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Save money by using Azure Automation to deallocate VMs.

I have four Azure VMs running during normal business hours. All machines are Type A2 (2 CORES / 3.5 GB RAM) and cost $0.154/hr per VM. I start them in the morning at 8PM and deallocate them at 5PM when I leave the office. At least once a month I forget to deallocate. They then run unused until next morning (15 Hours). Apparently, I love Microsoft so much that I enjoy giving them my money. But mark my words. I will no longer pay for services that I don’t use….. Calculation Wasted hours Azure Price No. of VMs No. of [...]

By |2017-08-22T10:14:32+01:00december 15th, 2014|Automation, Azure|1 Kommentar
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Service Management Automation: Runbook/Workflow for getting selected object(s) in an SCSM Request Offering Query Result Question

Hello Everyone! Today It is my turn to write in the Coretech christmas calendar! Currently I am working a lot in Service Management Automation (SMA), a part for Windows Azure Pack. More info: http://aka.ms/introToSMA SMA is based on PowerShell workflow, so this could be used in other scenarios than within SMA. The first example i want to show is an easy way to get the selected object(s) in a Service Manager Request Offering [download id="226"] Setup / Import Download or create Get-SCSMCIFromUserInput.ps1 Open WAP Admin Portal Go to Automation Import Runbook Creating Assets This runbook uses 2 assets. “SCSM Server” [...]

By |2017-08-22T09:25:51+01:00december 12th, 2014|Automation, Windows Azure Pack (WAP)|1 Kommentar
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SCO 2012 – Reading the last line of a MDT – BDD.log file

Today at my class a student tried to read the last line of a BDD.log file using the “Read Line” activity and setting the lines to “LASTLINE:1” This is the usual method for reading a text file, and it usually works! but in this case we got a weird result! not only one, but 8 lines was read and when we tested on another file, the output was 12 lines!   concluding that the “Read Line” activity must have some kind of bug, we switched to a PowerShell Script: $FilePath = "\\SERVER01\MDTLogs\BDD.local" $LastLine = Get-Content $FilePath | Select-Object -Last 1 [...]

By |2014-10-27T11:52:24+01:00oktober 27th, 2014|Automation|Kommentarer lukket til SCO 2012 – Reading the last line of a MDT – BDD.log file
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Service Management Automation: SMA Toolkit Released!

Microsoft has collected all of their SMA tools into one tookit called “SMART”   Info from their technet gallery item: The SMA Runbook Toolkit (SMART) is a collection of Service Management Automation (SMA) related tools. They are all PowerShell-based and provided as samples, to help achieve the following tasks:   Visualization and Dependency Mapping Tool 1.0 – New! This tool lets you browse SMA Runbooks and export their dependencies to the PowerShell console, Visio, Word and/or Visual Studio. Once runbook tendencies have been computed, the Visual Studio export is particularly fast and has a nice automatic layout in DGML. This [...]

By |2017-08-22T09:25:52+01:00september 23rd, 2014|Automation, Windows Azure Pack (WAP)|Kommentarer lukket til Service Management Automation: SMA Toolkit Released!
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New 3-day Workshop: Windows Azure Pack: Mastering Service Management Automation (SMA)

I am currently in development of my new mastering class in SMA. Here is the detailed info and upcoming dates Title Windows Azure Pack - Mastering Service Management Automation Days 3 Level 300 Trainer Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen, Cloud & Data Center MVP. Email: [email protected] MVP Profile: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/mvp/Jakob%20Gottlieb%20Svendsen-5000333 Blog: https://blog.ctglobalservices.com/jgs Summary Go from A to Z in Service Management Automation. The new automation tool based on PowerShell Workflows. Beside the introduction, architecture and installation, this workshop focuses on designing Runbooks using PowerShell Workflows in SMA. Learn how to convert your knowledge of PowerShell scripts to PowerShell Workflows. We will start from [...]

By |2017-08-22T09:25:52+01:00september 23rd, 2014|Automation, Windows Azure Pack (WAP)|1 Kommentar
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SCO 2012: Get Active Directory Group members using Get User Activity

  First when I looked in the set of activities, i was surprised that no “Get Group Members” activity exist. After a little playing around i discovered that “Get User” is the activity to use. And i have been using this activity since then.   It is pretty simple to setup.   1. Select a connection 2. Set a filter that searches for the group using the Indirect MemberOf filter rule:   using above method you can make a simple runbook to empty a AD group of members:  

By |2014-06-24T14:02:11+01:00juni 24th, 2014|Automation|11 Comments
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TechEd 2014 North America – System Center Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101 – Video + Downloads

Check out my session from Tech Ed North America Thank you all for a great conference! Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101 http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2014/DCIM-B375#fbid= Download all the content here: [download id="206"] Join me at the next workshop in phoenix! June 11th! still room for more students.! http://www.truesec.com/#!lab=Mastering_System_Center_2012_Orchestrator_R2

By |2014-05-20T18:08:27+01:00maj 20th, 2014|Automation, Events|Kommentarer lukket til TechEd 2014 North America – System Center Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101 – Video + Downloads
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SCO 2012: Use Operations Manager Integration Pack without installing OpsMgr Console on runbook servers

I recently had a friend ask of how to use the IP for Operations Manager without installing the OpsMgr Console on all runbook servers.   Actually, the reason for having the console installed is that the actvities need some SDK Assemblies from OpsMgr. I think they are not delivered with the IP because of license restrictions.   This makes it possible to use the IP , as long as you register the right DLLs. Get the OpsMgr SDK assemblies, either from the SCOM server or a computer with the console installed Fx. \\scom.cloud.local\C$\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2012\Operations Manager\Console\SDK Assemblies\ Place [...]

By |2014-05-06T12:54:20+01:00maj 6th, 2014|Automation|4 Comments
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TechEd 2014 N.A. – My Breakout Session – Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101

This year i have been so lucky to have a session about Orchestrator accepted! It will be  introduction to best practices, both beginner and for more experienced orchestrators. Looking forward to it!   You can the session here: http://tena2014.eventpoint.com/topic/details/DCIM-B375   More session on the list: http://tena2014.eventpoint.com/topic/list   Details: DCIM-B375 Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator: Runbook Design 101 Thursday, May 15 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM Speaker(s): Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen Track: Datacenter and Infrastructure Management Session Type: Breakout Topic: Microsoft System Center Get introduced to runbook design from start to finish. This session focuses on planning your runbooks, designing the [...]

By |2014-03-26T15:20:35+01:00marts 26th, 2014|Automation, Events|1 Kommentar
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PowerShell/SMA/WAP: Controlling LEGO Mindstorms EV3 from PowerShell/SMA Runbook – Part 1 – The Runbook

A few weeks ago i posted the video about my demo of the LEGO Mindstorms robot, controlled by a Runbook inside the Service Management Automation section of Windows Azure Pack The video has been seen by many people and i have gotten so much great feedback! Multiple people have asked me of “How did you do that?” I have decided to do a multi part post, first posting the details, then more guides to how to do the different setup tasks Part 1 – SMA Runbook, Overview + Setup Part 2 – How to setup a variable asset in SMA [...]

By |2017-08-22T09:25:52+01:00marts 24th, 2014|Automation, Windows Azure Pack (WAP)|4 Comments
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SCO2012/WAP/SMA: VIDEO – Integrating a LEGO Mindstorms Robot using SMA/PowerShell

By request I have uploaded the short video of my Windows Azure Pack & Service Management Automation (SMA) Demo this friday!     URL: http://youtu.be/1Al-dY-DHlw   Robot is LIVE at about 02:30 !! From the creators of Coretech Coffee Monitor , here comes a short movie of the demo of how to integrate LEGO Mindstorms (or practically anything!) in a PowerShell runbook in the Service Management Automation feature of System Center Orchestrator R2 & Windows Azure Pack Presented by System Center Cloud and Data center MVP -  Jakob Gottlieb Svendsen @ Microsoft Cloud OS Roadshow 2014, Copenhagen, Denmark! More info [...]

By |2017-08-22T09:25:53+01:00marts 9th, 2014|Automation, Windows Azure Pack (WAP)|2 Comments
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SCO 2012: Force a Failed status of the runbook!

There are a number of scenarios where you want to fail your runbook and make sure that the runbook status is “failed” this could, for instance be Triggering runbook from service manager, or other external system which checks the result Triggering from PowerShell If you want to use the statistics properly in orchestrator. There is one rule that decides if the runbook status is success,warning or failed. Success = All Activities is success full Warning = One or more activities has failed or warning Failed = Last activity that executes has status failed. The challenge is that many “failures” in [...]

By |2014-02-11T13:03:39+01:00februar 11th, 2014|Automation|4 Comments
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SCSM & SCO – Management Pack Transfer Tool Beta 3 – Freeware!

New version out! a few bugs have been fixed, and the mappings are now kept properly! (see changelog below)   Download from TechNet Gallery   Have you ever tried to transfer some Request Offerings that contains runbooks from one environment to the other? You will notice that is it not possible by default. Problem is that the links to the runbooks do not work anymore since all the runbooks has been re-imported and have been assigned new IDs. by using this easy 4 step procedure you can accomplish a successful transfer!   How to (also in ReadMe): Step 1 – [...]

By |2014-01-29T15:03:04+01:00januar 29th, 2014|Automation, Service Manager (SCSM)|6 Comments
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NIC 2014 – Slides and Software (Runbooks, MPs, Tools)

I have just completed my 2 sessions at NIC2014. As promised i have uploaded my slides and extras Runbooks Management Packs Tools there might be glitches and mistakes in the runbooks, so do not hesitate to contact me [download id="190"] [download id="191"] [download id="192"]

By |2014-01-16T16:14:52+01:00januar 16th, 2014|Automation, Events|Kommentarer lukket til NIC 2014 – Slides and Software (Runbooks, MPs, Tools)
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SCO/SCSM 2012: Approval does not work from portal when review activity was created by runbook/script/SDK!

Today i had this weird problem.   The Review activities i created from my orchestrator runbook, did not work! I was able to approve, but they never completed! But this was only the case when approving from the portal. It worked as expected from the console!   After some research i managed to find the problem: Approval Condition was NULL! This means that the Review activity will never complete.   So why did it work from the console? Well you see, the default dropdown value for the “approval condition” is unanimous! and therefore, whenever i opened it in the consoel [...]

By |2013-12-20T11:32:47+01:00december 20th, 2013|Automation, Service Manager (SCSM)|5 Comments
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Who started the runbook from the orchestration console? Use this runbook!

I have had this question again and again and again… and again… Unfortunately the orchestration console does not show which user did trigger the runbook. But this does not mean that it is not logged, you can actually use it as a filter in the console:   The user SID is in the “CreatedBy” field, but if you check the database, only the SID is saved. So you will have to use the user objectSID in the filter, if you want to filter the jobs.   But this makes it possible for us to get the user info from the [...]

By |2013-11-04T18:56:40+01:00november 4th, 2013|Automation|3 Comments
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SCO/SCOM 2012: Get Alerts / Monitor Alerts – How to Filter on empty/null property

When using orchestrator, a lot of activities contain a filter Get Alert / Monitor Alert is some of them. The following workaround is tested for the above 2 activities, but i think it does apply to other filter activities too. (have not had the time to test yet, comments are welcomed!).   I ran into an unexpected behavior today: I was using a filter saying “TicketId Does not equal No Automatic Escalation”, and i was expecting to get alle alerts that did not have this text in the field. but I did not get all of them!. I only got [...]

By |2013-10-29T14:35:07+01:00oktober 29th, 2013|Automation, Operations Manager (SCOM)|1 Kommentar
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SCO 2012 – Attention! Use correct order of params in Invoke Web Services XML Payload!

Are you experiencing problems when using advanced SOAP XML payloads in “Invoke Web Services”? I did! it seems to work properly, but some parameters did not get filled correctly. After some testing i discovered that the parameters in the XML payload has to be in the correct order!! If not, the parameters “in between” will be filled by NULL, and then later it will ignore or skip the rest of the parameters if they appear in the wrong order!! The reason is that it is using the DataContractSerializer. thanks to by colleague Claus for finding this forum thread there they [...]

By |2013-10-15T15:11:04+01:00oktober 15th, 2013|Automation|1 Kommentar
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SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation Part 3 – The Web Service

The new preview of System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2, comes with a new part called "System Management Automation" Not much info has been released about what it is, or what it can be used for. update: more information have been released by microsoft. Start here It seems to me to be a new runbook engine, with a completely new type of runbooks. I can't wait to get more info about what it is , and what it is for. It has 3 parts which is installed seperately: Web Service Runbook Worker PowerShell Module I will try to post some of [...]

By |2013-08-08T10:50:44+01:00august 8th, 2013|Automation|7 Comments
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SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation Part 2 – The PowerShell Module

  The new preview of System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2, comes with a new part called "System Management Automation" Not much info has been released about what it is, or what it can be used for. update: more information have been released by microsoft. Start here It seems to me to be a new runbook engine, with a completely new type of runbooks. I can't wait to get more info about what it is , and what it is for. It has 3 parts which is installed seperately: Web Service Runbook Worker PowerShell Module I will try to post some [...]

By |2013-07-26T09:00:08+01:00juli 26th, 2013|Automation|Kommentarer lukket til SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation Part 2 – The PowerShell Module
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SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation Part 1 – Overview and Setup

  The new preview of System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2, comes with a new part called "System Management Automation" Not much info has been released about what it is, or what it can be used for. update: more information have been released by microsoft. Start here It seems to me to be a new runbook engine, with a completely new type of runbooks. I can't wait to get more info about what it is , and what it is for. It has 3 parts which is installed seperately: Web Service Runbook Worker PowerShell Module I will try to post some [...]

By |2013-07-19T15:11:54+01:00juli 19th, 2013|Automation|1 Kommentar
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SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation – Using the Web Service in Visual Studio 2012

  update: more information have been released by microsoft. Start here The new preview of System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2, comes with a new part called "System Management Automation" In this article series i can been focusing on the 3 parts: Web Service Runbook Worker PowerShell Module In this article i'll show how to use the web service in Visual studio. An earlier post described more about the web service Install Browse using Internet Browser   The idea is to give you a chance to play around with it, and any kind of comments/feedback is very welcomed! Lets go!   [...]

By |2013-07-19T14:29:24+01:00juli 19th, 2013|Automation|Kommentarer lukket til SCO 2012 R2: System Management Automation – Using the Web Service in Visual Studio 2012
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