Microsoft System Center 2016 Orchestrator Cookbook E-Book

Michael Seidl

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 181

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

With Microsoft System Center 2016 Orchestrator Cookbook, you will start by learning how to efficiently install and secure System Center Orchestrator. You will then learn how you can create configuration files for SCO 2016. After initial installation and configuration, you will soon be planning and creating functional and fault-tolerant System Center runbooks to automate daily tasks and routine operations. Next you will delve into runbooks; you will learn how to create powerful and advanced runbooks such as Building your Runbook without a Dead End. You will also learn to create simple and advanced runbooks for your daily tasks. Towards the end of the book, you will learn to use SCO for other interesting tasks and also learn to maintain and perform SCO health checks.
By the end of the book, you will be able to automate your administrative tasks successfully with SCO.

Leseprobe

Microsoft System Center 2016 Orchestrator Cookbook

Second Edition

Simplify the automation of your administrative tasks

Michael Seidl

Andreas Baumgarten

Steve Beaumont

Samuel Erskine

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Microsoft System Center 2016 Orchestrator Cookbook

Second Edition

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

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First published: August 2013

Second edition: July 2017

Production reference: 1240717

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-78646-046-2

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Credits

Authors

Michael Seidl

Andreas Baumgarten

Steve Beaumont

Samuel Erskine

Copy Editors

Juliana Nair

Yesha Gangani

Reviewer

Rafael Delgado

Project Coordinator

Judie Jose

Commissioning Editor

Vijin Boricha

Proofreader

Safis Editing

Acquisition Editor

Meeta Rajani

Indexer

Aishwarya Gangawane

Content Development Editor

Abhishek Jadhav

Graphics

Kirk D'Penha

Technical Editor

Mohd Riyan Khan

Production Coordinator

Aparna Bhagat

About the Authors

Michael Seidl is a senior consultant and team leader in service management and automation, working for Base-IT, a Gold Partner in Systems Management, located in Austria. He is a two-time System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management MVP and a well-certified Microsoft Engineer with MCSA and MCSE.

His experience as an IT consultant has been growing since 2001 and is mainly focused on SCDPM, SCO, SCSM, and PowerShell. Working with some of the biggest companies in Austria gives him the opportunity to work on great projects with complex requirements. Michael is focused on transforming IT departments through service management, systems management, cloud technologies, and automation.

Michael regularly shares his experience on the TechNet Forum. You can follow him on Twitter at @TechguyAt. His Facebook page is TechguyAT.

I would like to thank my girlfriend, Jasmine, in being very sympathetic with me on spending much time on writing this book, although since she is pregnant with our first child and would have needed some more of my time.

Also, thanks to Stephan Burger on trying to be a reviewer.

Andreas Baumgarten is a Microsoft MVP and works as an IT Architect with the German IT service provider H&D International Group. He has been working as an IT professional for more than 20 years. Microsoft technologies have always accompanied him, and he can also look back on more than 14 years' experience as a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

Since 2008, he has been responsible for the field of Microsoft System Center technology consulting and ever since has taken part in Microsoft System Center Service Manager (2010, 2012, 2012 R2 and 2016); additionally, he has participated in the Microsoft System Center Technology Adoption Program with H&D since many years.

With his deep inside-technology know-how and his broad experience across the Microsoft System Center product family and IT management, he now designs and develops private and hybrid cloud solutions for customers all over Germany and Europe.

In July 2017, he was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management for the sixth year in a row.

Steve Beaumont has worked for more years than he cares to admit within IT, starting with desktop support. He is now the Product Development Director of PowerONPlatforms and a Microsoft MVP within the Cloud and Datacenter Management area, where he helps organizations realize the benefits of the hybrid cloud. He is also a co-author of the Microsoft System Center 2012 Service Manager, Orchestrator and Operations Manager cookbooks.

His passion for everything about System Center, Azure and IT systems management reflects through all areas of his work, presentation and day-to-day life in the form of new and innovative solutions brought to market by PowerONPlatforms.

This book is dedicated to my wife and family, who are patient enough to put up with me when I get lost for hours, immersed in finding solutions to complex challenges.

Samuel Erskine is a Systems Management Sr Technical Specialist, Trainer and Author , focused on System Center and MS Cloud technologies. Sam is the content designer and lead author of three Microsoft System Center Cookbooks and co-author of two System Center Unleashed books. He's also a Microsoft MCT , MVP and a regular speaker at community user groups and conferences worldwide.

About the Reviewer

Rafael Delgado is an IT professional with over 12 years of experience and is a cloud management engineer at PowerON. He is currently working across the delivery and development teams, implementing and designing innovative cloud and System Center suite solutions. He spent the majority of his IT career working in local government in a wide range of areas from service desk, desktop support, to third-line infrastructure management.This is the second book he has been a technical reviewer on, previously working on the Microsoft System Center 2016 Service Manager Cookbook.

Rafael is passionate about giving back to the IT community. He also writes a blog that focuses on all things System Center, PowerShell, Azure Automation, Power BI, and more. He is also the creator of the Service Manager and Configuration Manager Power BI dashboards, which can be found on the TechNet gallery. His Twitter handle is @Raf_Delgado.

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Table of Contents

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

Unpacking System Center 2016 Orchestrator

Introduction

Understanding the Orchestrator architecture

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works...

Planning the Orchestrator deployment

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Installing a single server deployment

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

See also

Making the Orchestrator environment highly available

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Deploying an additional Runbook Server

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

The Initial Configuration of SCO 2016

Introduction

Deploying an additional Runbook Designer

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

Registering an SCO Integration Pack

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Deploying the IP to Designers and Runbook Servers

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There's more…

The initial Integration Pack configuration

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Creating and maintaining a security model for Orchestrator

Getting ready

Security model scenario

How to do it...

Preparing and organizing the environment

Configuring DCOM permissions

Designer and console delegation

Configuring AD IP Runbook permissions

Restricting options by Runbook Designer Integration Pack deployment

How it works...

There's more…

See also

Planning and Creating Runbooks

Introduction

Initial steps to consider before creating a Runbook

Getting ready

How to do it...

Identifying scenarios

Validating and agreeing

Optimizing and documenting

How it works...

Making Runbook scenarios automation ready

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Documenting Runbook designs

Getting ready

How to do it...

Scenario

How it works...

See also

Understanding the Orchestrator scenario building blocks

Getting ready

How to do it...

There's more...

A tour of the Runbook Designer

A tour of Runbook Tester

The Orchestration web console

Runbook Designer standards and primer

Getting ready

How to do it...

How to standardize your activity configuration

Check in and check out

Working with custom and databus parameters

How it works...

There's more...

Expanding parameter fields

See also

Creating a Runbook

Getting ready

How to do it...

Building an Ad-Hoc Runbook

Building a monitoring Runbook

How it works...

There's more…

Building Advanced Runbooks

Introduction

Creating a child Runbook

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Using variables in different Runbook activities

See also

Building a looping Runbook

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Implementing logging in your Runbook

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Simple logging

Enhanced logging

There is more…

Implementing error handling in your Runbooks

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

Making your Runbooks highly available

Getting ready

How to do it...

High priority Runbook available on all Runbook Servers

Low priority Runbook is available on one Runbook Server

How it works...

There's more...

Promoting and demoting primary Runbook Servers

Simple Runbooks for Your Daily Tasks

Introduction

Active Directory – Deleting inactive computer accounts

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Deleting obsolete user accounts in Active Directory

See also

SCOM – Activating maintenance mode for a server

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

SCVMM – Removing an attached ISO from a VM

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Logging events to Orchestrator

System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager Integration Pack

See also

ConfigMgr – Automating the update Installation process

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

See also

SCSM – Raising priority, if an affected user is a VIP

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

See also

Advanced Runbooks for Your Daily Tasks

Introduction

Active Directory – Sending an email to users if their password will expire soon

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

See also

SCOM – Advanced alerting with SCO

Getting ready

How to do it…

Update DA Alerts Runbook

Send mail Runbook

Notify external helpline Runbook

Notify Helpdesk Runbook

Notify Business Owner Runbook

Notify SCOM-Alert

DA-Alert Runbook

Monitoring Alerts Runbook

How it works…

There is more…

Doing More with Orchestrator

Introduction

Starting an SCO Runbook using PowerShell

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There is more…

Starting an SCO Runbook with the Orchestration Console

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There is more…

Using SCOOSP to provide self service with SCO

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There is more…

Start a service

Manage you and your team

Dynamic questions

SCOOSP licensing

See also

Maintaining and health checking SCO

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works…

There is more…

See also

Preface

System Center 2016 Orchestrator is an improved version of Opalis, an acquisition of a well-established product by Microsoft. The Opalis product was acquired by Microsoft in 2009 and has seen continual feature updates to its core functionality as well as alignment to the System Center 2016 product's feature offerings.

System Center 2016 Orchestrator (SCO) is a powerful and versatile process automation Information Technology (IT) tool set. SCO provides seamless interconnections between the multiple software products in use in typical IT management environments. This component of the System Center 2016 product uses a graphical workflow creation tool set, and a set of connectors between multiple vendor products known as Integration Packs (IPs) to address its objectives.

The installation and post-installation phases of SCO require you to plan and configure the product in a methodical sequence-based on your requirements. The aim of the book is to address the challenges faced by many first-time users of SCO on how to best plan, deploy, and, more importantly, automate the right processes in their respective organizations. The objective of the authors is to start the reader's journey of Orchestration by sharing valuable insights from real-world scenarios.

The book provides you with independent, task-oriented steps to achieve specific SCO objectives. The authors recommend that you read the first three chapters as a background for subsequent chapters if you are new to SCO and process automation software products. The book may be read in the order of interest, but where relevant, the authors refer to dependent recipes in other chapters.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Unpacking System Center 2016 Orchestrator, provides the steps required to install and configure SCO. This chapter contains recipes on the two installation scenario types for SCO; single-server and multi-server deployments. The objective is to provide the reader with the steps required for installation of SCO in either scenario.

Chapter 2, The Initial Configuration of SCO 2016, covers the initial configuration tasks an SCO administrator would need to perform after successfully installing the product. The chapter also delves into deploying and installing Integration Packs.

Chapter 3, Planning and Creating Runbooks, delves into the workflow's (Runbooks) planning and designing process for SCO. The planning and designing of Runbooks is a prerequisite for successful value add automation using SCO. This chapter also provides a brief primer to the SCO.

Chapter 4, Building Advanced Runbooks, focuses on how to take your SCO Runbooks to the next level. Build a looping Runbook or see how to implement error handling and enable advanced logging.

Chapter 5, Simple Runbooks for Your Daily Tasks, covers Runbooks you will need for your Daily Business. We are going step by step through each Runbook, so you will see how to build and understand how these Runbooks work.

Chapter 6, Advanced Runbooks for Your Daily Tasks, discusses building advanced Runbooks in your daily business. Each Runbook is an advanced solution and will provide you a rich featured Runbook solution.

Chapter 7, Doing More with Orchestrator, provides you a lot of information on how to trigger your SCO Runbooks. One of the best solutions will be in using SCOOSP, a self service portal to trigger your Runbooks.

What you need for this book

In order to complete all the recipes in this book, you will need a minimum of one server configured with System Center 2016 Orchestrator and the relevant interconnecting technologies discussed. Here is the list of technologies the recipes depend on and their relevant versions used for this book:

Microsoft Active Directory (Windows Server 2008 R2 and above)

System Center 2016 Configuration Manager

System Center 2016 Operations Manager

System Center 2016 Virtual Machine Manager

System Center 2016 Service Manager

SCOOSP

The required software and deployment guides for System Center 2016 product can be found at the following official Microsoft website https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/.

To download SCOOSP, go to http://bit.ly/SCOOSP_Cookbook.

The authors recommend using the online Microsoft resource, due to the frequency of updates to the product's supported requirements. Also, note that the dynamic nature of the internet may require you to search for updated links listed in this book.

Who this book is for

The target audience of this book is SCO administrators and process owners responsible for implementing the IT process automation in their respective organizations. The recipes in this book range from beginner level and touches on expert level SCO administration knowledge. The ultimate goal is to provide the reader with knowledge to start their SCO journey, enhance their existing skills, and more importantly to share real-world experience from seasoned technology implementers.

Reader feedback

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Downloading the example code

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Errata