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Automation Builder Generations
- 05 Dec 2024
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Automation Builder Generations
- Updated on 05 Dec 2024
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Workflow Design
Within Itential Automation Platform (IAP) is Automation Builder for defining and building the automations that may be used by applications in the system. Automation Builder provides a graphical user interface for arranging and connecting tasks and transitions on a canvas to create a flow-based workflow.
Helpful terminology applicable to Automation Builder and workflow design in IAP is referenced in the table below. It is a living document subject to changes and updates.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Job | A job is an instance of an automation. It takes a snapshot of the associated automation to create its existence. |
| Metrics | Metrics are measurements of job execution statistics for automations and tasks. |
| Queue | Tasks live in queues where operators with the appropriate permissions can locate available, claimed, scheduled, and completed tasks. |
| Scheduler | The job scheduler is the process within IAP that scans for automated tasks to be invoked. |
| Task | A task is a functional block within an automation and can be either automated or manual. Automated tasks are shown as green boxes and return one value. With automated tasks, you configure a window of time and when the task starts, it checks the time against that window of time and if the time is within that window, the task will run. Manual tasks are shown as blue boxes, can return multiple values, and are assigned to groups to restrict who is authorized to work them. |
| Transitions | A transition connects one task to another. Transitions can be defined by error (red), success (green), or failure (red) routes and can follow a standard (solid line) route or a revert (dashed line) route. Reverts should be used when transitioning backwards in the automation. |
| Variable | A value that can change, depending on the information (data) that is passed between applications running on a network. |
| Workflow | A a workflow is a collection of tasks in a logical order beginning and ending with terminator tasks (start/end). |
Automation Builder Generations
Automation Builder Generation 2 ("Gen 2") was released in IAP 2020.2 and offers a clean, modern user experience to automation designers. While Itential strongly recommends working with Automation Builder Gen 2, the Generation 1 builder ("Gen 1") is also available and fully featured for users to build automations with.
Gen 1
The first generation canvas and UI for Automation Builder is shown in Figure 1 .
Figure 1: Gen 1 Automation Builder
Task Types
An automation (job) in Gen 1 will consist of:
- An automated task denoted by green.
- A manual task denoted by blue.
- The start/end terminators denoted by pink.
- An operation task denoted by purple.
Figure 2: Gen 1 Tasks
The arrows in Figure 2 represent transitions and show the direction of the workflow. Automation Builder also provides optional role-based access control (RBAC) by restricting task ownership to authorized groups. Users are assigned to groups, and automation tasks can be restricted to specific groups. Only group members are authorized to work tasks. Groups will play a part in task assignment and work queues.
Figure 3 below shows an end-to-end automation (workflow) in gen 1 designed to perform automated and manual tasks using success and failure transitions with revert capabilities. Transitions are identified by two properties:
- The exit status of the leading task.
- The direction of the transition (standard or revert).
Different transitions allow automations to correct anomalies, repeat parts of an automation, skip tasks, manually intervene, or follow the planned execution path.
Figure 3: Gen 1 Workflow
Gen 2
The second generation canvas and UI for Automation Builder is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Gen 2 Automation Builder
In the workflow presented below (Figure 5), an example automation was built in the next generation builder (Gen 2) to demonstrate high-level differences in layout and structure. Note that while the above example from the Generation 1 Builder uses reverts and evaluations to branch and handle runtime errors, the Generation 2 example uses the decision task to decide a single path when multiple options are available, and uses dedicated handlers to process errors.
Figure 5: Gen 2 Workflow
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