Automation–Orchestrator Integration Pack for Windows Tasks

Hello!

We are working right on through these refresh topics…hopefully breathing new life into their old lines of code…

So, here we go, the third “real” post after my introduction…and this post and its associated deliverable is dedicated to the:

Orchestrator Integration Pack for Windows Tasks 1.1


History

As with the others, this Integration Pack was created to solve a specific problem… well in this case, it was created to solve two specific problems.

File System Maintenance - This activity extends the current Standard Activity Functionality within Orchestrator. Specifically, this object extends the functionality of the Delete File, Delete Folder, and Get File Status Activities. It also works well with many of the Standard Activities which can process the information generated by this activity.

Multi-Server WMI Queries - This object extends the current Standard Activity Functionality within Orchestrator. Specifically, this object extends the functionality of the Query WMI, and Get Process Status Activities. It also works well with many of the Standard Activities which can process Windows Process Information or WMI Output.

Are these things necessary today? Maybe not – but maybe so…

Do you ever still wonder what is in a specific directory and then want to delete the contents? Do you ever still execute WMI Commands on multiple machines simultaneously?

If you use PowerShell exclusively for these types of tasks, then this Integration Pack is not for you – instead, you can leverage the built-in functionality of the “Run .Net Script” activity or simply execute straight PS1 files.

On the other hand, if you are not familiar with PowerShell, or are still learning, the activities within this Integration Pack may be perfect for solving a couple of your tedious tasks.

Fun Fact: As of the publication of this post, the Orchestrator Integration Pack for Windows Tasks 1.1 and its documentation have been downloaded 2758 times from its previous home on CodePlex.

Relevance Today

Let’s take a look at the available activities within this Integration Pack:

  • File System Maintenance
  • Multi-Server WMI Query

Since this Integration Pack is a bit different than the rest, I will take the time to explain each of those in a bit more depth:

File System Maintenance
  • File and Directory Maintenance (default)
    • Either Reports or Deletes File and Directory Items for a configurable number of configurable location within a File System on either a Local or Remote Server.
  • Orchestrator Footprint Maintenance
    • Either Reports or Deletes File and Directory Items for a configurable number of configurable location within a File System on either a Local or Remote Server. Seven of the File System locations have been pre-populated with Default values corresponding to the Orchestrator Install Footprint.
  • Report (default)
    • Provides the option to simply report information about the File and Directory Items from the specified File System locations.
  • Delete
    • Provides the option to both report and delete the File and Directory Items from the specified File System locations.
  • Remote Server (default = False)
    • Provides the option to execute the File System Maintenance on a Local or Remote Server (assumes Runbook Service permissions allow such execution).
Multi-Server WMI Query
  • WMI Query Results (default)
    • Returns Correlated Data based on the Results of a WMI Namespace/Query Execution on a specified (delimited) list of Servers
  • Process Info
    • Returns Correlated Process Info Data based on the Results of a WMI Query Execution for a specified Process Name on a specified (delimited) list of Servers
  • Process Counter
    • Returns Correlated Process Count and Info Data based on the Results of a WMI Query Execution for a specified Process Name on a specified (delimited) list of Servers

Usage

Please refer to the available and included User Guides for configuration instructions, example usage and troubleshooting notes.

Download

Click here for the TechNet Gallery Contribution for this Integration Pack!

enJOY!