Orchestrator
Adding a Hybrid Runbook Worker for Azure Automation
Hey, everybody. Hope you are doing well. If you're not, you are about to be doing better, for I am going to embed a pre-release of "The Force Awakens" below! I lied, but you made it past the first line of my blog, and now I have you! [...]
Which Automation Engine is Right for Your Organization?
I've recently been working with a few different organizations on server automation projects. If you have been following the Microsoft automation space for the past couple of years you have noticed that there are two different overlapping automation engines that are included as part of System Center Orchestrator. The two [...]
Using Orchestrator Variables
One of the great many features of System Center Orchestrator 2012 R2 is the ability to create reusable "Variables". Now I use the term Variable loosely given what I am about to talk about is really static values that you as an administrator define. The reality is they are more [...]
Installing Updates with Orchestrator
I have recently been working on a few projects where I have been working on patching solutions with either Orchestrator or SMA. It is almost impossible to discuss patching in Orchestrator without referencing Neal's cluster patching runbooks. Neal did a great job of putting together a sample on how to [...]
SCO: Run .NET Script Workarounds for PowerShell
Greetings and Felicitations, readers! This week's blog post is on the subject of System Center Orchestrator and the very useful, yet sometimes fickle, Run .NET Script activity. As many users are already aware, the Run .NET Script activity can be used to run PowerShell scripts directly within a runbook, [...]
Finding Unused Runbooks in System Center Orchestrator
If you have been using System Center Orchestrator for any period of time there are chances that you have many different unused runbooks in your environment. Many organizations will version their runbooks and create new versions of runbooks without removing the old runbooks for fear that they might still be [...]
Patching SQL AlwaysOn with Orchestrator
Patching SQL AlwaysOn with Orchestrator is a bit different than the patching Hyper-V clusters with Orchestrator. If you've looked up the community runbook for cluster patching from Neil Peterson found here you'll notice he does a great job of outlining the solution. He breaks down the processes to into manageable runbooks. [...]
Update Runbook GUIDs Script for SCSM
Update Runbook GUIDs Script for SCSM I spend a lot of my time assisting clients with Service Manager and helping deliver self-service automation capabilities to organizations. Two things often involved in that task are employing automation via Orchestrator Runbooks synced to Service Manager, and migrating Runbooks and management packs between [...]
