Howdy out there in automation land! So it is that time of year again. Snow for many, rapid weather changes for some, happy holidays for all. I hope the end of this year finds you in good spirits, good health, and ready for better automation. But first... a good movie poster for this...
Just a pure classic.... and... well because its that time of year and I'm in the giving mood, here's one more to close out the year...
And yes folks... it is a Christmas movie :) Ok.... enough with the posters... onto the reason behind this blog. So I really want to start pushing the community as a whole to start sharing your content! Let's make workflows great for everyone and share. We in Cisco CX have started to do this and I wanted to share our repo with you as well as share a couple of the workflows I wrote to help you make your life easier in Action Orchestrator (AO).
First off... the CX Shared and OpenSource repo is at...
https://github.com/cisco-cx-workflows/cx-ao-shared-workflows
There you will find lots of examples, sample workflows, and workflows to help grow your automation portfolio. *PLEASE NOTE* none of these are officially supported by Cisco TAC but you can raise issues on them in the git and we can fix them as a community!
Now this is different than the *official* Cisco Workflow Git at https://github.com/cisco/ActionOrchestratorContent
That repo is where you will find officially TAC supported workflows that are produced by Cisco for your usage. This is also where you find the atomic adapters.
You are welcome to post to whatever repo you personally own with your workflows but I would love to see more posting to the CX or a similar opensource repo so we can really start to share the content! This is how we grow the AO user base, how we grow AO's capabilities and how we just make AO better.
So let's start with the couple of workflows I'm showing and telling in this blog...
1st one - Install Compiled Adapter
This workflow will take a compiled adapter in a .tar.gz bundle and then explode it, install the schema, and setup the adapter for you, assuming you have a compiled adapter already in a container format. Now if you have not gotten into using compiled adapters yet or do not really even know what that is... maybe best to just watch the video and understand the explanation... but in brief you will need...
- The workflow above
- The adapter in .tar.gz bundle as per the video
- The compiled container stored somewhere
- Access to a master node, Access to your AO API
- Watch the Video :)
This will allow you to install compiled adapters like the Webex Teams adapter I wrote. If you have interest in using the Webex Teams adapter, please reach out to me directly or post in the comments below. We used it live at Cisco Live US this year, and its ok to distribute in a controlled fashion and for controlled usage :)
Video here:
Password: 3xXtPbqk
2nd workflow - Install Atomic Adapter
This one is more readily usable by the masses in my opinion. You install the workflow, configure your AO API endpoint, and then you can install the Atomic Adapters released by Cisco in an "easier" format. Instead of having to install 20 workflows individually you can just install the "kubernetes" adapter. It works as follows...
- Install the above workflow
- Configure your AO API user and Target (use the video for help)
- Run the workflow and type in your adapter. Could be "aci" or "kubernetes" or "appd", etc.
- Enjoy!
Video on this workflow:
Pass: ChCVUB3n
If you run into any particular issues/etc with these, please post them back to the repos or leave a note here! Once again, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and come back in 2020 ready to automate as much as you with AO! Tis the season for giving and I hope giving of workflows can help start you getting into the holiday spirit!
Standard End-O-Blog Disclaimer:
Thanks as always to all my wonderful readers and those who continue to stick with and use CPO and AO! I have always wanted to find good questions, scenarios, stories, etc... if you have a question, please ask, if you want to see more, please ask... if you have topic ideas that you want me to blog on, Please ask! I am happy to cater to the readers and make this the best blog you will find :)
AUTOMATION BLOG DISCLAIMER: As always, this is a blog and my (Shaun Roberts) thoughts on CPO, AO, CCS, orchestration, development, devops, and automation, my thoughts on best practices, and my experiences with the products and customers. The above views are in no way representative of Cisco or any of it's partners, etc. None of these views, etc are supported and this is not a place to find standard product support. If you need standard product support please do so via the current call in numbers on Cisco.com or email tac@cisco.com
Thanks and Happy Automating!!!
--Shaun Roberts
