Use Lifecycle Manager actions

Although they most commonly trigger workflow execution, automations can be used in conjunction with many other platform assets, including Lifecycle Manager (LCM) actions.

This page explains why LCM actions benefit from automation and how to automate them.

Before you begin

You should be familiar with the following concepts before proceeding:

• Automations
• Triggers
• Lifecycle Manager overview
• Lifecycle Manager resources

Why automate LCM actions

Lifecycle Manager actions are used to create new instances, update instance properties, and delete existing instances. You might automate these actions based on a schedule or in response to an API request.

Example use case

Organization A manages its network intrusion detection system (NIDS) via LCM. It has created the following resource model and an accompanying instance to represent the NIDS:

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{
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    "$id": "docs-nids",
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    "description": "Schema defining the possible values within instances of resource model 'docs-nids'",
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    "type": "object",
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    "required": ["hostname","ipv4"],
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    "additionalProperties": true,
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    "properties": {
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        "hostname": {
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            "type": "string"
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        },
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        "ipv4": {
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            "type": "string",
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            "format": "ipv4"
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        },
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        "definitionsLastUpdated": {
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            "type": "string",
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            "format": "date-time"
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        }
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    }
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}

Updates to the NIDS library of attack definitions are published daily by the software developer. Organization A has developed an update action that checks the developer’s website for these definitions and, if present, downloads them to the NIDS, updating the definitionsLastUpdated property in turn. Due to the repetitive nature of this action, Organization A has assigned it to an automation, which executes it via a schedule trigger.

Create a lifecycle automation

Add triggers to a lifecycle automation

Lifecycle triggers generally follow the same conventions as workflow triggers, with a few notable exceptions.

Action and target selection

Each trigger type runs the actions of the selected resource against that same resource’s instances or instance groups. Select the action to execute using the Action dropdown menu on the Create Trigger panel.

The available actions correspond to the create, update, or delete actions defined for the Resource Model in Lifecycle Manager. The behavior and targeting options vary depending on the action type you select. For more information, see Types of actions.

Create actions

When you select a create action:

• Platform 6 automatically generates the instance name when the action executes.
• You cannot specify an instance description during the create process.
• You cannot assign the instance to an instance group during creation, but you can add it to a group afterward through Lifecycle Manager.
• Target selection is not applicable since you’re creating a new instance rather than acting on an existing one.

Update actions

When you select an update action:

• You can specify either a target instance or instance group to update.
• Use the target selection options described below to determine which instances receive the updates.
• All properties defined in the Resource Model schema can be modified through the update action.

Delete actions

When you select a delete action:

• You can specify either a target instance or instance group to delete.
• Use the target selection options described below to determine which instances are removed.
• Deleted instances are permanently removed from Lifecycle Manager.

Target selection options

After selecting your action, designate a target instance or instance group for update and delete actions. The different trigger types have varying levels of flexibility in how they handle targeting:

• Schedule and event triggers must have their target pre-determined as part of their configuration. This target will not change unless the trigger is later edited.
• Manual and API triggers can select their target at runtime. To do this, toggle the Choose target at runtime switch on the Create Trigger panel. When enabled, manual triggers prompt you to supply target information via the Run Automation panel, and API triggers must query the desired target directly via the targetType and targetIdentifier parameters.

Input forms (manual and schedule triggers)

By default, lifecycle automations derive user input forms from the model of their associated resource. If you do not want to use an LCM-derived input form, pre-constructed forms can be selected as normal.

Trigger cards

Lifecycle trigger cards contain the following additional properties: