Real world Automation with Service Manager and Azure Automation

Real world Automation with Service

Manager and Azure Automation

System Center MVP Steve Buchanan

@buchatech

www.buchatech.com

System Center Expert Natascia Heil

@NatasciaHeil

Systemcentertipps.wordpress.com

#MMSMOA

@NatasciaHeil

System Center

Expert

.wordpress.com

> 20 years IT

5 years SCOM

Region Frankfurt, Germany

Natascia Heil

#MMSMOA

@buchatech

Region Frankfurt, Germany

Steve Buchanan

System Center

MVP

15+ years IT

7+ years

System Center

com Minnesota

Look familiar?

Use Automation to lighten the load

 What is automation?

 Why automation?

 Which resources can help me?

Steps to Automation

 How to identify what to automate

 What are common Automation Scenarios

(What have others automated already?)

 The role you and others will play in Automation

 Which Microsoft Automation Tools are available

Selecting the right Automation Platform

You need to know

Identify what to automate!

Which

people/

teams are

involved?

How often is

this done? How long

does it take?

What are

the different

steps?

What

services/

applications

effected? are

Your role?

DevOps => Internal

Consultant

• Know the technologies

• Know the organization

• Understand the processes

• Take care of

documentation!!

• Create reports

Common Automation Scenarios

 Server Patching

 On-board/Off-boarding process

 Server Provisioning

 Compliance checking

 Alert remediation

 Desired state

Explore Microsoft Automation tools

Orchestrator

Service Management Automation

Azure Automation

Desired State Configuration

Portals for Automation

SCOOSP

SharePoint Azure Pack

Service Manager – Self-Service Portal

The right Automation Platform

Automation Platform Decision Matrix Graphical

Driven? Orchestrator

Azure

Automation/DSC

SMA/DSC Yes

No Yes

No Do your Automations

need to be 100% on prem?

Covers both graphical or non-graphical.

Automation and ITIL

Automation is placed between the process

areas, monitoring, and the CMDB.

Automation can be utilized for the reactive

ITIL processes like incident or problem

management and also for proactive ITIL

processes such as availability , change,

service catalog, or capacity management.

‘ITIL combined with Automation results in a single system of record driven from a CMDB, governed processes,

desired state, and automated IT infrastructure.’

How do they fit?

Automation and ITIL Cont…

Reduces human error in process

areas such as:

- Incident management

- Change management

- Event management - Service catalog Automation

forces processes to be evaluated and defined, and

that aids in collaborative

problem resolution.

Infrastructure as code

Helps accomplish desired state

monitoring/

desired state configuration

Ensure compliant infrastructures

How will automation with ITIL help me???

Automation and ITIL Cont…

Results of Automation and ITIL combined:

Event Management

- Saved 2 FTEs within the operational team dedicated to supporting service delivery (previously assigned to remediation and management).

- Reduce network, applications, and systems downtime by 92% by automating incident management and continuously monitoring and checking for threats.

Incident Management

- Reduce help desk response costs by 83%; fewer incidents are reported because automation has reduced errors causing downtime. It also shortened call duration.

Event and Incident Management

- Reduced per-user downtime — for more than 10,000 users — by

approximately 7 hours per annum.

- Server-related incident average resolution times dropping from 45 minutes to 5 to 10 minutes.

- The financial benefit from reduced downtime is estimated to be $1.8 million

*From the Forrester “Sustain Service Management And Automation Funding” report.

Automation and ITIL Cont…

Best Practices……..

• Simplify processes before automating

them

• Service Requests are a good start for

automation

• The goal of any automation should be

to improve both Utility and Warranty

of services

• Measure and analyze cost or time of

manual processes to compare with

the savings of automating that

process

Automation and ITIL Cont…

THE RESULT: • Respond to service outages and

business needs faster.

THE IMPACT: • Happier IT consumers and

reduced costs.

THIS ALL BOILS DOWN TO……….

Change IT consumer perspective

What they think you are doing? What you are really doing?

Service Manager and Azure

Automation

Scenario/Architecture

Service Manager and Azure Automation - Scenario/Architecture

 Service Manager - Initiate server build from Service Manager new Self-Service Portal

* Request Offering

* Service Request Template

 Orchestrator - Orchestrator monitors SCSM for new Request Offering on server build

* Monitor Runbook - Calls Azure Automation

 Azure Automation - Azure Automation provisions new VM in Azure using Azure Resource Manager (ARM)

* Automation Account

* 3 Runbooks

 ADFS

* For organization account authentication to Azure, you have to use an Organizational account to connect to Azure using a Azure Automation Asset Credential.

 Github to save Runbooks and ARM Templates

* Azure Automation pulls template from Github (allows you to update your template at any time with minimal updates to runbooks)

Rob Plank - Github link: https://github.com/robplank/MMS2015

Demo

SCCM and Orchestrator Patch

Management Automation

Scenario/Architecture

SCCM and Orchestrator Patch Management Automation - Scenario/Architecture

 Create CR in Service Manager to deploy Software

 Update to a SCCM collection

 Service Manager calls Orchestrator Runbook

 Orchestrator Runbook patches devices

 Orchestrator writes state back to Service Manager

Demo

General tips

 Use separated SQL Database for logging

 Create moduler runbooks

 Catch errors

 Lab environment

 Try to keep it simple

Resources

 Books

 i.e. MS System Center 2012 Orchestrator Cookbook

 MVA free ebooks (i.e. Introduction to MS Automation Solutions)

 Web Pages

 RobPlankTech.com

 Natascia Heil‘s blog post: Patch a server with SCCM and

Orchestrator 2012

 Service Management Automation using System Center 2012 R2

 Microsoft MVA courses

 Automating the cloud with Azure Automation

 System Center 2012 SP1 Automation

 Automate Workloads with System Center Orchestrator

 Automation & Self-Service with System Center 2012 R2

Evaluations:

Session Title: Real world Automation with Service Manager and Azure

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