Workflows

Workflows are the engine behind alarm notification and other processes. Created by linking different activities in a graphical user interface, a workflow takes the information provided by the alarm when it is triggered, then works through a sequence you have defined. The primary purpose at a business partner or customer level is to automate processes that would normally occupy a user such as qualifying the alarm and then escalating alarms if necessary, effectively enhancing or replacing the business rules that may already be in place. The notification process may be via one or more channels such as email, SMS, Slack and work through a list providing an escalation path if no response has been received to a notification.

In general a workflow is triggered by an alarm from a monitored device. Each alarm raised contains specific information regarding the hardware vendor and type, alarm name and so on. Other information regarding the business partner, customer and even support contract details and call out lists can be retrieved by activities included within the workflow. All this information may then be used to define the steps that should be taken to resolve the issue or escalate it.

The alarms themselves are processed through a rules engine that allow the rules to be quantified to determine which workflows if any should be run. If one or more alarm rules match all the listed conditions, one or more defined workflows will be run. More information regarding alarm rules can be found in the Alarms page.

While most alarms are generated by a vendor specific piece of hardware that has errored or failed, an alarm may also be generated by Virsae Service Management (VSM) when a monitored device is still operational but has exceeded a threshold you have defined. These alarms are instead generated by VSM itself based on templates which take parameters you set to define thresholds relevant to hardware the template is to be applied to.

Alarm and Workflow administration

The following steps are an example of how a new alarm rule may be created and associated with a workflow and callout list.

  1. Navigate to Availability > Management > Alarm Rules
  2. Click the Create Rule button to open the New Alarm Rule utility. Rule Editor
  3. Give the Rule a relevant name.
  4. Select a callout group or list if escalation is required. If the callout list required does not exist, select to create a new list and give the list a name and click the Create button. The list will be created and at a later stage you can administer the users that are members of this list.
  5. Select a workflow to be used. If the workflow does not currently exist then select to create a new workflow. Provide a name and description and select a template on which the new workflow will be created. Click the Create button. The workflow will be created and will be administered later.
  6. In the Alarm Rule Builder select the appropriate setting for Stop Processing on Match. If the rule being created should activate the workflow selected and only this workflow, this should be set to On. Otherwise leave this as Off and other rules may also process this alarm. The Alarm Rules are processed in the order displayed.
  7. In the Alarm Rule Builder add all the required conditions that need to be met for the associated workflow to be triggered. This may be as generic as 'Severity = 2 and Should be Notified = True' or as specific as 'Station (administered ID) = 1234 and equipment = X and Customer = Y'.
  8. In the alarm rules list test the rules to ensure the new rule captures the required alarm as expected. Test Alarm Rules
  9. Navigate to Availability > Call Out Lists. Call Out List Manager
  10. Right click on the list created during the rule creation process above and add the required users.
  11. Navigate to Service Desk > Workflow > Definitions. Workflow Definitions
  12. Edit the workflow to meet your requirements. Workflow Designer
  13. Once satisfied with the workflow, publish the workflow to make it operational.


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