Help us improve your experience.

Let us know what you think.

Do you have time for a two-minute survey?

 
ON THIS PAGE
 

Manage Action Engine Workflows

Note:

Action Engine Workflow is a Beta feature.

You can configure action engine workflows, and manage existing action engine workflows from the Paragon Automation GUI. You can add or edit action engine workflow commands, conditions, inputs, and outputs while creating an action engine workflow. You can also create action engine workflows by using the CLI. See Action Engine Workflow Overview.

Add an Action Engine Workflow

Follow these steps to add an action engine workflow:
  1. Click Configuration > Action Engine .
    The Workflows page appears.
  2. Click the plus (+) icon to add an action engine workflow.
    The Add New Workflow page appears. The General tabbed page appears by default.
  3. Enter the following information in the General tabbed page:
    1. Enter a name for the action engine workflow in the Name text box.
    2. Enter a description for the action engine workflow in the Description text box.
    3. Select an entry task from the Entry Task drop-down list.

      You must add a task before you can select the task from the Entry Task drop-down list. To add a task, see Step 4.

      An entry task is the first task that is executed when you run an action engine workflow.

    4. Select an exit task from the Exit Task drop-down list.

      You must add a task before you can select the task from the Exit Task drop-down list. To add a task, see Step 4.

      An exit task is the last task (for example, a clean up task) that is executed at the end of an action engine workflow sequence.

  4. Click Tasks to view the Task tabbed page.
  5. Click (+) to add a task.

    Enter the following information:

    1. Enter a name for the task in the Name text box.
    2. Enable or disable the Parallel toggle button.
      Enable the Parallel toggle button to run all steps in a task simultaneously.
    3. Click the (+) icon to add a new step.
      A row is added to the Steps section.
    In the row that is added:
    1. Enter a name for the step in the Name text box.
    2. Enter a description for the step in the Description text box.
    3. Select dependencies from the Dependencies drop-down list.
    4. Select an action type from the Action Type drop-down list.
    Follow these steps to add a command:
    1. Click Edit Commands to add a new command.
      The ADD/EDIT COMMANDS pop-up appears.
    2. Click +Add New Command to add a new command.

      The New Command section appears in the ADD/EDIT COMMANDS pop-up.

    3. Enter a value for the command tag in the Command Tag text box.

    4. Enter a value in the Commands list box. You can select more than one command.

      Click X to remove the command that you selected.

    5. Enter a value in the Arguments list box. You can select more than one argument.

      Click X to remove the argument that you selected.

    6. Enter a value in the Device list box. You can select more than one device.

      Click X to remove the device that you selected.

    7. Enter a value in the Device Group list box. You can select more than one device group.

      Click X to remove the device group that you selected.

    8. Enter a value in the Environment list box.
    9. Select an output from the Output Type list box.
    10. Enable or disable the Ignore toggle button.

      You can enable the Ignore button to ignore steps.

    11. Set repeat parameters in the Repeat field.
      You can determine if you want to repeat a failed step or not.
    12. The default delay value displayed is 10 seconds.
      After you have set repeat parameters to repeat a step that has failed, there is a delay of 10 seconds before the step is repeated again.
    13. Click OK to confirm.
      The new command is added.
    Follow these steps to add a condition:
    1. Click Edit Conditions to add new conditions.
      The ADD/EDIT CONDITIONS pop-up appears.
    2. Enter the conditions in the Conditions text box.
    3. Select a condition type from the Conditions Type list box.
    4. Enter a description for the condition in the Condition Description text box.
    5. Click OK to confirm.
      The new condition is added.
    Follow these steps to add inputs:
    1. Click Edit Inputs to add new inputs.
      The ADD/EDIT INPUTS pop-up appears.
    2. Click the (+) icon to add new input.
    3. Enter a name for the input in the Name field.
    4. Enter a value for the input in the Value field.
    5. Click OK to confirm.
      The operation is successful message is displayed in the ADD/EDIT INPUTS pop-up.
    6. Click Close to close the ADD/EDIT INPUTS pop-up.
    Follow these steps to add outputs:
    1. Click Edit Output to add new outputs.
      The ADD/EDIT OUTPUT pop-up appears.
    2. Click the (+) icon to add new input.
    3. Select a name for the output from the Name list.
    4. Enter a description for the output in the Description text box.
    5. Enter a value for the command tag in the Command Tag field.
    6. Select output type from the Output Type list box. See Table 1.
    7. The field displayed depends on the output type that you have selected. See Table 1.
      Table 1: Output Type and Corresponding Fields
      Output Type Field
      Grok Pattern
      XML XPath
      JSON JQ Path
      Artifact Path
      Regex Pattern
      Result  
    8. Click OK> to confirm.

      The operation is successful message is displayed in the ADD/EDIT OUTPUT pop-up.

    9. Click Close to close the ADD/EDIT OUTPUT pop-up.
    10. Click the √ icon to add this row to the Steps section.
  6. Click Arguments tab.
  7. On the Arguments tabbed page, click the plus (+) icon to add a new argument.
    1. Enter a name for the argument in the Name text box.
    2. Click Ok to confirm.
  8. Do any one of the following:
    1. Click Save to save the action engine workflow.
    2. Click Save & Deploy to save and deploy the action engine workflow.
      You have now added and deployed an action engine workflow. To monitor the action engine workflows that you have added, see Monitoring > Action Engine.

Run an Action Engine Workflow

After you add an action engine workflow, you can run the action engine workflow by following these steps:
  1. Click Monitoring > Action Engine.
    The Workflows Monitor page appears.
  2. Select the action engine workflow you want to run by selecting the check box next to the name of the action engine workflow.
  3. Click Run Workflow.
    The Run Workflow <workflow name> pop-up appears.
  4. In the Run Workflow <workflow name> pop-up that appears, you can:
    1. View the list of preconfigured arguments for the action engine workflow.
    2. Configure additional arguments.

      To configure additional arguments, click (+).

      The Additional Arguments fields that you can configure are displayed.

      1. Enter a name in the Name text box to identify this additional argument.

        The name you enter must be in the [a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*$ regular expression format. This format states that the first character of the name can start with a-z or A-Z. The name cannot start with a number or a special character. However, you can use numbers, _, and - within the name.

        The maximum length is 64 characters.

      2. Select an additional argument type from the Type drop-down list.

        Available options: string, list, password, device, device-group, network-group

      3. Select a value from the options available.

        The options you can choose from depend on the additional argument Type that you have selected.

        You can add one or more than one arguments.

  5. Click OK to confirm settings and to run the action engine workflow.

Stop an Instance

You can stop an instance that is currently running.
To stop an instance:
Note:

You cannot resume (restart) an instance that you have stopped.

  1. Click Monitoring > Action Engine.
    The Workflows Monitor page appears.
  2. Click an action engine workflow to view the instances listed under it.
  3. Select the instance that is currently running by selecting the check box next to the name of the instance.
  4. Click Stop to stop the instance.

Resume a Suspended Instance

To resume a suspended instance:
  1. Click Monitoring > Action Engine.
    The Workflows Monitor page appears.
  2. Click an action engine workflow to view the instances listed under it.
  3. Select a suspended instance, by selecting the check box next to the name of the instance.
  4. Click Resume to restart the instance.

Filter Instances

To filter instances within an action engine workflow:
  1. Click Monitoring > Action Engine.
    The Workflows Monitor page appears.
  2. Click Filter, and then click Add Filter from the Filter drop-down list.
    The Add Criteria pop-up appears.
  3. Enter the following information in the Add Criteria pop-up.
    1. Select the field that you want to apply the filter to, from the Field drop-down list.
    2. Select the conditions that you want to apply to the field, from the Condition drop-down list.
    3. Enter the start and finish time that you want to apply to the filter, in the Value text box.
  4. Click Add to apply the filter.

Delete an Action Engine Workflow

To delete an action engine workflow:
  1. Click Configuration > Action Engine.
    The Workflows page appears.
  2. Select the action engine workflow you want to delete by selecting the check box next to the name of the instance.
  3. Click the Delete icon.
    The Delete Workflow pop-up appears.
  4. In the Delete Workflow pop-up that appears, click Ok to delete the action engine workflow.