Automations allow you to execute a set of custom tasks, each of these automations can be configured to repeat or run on a schedule, or even just to run manually. The Automation tasks that are available will vary based on the LogonBox product that is in use but can include sending emails, block and unblocking IP addresses, stopping and restarting the server, configuration changes, user management, scripts and much more.
Creating an Automation
Each automation task has a set of options that allow you to customise its behaviour. As an example we will create a Generate Audit CSV Automation that will create a CSV file of all Audit Events from the previous day.
When the Automation dialog first displays it only shows two fields. When you select a Task the dialog will display further task properties as well as the schedule options. After selecting Generate Audit CSV in the Task list we can now set the specific details of the Automation.
1. First we set the Filter and When options.
2. The CSV tab allows us to specify the details of the CSV file if any changes should be required.
3. And in the Schedule and Repeat tabs we set when and how often this email will be sent, in this case the file is generated at 5:00am each day until the Automation is cancelled.
4. Once configured the Automation will run automatically on the configured schedule until it is changed or removed.
Chaining Automations
It is possible to configure an existing Automation to run additional actions once it has completed, whether in success or failure. Select one of the Automations and below the list you will see a box representing the selected item, this is the beginning of the automation flow. In this example, I'll use the Yesterday's Logs automation that was configured, and creates a CSV file of the previous day's events.
1. Selecting the plus (+) icon in the display will present a new Create Automation page that now includes two new options, Triggers On and Triggers Task.
2. Provide a Name for the new task and then specify the Triggers Task that will happen when the Automation, in this case we'll make an automation that will email the created CSV file to an administrator email address after the file has been created successfully.
3. The content of the message can be configured in the Plain Message tab, setting the Subject and Body options.
4. In the Delivery tab set the details for delivery of the email, in this case we're configuring the To field to send the email to an administrator email address.
5. Finally in the Attachments tab we can specify the files that are going to be attached to the email. By using the variable ${attr:outputFile} in the File Paths option the email will use the file that has been generated in the previous task.
6. After saving the new task the process flow for "Yesterday's Logs" now appears as below, indicating that when Yesterday's Logs is run Email Events will follow.
We can continue to add more automations to this process to create a fully automated process for jobs that we want to perform.
