Automation Rules

Setup Automation Rules to help automate Service Desk tasks based on incoming Tickets

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Introduction

This document is intended to walk you through the steps of how to setup Automation Rules in Naverisk to help automate Service Desk tasks based on incoming Tickets.

1.0 How to Setup an Automation Rule

To create and edit Automation Rules, go to Settings > Automation Rules.

1.1 General

The first area of the Automation Rule setup is where you can give you Rule a Name and Description. This area also lets send an email or create a Ticket to let you know when the Job processes a Ticket.

Please note the Enabled button, ensure you check this when you are finished creating the Rule otherwise it will not run.

1.1.1 Ticket Match Criteria 

Whenever a Ticket is created, updated or saved, it will be processed by the Automation Rules Engine to see if it matches and can be processed by any of the Automation Rules.

In this area, you will see usual Ticket fields such as SLA Class, Ticket Category etc. This will be used by the Automation Rule to determine if this Ticket should be processed by the Rule.

For example, (in the below picture), a Ticket from Client Artificial Construction with SLA Class set to Failure and associated to Device Name NAVCS2 should be processed by this Rule. However, the other criteria set to “ANY” will not be considered by the Automation Rule.

1.2 Actions

From the Actions tab, you can choose what the Automation Rule can do when it finds a matching ticket from the criteria.

1.2.1 Target Device

Most of the actions are Device-specific, so you either have to:

  • Perform the action against the specific Device that raised the Ticket (using the Apply to Ticket Devices).

  • Specify a list of Devices to perform the actions against whenever a matching ticket is found (using the Device Filter Option).

In most common scenarios, you will be using the Apply to Ticket Devices option.

Please Note:

  • If neither of the options are checked, the action won't be performed on any Devices.

  • If both the options are checked, action will be performed on all the Devices in Device filter AND the Device associated with the Ticket.

  • For Device Filter, if you select this option but do not specify any Devices in the filter, default the action would be executed against all the Devices against the client (or all Devices shown in the filter view).

1.2.2 Execute Script Pack

This option will enable the system to run a script pack whenever a ticket match is successful.

1.2.3 Maintenance Mode

Much like a Scheduled Job, Automation Rules can put a device into Maintenance Mode, so should a certain ticket be created in the system, Naverisk can automatically place the device into a suspended state where it will no longer generate tickets based on the options used:

1.2.4 Restart Devices

This option is best used with the Target Device: Use the Device Filter options set instead of the Apply to Ticket Devices, If used in conjunction with email integration this will enable Automation Rules to restart a device via an email request.

1.2.5 Service

Automation Rules can also Start/Restart/Stop windows services. This can be used in conjunction with Device Roles to detect when services are running and generate a ticket for Automation Rules to match on, which stops the service. Or alternatively, to have Automation Rules attempt to start back up a failed service.

1.2.6 Run Report

When used with Email Integration, this can provide your end users the ability to email through a request for a report, and have Naverisk automatically generate the report and email it to a preassigned email address.

1.2.7 Modify Ticket

This option provides several ways to change the matching ticket, such as assigning an Email Integration Ticket to a specific Device or automatically assigning tickets to an After Hours technician.

1.2.8 Send Message

This will generate a pop up box on the selected Device containing the assigned message.

1.2.9 Package Scan

This will enable the system to perform a Software, Hardware or Operating System scan using an Automation Rule. Get up to the minute information from your Devices when you want it, automatically.

1.2.10 Completion Chain

Naverisk now comes with the option of specifying another Automation Rule to immediately follow after the current Rule completes. Imagine a scenario of automatically assigning the ticket to an After Hours Technician.

Then immediately followed up by another Automation Rule to send out an email notification. Then another rule to place the device into Maintenance Mode, until the Technician has dealt with it.

1.3 Billing

Here you can configure the automated task to deduct hours and/or charge an amount for the service undertaken by the Automation Rule.

1.4 Schedule

In this section you can specify what time periods or days the Automation Rule should process the Tickets.

Please Note: You can specify a Start time and End time for when the rule should be processed. This time is specific to the Time Zone of the client of the logged in user.

1.5 Audit

The Audit tab will show what changes have been made to the Automation Rule since it was first created, information about who created this rule and important dates like when it was last modified. There are no configurable options on this tab.

1.6 Log

The Log tab will show a list of all Tickets have been processed and actioned by the Automation Rules. There are no configurable options on this tab.

2.0 Additional Information

Automation Rules do not follow the same setup as a Scheduled Job. Where scheduled Jobs need to be setup on each client individually, Automation Rules are created at a Global Level. This means that when a user logs into Naverisk, they are able to create Automation Rules to process Tickets matching their clients and all sub clients.

3.0 Case Study - Disk Space Issues

Example: Attempt to Resolve Disk Space Issues on Devices

Naverisk will automatically try and clean a device that raises a Disk Space alert, as sometimes disk space can be freed up by simply clearing the temp folder, or the browser cache etc. This can be done by using the Ticket Trigger Text that the Disk Space Ticket uses.

A Ticket example:

By using the Trigger "has raised DiskSpace", and setting the SLA status to Warning, Naverisk will only attempt this against warning Tickets for DiskSpace, which is usually the first Ticket created.

To set this up:

  1. Select the Client that this Rule will scan Tickets against.

  2. Set the SLA status Warning, so Naverisk will only process this Rule against Warning Tickets.

  3. Enter the generic trigger string, which should pick up all Disk Space Tickets.

  4. Set the Tickets status to Unassigned, so this will only run on Tickets that have not been assigned to anyone.

  5. Click the checkbox for Enabled, to ensure this will be run once the Rule is saved.

The General tab of the Automation Rule will look like the below image:

In the Actions tab:

  1. Select Apply to Tickets Devices, because the action should only be run against the Device that raises the Ticket

  2. Select Execute Script Pack

  3. Choose a Script Pack that has been created to clear disk space (in this example a Remove Temp Files Script has been selected).

This Job needs  to be run for every Disk Space Warning Ticket, so it is not required to set a Schedule. The Rule can be saved.
The Log tab will show when the Automation Rule successfully runs.

From the above picture, the Automation Rule successful detected a disk space issues and ran the Script Pack against it.

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