About this task
The
Automation Plan Engine opens a
step as it begins to process it. When the
step processing is complete, the
Automation Plan Engine stops the
step. If the
step is successful, the
Automation Plan Engine then opens and processes the next
step. If the
step fails, the
Automation Plan Engine then opens the associated
failure step, if one exists, and processes it.
To
understand how the
Automation Plan Engine calculates if
a
step is complete or not, review the state
mapping information that is described here. To calculate the overall state of an
Automation Plan
step, the
Automation Plan Engine gets the individual results that are
retrieved from each of the
endpoints. The
Automation Plan Engine uses these results to calculate
the overall state of the
step. This state
mapping information shows how that overall state of the
step is used by the
Automation Plan Engine to control the running of the
Automation Plan. The
Automation Plan Engine runs each
step in the
Automation Plan based on a wait, success, or failure status.
The following table outlines the states that map to the
wait,
success, or
failure status.
Table 1. Automation Plan state mappingStatus of action |
Outcome of action
status |
Description |
- Running
- Evaluating
- Waiting
- Pending Downloads
- Postponed
- Pending Restart
- Pending Message
- Pending Login
- Not Reported
|
Wait |
The action is still
in progress or waiting for user input. The Automation Plan Engine waits for this status to change. |
- <Error>
- Failed
- Canceled
- Download Failed
- Invalid Signature
- Expired
- Completed
- Locked
- Constrained
|
Failure |
The action cannot
proceed. There might be an error or problem with the targeted endpoint. The Automation Plan Engine stops the Automation Plan. |
|
Success |
The action completed
successfully. The Automation Plan Engine proceeds to
the next step. |
A final state for the
Automation Plan
step is not calculated until all of the
targeted
endpoints report a state that maps
to either a
success or
failure decision. Until that happens, the
overall state of the
Automation Plan
step is
wait. This
includes the scenario where one or more targeted
endpoints do not exist or are unavailable for some
other reason, for example, if the endpoint is powered off, or if you do not have permission to
target the endpoint. Unless all of the targeted
endpoints report a status that maps to either a
success or
failure decision, the
Automation Plan stays in a
wait state. In the
case of non-existent or unavailable
endpoints, this results in an infinite
wait state, and causes the
Automation Plan to wait indefinitely.
When you run an
Automation Plan, you must specify one or more
endpoints for each step. You can assign
endpoints to a step by using one of the following approaches:
- Select one or more computers from the list of computers that are managed by the IBM BigFix server.
- Select one or more computer groups from the list of computers groups that are managed by the
IBM BigFix server.
- Type the names of one or more computers.
- Specify the same endpoints as another
step in the Automation Plan.
Important: You must not add a Baseline as a step if it contains any Component that prompts for parameter values when
run. You cannot specify the values of the parameters in a step that is a Baseline. If you run an Automation Plan containing a Baseline that has a Component with an unspecified parameter, the
Automation Plan might fail or result in some other
unexpected behavior. Only steps that are
Fixlets or Tasks can have parameters that prompt for values
when run.
Scheduling an Automation Plan
and prefetching downloads
You can schedule an Automation Plan to run at a specified date and time. The date
and time that you specify in the Take Automation Plan Action panel is the IBM BigFix
console local time. The IBM BigFix
console converts the specified time to
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and the Automation Plan Engine runs the Automation Plan at the specified UTC
time.
If the scheduled UTC time and date are less than or equal to the current UTC time and date, the
Automation Plan Engine runs the Automation Plan immediately.
If you are scheduling your
Automation Plan, you can choose to prefetch the
content that needs to be downloaded. This option allows you to download the content required as part
of the
Automation Plan in advance of the execution of
the
Automation Plan. This speeds up the execution of
the
Automation Plan so that when the plan runs, the
content has been downloaded in advance and the plan runs much faster. The system evaluates the
relevance of each step in the plan on the target endpoints and downloads only content that is
relevant and required for the execution of the plan at the point of the plan submission. This helps
minimize network traffic. If there are steps in the plan with download content that is not relevant
until an earlier step has run, the content in these steps is not be prefetched and is downloaded at
run-time. To prefetch downloads, select the
Enable prefetching check box when
you are scheduling your
Automation Plan. If you select
this option, an open
action is created for
each
step in your
Automation Plan that has a prefetch or download statement. You
can view these
actions from the
Automation Plan Action Status dashboard.
Important: If
Enable prefetching
actions run in parallel with Automation Plan
steps to the same endpoints, the step waits until all prefetch download steps are completed. Because the step
action and the step download action share the same download, the IBM BigFix client detects this and waits for it
to complete.
Important: There is
a potential performance impact associated with using the Enable prefetching
option because an additional action is
created for each step that requires
software downloads. The recommended maximum number of open actions on the system is 2,500. For any given
Automation Plan, an action is open for the Automation Plan and also for each individual step in the Automation Plan. If you use the Enable
prefetching option, additional actions are created and opened for each step that requires software downloads. So instead of
having two open actions per Automation Plan at any one point (one action for the Automation Plan and one for the current step) there are additional actions opened for each step that requires software
downloads.
Note: If an endpoint does
not yet exist, the Automation Plan Engine waits until
the endpoint is created before executing
the step.
Complete the
following steps to run or schedule an Automation Plan.