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Introducing the Automation Service
- 03 Nov 2024
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Introducing the Automation Service
- Updated on 03 Nov 2024
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The Itential Automation Service is the cloud companion to IAG5 which allows you to launch automation scripts against production infrastructure. Itential Automation Service aggregates automation services from all your company’s IAG5 deployments under a single SaaS managed platform so you can share these services across your company with security, ease, and peace of mind.
About This Guide
This guide provides the information you need to set up and securely run automation gateway services. This guide covers:
- How to set up a trial account.
- How to verify and discover automations.
- How to add and connect IAG5 services.
- How to add gateways and view gateway workspaces.
- How to run/schedule and view automations, including status.
- Troubleshooting actions that you can perform.
- Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about Itential Automation Service.
Who Should Read This Guide
This guide is intended for anyone who needs information and guidance on setting up and using Automation Service.
| User | Description |
|---|---|
| Administrator | Responsible for making sure Itential Automation Service is configured and operating correctly for all parts of the organization, including the authentication and authorization rules for logging in. Coordinates with IAG5 Owners to keep the entire platform communicating. |
| Operator | Tasked with running automations based on the instructions received from the Manager or Team Leader. |
| Team Leader / People Manager | Responsible for a team of operators. Assigns work to operators and monitors performance using the platform. Provides assistance when operators raise concerns or run into issues. |
| IAG5 Owner | Responsible for installing and maintaining an IAG5 deployment cluster. Also responsible for creating and maintaining the automation services that help manage their inventory. |
What You Need to Know
Teams which manage IAG5 deployments own the responsibility for defining the automation scripts that update infrastructure and services to achieve company goals. Itential Automation Service extends IAG5 to allow the larger organization to take advantage of those automations without requiring them to understand the specifics of how tools like Python, Ansible, and OpenTofu operate.
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When a team’s IAG5 instance is connected to an organization’s Itential Automation Service account, all of the services in the IAG5 instances are loaded into the cloud service and made available as automations which can be run and scheduled.
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If you are an administrator responsible for helping teams connect their IAG5 instances to your organization’s Itential Cloud account, you can add IAG5 services. See Add IAG5 Services to Itential Automation Service to learn more.
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If you have a cloud user (operator) account in your organization's Itential Cloud account you can access the Gateway Management GUI to see which automations are available to you for running and scheduling. See How to Run and Schedule Automations to learn more.
Terminology
Below is a list of terms and expressions used in reference to the Itential Automation Service Service and IAG5.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Automation | Automations represent services discovered and deployed by IAG5 that can be ran from the Automation Service. Users of Itential Automation Service can run and schedule automations so that they are executed by the correct IAG5. |
| Certificate | Digital certificates are how IAG5 authenticates itself to Itential Automation Service. |
| Cluster | IAG5 can be configured for high availability by setting up two (2) or more controller nodes. This configuration is referred to as a cluster. |
| Itential Automation Gateway 5 (IAG5) | IAG5 is the evolution of Itential’s IAG4 and IAG 2023.x suite of products. Automation engineers develop high-code services using their preferred tooling (i.e., Ansible, Python, and OpenTofu) and use IAG5 as a service to manage their execution and make them easy to consume by others. |
| Itential Automation Service | An Itential SaaS solution that allows you to share your Itential Automation Gateway 5 (IAG5) services with the rest of your organization, with all the necessary access controls in place. |
| Schedule | Users have the option to either run automations immediately, or schedule them to run in the future. |
| Trial | A trial of Itential Automation Service is a no-cost, time-limited, instance where you can try the product out. Trials are exactly the same as the paid version with the exception that they are only active for a limited time. |
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