Monday, December 17, 2012

Orchestrator 2012 - Daylight Savings Time Scheduling Issue

I'm running a little behind on this post as Daylight Savings Time here in the US was back on Sunday, November 4.  For ease of example, all dates/times will reference the schedule for Daylight Savings in the United States.

There is an issue with scheduling Runbooks that start with the Monitor Date/Time activity during DST.

Daylight Saving Time (United States) 2012 began at 2:00 AM on Sunday, March 11.  At this time, 
the clocks would be moved ahead one hour to 3:00 AM.
  • This means any Runbooks scheduled to run between the hours of  2:00 AM - 3:00 AM would be skipped entirely.


Daylight Saving Time (United States) 2012 ended at 2:00 AM on Sunday, November 4.  At this time, 
the clocks would be moved back one hour to 1:00 AM.
  • This means any Runbooks schedule to run between the hours of 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM would run twice.

Depending on what the runbooks are executing, this could cause major issues and/or unscheduled downtime. It would also suggest Runbooks that are not set on an hourly interval (i.e. once daily) be scheduled outside of the hours of 1:00 AM - 3:00 AM to avoid any interruptions.  Unless you throw an exception into the schedule to work around the timing that the clocks are changed.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Orchestrator Runbook Migrations - Invoke by path Property

****The following process is not supported by Microsoft!  This directly updates data in the Orchestrator database!  Use at your own risk!****


While migrating policies from Opalis to Orchestrator or between Orchestrator environments, you may run into the issue where Invoke Runbook activities magically get updated w/ the "Invoke by path" property set to True (or checked).

This occurs when a runbook targets another runbook that was not included in the export file.  Orchestrator attempts to keep the relationship chain by specifying the path to the target runbook since the runbook id guid is no longer valid.

To find all active Invoke Runbook activities that have this property set to true, you can execute the following SQL query to identify them.

The first query will group the target runbooks so you know how many are affected (we'll use these individual values later....).


Select TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath AS TargetRunbookPath
From TRIGGER_POLICY
INNER JOIN OBJECTS ON TRIGGER_POLICY.UniqueID = OBJECTS.UniqueID
INNER JOIN POLICIES ON OBJECTS.ParentID = POLICIES.UniqueID
Where TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath != 0 and OBJECTS.Deleted != 1 and POLICIES.Deleted != 1
Group By TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath
Order By TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath




Select POLICIES.UniqueID, POLICIES.Name AS SourceRunbook, TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyObjectID AS TargetRunbookID, TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath AS TargetRunbookPath, TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath, TRIGGER_POLICY.TargetActionServers
From TRIGGER_POLICY
INNER JOIN OBJECTS ON TRIGGER_POLICY.UniqueID = OBJECTS.UniqueID
INNER JOIN POLICIES ON OBJECTS.ParentID = POLICIES.UniqueID
Where TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath != 0 and OBJECTS.Deleted != 1 and POLICIES.Deleted != 1
Order By TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath


Now if you have a loooot of individual activities that have this property set (shown from the 2nd query above), you can update to update them by target runbook in mass rather than tediously going to each and every activity and updating the target runbook, unchecking the invoke by path property, and updating any parameters if applicable.

From the first query above, you can copy the target runbook name and paste it into the highlighted section below.

**Note the query below will only SELECT the rows that will be ultimately updated.  You'll need to comment out the 'Select' line and remove the comments from the 'Update', and two Set cmds.


Declare @TargetPath varchar(250)
Declare @UpdatedID varchar(250)

Set @TargetPath = 'Policies\Path_To_Runbook'
Set @UpdatedID = (Select '{' + CAST(Resources.UniqueId as varchar(250)) + '}'
    From [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Internal].Resources AS Resources
    Where Resources.Path = SUBSTRING(@TargetPath,CHARINDEX('\Globals',@TargetPath,0),len(@TargetPath)))


Select POLICIES.UniqueID, POLICIES.Name, @UpdatedID, TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath, TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath
--Update TRIGGER_POLICY
--Set TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyObjectID = @UpdatedID
--    ,TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath = 0
From TRIGGER_POLICY
INNER JOIN OBJECTS ON TRIGGER_POLICY.UniqueID = OBJECTS.UniqueID
INNER JOIN POLICIES ON OBJECTS.ParentID = POLICIES.UniqueID
Where TRIGGER_POLICY.TriggerByPolicyPath != 0 and OBJECTS.Deleted != 1 and POLICIES.Deleted != 1 and TRIGGER_POLICY.PolicyPath = @TargetPath


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Run .NET Script: Catching PowerShell Output Into the Current Session

Here is a handy tip for catching PowerShell output into a variable as Published Data.

There are often times you need to execute a cmd within PowerShell that creates output in the cmd's output, but not PowerShell.

I came across a similar issue on the technet forums.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/scogeneral/thread/a9511617-c174-4a5b-a531-3110471c9222

For example....

Running w/ PowerShell in the Run .NET Script activity cannot catch the output of the winrs cmd.  Even w/ adding the $Output = ... and adding the Output variable to published data.

$Output = winrs -r:server_name -u:server_name\administrator -p password net localgroup Administrators Domain\User /ADD

This will result in the Output variable in the published data being empty.

The trick is simply adding "2>&1" (without quotes) at the end of the cmd.  So the complete command would look like this.

 $Output = winrs -r:server_name -u:server_name\administrator -p password net localgroup Administrators Domain\User /ADD 2>&1

This will result in the $Output variable catching the result from winrs into the published data.  Also note, you may have to Flatten the data since the result may end up in multiple lines.




Here is a link that explains different methods for catching output in PowerShell.
http://mctexpert.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-does-2-mean-in-powershell.html

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Orchestrator Polls

I've added two polls on the sidebar.  I'm interested in seeing the extent that other customers use the product.  Please take a second to fill it out.

Thank you!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

SCOrch FTP Integration Pack Update v1.3

I've just released v1.3 of the Orchestrator IP for FTP/SFTP.  You can find it on codeplex at this link:


Please install this in a test environment before deploying to production!  Also, please comment on any issues/bugs you may encounter.

********
Since adding the extra "UsePassive" and "UseBinary" input fields, please note the following steps required for existing installs upgraded to v1.3.  These fields must be commited to the database in the existing activity before they will work.

1)  Stop runbooks where the activities are located.
2)  Check out the runbook
3)  Open the activity and click "Finish" (no changes required)
4)  Check in the runbook
(Thanks to Jeff for the insight for commiting the added fields to existing activities!)
********

Activity Change Log:
 
Create Folder
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

Delete File
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

Delete Folder
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

Download File
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for deleting source file(s)
Add option for bin/ascii transfer
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

List Folder
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

Rename File
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling

Upload File
Resolve issue where host key is not saved and cmd to change directory fails
Add option for deleting source file(s)
Add option for bin/ascii transfer
Add option for passive/active connection
Allow Paths/Filenames with spaces
Adjust FTP Timeout
Dir Change Error Handling
Empty File/0 byte Error Handling

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Audit Jobs started from Orchestration Console (Who Started It)

This post I'll explain how to setup a runbook that runs a daily audit report of runbook jobs started from the Orchestration Console (OC).  As more end users and external applications get access to start runbooks, it's important to know who started a runbook at any given time.

The runbook itself is fairly simple.







First, we need to query the database for the jobs table ([Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Runtime].Jobs) which holds most of the data for the jobs.  One key to both queries is to flatten the data which we will later break back out into multi-valued data.




Select POLICIES.Name, Jobs.CreatedBy, Jobs.CreationTime, Jobs.Status
From [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Runtime].Jobs AS Jobs
INNER JOIN POLICIES ON Jobs.RunbookId = POLICIES.UniqueID
Where Jobs.CreatedBy != 'S-1-5-500' and datediff(HOUR, Jobs.CreationTime, SYSUTCDATETIME ()) <= 24
Order By Jobs.CreationTime Desc


You can also extract parameters, runbook servers specified, etc... from the query if you like.  I joined the POLICIES table onto Jobs to get the name of the runbook from the guid.  Since this is a daily report, I selected jobs created in the past 24 hours.  I've also filtered out jobs started by the SID - "S-1-5-500".  This will narrow our results down to the OC.  Jobs started from the designer console or "internally" to SCOrch will have that SID.  Jobs created from the OC will show the SID of the user that started the job.

Next, we run almost the same query just to get the SIDs of the users we need to translate.


Select Jobs.CreatedBy
From [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Runtime].Jobs AS Jobs
Where Jobs.CreatedBy != 'S-1-5-500' and datediff(HOUR, Jobs.CreationTime, SYSUTCDATETIME ()) <= 24
Group By Jobs.CreatedBy


Now to the script that puts it all together.  You'll notice from this screenshot where I've used the published data to parse.





Here is the script (I've left out the published data alphabet soup since it would be translated to the guid).

$RawResults = ""

$MyObjectCol = @()

$Regex = [regex] '/*__%__'
$Results = $Regex.Split("$RawResults")
ForEach($Data in $Results)
    {
    If ($Data.Split(";")[0].Length -ne 0) {
    $Field1 = $Data.Split(";")[0]}
    Else {$Field1 = $null}
    If ($Data.Split(";")[1].Length -ne 0) {
    $Field2 = $Data.Split(";")[1]}
    Else {$Field2 = $null}
    If ($Data.Split(";")[2].Length -ne 0) {
    $Field3= $Data.Split(";")[2]}
    Else {$Field3 = $null}
    If ($Data.Split(";")[3].Length -ne 0) {
    $Field4= $Data.Split(";")[3]}
    Else {$Field4 = $null}

    $MyObject = new-object psobject
    $MyObject | add-member -MemberType noteproperty -name RunbookName -value $Field1
    $MyObject | add-member -MemberType noteproperty -name InvokedBy -value $Field2
    $MyObject | add-member -MemberType noteproperty -name Date -value $Field3
    $MyObject | add-member -MemberType noteproperty -name JobStatus -value $Field4
    $MyObjectCol += $MyObject
    }

#Remove Empty Objects
$MyObjectCol = @($MyObjectCol | Where-Object {$_.RunbookName -ne $null})

#Convert SID to Username
$Users = @()

$SIDs = ""
$SIDs = $SIDs.Split("__%__")
ForEach ($SID in $SIDs) {
    If ($SID.Length -ne 0) {
        $objSID = New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier ($SID)
        $objUser = $objSID.Translate( [System.Security.Principal.NTAccount])
        $User = $objUser.Value
        ForEach ($Object in $MyObjectCol) {
             $Object.InvokedBy = $Object.InvokedBy -Replace("$SID","$User")
        }
    }
}

#Convert UTC to Local Time
$strCurrentTimeZone = (Get-WmiObject win32_timezone).StandardName
$TZ = [System.TimeZoneInfo]::FindSystemTimeZoneById($strCurrentTimeZone)

ForEach ($Object in $MyObjectCol) {
     $Object.Date = [System.TimeZoneInfo]::ConvertTimeFromUtc($Object.Date, $TZ)
}

$MyObjectCol = $MyObjectCol | Sort Date -Desc | ft -AutoSize | Out-String -Width 4096 -Stream | %{ $_.Trim() }
$MyObjectCol | Out-File -FilePath "C:\Temp\JobAudit.txt"


I create a hash table to save the end results in.  The script converts the SIDs to usernames and also converts the time from UTC to local.  It then saves the output to a txt file which we'll email as an attachment.  I chose to do it this way so the data would be saved in columns and formatted cleanly to read.  You could also format it as a list to put directly into the body of the email.




Finally, just for housekeeping, the txt file is deleted.