Managing the Lifecycle of a Service (IOS) - Workflows

With Lifecycle Manager, we are able to define actions such as Create, Update, and Delete, as well as other actions for things we will want to do with our service.  We tie these actions to workflows, so before we go into the Lifecycle Manager section of IAP, we will build a workflow to create our service.

Workflow Video

Step 1 

From Automation Studio, select Create a Workflow from the Quick Start menu.

Step 2 

Name the workflow Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create – XX and click Create.

Step 3 

A fresh workflow canvas opens.   For our use-case, we would like to build our workflow horizontally, so we will click and drag the Start and End Termination tasks so they are aligned horizontally on our canvas.

Step 4 

We are ready to begin adding tasks from our Task Palette.  We are going to leverage prebuilt workflows and a transformation that have been loaded into our lab environment.  The first task we need is a Child Job task.  Search for the Child Job task and then click and drag the task onto the canvas.

Step 5 

Add the following tasks to the canvas to the right of the Child Job task:  Transformation and a second Child Job task.

Step 6 

Next, we need to connect the tasks with transitions to form the workflow.  This is done by first clicking the Start task, which will highlight the task with a dashed border.  Click within the dashed border and begin dragging the transition towards the first Child Job task.  When the transition snaps to the Child Job task, release the mouse button.

Step 7 

Repeat this process to connect the Child Job task to the Transformation task, the Transformation task to the second Child Job task, and the second Child Job task to the End task.

 Note:  The default transition is a Success transition.  If you would like to add an Error or Failure transition, press and hold the E or F key on your keyboard as you are adding the transition.  If you would like to change an existing transition, right click on the transition and a popup will open.  From the popup, you can choose to change the transition type or to delete the transition.

Step 8 

We are ready to begin configuring the tasks.  Double click the first Child Job task to open the configuration window.

Step 9 

Update the summary to VLAN and IP Reservation.

Step 10 

From the workflow dropdown, select the Lab – LCM Port VLAN NetBox Reservation workflow.   

Step 11 

For the _id variable, select Job for the Variable Source and _id for the Job Variable.

Step 12  

Close the configuration window.

Workflow Video (Part 2)

Step 13 

Double click the Transformation task to open the configuration window.

Step 14 

From the Transformation dropdown, select the Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create transformation.   The summary will automatically update.

Step 15 

For the job_details variable, select Task for the Variable Source.  Select VLAN and IP Reservation for the Previous Task and job_details for the Task Variable.

Step 16 

We also need to configure the output variables for the Transformation task.  Select the Output tab.

Step 17 

Select the Store Output as Job Variable check box and Save the Job Variable for the following output variables:  reservedVLAN, reservedIP, vlanID, ipID, and subnetMask.

Step 18 

Close the configuration window.

Step 19
Double click the second Child Job task to open the configuration window.

Step 20 

Update the summary to Port Turn Up.

Step 21 

From the workflow dropdown, select the Port Turn Up – IOS workflow.

Step 22 

For the autoApprove variable, select Job for the Variable Source and enter autoApprove for the Job Variable.

Step 23

For the device variable, select Job for the Variable Source and enter device for the Job Variable.

Step 24 

For the type variable, select Job for the Variable Source and enter type for the Job Variable.

Step 25 

For the interface variable, select Job for the Variable Source and enter interface for the Job Variable.

Step 26 

For the subInterface variable, select Task for the Variable Source.  Select Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create for the Previous Task and reservedVLAN for the Task Variable.

Step 27 

For the description variable, select Job for the Variable Source and enter description for the Job Variable.

Step 28 

For the ipAddress variable, select Task for the Variable Source.  Select Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create for the Previous Task and reservedIp for the Task Variable.

Step 29 

For the vlan variable, select Task for the Variable Source.  Select Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create for the Previous Task and reservedVLAN for the Task Variable.

Step 30 

For the subnetMask variable, select Task for the Variable Source.  Select Lab – LCM Port VLAN Create for the Previous Task and subnetMask for the Task Variable.

Step 31 

Close the configuration window.

 Step 32 
Our workflow is complete.   Click Save.  A green check mark appears in the upper right corner signaling that the workflow has passed validation and that all resources needed to run the workflow are present.