the
time plan that is currently in effect for the server.
36 Releasing a service
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More information
Testing a new service on page 35
Releasing a service on page 36
Disabling a service
Procedure
1. On the Services tab, select the service to disable.
2. From the table view or from the service preview pane of the card view, click More Actions > Disable.
Deleting a service
Prerequisites
On the Tasks tab, in the task view, verify no tasks exist from the service you are deleting. You can,
however, delete a service with corresponding task entries are in the history list.
Procedure
1. On the Services tab, from the card view, select the service that you want to delete.
2. In the service preview pane, click Delete.
TIP: You can delete multiple services simultaneously. On the Services tab, from the table view,
select the services you want to delete and click Delete.
3. In the Delete Services confirmation dialog box, click OK.
Disabling a service 37
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Managing scheduled tasks
About tasks
The dashboard provides a quick way to monitor the tasks. From the dashboard, you can view the tasks
that were generated by the services you submitted, or see the tasks that require a response. The Global
Monitoring Bar Area found at the bottom of every tab in Automation Director provides a collective
summary of the task status.
You can manage tasks from the Tasks tab. Active tasks are categorized by the tags that were assigned to
its service and by task status. Tasks that were generated by testing services are found on the Debug tab.
Archived tasks are found under the History tab. Various actions are available to manage tasks such as
stopping, cancelling, or resubmitting tasks.
Each task has task details to provide more in-depth information about the task and its relationship to the
service. The details contain information such as the task name, description, type of schedule, start time,
and the status of each functional step of the task. This is useful information when monitoring or
troubleshooting a task.
A task monitoring area is provided below the main tasks that provides details for each step associated
with a task. From here, you can see the status of the steps and, if necessary, determine at which step a
failure has occurred.
More information
About task status on page 40
Viewing task details on page 42
Creating a similar task request on page 45
Configuring email and log settings on page 79
Tasks tab
From the Header control area at the top, you can enter a search string to look for a specific task. You also
have the option of toggling the To Do Filter or My Task buttons to show only tasks that have been
specified as TO DO or tasks that have been initiated by the current user. The default for these options is
off. The following information is provided for tasks.
Property Description
Task Name The name of the task.
To Do Displays tasks marked as "To Do."
Status The status of the task.
Scheduled Time Scheduled start time for the task.
Start Time Actual start time of the task.
Completion Time Completion time of the task.
Schedule Type Shows a task beginning immediately or on a defined schedule.
Task ID Unique ID assigned to the task.
Description User-specified description of the task.
Service Service that initiated the task.
Table Continued
38 Managing scheduled tasks
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Property Description
Service Group Service group to which the service belongs.
Tags Tags associated with the task.
Submitted By Name of the user who submitted the task.
Submit Time Time when the service was submitted.
Schedule Interval Interval between recurring tasks.
Recurrence Time Time when a recurring task is to start.
Schedule Start Date Date and time when the recurrent schedule becomes
effective.
Notes User-specified text/message.
Step Start Time Start time of the long-running step or the time the task started
waiting for input.
NOTE: A subset of the most common details are shown by default depending on which tab (Tasks,
History, or Debug) is currently selected. You can click the Column Settings tab to see all available detail
options and to select the ones most useful for your environment.
Tag Search pane
The Tag Search pane enables users to filter tasks that have been tagged.
Tags are organized into groups, such as Applications, Service Groups, and Task Statuses. Each group
has one or more tags.
To use tags, click a tag name to see only tasks tagged with that name in the Tasks pane. Click the tag
again to expose all tags in that group and all tasks that were filtered out.
In the Service Group and Task Status tag groups, you can only use one tag at a time.
You can click Organize Tags to create your own tag groups and then add tags to the groups. You can
also add tags to the provided groups.
The Information area below the task window shows icons for all the steps associated with a task and the
current status.
Tasks
The Tasks tab enables users to do the following:
• View tasks and use tags to filter them.
• View tasks associated with released services on the Tasks tab, archived tasks on the History tab, and
tasks generated from a service in debug, test, or maintenance status on the Debug tab.
• Click Input Response to enter information required by a task in Waiting for Input status.
• Select a task and click Show Details to see the details of the task.
• Click More Actions to see other actions available to manage tasks.
Managing scheduled tasks 39
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Action Description
Suspend Schedules Prevents a scheduled task from starting at the
scheduled time.
Resume Schedules Allows a suspended task to start at the scheduled
time.
Cancel Schedules Clears all schedules from the task.
Stop Stops a task in the In Progress, Waiting for Input,
or Long Running status.
Forcibly Stop Stops a task in the In Progress, Waiting for Input,
or Long Running, In Progress (with Error), or In
Progress (Terminating).
Retry the Task from the Failed Step Tries to run the selected task from the point of
failure.
Retry the Task from the Step After the Failed Step Tries to rerun the selected task after previous retry
has also failed.
Create Similar Request Runs a task that was previously in the Failed,
Canceled, or Completed status.
Archive Moves one or more tasks to the History view.
Mark as "To Do" Adds a flag to the To Do column as a reminder that
action is needed.
Unmark "To Do" Removes a flag from the To Do column.
History
The History tab includes tasks that have been archived from the Tasks tab. You can select tasks and
click Remove to permanently delete tasks.
Debug
The Debug tab displays tasks that are tasks generated from a service in debug, test, or maintenance
status. This tab is available to users with the Modify (or higher) role. The Debug tab has the same actions
as available for the Tasks tab, but also includes an option "Remove" for removing a task from the list.
More information
About task status on page 40
Viewing task details on page 42
About task status
The following table lists the most often used task categories, status, and the available actions.
40 About task status
Page 41
Task category Task status Description Available actions
Active In Progress Task is running. Stop the task.
Forcibly stop the task.
Waiting for Input Task is pending user input. Stop the task.
Forcibly stop the task.
Long Running Task is running longer than
expected.
In Progress (with Error) Task detected an error. Stop the task.
In Progress
(Terminating)
Scheduled Waiting Task is scheduled and waiting to
Suspended Task is scheduled, but will not
Canceled Task is canceled.
Finished Completed Task completed.
Failed Tasks failed.
Task is terminating. Forcibly stop the task.
run at the scheduled time.
run at the scheduled time.
Stop the task.
Forcibly stop the task.
Forcibly stop the task.
Suspend the task.
Cancel the task.
Cancel the task.
Resume the task.
Resubmit the task.
Archive the task.
Resubmit the task.
Archive the task.
Retry the task from the
failed step.
Other task tags are also available from the Task Status area to narrow down searches based on the
status of a task.
Automation Director can send email notifications to users when a task fails to run, or when a task requires
input from a user to continue. The Admin role is required to set up email notifications.
More information
Stopping tasks on page 44
Responding to tasks on page 43
Suspending scheduled tasks on page 43
Canceling scheduled tasks on page 44
Resuming scheduled tasks on page 43
Creating a similar task request on page 45
Configuring email and log settings on page 79
Retry the task from the
step after the failed step.
Resubmit the task.
Archive the task.
Managing scheduled tasks 41
Page 42
Archiving tasks on page 46
Viewing task details
On the Tasks tab, select a task from the Tasks or Debug view, and click Show Details.
The following controls are available:
• Input Response: Click to respond if a task is in Waiting for Input status.
• Archive: Click to archive the task.
• Mark as "To Do": Click to mark as To Do (red flag) to the task row in the Debug pane. This can be
used if the task needs attention from an administrator.
• Unmark "To Do": Click to remove the flag.
• More Actions: Click to access additional options that affect the selected task.
The following table describes the task information that is provided in the Task Details window.
Property Description
Summary tab
Task ID The auto-generated 16-digit identification number of a task.
Task Name The name of the task.
Status The current status of the task.
Description The description of the task.
Service Click the link to open the service preview, where you can view
information about the service. Admin and Develop users can
also access the Template Preview and the template flow in the
Service Builder Edit view in Service Builder.
Submitted By Name of the user who submitted the service.
Schedule Type The schedule type of a task, for example, Immediate indicates
that the task is scheduled for immediate execution. Scheduled
means that the task is scheduled for future execution.
Details Details pertaining to the task.
Submit Time Time when the service was submitted.
Start Time The start time of the task.
Completion Time Completion time of the task.
Submitted Data tab Displays the parameters set for the task when submitted and
may vary depending on the service.
Results tab Displays the results of any output properties that were set.
Flow tab Shows the flow of steps
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Table Continued
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Property Description
Log tab The log information might be useful in debugging. You can
Notes tab An HTML text editor is provided to enter additional information
Responding to tasks
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that requires a response and click Input Response.
2. In the Input Response dialog box, input the response.
3. Click OK.
More information
Configuring email and log settings on page 79
copy a section or save the entire log by clicking Download
and then specifying the location of the log file.
regarding the task. For example, a user might need to add
information that can be viewed by an administrator when
assistance is needed with a task.
Suspending scheduled tasks
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to suspend.
2. Click More Actions > Suspend Schedules.
3. In the Suspend dialog box, click OK.
The task status changes to Suspended.
More information
Resuming scheduled tasks on page 43
Resuming scheduled tasks
If you resume a schedule after the scheduled start time, the task is run immediately. If the original
schedule of the task is in the past, then the task must first be cancelled, then resubmitted.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to resume.
2. Click More Actions > Resume Schedules.
3. In the Resume Schedules dialog box, click OK.
If the scheduled start time is in the future, the status changes to Waiting.
More information
Suspending scheduled tasks on page 43
Responding to tasks 43
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Canceling scheduled tasks
When you cancel a service, you must cancel the related tasks. Cancel a task when you want to cancel a
service and its related tasks are scheduled but has not yet run.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to cancel.
2. Click More Actions > Cancel Schedules.
3. In the Cancel Schedules window, click OK.
The task status changes to Canceled.
To resume a canceled task, you must resubmit the task.
More information
Creating a similar task request on page 45
Stopping tasks
You can stop tasks that are in the In Progress status. A task that is stopped cannot be resumed. To restart
a stopped task, you must resubmit the service that is associated with the task.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the tasks that you want to stop.
2. Click More Actions > Stop.
3. In the Stop Task window, click OK.
The tasks stops and the status changes to Terminated.
4. (Optional) You can verify the point at which the task was stopped by selecting the task and viewing the
task details.
More information
Viewing task details on page 42
Submitting a service on page 36
Forcibly stopping tasks
You can forcibly stop tasks that are in the In Progress, Long Running, Waiting for Input, In Progress
(with Error), and In Progress (Terminating) status. You enable the Forcibly Stop action in the Available
Actions section of the Create/Edit Service window. A task that is stopped cannot be resumed. To restart
the execution of a stopped task, you must resubmit the service that is associated with the task.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the tasks that you want to stop.
2. Click More Actions > Forcibly Stop.
3. In the Forcibly Stop Task window, click OK.
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The tasks stops and the status changes to Terminated.
4. (Optional) You can verify the point at which the task was stopped by selecting the task and viewing the
task details.
Retrying the task from the failed step
You can retry tasks from the step that failed for tasks that are in the Failed status. You enable retry
actions in the Available Actions section of the Create/Edit Service window.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to retry from the step that failed.
2. Click More Actions > Retry the Task From the Failed Step .
3. In the Retry the Task From the Failed Step window, click OK.
The task runs from the failed step and the status tells you whether the task failed or succeeded.
4. If the task fails again, continue to debug and retry the task again.
Retrying a task from the step after the failed step
You can retry tasks from the step after a failed step for tasks that are in the Failed status. You enable
retry actions in the Available Actions section of the Create/Edit Service window. When you select a
single task to retry, ensure that the task is in Failed status.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task that you want to retry from the step after the failed step.
2. Click More Actions > Retry the Task From the Step After the Failed Step.
3. In the Retry the Task From the Step After the Failed Step window, click OK.
The task runs from the step after the failed step and the status tells you whether the task failed or
succeeded.
4. If the task fails again, continue to debug and retry the task again.
Creating a similar task request
If a task failed because of a problem that is now resolved, or if the task was canceled, you can create a
similar request without re-creating the settings. The new task has a new Task ID.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, select the task you must resubmit. You can also begin this procedure from the Task
Details window.
2. Click More Actions > Create Similar Request.
3. In the Submit Similar Request window, modify the settings, if required.
Retrying the task from the failed step 45
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NOTE: In Task Settings, a specified schedule is interpreted as a server time. Be aware if the server is
in a different time zone from the client.
4. Click Submit to submit the service, or Submit & View Task to view the tasks.
More information
About task status on page 40
Archiving tasks
You can archive a task in Completed, Failed, or Canceled status from the Tasks or Debug tabs. When
you archive a task, it appears in the History tab. The task details are not visible for archived tasks, but
the submission date and submit user information is retained. An archived task cannot return to the Task
or Debug tabs.
NOTE: No new tasks are created when the total number of tasks exceeds 5,000.
Procedure
1. On the Tasks tab, from the Task or Debug tabs, select the tasks that you must archive.
2. Click More Actions > Archive.
3. In the Archive dialog box, click OK.
The task is moved to the History tab.
Deleting tasks from history
You can delete archived tasks from the History view. Archived tasks are also automatically deleted when
the number of tasks exceeds 30,000 starting from the oldest task. A deleted task cannot be recovered.
Procedure
1. On the History tab, select the tasks that you must delete.
2. Click Remove.
3. In the Remove dialog box, click OK.
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Working with service templates
Viewing service template information
The Service Templates tab enables users to do the following:
• View and filter service templates with tags.
• Create custom tags or tag groups using Organize Tags.
• Using the Card View or Table View, see service template details, status, and actions.
• Create and edit templates.
• Manage service templates by toggling between views of all versions or the latest version.
Procedure
1. Click the Service Templates tab to view all released templates.
2. Choose a view:
• Click Card View to open a graphical representation of templates. In this view, you can click a
template to open the template preview, which includes detailed information and access to controls.
Card View enables you to visualize your templates as discrete objects, and allows you to see the
description in each template.
• Click Table View to open a table with a list of templates. This view includes some fields that are not
available in the Card View. You can add and delete fields from this view with the Column
Settings.
Service Templates tab
Tag Search pane
The Tag Search pane enables users to filter service templates that have been tagged.
Tags are organized into groups, such as Applications, Hypervisors, and Storage Services. Each group
has one or more tags.
To use tags, click a tag name to see only service templates tagged with that name in the service
templates pane. Click the tag again to expose all tags in that group and all service templates that were
filtered out. You can only use one Version tag at a time.
You can click Organize Tags to create your own tag groups and then add tags to the groups. You can also
add tags to the provided groups.
Controls
The following actions are available in the Service Templates tab to manage service templates.
Working with service templates 47
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Control Use
Show Latest Version
Show All Versions
Card View You can click a template to open the template preview, which includes
Table View Table View lets you see more information at the same time, and makes
Import Import a template to Automation Director. This can be used to import a
Create Launch Service Builder to create a new service template.
Create Service Create a new service from the specified service template.
Copy and Edit Launch Service Builder to create a new service template based on the
Choose to show only the latest versions or all versions of templates.
detailed information and access to controls. Card View enables you to
visualize your templates as discrete objects, and allows you to see the
description in each template.
it easy to compare information in your list. You can choose which
columns to display and reset the defaults at any time. You can also
rearrange columns in the table.
template from another environment.
For more information, see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Service
Builder User Guide.
specified template.
For more information, see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Service
Builder User Guide.
View Flow Launch Service Builder to view the flow of the template in the Service
Builder Edit view.
For more information, see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Service
Builder User Guide.
Export Export a file and save it outside Automation Director.
Delete Delete an existing template.
Apply Latest Version Apply the latest version of the template to the associated service.
Update Service Template If this control is available, the template is using an outdated version of
another template or components. Use this control to update the
template using Service Builder.
For more information, see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Service
Builder User Guide.
Properties
The following properties are available in the Service Templates tab for each template.
Property Description
Name Name entered by the vendor or user.
Template icon Icons represent different types of templates.
Vendor ID Vendor identifier.
48 Working with service templates
Table Continued
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Property Description
Version Version number of the template.
Description Description of the template.
Service Template Key Name Identifier name of the template.
Vendor Template vendor.
Tags Tags applied to the template.
Registered (in Table View) Date the template was created.
Released (in Card View) Date the template was released.
Updated (Last Update in Card View) Date and time the template was last updated.
Latest Version (in Table View) Whether the template is the latest version. In Card View, an
outdated template has an OUTDATED badge.
Used Services Number of services using the template. Click to open the Table
View of the Services tab with services using the template.
Used Service Templates (in Table
View)
Services Outdated Whether any services are using an outdated version of the
Component Outdated (in Table View) Template includes outdated components.
Graphic properties in the Card View
The Card View includes the following graphic signals.
Graphic Description
NEED VUP A service is using an outdated template. You can use Apply Latest Version to
OUTDATED The template is using an outdated version of another template or
NEW The template is fewer than 14 days old.
[blue dot] The template is being used by services.
More information
Number of templates using the template. Click to open the
Templates using the template dialog box where you can select
a template and click View Flow to open the flow window for the
template.
template. In Card View, the template has a NEED VUP badge.
apply the latest template.
components. You can use Update Template to update the template version.
Launching Service Builder on page 22
Importing a released service template
You must export and import templates if you are using two different Automation Director environments.
Service templates that are built and released in the test environment must be exported and then imported
to the production environment.
All templates that are provided with Automation Director are ready to use in the Services Templates tab.
In addition, all templates that are released from Service Builder appear in the Service Templates tab.
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Procedure
1. In the Dashboard Guidance Menu select Import Service Template or from the Service Templates
tab click Import to open the Import Service Template window. You can also import a service template
from the Card View by clicking Import.
2. Browse to the template file with the file extension .st, or the template set .zip file, and click OK.
The template is added to the Service Templates tab with a "NEW" badge in the Card View. You can
use it to create services.
If the selected file does not satisfy the following conditions, an error dialog box is visible and the import
is canceled:
• The file name must be 127 characters or less in length.
• The file name must not contain multibyte characters.
NOTE: According to the limitations of the functionality for importing .st files and the
importservicetemplate command in Automation Director v8.2.0 and earlier, multibyte
characters must also be avoided when naming zip files.
• The service template set (.zip format) to be imported must contain templates (with the extension
*.st).
NOTE: The files in the service template set are not checked. If the service template contains a service
plug-in, the import result of the service plug-in is not visible.
Creating a service from the Service Templates tab
Procedure
1. On the Service Templates tab, click the service template you want to use to open the service
template preview.
2. In the service template preview pane, click Create Service to open the Create Service window.
3. In the Create Service window, in the Settings pane, enter the following information, which is
summarized in the General Settings area of the Navigation pane:
• Name of the service.
• Description of the service.
• State: Select Test for new services to allow only users in the Admin, Develop, or Modify role to
submit the service.
• Tags: Specify one or more tags for the service (to a maximum of 256 characters). The tags you
select for the service also apply to the tasks generated by the service.
• Service Group: Select the service group of users who can access the service.
• Template: The template on which the service is based. Click the template name to open the
Template Preview, which includes detailed information about the template.
In the Template Preview, you can click View Flow to open the flow window for the template.
50 Creating a service from the Service Templates tab
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4. Expand Advanced Options and select the options you want:
Scheduling Options:
Immediate: Run the service when it is submitted.
Scheduled: Run the service once.
Recurrence: Run the service multiple times.
5. In the Navigation pane, click each settings group and configure the required and optional parameters.
You can also navigate through the settings groups using the links at the bottom of the Settings pane.
6. After configuring the settings, do one of the following:
• Click Preview to open a view of the service as it would appear to a user. Then click Save and
Close to save the service.
• Click Cancel to close the window without saving any changes.
What to do next
Test the service if you created it in Test state.
Exporting a service template
You may need to export templates in the case where there are two separate Automation Director
environments. Templates from one environment can be exported and then imported to the other
environment.
Procedure
1. On the Service Templates tab, select a template and in the More Actions menu, click Export.
2. Click OK.
3. Choose a location and enter a name for the file.
The service template is exported to the location you specified.
Deleting a service template
Procedure
1. On the Service Templates tab, select a service template.
2. Click More Actions > Delete.
3. Confirm your choice.
The template is no longer in the Service Templates tab and you cannot create a service from the
template.
Updating a service template version
If a template has changed, you may need to update the version in the Service Templates tab.
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Templates that are outdated have an "OUTDATED" label in the Card View.
In the Templates tab, click Card View and click the template you must update to open the Copy Service
Template dialog box in Service Builder.
For more information, see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Service Builder User Guide.
About provisioning service templates
Automation Director provisioning templates automate the provisioning of newly added volumes.
The provisioning templates are designed to provide the following features:
• Automate the provisioning tasks across multiple storage systems to reduce the amount of time to
configure each provisioning request manually.
• Run provisioning services immediately or at a scheduled date and time.
• Assign provisioning services to specific users and service groups so users can run services
independently of an administrator.
• Customization to meet specific operational needs and storage requirements.
Automation Director provides the following provisioning service templates that creates volumes and
allocates them to the specified hosts. You can locate the templates and services that are created by these
templates by using the Add New Storage tag and the tag of the host type.
Allocate Volumes with Configuration Manager
Allocates sets of volumes from the associated infrastructure group through XP7 Configuration Manager
for use with servers running a generic application.
Allocate Fabric Aware Volumes with Configuration Manager
Allocates sets of volumes from the associated infrastructure group through XP7 Configuration Manager
for use with servers running a generic application.
This service also creates volumes and allocates them to specified hosts.
About data mobility service templates
Automation Director provides the following data mobility service templates:
• Allocate Volumes from Virtual Storage Machine
This service template creates and allocates new volumes from a VSM while reserving the same LDEV
IDs on other storage systems.
• Export Virtual Storage Machine Configuration Across Sites
This service template generates a report showing the VSM configuration details for multiple sites. The
report can be edited and then exported to a specified file in .csv file format.
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• Create High Availability Pair for Migration
This service template creates a high availability pair from a VSM between two storage systems.
• Migrate Data Using High Availability Pair
This service template provides online data migration between two storage systems.
NOTE: The performance of Data Mobility services are affected by the storage access mode setting of
Configuration Manager. We recommend you to set "fcConnectionMode" to obtain higher performance. For
details, see "Appendix A. Changing the communication mode of the REST API server" in the HPE XP7
Configuration Manager REST API Reference Guide.
Data mobility service prerequisites
To use the Data Mobility services, an administrator must complete the following prerequisites:
• Configuration REST API
Install the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API on each site and register the storage systems by
using the Add Web Service Connections option on the Administration tab.
• VSM recognition across all storage systems
Assign a common resource group name to all VSMs used in the data mobility services and then
modify the associated shared service property.
To ensure VSMs are recognized across storage systems for Data Mobility services, complete the
following steps:
1. Specify the same resource group name for all VSMs across sites. When creating a resource group
name, you must adhere to the following rules:
Storage System Model(Virtual Serial Number)
For example:
XP7(200000)
2. Using the Set Service Shared Property option, update the Virtual Storage Machine Name shared
property and enter the common VSM resource group names for that value.
More information
Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections on page 68
Modifying shared service properties for Data Mobility services on page 78
About ESX cluster service templates
The Automation Director ESX cluster service templates enable you to allocate volumes to VMware ESX
cluster hosts, configure zoning, and create a VMware Datastore under a Datastore cluster. You can also
remove a host from a vCenter cluster.
Allocate Fabric Aware Volumes and Create Datastore for ESX Cluster
Enables you to allocate volumes to VMware ESX cluster hosts, configure zoning, and create a
VMware datastore under a datastore cluster.
Add Host to Cluster in vCenter
Enables you to allocate existing volumes used as datastores by ESX cluster hosts to a new ESX host.
About ESX cluster service templates 53
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Remove Host from Cluster in vCenter
Enables you to unmount VMFS datastores, unallocate volumes from the specified ESX host, and
delete zoning.
About ServiceNow ticketing service templates
The following Automation Director ServiceNow ticketing service templates are provided with the software
and are preconfigured:
• Call ServiceNow Table API
This service template makes a call to the ServiceNow Table API.
• Create ServiceNow Incident Ticket
This service template creates a new ServiceNow incident ticket.
• Update ServiceNow Incident Ticket
This service template updates a ServiceNow incident ticket.
• Retrieve ServiceNow Incident Tickets
This service template retrieves a single ServiceNow incident ticket or a group of incident tickets.
NOTE: For information about the ServiceNow Workflow Integration package that provides an XML file
containing the update set required to integrate an Automation Director service into a ServiceNow
workflow, see ServiceNow workflow integration on page 81.
About High Availability
High Availability (HA) enables you to create and maintain synchronous, remote copies of data volumes. A
virtual storage machine is configured in the primary and secondary storage systems using the actual
information of the primary storage system, and the High Availability primary and secondary volumes are
assigned the same virtual LDEV number in the virtual storage machine. This enables the host to see the
pair volumes as a single volume on a single storage system, and both volumes receive the same data
from the host. A quorum disk, which can be located in a third and external storage system or in an iSCSIattached host server, is accessed by both storage systems and is used to monitor the pair volumes in
case of any communication failure.
NOTE: For additional information on HA, see the HPE XP7 High Availability User Guide.
A number of service templates support High Availability (HA) configurations. HA enables read/write
copies of the same data in two places at the same time for continuous mirroring. Automation Director
supports three HA configurations:
• Single-server configuration
• Server-cluster configuration
• Cross-path configuration
Cross-path suppression
If the distance between the primary site and the secondary site is long, I/O using the cross-path causes
overhead. Suppress I/O of the cross-path by setting ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access) or HMO
(Host Mode Option).
54 About ServiceNow ticketing service templates
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Additional cross-path suppression problems
• If the Alternate path software supports ALUA (Asymmetric Logical Unit Access), suppress the crosspath by setting ALUA to the preferred path.
• If the Alternate path software does not support ALUA, you cannot suppress cross-path.
• If you are using Hitachi Dynamic Link Manager (HDLM), suppress the cross-path by setting a
nonpreferred path to the HMO.
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Administering Automation Director
Viewing the Administration tab
The Administration tab includes the views and tools to set up and configure Automation Director. It
includes the necessary connection settings to other hosts and third-party products, and the tools to set up
users, groups, permissions, and relationships, as follows:
• Create agentless remote connections to register hosts and, if necessary, set up the Web Services
Connections.
• Manage properties shared among the services under Shared Properties Settings.
• View and configure groups:
◦ Based on roles (Submit, Modify, Develop, and Admin) and permissions (user management).
◦ By service groups.
◦ By infrastructure groups.
• View and manage users.
• Set up external resource providers that can supply data for evaluating and executing input and output
properties.
Setup workflow
To set up the product, make sure you have the Admin role in Automation Director.
The following steps summarize the initial setup workflow:
1. Register a license.
Before you can log on to Automation Director, you must register a valid license.
2. Log on to Automation Director.
Use the built-in system account to log on to Automation Director for the first time. Change the system
account password (recommended).
3. Configure Web Service Connections.
Register and manage connection information to vCenter connections, Brocade Network Advisor
connections, and so on.
4. Configure remote connections.
Register other hosts using agentless remote connections.
5. Set up users and user groups.
Automation Director users are automatically registered through the Hewlett Packard Enterprise XP7
Command View Advanced Edition Common Component. The Admin role in Hewlett Packard
Enterprise XP7 Command View Advanced Edition with the user management permission is required to
add and assign users to user groups in Automation Director. A user must belong to at least one user
group.
6. Set up infrastructure groups.
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Create infrastructure groups and assign resource and service groups.
7. Set up service groups.
Managing groups in Automation Director
• Resource groups: Resources can be grouped by system resource types that include storage system,
parity groups, pools, LDEV IDs, and storage ports.
• User groups: A user group is a set of users in Automation Director who share the same level of
access.
• Service group: A service group is one or more services in Automation Director. A service group can be
assigned to a user group to control access to services in the service group.
• Infrastructure group: An infrastructure group is a set of resource groups, web service connections, and
remote connections in Automation Director. Infrastructure groups are assigned to service groups to
manage the resources available to the service.
About user groups
A user group is a set of users in Automation Director who share the same level of access. User groups
are used in combination with service groups to manage a user's level of access. A user must belong to at
least one user group and can belong to multiple groups. You can use the predefined user groups, or
create a new user group. User groups can be created by an administrator in the Admin role with the user
management privilege.
The built-in user groups that are automatically created when Automation Director is installed cannot be
modified. Although other built-in user groups that correspond to the roles of the other Automation Director
products are created with them, a user can use only the following user groups.
Predefined User group Description
AdminGroup The AdminGroup has administrative privileges over all of Automation
ModifyGroup Intended for expert users to modify existing services in service groups
SubmitGroup Intended for service users who perform the submit service operation.
DevelopGroup Intended for users who create or modify templates.
Creating a user group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > User Groups.
2. Click Create and enter the name and description of the user group.
3. Click OK.
More information
Director.
where permission is assigned.
About user groups on page 57
Managing groups in Automation Director 57
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About service groups
There are three types of service groups:
• All Service Group: A group that is automatically created during installation. Pre-defined user groups
(AdminGroup, DevelopGroup, ModifyGroup, and SubmitGroup) are automatically registered in the All
Service Group. This group cannot be associated with a specific service, agentless connection, or
infrastructure group. The All Service Group cannot be modified or deleted. User groups associated
with All Service Group also have privileges in other service groups. These user groups are indicated
with an asterisk (*) after the user group name.
• Default Service Group: A group that is automatically created during installation. All built-in services
belong to this group and cannot be deleted.
• General Service Group: Custom service groups that can be created by users and associated with
services. Only users with the Admin role can create service groups. The Modify role (or higher) is
required to assign a service to a service group.
Creating a service group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, navigate to Resources and Permissions > Service Groups.
2. Click Create and enter the name and description of the service group.
3. Click OK.
What to do next
Edit the service group to associate it with services, infrastructure groups, and user groups.
More information
About service groups on page 58
Viewing service groups
For each service group, the view displays the following information:
• No. of Services: The number of services in the service group.
• No. of Infrastructure Groups: The number of associated infrastructure groups.
• No. of User Groups: The number of user groups with access to the service group.
Click a service group to view the details under each tab:
• Services tab: The associated services.
• Permissions tab: The associated user groups and their roles.
Click Assign to assign or remove user groups.
Click a user group name to open the User Groups page.
More information
About service groups on page 58
58 About service groups
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Assigning services to a service group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > Service Groups.
2. Select a service group to display the Services, Resources, and Permissions tabs. Use Create or
Copy to add a new service.
3. In the Create Service window, click Save and Close and refresh the Service Groups pane to view the
service.
Assigning a user group to a service group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > Service Groups.
2. Select a service group and on the Permissions tab, click Assign.
3. From the Assign User Groups view, select a user group from the available user groups and click
Add. Select a Role from the available options.
The selected user group is moved to the assigned user groups.
4. Click OK.
About infrastructure groups
Creating an infrastructure group
Before creating an infrastructure group, you must be aware of the access boundaries for storage
resources. Resources within an infrastructure group will be accessible by associated service groups.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > Infrastructure Groups.
2. Click Create and enter the name and description of the infrastructure group.
3. Click OK.
What to do next
Assign the Web Service Connections, Agentless Remote Connections, and Service Groups.
Viewing infrastructure groups
Infrastructure Groups
For each infrastructure group, the view displays the following information:
• Name: Name of the infrastructure group.
• Description: Description of the infrastructure group.
• No. of Web Service Connections: The number of associated web service connections.
Assigning services to a service group 59
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• No. of Agentless Remote Connections: The number of associated agentless remote connections.
• No. of Service Groups: The number of associated service groups.
Click an infrastructure group to view the details under each tab:
• Web Service Connections tab - a list of associated web service connections for XP7 Configuration
Manager. The following web service connection properties are provided.
◦ Name: Name of the web service connection.
◦ No. of Connections: The number of the web service connections.
• Web Service Connections tab shows the web service associated web service connections.
◦ Category: ConfigurationManager connections.
◦ Name: Name of the connection.
◦ IP Address/Host Name: IP address or Host Name of for the connection.
◦ Port: Port associated with the connection.
◦ Protocol: Protocol used by the connection.
◦ User ID: User ID for the connecting user.
◦ Connection Status: Indicates whether the connection is active or not.
◦ Connected Time: Shows when the current connection became active.
◦ Proxy: Shows any proxy associated with the connection.
• Agentless Remote Connections tab - a list of associated agentless remote connections. The
following agentless remote connection properties are provided.
◦ Method: Method to specify the connection destination.
◦ IP Address/Host Name: IP range or host name of the connection destination.
◦ Protocol: Protocol used by the connection.
◦ User ID: User ID for the connection destination.
◦ Connection Status: Status of the connection.
◦ Connected Time: Time of last connection attempt.
• Services Group tab - a list of associated services.
The following service group properties are provided:
60 Administering Automation Director
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◦ Name: Service group display name.
◦ Description: Description for the service group.
Assigning resources to an infrastructure group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > Infrastructure Groups.
2. From the Infrastructure Groups view, click the infrastructure group for which the resource is to be
assigned. If necessary, you can create a new infrastructure group or edit an existing one.
3. From the Web Service Connection, Agentless Remote Connections, or Service Groups tab,
choose the resource and click Assign to assign to the infrastructure group.
• Do not assign the following resource groups:
◦ Resource groups that include storage devices that are selected for Online Migration
◦ Resource groups for VMWare VVols (VASA VVols). If you use Automation Director with
resource groups that are used for VMware VVols, Allocate Volumes services might consume the
volume capacity of the resource groups.
◦ Resource Groups that include DP/DT Pools and storage ports that have the T10-PI attribute
enabled.
More information
About infrastructure groups on page 59
Assigning service groups to an infrastructure group
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Resources and Permissions > Infrastructure Groups.
2. On the Service Groups tab, click Assign.
3. From the Assign Service Groups dialog box, select a service group from the available service groups
and click Add.
The selected service group is moved to the assigned service groups.
4. Click OK.
More information
About service groups on page 58
About infrastructure groups on page 59
Managing your user profile
Assigning resources to an infrastructure group 61
Page 62
Viewing your user profile
The User Profile window shows your User ID, Full Name, E-mail, Description, and the permissions
assigned for each application.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab click User Profile to access your user profile.
2. From the User Profile window, you can:
• Edit your profile by clicking Edit Profile.
• Change your password by clicking Change Password.
Changing your own password
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click User Profile.
Your information is visible.
2. Click Change Password.
3. Type the new password and verify it.
4. Click OK.
5. Log on with your new password.
Editing your own user profile
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click User Profile.
2. Click Edit Profile.
3. Edit the profile information as required and then click OK.
4. Confirm that the updated user profile information appears in the User Profile area in the User Profile
window.
Managing users and permissions
About user roles
The user role determines what a user can see, access, and perform in Automation Director. User roles
are assigned when assigning a user group to a service group. The following table describes the four roles
in Automation Director.
62 Viewing your user profile
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Role Access level description Included privileges
Admin
Develop This level of access is intended for
Modify
This level of access is intended for
administrators to:
• Manage users and user groups
• Manage storage including resource
groups
• Customize services
• Import service templates
expert level users to:
• Create and edit service templates
using Service Builder
• Test service templates and
services created from templates
This level of access is intended for
expert level users to:
• Edit services
• Submit services
• Create services from templates
• Edit Service dialog box
• Submit Service dialog box
• Task Details dialog box
• All features on the Administration tab
• All features on the Service Templates
tab.
Access to Service Builder
• Edit Service dialog box
• Submit Service dialog box
• Task Details dialog box
• Service Templates tab
Submit
This level of access is intended for
service users to:
• Submit services
• Schedule services
• Monitor and resubmit tasks
Viewing users
Access a list of users from the Administration tab. Navigate to Resources and Permissions > Users
and Permission, then click Users in the Users and Permissions window.
Click a User ID in the list to view user profile details.
Creating a user account
A user account consists of general user profile information (User ID, Password, Full Name, E-mail, and
Description).
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Users and Permissions.
• Submit Service dialog box
• Task Details dialog box
Viewing users 63
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A user management window opens.
2. Display the current user list by clicking Users.
3. To add a user, click Add User and specify user profile information.
4. Click OK.
The user list opens again and includes the new user.
More information
About user roles on page 62
Editing the profile for a user account
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Users and Permissions.
A user management window opens.
2. Click Users, select the target user by clicking the User-ID link, and click Edit Profile.
3. Edit the profile information for the user, and then click OK.
4. Confirm the updated user profile information.
Viewing permissions
Access a list of users from the Administration tab. Navigate to Resources and Permissions > Users
and Permission, then click Permissions in the Users and Permissions window to view the number of
registered applications and registered users as well as the names of the applications along with their
hosts or IP addresses and the number of authorized users for each application.
You can click an application name to view a list of users authorized for the application.
You can click a user name in the Authorized User List to view the user profile and all permissions.
Changing permissions for a user account
TIP: For Tiered Storage Manager (UI) users, specify a role for the user group that is assigned to the
user, instead of granting user permissions.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Users and Permissions.
A user management window opens.
2. Click Users, select the target user by clicking the User-ID link, and click Change Permission.
3. Edit the permissions and click OK.
4. Verify the correct user permissions are selected.
More information
About user roles on page 62
64 Editing the profile for a user account
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Changing the lock status of user accounts
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, select Users and Permissions.
A separate user management window appears.
2. Click Users, and select the check box for the user whose lock status you must change.
3. Click Lock Users or Unlock Users.
4. Click OK to verify the lock status change, or click Cancel.
5. Verify the user account lock status.
• If you locked the account, a lock icon appears next to the user account.
• If you unlocked the account, ask the previously locked user to check that they can log on.
User ID and password policies
Automation Director User IDs and passwords have the same requirements:
• Number of characters: 1-256.
• Characters allowed: A-Z, a-z, 0-9 ! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ | .
If using external authentication servers such as LDAP (or others), note that User IDs and passwords must
be valid for the external authentication server and XP7 Command View Advanced Edition products.
Configuring external authentication for users
External authentication systems, such as LDAP (for example, Active Directory), RADIUS, or Kerberos can
be used to authenticate Automation Director users as they log on. You can reconfigure existing accounts,
or create new accounts to use external authentication.
Prerequisites
• The Automation Director server must be linked to an external authentication server. See the HPE XP7
Command View Advanced Edition Administrator Guide.
• The Automation Director server must be configured to support user authentication, which activates the
Change Auth button in the UI, and presents authentication options such as Internal for a local account
or LDAP for external authentication.
• The Automation Director user ID must exist on the external authentication server. It is recommended
that user ID information be acquired from the external authentication server administrator before
creating accounts.
TIP: Set permissions or roles so that the registered user can complete necessary tasks by using
Automation Director products. Also consider adding user accounts to user groups with assigned
roles for controlled access to resource groups.
Changing the lock status of user accounts 65
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Procedure
1. From the Administration tab, select Users and Permissions.
2. Select the Users folder, then select one or more users for which you want to change the
authentication method, or click Add User to create a new account.
NOTE: When creating a new account, only the User ID is required for external authentication, and
must match a user ID on the external authentication server. For a local (internal) account, both a User
ID and Password are required. When external authentication is available, new user accounts created
without a password value are automatically configured to use external authentication (for example,
LDAP is selected for you). Fill in the fields as needed, and click OK to create the user account.
If you are completing an external authentication in a multiple-domain configuration or by using realms,
specify a user ID that includes the domain name or realm name for the User ID. Example: user-
name@domain-name or realm-name.
When you log on, also specify your user ID in this format.
3. If you are selecting existing users, click Change Auth. A dialog box appears. From the drop-down list,
select the required authentication method (for example, LDAP) and click OK.
4. Review the Authentication column to verify the authentication method.
On the next logon attempt by each user, the user's logon credentials (user ID and password) are
validated by using the external authentication server.
More information
Creating a user account on page 63
Configuring external authentication for groups on page 66
Configuring external authentication for groups
You can use external authentication systems, such as LDAP (for example, Active Directory), RADIUS, or
Kerberos to authenticate XP7 Command View Advanced Edition user group members as they log on. You
can configure one or more user groups, from one or more external authentication servers.
When linking with an external authentication server, if using together with Active Directory as an external
authorization server, you can manage user permissions by using the Active Directory groups
(authorization groups) registered on the external authorization server. In this case, user permissions are
specified for each group.
Prerequisites
• The Automation Director server must be linked to an external authentication (authorization) server.
See the HPE XP7 Command View Advanced Edition Administrator Guide.
• The Automation Director server must be configured to support group authentication, which activates
the Groups folder in the UI.
• The Automation Director user group must exist on the external authentication (authorization) server. It
is recommended that the required domain and group information be acquired from the external
authentication server administrator.
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Procedure
1. From the Administration tab, select Users and Permissions.
2. Click the Groups folder to display the Domain List. This is a list of external authentication servers
listed by domain name, and host name or IP address. If the Groups folder is not visible, see the
prerequisites above.
3. Select the required Domain Name to show the Group List, which may be empty ('No Groups'
appears). Click Add Groups.
4. Enter the Distinguished Name for the group. Use Check DN to verify a correct DN entry. Click OK to
save your group and view the Group List again. The Group Name is derived from the entered DN. To
specify multiple groups, note that:
• You can add multiple DNs at the same time using the "+" button
• If multiple DNs are listed, you can remove an entry with the "-" button
• Reset clears all DN entries
5. From the Group List, click the Group Name link, then click Change Permission and set the
Automation Director permissions for the group (repeat this for each new group).
Your groups are now visible in the Administration tab User Groups folder.
6. (Optional) You can associate the groups with resource groups and roles, just as you can do with
Automation Director user groups. If you delete external authentication groups from Users and
Permissions later, the groups are also removed from the User Groups list.
7. (Optional) To delete registered authorization groups, select the check boxes of the groups to delete,
and then click Delete Groups.
On the next logon attempt by each group member, the user's logon credentials (User ID and Password)
are verified using the external authentication (authorization) server.
More information
Configuring external authentication for users on page 65
Deleting users
If a user is no longer using Automation Director, you can delete the user account. Admin users with User
Management permission can delete users.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Users and Permissions.
2. In the Users and Permissions pane, click Users.
3. Select the user you want to delete.
4. Click Delete Users.
5. In the Delete Users window, click OK.
Configuring connection settings
Configuring Automation Director requires setting the connection information to the XP7 Configuration
Manager REST API, other hosts, and third-party tools.
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Configuring VMware vCenter connections
Procedure
1. From the Administration tab, click Connection Settings > Web Service Connections.
2. Click Add and enter the following information:
• Category: Select vCenter.
• Name
• IP Address/Host Name
• Protocol: https. Cannot be changed.
• Port
• User ID
• Password
3. Enter assigned infrastructure groups.
4. Click OK.
5. (Optional) After specifying the details for setting up a Web Service connection, you can test the
connection with the values you specified by clicking Test. After starting the test, a notification balloon
appears above the Test button indicating whether the connections completed successfully. To stop the
testing process, click Stop Test.
6. (Optional) Verify the status of the current connections from the Web Service Connections window,
which shows the status (Successful, Error, and Unknown) and the time when the connection was last
established. To update the display of current connection, click Refresh.
Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections
You must create a connection setting for the server running the Configuration Manager REST API to use
any of the following:
• JavaScript Plug-in for Configuration Manager REST API
• Built-in CM-REST method modules from the JavaScript Plug-in for Configuration Manager REST API
for an external resource provider
• Data mobility services:
Allocate Volumes from Virtual Storage Machine
Create High Availability Pair for Migration
Migrate Data Using High Availability Pair
Export Virtual Storage Machine Configuration Across Sites
• Provisioning services:
Allocate Volumes with Configuration Manager
Allocate Fabric Aware Volumes with Configuration Manager
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This connection enables Automation Director to run services on storage systems registered with the
Configuration Manager REST API. Setting up connections requires the Admin role.
Prerequisites
Before you can use Data Mobility services, you must set up your environment so that the XP7
Configuration Manager REST API manages all of your storage systems. You must also register remote
storage system information across all your storage systems. This means that you must register
information about remote storage systems with the REST API server of the local storage system and
information about the local storage system with the REST API server of the remote storage systems. For
detailed information on these requirements and registering your storage systems with a XP7
Configuration Manager REST API, see the HPE XP7 Configuration Manager REST API Reference Guide.
NOTE: If you plan to use the XP7 Configuration Manager Settings option to register local and remote
storage systems, you must use XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server v8.6.1-00 or later.
When creating XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server connections, you must set up credentials as
follows:
• For Data Mobility services, create one connection that uses the same credentials for each storage
system managed by the Configuration Manager REST API. In addition to using the same credentials
to access all storage systems, ensure that these credentials are assigned the following roles:
◦ Security Administrator (View and Modify)
◦ Storage Administrator (Provisioning)
◦ Storage Administrator (Remote Copy)
• For the JavaScript Plug-in for Configuration Manager REST API and built-in CM-REST methods:
◦ When all storage systems managed by a Configuration Manager REST API use the same
credentials, create one connection. For example, when your environment uses a central repository,
such as Active Directory, to manage credentials.
◦ When each storage system managed by a Configuration Manager REST API uses different
credentials, create a connection for each set of storage system credentials.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Connection Settings > Web Service Connections.
2. Click Add or Edit and enter the following information:
• Category: Select ConfigurationManager.
• Name: Enter a name for the Configuration Manager REST API instance.
• IP Address/Host Name: Enter the host name or IP Address of the Configuration Manager REST
API server.
• Protocol: Select http (default) or https
• Port
• User ID
• Password
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3. To use a proxy server, select the check box and enter the following information:
• IP Address/Host Name
• Port
• Authentication
• Authentication Type
• User ID
• Password
4. Enter assigned infrastructure groups.
5. Click OK.
What to do next
If you are using Data Mobility services, you must first ensure that all Virtual Storage Machines (VSMs)
across sites use the same resource group name so that the services can recognize them. When creating
a resource group name, you must adhere to the following rules:
Storage System Model(Virtual Serial Number),Storage System Model@Virtual Serial Number
For example, if the resource group consists of XP7 storage systems with a virtual serial number of 20000,
you would create a resource group with the following name:
XP7(20000), XP7@20000
Then you must update the Virtual Storage Machine Names shared property setting for recognizing VSMs
when using Data Mobility services. For detailed information, see Modifying shared service properties
for data mobility services.
More information
Modifying the shared service properties on page 78
Built-in shared properties on page 77
Modifying shared service properties for Data Mobility services on page 78
Configuring Web Service connections
You can add or edit a web service connection by using the following procedure:
Procedure
1. From the Administration tab, click Connection Settings > Web Service Connections.
2. Click Add or Edit and enter the following information:
• Category
• Name
• IP Address/Host Name
• Protocol
• Port
70 Configuring Web Service connections
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• User ID
• Password
3. Enter Proxy Settings:
• IP Address/Host Name
• Port
• Authentication
• Authentication Type
• User ID
• Password
NOTE: You can change the password in the menu.
4. Enter assigned infrastructure groups.
5. Click OK.
Configuring a Web Service connection for ServiceNow
When using ServiceNow ticketing services, you must register a Web Service Connection for ServiceNow.
You can add or edit a web service connection for ServiceNow by using the following procedure:
Procedure
1. From the Administration tab, click Connection Settings > Web Service Connections.
2. Click Add or Edit and enter the following information:
• Category: ServiceNow
• Name: Enter a name for the ServiceNow connection.
• IP Address/Host Name: The ServiceNow instance name.
• Protocol: https (Cannot be changed.)
NOTE: When you use https with Web Service connections, you must first import certificates for the
Web Service Connection and import certificates into the Java trust store. For detailed information,
see the HPE XP7 Automation Director Installation and Configuration Guide.
• Port: 443
• User ID: An account with operation privileges on ServiceNow
• Password: The password of the account with operation privileges on ServiceNow
3. Enter Proxy Settings: Set as required.
• IP Address/Host Name
• Port
Configuring a Web Service connection for ServiceNow 71
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• Authentication
• Authentication Type
• User ID
• Password
NOTE: You can change the password in the menu.
4. Enter assigned infrastructure groups.
5. Click OK.
Configuring remote connections
Prerequisites
Consult "Windows prerequisites for agentless connections" or " SSH prerequisites for agentless
connections" in the HPE XP7 Automation Director Installation and Configuration Guide for details on
setting up a remote connection.
When specifying a range of addresses (i.e., X.X.X.A to X.X.X.B) for IPv4, use a hyphen (-) as shown in
the following format:
Format: X.X.X.A-B
Correct examples:
192.168.1.1-255 (from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255) 192.168.1.5-15 (from 192.168.1.5 to 192.168.1.15)
Incorrect example:
192.168.1-2.4
When specifying a range of addresses for IPv6, use a network preface that conforms to RFC 2373.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Connection Settings > Agentless Remote Connection.
2. Click Add to add a connection. To edit a connection, select the check box next to the connection and
click Edit. Enter or edit the following information:
• Method: Select Host Name, IPv4, or IPv6
• IP Address/Host Name: Enter an IP address if you are using IPv4 or IPv6, or a enter a host name.
• Service Group: Select a Service Group for access purposes.
• Authentication: Enabled by default. When disabled, access to the host is anonymous.
• Protocol: If authentication is used, select Windows, SSH, or Telnet. Depending on the protocol you
have selected, a dialog box is provided for specifying the authentication method along with any
necessary passwords.
◦ User ID: Required if authentication is used.
◦ Password: Required if authentication is used.
◦ Super User's Password: Required if Protocol is SSH or Telnet.
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When choosing SSH as your authentication protocol, you have the option of specifying Password
Authentication, Public Key Authentication, or Keyboard Interactive Authentication.
NOTE: Even when you want to perform remote operations on the local host, registering the local
host setting is required. In this case, the setting for Authentication is not required.
3. Enter assigned infrastructure groups.
4. Click OK.
5. (Optional) After specifying the details for setting up a remote connection (Authentication option
enabled), you can test the connection.
a. Click Test.
b. If multiple IP addresses or hosts are specified, select a specific address or host.
c. To stop the testing process, click Stop Test.
A notification balloon appears above the Test button indicating whether the connections completed
successfully.
6. (Optional) To check the connection status later, go to the Agentless Remote Connections window to
view the status(Successful, Error, Unknown, and Unavailable) and the time when the connection was
last established. To update the information, click Refresh.
Registering storage systems to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection
You must register storage systems in advance before you can use them with the XP7 Configuration
Manager REST API and the Automation Director storage automation services.
From the XP7 Configuration Manager Settings window on the Administration tab, you can:
• Register and delete local storage systems.
• Register and delete remote storage system information.
More information
Registering a local storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection on page 73
Registering a remote storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection on page 75
Deleting local storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection on
page 76
Deleting remote storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection on
page 76
Registering a local storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection
Prerequisites
Verify the following:
Registering storage systems to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection 73
Page 74
• A Web Service connection exists for the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server on which you
plan to register the storage system in Connection Settings > Web Service Connections on the
Administration tab.
See "Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections on page 68" for more
information.
• You have an account with Administrator user group (built-in group) permissions on the storage system.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, select Storage Service Settings > Configuration Manager Settings.
2. From the Configuration Manager Connection section at the top of the window, select the XP7
Configuration Manager connection to which you want to add a storage system.
3. At the top of the Local Storage System section, click Register.
4. In the Register Local Storage System dialog box, enter the following information for the storage
system:
The dialog content changes depending on the storage system model you select.
• Model: Select the storage system model from the Model list.
• Serial Number: Enter the storage system serial number.
• SVP IP Address: Enter the storage system SVP IP Address.
• RMI Port: Specify the storage system RMI port number. The default port number is 1099.
• Enable SSL communication with SVP: Optionally, select the check box to enable SSL.
If this option is selected, the following item is shown:
◦ SVP HTTPS Port: Specify the port number that SVP uses for HTTPS communication. The
default port number is 443.
• Receive configuration-change notifications from the storage system: Select the check box to
receive configuration change notifications from the storage system.
NOTE: If the database of the XP7 Configuration Manager used for the search function does not
match the resource information of the storage system, service templates might not work properly.
Therefore, it is recommended that you enable Receive configuration-change notifications from
the storage system.
5. Click OK.
NOTE: If storage system information such as the IP address or port number changes, you must delete
the storage system and register it again.
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Registering a remote storage system to a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection
Prerequisites
Verify the following:
• A Web service connection exists for both the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server managing
the local storage systems and for the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server managing the
remote storage systems.
See "
Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections on page 68" for more
information.
• You have an account with Administrator user group (built-in group) permissions on the storage system.
• The local storage system is registered to the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API Server at the
local site.
• The remote storage system is registered to the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API Server at the
remote site.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, select Storage Service Settings > Configuration Manager Settings.
2. From the Configuration Manager Connection section at the top of the window, select the XP7
Configuration Manager connection to which the local storage system is registered.
3. In the Local Storage System section, select the local storage system for which you want to add a
remote storage system.
4. At the top of the Remote Storage System section, click Register.
5. In the Register Remote Storage System dialog, select the remote site XP7 Configuration Manager
server to which the remote storage system is registered.
6. Select the remote storage system to register in the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API Server
that manages the local storage system.
7. If you did not enter an IP Address when creating the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API
connection, you must enter it now.
8. If you did not enter an HTTPS port number when creating the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API
connection, enter it now.
9. Select the Enable Configuration Manager Mutual Registration check box to automatically register
the local storage system information to the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API server managing
the remote storage systems.
10. Click OK.
NOTE: If you want to change the remote storage system information registered in the XP7
Configuration Manager REST API server, delete the remote storage system information and register
again.
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Deleting local storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, select Storage Service Settings > Configuration Manager Settings.
2. From the XP7 Configuration Manager Connection section at the top, select the XP7 Configuration
Manager connection to which the local storage system is registered.
3. From the Local Storage System list, select the local storage system to delete.
4. Click Delete.
5. From the Delete Local Storage System dialog, confirm that you want to delete the storage system
and click OK.
Deleting remote storage system information from a XP7 Configuration Manager REST API connection
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, select Storage Service Settings > Configuration Manager Settings.
2. From the XP7 Configuration Manager Connection section at the top, select the XP7 Configuration
Manager connection to which the local storage system is registered.
3. From the Local Storage System list, select the local storage system.
4. In the Remote Storage section, click Delete.
5. From the Delete Remote Storage System dialog, select the XP7 Configuration Manager connection
to which the remote storage system you want to delete is registered.
6. In the Remote Storage System section, select the remote storage system you want to delete.
7. Select the Enable Configuration Manager Mutual Deletion check box if you want to automatically
delete the local storage system information registered in the XP7 Configuration Manager REST API
server on the remote storage system side.
8. Confirm that you want to delete the storage system and click OK.
Using shared properties
Automation Director enables you to share the values specified for a service among multiple services.
Settings that are shared are called the shared properties. For example, if you use a service template to
manage a common server and you define the host name, user ID, and password for that server at the
connection destination as shared properties, you save the time needed to enter this server information
each time a service is run. In some instances, all storage services may share the same address.
When you assign a value to a service, it takes effect when the target service is submitted for execution.
Changes that are made to a property value do not affect services that are already submitted. Property
values set after submitting a service are applied to tasks that are generated from the target service. To
apply a shared property value to services that are submitted, you must stop the service and then submit it
again.
The following figure shows how the value of a shared property is shared over multiple services.
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Automation Director provides a set of built-in shared properties that are based on common provisioning
tasks. Additionally, shared properties can be customized when creating a service template using Service
Builder.
More information
Modifying the shared service properties on page 78
Built-in shared properties on page 77
Built-in shared properties
NOTE: When a task runs, the values in the built-in shared properties are applied to the task. If you
change a value of a built-in shared property, the change will apply to the task the next time it runs.
The following table lists the shared service properties that are provided with Automation Director.
Shared service properties Description Values
Upper Limit of the Task Status
Polling Duration
Task Status Polling Interval
Timeout for Receiving Responses
to Volume Allocation and Polling
Requests
Auto-Configuration of Volume
Labels at Volume Allocation
Upper limit (hrs.) of the polling
duration for task in the storage
management software
Polling interval (seconds) for
monitoring task running in the
storage management software.
Timeout (seconds) for receiving
responses to volume allocation and
polling requests in the storage
management software.
Specifies whether to set a volume
allocation. If you specify "true", and
do not provide a volume label, then a
volume label is automatically
assigned.
The default is 240 hours.
The default is 60 seconds.
The default is 60 seconds.
True or False
Table Continued
Built-in shared properties 77
Page 78
Shared service properties Description Values
Reflection of Volume Labels into
the Storage System
Pass phrase of the private key
(for SSH public key
authentication)
Python Interpreter Path Specifies the Python Interpreter Path. The default is "python".
Virtual Storage Machine Names Specifies resource group names
More information
Using shared properties on page 76
Modifying the shared service properties on page 78
Specifies whether to apply the
volume labels to Remote Web
Console during volume label
configuration at volume allocation. If
you specify "true", the volume label is
applied.
Specifies the passphrase for the
private key used for SSH public key
authentication (shared built-in service
property).
commonly used for virtual storage
machines across sites in Data
Mobility services.
Modifying the shared service properties
True or False
The default is empty.
The default is empty.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Shared Properties Settings.
2. Select a shared property and click Edit.
3. Enter the value of the property and click OK.
More information
Using shared properties on page 76
Built-in shared properties on page 77
Modifying shared service properties for Data Mobility services on page 78
Modifying shared service properties for Data Mobility services
Prerequisites
Before updating the shared service properties for data mobility services, you must ensure that all VSMs
across sites share the same resource group names so that the services can recognize them. When
creating a resource group name, you must use the following format:
Storage System Model(Virtual Serial Number),Storage System Model@Virtual Serial Number
For example, if the resource group consists of XP7 storage systems with a virtual serial number of 20000,
you would create a resource group with the following name:
XP7(20000), XP7@20000
After you add common resource groups to all VSMs across sites, you must modify the shared service
properties as follows:
78 Modifying the shared service properties
Page 79
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click Shared Properties Settings.
2. Select the Virtual Storage Machine Names shared property and click Edit. The Set Service Shared
Property window opens.
3. In the Value field, specify one or more resource group names used for your VSMs across sites. Use a
comma to separate multiple resource group names.
For example, if there are two resource groups that contain all the VSMs across your storage sites, you
would specify the following:
XP7(20000), XP7(10000)
4. Click OK to save the shared property.
More information
Configuring Configuration Manager REST API connections on page 68
Configuring email and log settings
Email notifications are sent to users when a task fails, or when a task requires input from a user to
continue. If input is required, the user must enter an email address as a service input parameter. Also,
Automation Director requires the SMTP Server settings to send an email.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click System Settings.
2. Click Edit.
3. In the Email section, enter the following information. For email addresses, you can specify multiple
email addresses separated with commas:
• Server Address: SMTP server name or IP address. Automation Director supports SMTP Servers
on which SMTP-AUTH is set. (Required)
• Server Port: SMTP server port number. (Required)
• User ID: for the email account. (Required)
• Password: for the email account. (Required)
• From: sender's email address.
• To: recipient's email address.
• Cc: copy to email address.
• Bcc: blind copy to email address.
4. Click System Parameters to expand the section and update the following settings:
E-mail notification: ON or OFF.
• Task Threshold Settings
Configuring email and log settings 79
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◦ Severe: output for only severe logs.
◦ Information: Output for severe and informational logs. (Default)
◦ Fine: Output for detailed logs for tracing purposes.
◦ Finer: Output for highly detailed logs for tracing purposes.
◦ Debug: Output for all log levels including debug logs.
5. Click Save.
Setting up an external resource provider
After you set up an external resource provider, it can be accessed from an input property associated with
a service template from Service Builder.
You set up an external resource provider from the Administration tab.
Procedure
1. On the Administration tab, click External Resource Provider.
The Edit External Resource Provider interface appears.
2. Click Create to enter the details for the new external resource provider.
The Edit External Resource Provider Information dialog box appears.
3. Enter the following information.
• Name: Name assigned to the newly created resource provider.
• Version: A version number is assigned.
• Content Type: Select application/json or text/csv for the content type.
• Schema ID: If there is a domain type corresponding to the returned value of the external resource
provider, enter the Schema ID. The Schema ID helps select an external resource provider in the
property for service/plug-in settings dialog boxes in Service Builder.
• Description: Provide a description for the resource provider.
• Type: Select either JavaScript, Script, Command Line, or File. Depending on your selection,
enter the information in the provided field.
4. Click OK.
The name of the newly created external resource provider is shown in the list along with its assigned
UUID number and any other descriptive information.
5. (Optional) After creating a resource provider, you can choose one of the options from the More
Actions menu to export or delete an existing external resource provider entry. Additionally, you can
click Import to import a previously exported external resource provider.
For more information on how to implement an external resource provider, see the HPE XP7
Automation Director Service Builder User Guide.
More information
Using shared properties on page 76
80 Setting up an external resource provider
Page 81
ServiceNow workflow integration
The ServiceNow Workflow Integration package includes an XML file that contains the update set required
to integrate an Automation Director service into a ServiceNow workflow.
The XML file is located here:
Automation-Director-installation-folder\public\ServiceNow\Automation_Adapter_for_ServiceNow_Version-number.xml
NOTE: For information about using Automation Director ServiceNow templates to manage an entire
workflow, see ServiceNow ticketing service templates on page 185.
Integrating an Automation Director service into a ServiceNow workflow consists of the following high-level
steps:
• Installing a MID Server
• Creating a REST Message
• Importing the Update Set
• Creating a service catalog item
• Creating a workflow
• Running the workflow
Information about each of these steps is provided in this document, however you must refer to the
ServiceNow product documentation for detailed information.
Prerequisite products for workflow integration
The ServiceNow workflow integration with Automation Director requires the following:
• ServiceNow version Kingston, London
• MID Server version Kingston, London
The MID Server supports the following operating systems:
◦ Windows OS: All editions of Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016
◦ Linux OS: Red Hat 6, Ubuntu 12, CentOS 6
For further details, see MID Server system requirements in the ServiceNow product documentation.
Creating a REST Message
To send a REST API request to a web service endpoint from ServiceNow, you must create a REST
Message record.
Procedure
1. From Filter Navigator, open System Web Services > Outbound > REST Message, and click New.
2. Set the following REST Message fields:
ServiceNow workflow integration 81
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• Name: Enter a descriptive name for the REST message.
• Description: Enter a description of the REST message.
• Endpoint: Enter the endpoint to which this REST message is sent. The endpoint value may include
variables using the format ${variable}. To create a REST Message for Automation Director
integration, enter the following:
http(s)://Automation-Director-Server-IP-Address:port_number/Automation/$
{path}
3. Click the Authentication tab and set the following:
• Authentication type: Select Basic.
• Basic auth profile: Click the magnifier and select an existing Basic Auth Configuration profile or
create a new one.
4. Click Submit.
5. Open the newly created REST Message and click New in the HTTP Methods area at the bottom of the
screen.
6. For each HTTP method that you want to add, complete the following steps:
a. Set the following HTTP information:
Name: Enter the same name as the HTTP method.
HTTP method: GET, POST, PUT, or DELETE (GET and POST are required)
Endpoint:http(s)://Automation-Director-Server-IP-Address:port_number/
Automation/${path}
b. Click the HTTP Request tab and in the Use MID Server field, select the MID Server to which the
request is sent.
c. (Recommended) To test the HTTP method you created, go to the Related Links section and click
Test.
Refer to Configuring a REST Message in the ServiceNow product documentation for detailed
instructions.
Installing a MID server
Before you can integrate Automation Director with ServiceNow, you must install the ServiceNow MID
server that facilitates integration with external applications. In the ServiceNow integration of Automation
Director, the REST API commands are passed through the MID server.
You can install the MID server on the same server as Automation Director or on a different server.
Refer to
MID Server Installation in the ServiceNow product documentation for instructions.
To set up SSL communication between the MID Server and Automation Director, set up SSL on the
Automation Director server and register the Automation Director SSL certificate on the MID Server.
For further instructions, refer to "Setting up SSL on the server for secure client communication (Windows
OS)", "Setting up SSL on the server for secure client communication (Linux OS)", and "Setting up SSL on
82 Installing a MID server
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web-based management clients" in the HPE XP7 Automation Director Installation and Configuration
Guide and Add SSL certificates in the ServiceNow product documentation.
Importing an update set
In ServiceNow, you can export and import database information for a specific version of an application or
set of configuration changes by using an XML file. A specific version or set of configuration changes is
called an update set. When integrating Automation Director with ServiceNow, the required configuration
information is consolidated into an update set that you must import. For information on how to import
information by loading an update set, see the following in the ServiceNow product documentation.
• Save an update set as a local XML file and Load customization from a single XML file
• Preview a remote update set
• Commit an update set
NOTE: Verify that there are no existing Script Includes with the name "AutomationClientLibrary" so that
no conflicts occur. If the name already exists, change the Script Include name and then edit the
subworkflow (Invoke Automation Service) so that the class or function name match the new Script Include
name.
Creating a service catalog item
A service catalog item is a request form for running a workflow. You must create a service catalog item for
running a workflow that includes a process for running the Automation Director service.
Refer to the Define a catalog item in the ServiceNow product documentation for more information.
Creating a workflow
Creating a workflow enables you to connect processes that you want to automate by using ServiceNow.
To run the Automation Director service in a workflow, extend or include the sub-workflow (Invoke
Automation Service) into an upper layer workflow and insert the parameter mapping step. In this subworkflow, you define the common operation sequences of running a service and reporting task status.
Also, you can use the AutomationClientLibrary to include additional operations.
Refer to Create a workflow in the ServiceNow product documentation for instructions.
Sample workflow
The following is an example of a workflow that calls an Automation Director service.
In this workflow, the following actions are run as a series of flows:
• approval processing
• mapping user input to Automation Director service request parameters
• running an Automation Director service and receiving a result confirmation
• subsequent processing according to the result
Importing an update set 83
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Input for Invoke Automation Service sub-workflow
In the Invoke Automation Service sub-workflow, the following input service parameters are set:
• REST Message Name
• Request Parameters
• Service Instance ID
• Task Settings
In the sample workflow Manipulate Input step, user input values are mapped to variables of the Invoke
Automation Service flow. The sample code is as follows:
workflow.scratchpad.serviceInstanceID =
current.variables.had_service_instance_id; //Service Instance ID
workflow.scratchpad.restMessageName =
current.variables.had_rest_message_name; //REST Message Name
function RecordAccessor(ticket) {
this.setRecord(ticket);
}
RecordAccessor.prototype = {
setRecord: function(ticket) {
this._ticket = ticket;
},
getSysId: function() {
return this._ticket.sys_id;
},
getVariable: function(key) {
return this._ticket.variables[key].toString();
},
getVariables: function() {
return this._ticket.variables;
}
};
workflow.info("Manipulating input from service request");
var recordAccessor = new RecordAccessor(current);
84 Administering Automation Director
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/* Settings of Automation Director service input parameters(*) */
var requestParams = {};
requestParams["VolumeLabel"] = recordAccessor.getVariable("VolumeLabel"); //
String type parameter setting example
requestParams["StorageSystem"] = JSON.stringify({“storageDeviceId”:
recordAccessor.getVariable("StorageDeviceId")}); //File type parameter
setting example
/*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*/
/* (Set as much as required) */
/*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*/
workflow.info(JSON.stringify(requestParams, null, 2));
workflow.scratchpad.requestParameters = JSON.stringify(requestParams);
In requestParams, the required Automation Director parameter Key and Value are set. You can also
specify the service run schedule as a task setting. For details on the built-in service parameters and task
settings, refer to "Submitting a service" in the HPE XP7 Automation Director REST API User and
Reference Guide.
After running the Automation Director service and obtaining the result, you can implement postprocessing according to the use case, such as updating the ticket as is shown in the sample workflow.
Output from Invoke Automation Service sub-workflow
The output of the Invoke Automation Service sub-workflow (workflow.scratchpad.hadresult) includes the
following:
• status: Completed, Failed, or Canceled.
• data: JSON format data of the Automation Director service output property values obtained by using
the Automation Director "Getting a list of property values" REST API.
• message: Error message (only when an error occurs).
You can easily obtain the Automation Director service output property values provided in JSON format to
use with a method defined in the AutomationClientLibrary. The sample code is as follows:
var result = workflow.scratchpad.hadresult;
allocatedVolume = AutomationClientLibrary.findPropertyByValue (result.data,
'keyName', 'LUNPathConfigurationInformation').value; // Pick up value from
JSON data by specifying property keyName
workflow.info("Details of added volumes: " +
JSON.stringify(allocatedVolume,null,2));
current["work_notes"] = JSON.stringify(allocatedVolume, null, 2);
Running the workflow
When running the ServiceNow workflow, enter the required items in the service catalog item request form
and send the request.
Refer to Request creation in the ServiceNow product documentation for more information.
Running the workflow 85
Page 86
Importing and exporting properties
Buttons at the bottom of the Create/Edit Service and Submit Service Request windows allow you to
import and export property values.
Importing property values
Importing property values
Follow these steps to import property values to a specified file.
Procedure
1. From the debugger interface, click Import.
2. In the Import dialog box, enter the name of the property file to use for storing the property values, or
use the browser to search for the specified file, then click OK.
When the import finishes, notifications about the property values that have and have not been
imported are temporarily visible as follows:
• Properties to which the values are applied.
• Properties for which the values are not applied. These are properties for which the attribute values
cannot be changed and for which the values are not applied due to the property value definitions .
• Non-existent properties. These are properties that are defined in the file but do not exist in the
target service.
When importing a properties file from the debugger, (or the Config and Submit windows), the JSON
or key=value format is supported.
When accessing the import capability from the CLI, the additional format key@FILE=file-path is also
supported.
The conditions that must be met to apply property values during an import are shown in following
table.
Property
Group
Attribute
hidden paramMode visibility reference hidden readOnly
False in config false false false
False in exec false -- --
If the properties do not meet these conditions, or there are no corresponding properties defined in the
service, the values contained in the definition file are not applied. The values are also not applied if the
"value field" is not defined or is set to null.
NOTE: If the length of keyName exceeds the limit, the property is classified as a property that does
not exist in the service.
Property Attribute
86 Importing and exporting properties
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If an error occurs during an import, the error dialog box appears, and the import is canceled, leaving all
property values unchanged. An error occurs when the specified file does not exist or the property file
definitions are invalid.
Exporting property values
While debugging, you can export property values to a property file. This allows you to save multiple
property values in a file for subsequent reference.
Exporting property values
Follow these steps to export property values to a specified file.
1. From the debugger interface, click Export.
2. Access the browser to locate the property file or specifically enter its name and click OK.
The property values are exported to the specified file. The property values are exported in the Json
format and, by default, are saved to the service_properties.json file.
Format
In the property file specified as a command argument, the property key and value used by the executed
services can be defined in JSON, key=value, and key@FILE=file-path formats.
JSON format
{
"properties": [
{
"keyName": "property-key",
"displayName" : "property-display-name"
"description" : "description-of-property"
"type" : "property-type"
"value": "property-value"
},
{
"keyName": "property-key",
"displayName" : "property-display-name"
"description" : "description-of-property"
"type" : "property-type"
"value": "property-value"
},
...
]
}
Following are definition details for the JSON format:
• The displayName, description, and type fields are optional.
• When you specify the value field, set an empty value for the property value.
Exporting property values 87
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• The value for the password type property can be in plain text or encrypted. The "value" field of the
password type property is not exported for security reasons. The defined value is imported as is, and
the REST API determines whether it is in plain text or encrypted.
• In the definition file, define only properties for which you want to set values. The values of properties
that are not defined in the imported file remain unchanged. When exporting step properties, the type
field is only output for the service component.
key=value format:
To specify property values for a key=value property file, use the following format:
property-key=property-value [line break]
Following are definition details of the key=value format:
• Specify a property name and a property value on each line.
• Lines starting with a hash mark (#) are handled as comment lines.
• Lines that do not contain an equal mark "=" are handled as comment lines.
• A line break needs to be added at the end of each property setting line.
• Do not add line breaks in the middle of the property name and property value lines.
• Characters are case-sensitive.
• Even when a "\" is contained in strings like service and plug-in resource files, you do not must type "\\".
• "\" is handled as a "\".
• The characters at the beginning of a line up to the first equal sign (=) are treated as a property name.
Do not trim lines before and after the property setting line.
• The characters after the equal sign (=) after the property name, until the end of the line are treated as
the property value. Do not trim lines before and after the property setting line.
• The end-of-line character at the end of the property file (EOF) is optional.
• Empty lines (lines containing line breaks only) are ignored.
• Both CR+LF and LF can be used as line breaks.
• When using the property-key = [line break] format, set an empty value for the property
value.
key@FILE=file-path format
In this format, the property key is stored in the property file, and the property value is stored in the
property value file and referenced separately. Note that this format can be used together with the
key=value format in the property file:
property-key@FILE=absolute-path-of-the-property-value-file or relative-path-from-the-property-file [line break]
The definitions in the key@FILE=file-path format are the same as the key=value format. The differences
from the key=value format are as follows:
88 Importing and exporting properties
Page 89
• The absolute path of the property value file or the relative path from the property file must always be
specified or an error occurs.
• If the specified file does not contain a property value, an error occurs.
• The property value file can contain end-of-line characters. However, if a property value file that
contains an end-of-line character is specified for a property for which end-of-line characters must not
be set, an error occurs.
Importing and exporting properties 89
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CLI commands
To run CLI commands, the Admin, Modify, or Submit role is required for Automation Director and
Administrator permission is required for the OS.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise XP7 Command View Advanced Edition CLI commands
For Windows-based OS servers, navigate to <system-drive>\Program Files\CVXPAE
\Automation\Base64\bin. For Linux OS servers, navigate to: /opt/CVXPAE/Base64/bin. Open
the command prompt to run XP7 Command View Advanced Edition Common Component commands.
For more information about the XP7 Command View Advanced Edition Common Component CLI
commands, command syntax and description, see the HPE XP7 Command View Advanced Edition
Administrator Guide.
In addition to the CLI commands described in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise XP7 Command View
Advanced Edition documentation, Automation Director makes use of the following special CLI commands
for its mutual authentication capabilities.
hcmds64chgtsid command
Functions
The hcmds64chgtsid command performs the following functions:
• Changes the name of the server ID from the default, (or previously changed) host name, to some
other specified name. This is useful for specifying the Common Component server ID requested by the
authentication destination when using mutual authentication.
• Displays the current server ID.
Syntax: (UNIX OS)
hcmds64chgtsid {-name Server ID| -print}
Syntax: (Windows-based OS)
hcmds64chgtsid {/name Server ID| /print}
Options
Option Description
name
print
Specifies the server ID to change. Number of characters must be 255 or
less.
Displays the current server ID.
Return codes
The following table lists the hcmds64chgtsid command return codes and descriptions.
90 CLI commands
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Return code Description
0
1
255
The command succeeded.
The argument is invalid.
The command stopped due to an error other than the ones listed in this table.
The server ID is case insensitive and can consist of any ASCII printable character code (0x20-7E)
If you specify the server ID that has already been registered through the hcmds64trust command, the
connection destination information is not registered, and an error message is output specifying the same
server ID as the registered connection destination information.
Example: Changing the server ID
>hcmds64chgtsid -name example.com
KAPM15956-I The trusted server ID was changed successfully. (trusted server ID = example.com)
Example: Displaying the server ID
>hcmds64chgtsid -print
KAPM15955-I The trusted server ID will be displayed. (trusted server ID = example.com)
Example: An invalid option error
>hcmds64chgtsid -id example.com
KAPM15954-E An option is invalid.
usage: hcmds64chgtsid {-name trustedServerID | -print}
Example: Processing failure
>hcmds64chgtsid -name <256 characters or more>
KAPM15968-E The length of the trusted server ID exceeds 255 characters.
KAPM15953-E The hcmds64chgtsid command failed.
hcmds64trust command
Functions
The hcmds64trust command performs the following functions:
• Registers, deletes, and displays the destination information for performing authentication functions
with XP7 Command View Advanced Edition authentication zone. This is useful for registering
destination with the XP7 Command View Advanced Edition authentication zone with the proper
permissions.
• Shows the current server ID.
The server ID is case-insensitive and can consist of any ASCII printable character code (0x20-7E).
The registration is accomplished only if the connection and authentication is successful. Therefore, in
addition to the destination information, you must also supply the proper user name and password. The
specified user name must be someone who has the privileges to log onto the system. If you do not
specify user name and password as an option, you can have the user input by the information when
making the connection. For the string that is entered when the input request for user name and password,
do not check the character type and length of the string. In this case, the user name and password are
used only when the connection is confirmed, they are not registered as the destination information.
hcmds64trust command 91
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Deleting the destination information to the XP7 Command View Advanced Edition authentication zone,
deletes the destination information that server ID matches.
Syntax: (UNIX OS)
hcmds64trust {-set -user User_Name -pass Password -host
Host_Name_or_IP_Address {-port Port_Number | -sslport sslport_Port_Number
[-sslprotocol SSL_Protocol] | [-ciphers {Encryption_Type_Name |
CipherSuite[,CipherSuite[...]]}]} ] | -delete -name Server_ID | -print }
Syntax: (Windows-based OS)
hcmds64trust {/set /user User_Name /pass Password /host
Host_Name_or_IP_Address {/port Port_Number | /sslport ssl_port_number[/
sslprotocol SSL_Protocol |[-ciphers {Encryption_Type_Name |
CipherSuite[,CipherSuite[...]]}]} ] | /delete /name Server_ID | /print }
The destination information is used to query enable or disable the token used by the mutual
authentication feature to other XP7 Command View Advanced Edition authentication zones.
Options
Option Description
set
user
pass
host
port
sslport
ciphers Specifies the encryption type for SSL/TLS communication or the CipherSuite
Registers the destination information.
Specifies the user ID at the destination.
Specifies the password of the user ID at the destination.
Specifies the host name or IP address of the destination. If you want to
specify the IPv6 address, enclose it within square brackets [ ]. If you specify a
host name that cannot be resolved, an error occurs. In addition, if performing
SSL communications, specify the same host name as the host information
specified when creating the certificate. If you specify the IP address in the
SSL communications, it becomes communication error. The host name entry
is case insensitive.
Specifies the port number of the destination.
Specifies the port number of the destination. When using this option,
communication becomes SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) but the SSL
configuration must be performed separately.
for each destination. For details on valid encryption types, see the following
table. In addition, when specifying the CipherSuite, you can specify the
CipherSuite supported by the JDK in use.
sslprotocol Specifies the SSL protocol for each destination. You can specify the SSL
name
92 CLI commands
protocol supported by the JDK in use. If you specify the encryption type in the
ciphers option, the SSL protocol defined by the encryption type takes
precedence.
Specifies the server ID of the destination. The name entry is case insensitive
and the number of characters must be 255 or less.
Table Continued
Page 93
Option Description
delete
print
Encryption Type Details
Encryption type name Description CipherSuites SSL protocol
SUITEB128 Low intensity setting in
SUITEB192 High intensity setting in
Deletes the destination information.
Displays the registered destination information.
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
Suite B standard.
P-256[nistp256
secp256r1] and
P-384[nistp384
secp384r1]
Suite B standard.
P-384[nistp384
secp384r1]
WITH_AES_256_GCM_
SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_128_GCM_
SHA256
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_256_GCM_
SHA384
TLSv1.2
TLSv1.2
Table Continued
CLI commands 93
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Encryption type name Description CipherSuites SSL protocol
RSA Setting in which only the
CipherSuites using RSA
are specified by
considering the past
compatibility to the
maximum extent.
ALL Setting in which the past
compatibility is
considered and
CipherSuites to use
becomes a wide range.
Comparison to RSA:
Because the elliptic
encryption is specified in
CipherSuites, the
encryption strength can
be increased.
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
256_CBC_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
256_CBC_SHA,
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
128_CBC_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
128_CBC_SHA
SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES
_EDE_CBC_SHA
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_256_GCM_
SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_128_GCM_
SHA256,
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_256_CBC_
SHA384
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_128_CBC_
SHA256
TLSv1.2
TLSv1.2
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_256_CBC_
SHA
TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_
WITH_AES_128_CBC_
SHA
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WIT
H_AES_256_GCM_SHA
384
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WIT
H_AES_128_GCM_SHA
256
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WIT
H_AES_256_CBC_SHA
384
TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WIT
H_AES_128_CBC_SHA
256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
256_GCM_SHA384
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
256_CBC_SHA256
94 CLI commands
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Encryption type name Description CipherSuites SSL protocol
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
256_CBC_SHA
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
128_CBC_SHA256
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_
128_CBC_SHA
SSL_RSA_WITH_3DES
_EDE_CBC_SHA
Return codes
The following table lists the hcmds64trust command return codes and descriptions.
Return code Description
0
1
255
The command succeeded.
The argument is invalid.
The command stopped due to an error other than the ones listed in this table.
Destination information can be registered for each server ID. If you specify the destination information of
the same sever ID as its own server ID, the destination information is not registered and the error
message that you specified the same destination information as its own server ID is output.
If you specify a server ID that has already been registered through the hcmds64trust command, the
connection destination information is not registered and an error occurs
Following are some usage examples:
Example: Registering destination information
>hcmds64trust -set -user sample_user -pass sample_pass -host hostname -port
22015
KAPM16059-I The access point information was registered successfully. (host
name = hostname, port = 22015, trusted server ID = example.com)
Example: Deleting destination information
>hcmds64trust –delete -name example.com
KAPM16060-I The trusted server information was deleted successfully. (trusted server ID = example.com)
Example: Showing destination information
>hcmds64trust -print
KAPM16058-I The registered trusted server information will be output to the screen.
Trusted Server ID HostName:PortNumber
-----------------------------------------------------------example.com hostname:22016(SSL)
trustedAccessPointName hogehoge:22015
Example: Specifying an invalid option
>hcmds64trust -user example_user -pass example_pass -host hostname -port
22015
KAPM16055-E An option is invalid.
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usage: hcmds64trust {-set -user userName -pass password -host hostName {port portNumber | -sslport portNumber [-sslprotocol SSLProtocol] [-ciphers
{CipherType | CipherSuite[,CipherSuite[...]]}] } | -delete -name
trustedServerID | -print}
Example: Processing failure
>hcmds64trust -set -user local_user -pass local_pass -host 127.0.0.1 -sslport 22016
KAPM16075-E Failed to connect to the specified server. (host name = 127.0.0.1, sslport = 22016)
KAPM16054-E The hcmds64trust command failed.
Example: Secondary server restriction
>hcmds64trust -set -user username -pass password -host hostname -port 22015
KAPM16090-E The command cannot be executed on the secondary server.
Example: Failure of SSL/TLS communication settings
>hcmds64trust -set -user username -pass password -host hostname -sslport
22016 –ciphers
TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CBC_SHA256,INVALID_CIPHER_SUITE1,TLS_RSA_WITH_AES_256_CB
C_SHA,INVALID_CIPHER_SUITE2 –sslprotocol
INVALID_PROTOCOL1,TLSv1.2,INVALID_PROTOCOL2
KAPM16092-E The specified cipher type is invalid, or the specified cipher
suites are invalid. (invalid ciphers =
INVALID_CIPHER_SUITE1,INVALID_CIPHER_SUITE2)
KAPM16093-E The specified SSL protocols are invalid. (invalid SSL protocols
= INVALID_PROTOCOL1, INVALID_PROTOCOL2)
KAPM16094-E An attempt to configure SSL communication failed.
KAPM16054-E The hcmds64trust command failed.
Example: SSL protocol defined by the encryption type and the specified SSL protocol are different
and conflict.
>hcmds64trust -set -user username -pass password -host hostname -sslport
22016 –ciphers RSA –sslprotocol TLSv1.1
KAPM16095-W The SSL protocols defined by the cipher type will be used.
(cipher type = RSA, SSL protocols = TLSv1.2)
KAPM16059-I The access point information was registered successfully. (host
name = hostname, sslport = 22016, trusted server ID = example.com)
Automation Director CLI commands
NOTE: When the Automation Director server is using the Linux OS, read "/" to "-" is used for each
argument.
When running Automation Director in a Windows-based OS, navigate to <system-drive>\Program
Files\CVXPAE\Automation\bin, (when running Linux OS, navigate to /opt/CVXPAE/
Automation/bin) then open the command prompt to run the following Automation Director CLI
commands.
backupsystem
The backupsystem command backs up the system configuration and database information in the
specified directory.
The syntax is:
backupsystem {/dir directoryname [/auto] | /help}
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where:
• /dir is an absolute or relative directory path that contains backup data.
• /auto directs the Automation Director and XP7 Command View Advanced Edition services and
database to start and stop automatically.
The Admin role is not required to run this command.
deleteremoteconnection
The deleteremoteconnection deletes the agentless connection-destination definitions registered
through Automation Director based on the definition ID derived with the listremoteconnections
command.
The syntax is:
deleteremoteconnection {/id definition-ID /user username {/password password | /passwordfile passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /id is the single-byte numerical ID (between 1 - 64 characters in length) of the agentless connectiondestination definition information to delete; if the specified ID does not exist, an error is generated.
• /user is a user ID.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in the /user option. Either this option or /
passwordfile must be specified. If both options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is
generated. The password can be from 1 to 256 single-byte alphanumeric characters in length
including (! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ |).
• /passwordfile is a password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the encrypted user
credentials for the selected user. Either this option or the /password option must be specified. If both
options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is generated.
deleteservicetemplate
The deleteservicetemplate command deletes a service template.
The syntax is:
deleteservicetemplate {/name service-template-key-name /vendor vendor-ID /
version XX.YY.ZZ /user username {/password password | /passwordfile
passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /name is the key name of a service template.
• /vendor is the vendor ID of a service template.
• /version is a version of a service template.
• /user is a user ID.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in the /user option.
• /passwordfile is a password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the encrypted user
credentials.
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encryptpassword
The encryptpassword command creates a file that includes an encrypted user name and password.
You can specify the password file instead of the password for any Automation Director command that
allows the /passwordfile option.
The syntax is:
encryptpassword {/user username /password password /passwordfile passwordfile | /help }
where:
• /user is the ID of the user who is added to the password file.
• /password is the password of the user who is added to the password file.
• /passwordfile is the name of the password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the
encrypted user credentials.
importservicetemplate
The importservicetemplate command imports a service template.
The syntax is:
importservicetemplate {/file service-template /user username {/password password | /passwordfile passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /file is the service template file to import.
• /user is a user ID.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in the /user option.
• /passwordfile is a password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the encrypted user
credentials.
listremoteconnections
The listremoteconnections command outputs a listing of the agentless connection-destination
definitions registered in Automation Director to a CSV formatted file.
The syntax is:
listremoteconnections {/file output-file /user username {/password password | /passwordfile passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /file is the path of the file to which the list is output; if the specified file already exists, an error is
generated.
• /user is the name of the user executing the command. The user name can consist of any single-byte
alphanumeric characters including ( ! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ |) from 1 - 256 characters in length.
The user name is case sensitive.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in the /user option. Either this option or /
passwordfile must be specified. If both options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is
generated. The password can be from 1 to 256 single-byte alphanumeric characters in length
including (! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ |).
• /passwordfile is a password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the encrypted user
credentials for the selected user. Either this option or the /password option must be specified. If both
options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is generated.
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listservices
The listservices command exports a list of services or a list of service templates to a CSV file.
The syntax is:
listservices {/output {services | servicetemplates} /file output-file [/
encoding encoding] /user username {/password password | /passwordfile
passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /output is either services (export services) or servicetemplates (export service templates).
• /file is the output file path.
• /encoding is the encoding of the output file, either UTF-8 or Shift_JIS.
• /user is a user ID.
The Submit role is required to output services list. The Modify role is required to output service
templates list.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in /user.
• /passwordfile is the absolute or relative path of the password file.
listtasks
The listtasks command exports a list of services or a list of tasks to a CSV file.
The syntax is:
listtasks {[/startrange {yyyy-mm-dd | ,yyyy-mm-dd | yyyy-mm-dd, yyyy-mmdd}] /output {tasks | histories | taskdetails} {/file outputfile | /
taskdetaildir directoryname} [/encoding encoding] /user username {/password
password | /passwordfile passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /startrange is the date range of the task start date. Use this to limit the contents of the list to tasks run
within a specific period of time.
• /output is either of the following output data types: tasks (export tasks), histories (export histories),
taskdetails (export task with properties)
• /file is an output file with an absolute or relative path.
• /taskdetaildir is an output file with an absolute or relative path. /taskdetaildir is required instead of /file
when /output taskdetails is specified.
• /encoding is the encoding of the output file, either UTF-8 or Shift_JIS
• /user is a user ID. The Admin role is required to output taskdetails.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in /user.
• /passwordfile is the absolute or relative path of the password file.
restoresystem
The restoresystem command restores the system configuration and database information from the
specified directory where the data was backed up.
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The syntax is:
restoresystem {/dir directoryname [/auto] | /help}
where:
• /dir is an absolute or relative directory path that contains data that is backed up by the backupsystem
command
• /auto directs the Automation Director and XP7 Command View Advanced Edition services and
database to start and stop automatically.
NOTE: Before restoring Automation Director, confirm that the following conditions are the same for the
backup source Automation Director server host and the restore destination Automation Director server
host:
• Types, versions, and revisions for the installed XP7 Command View Advanced Edition products.
• Installation location for each XP7 Command View Advanced Edition product, Common Component,
XP7 Command View Advanced Edition product database, and Common Component database.
• The IP address and host name of the machines.
• System locale and character code.
If the above conditions are not the same, Automation Director cannot be restored.
setremoteconnection
The setremoteconnection command adds or updates agentless connection-destination definitions in
Automation Director through a CSV file.
The syntax is:
setremoteconnection {/file input-file /user username {/password password | /passwordfile passwordfile} | /help}
where:
• /file is the path of the file that contains the agentless connection-destination definitions to be added or
updated; if the specified file does not exist, an error is generated. Absolute paths and relative paths
are both acceptable.
• /user is the name of the user executing the command. The user name can consist of any single-byte
alphanumeric characters including ( ! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ |) from 1 - 256 characters in length.
The user name is case sensitive.
• /password is the password of the user that is specified in the /user option. Either this option or /
passwordfile must be specified. If both options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is
generated. The password can be from 1 to 256 single-byte alphanumeric characters in length
including (! # $ % & ' ( ) * + - . = @ \ ^ _ |).
• /passwordfile is a password file (with absolute or relative path) that includes the encrypted user
credentials for the selected user. Either this option or the /password option must be specified. If both
options are specified, or if neither option is specified, an error is generated.
setupcluster
The setupcluster command sets up an Automation Director cluster environment.
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