Processes are essential for the smooth functioning of any system, be it an organization or a computer system. A defined and clear set of operations ensures that the output is always on point.
In computer systems, such a collated set of procedures and operations is called a Runbook. It includes the tasks that the system administrator executes for the unhindered working of the systems.
System administrators and network management operators use runbook for this purpose.
Runbook automation, as the name suggests, is a process where the runbook procedures are carried out with minimal human intervention. It enables system admins and NMOs to get through several routine steps with the help of one process.
There are two general categories of runbook automation:
- Incident Management
- Provisioning.
Rundeck is an incident management runbook automation tool.
You can create automated runbooks with Rundeck. You can enable access to selected people within the organization based on their roles and designation.
This helps the organization not to have any bottlenecks and get the work done on time.
With Rundeck, you can create multiple standard operating procedures. These procedures will help the organization reduce the time to tackle incidences as they occur, leading to lesser losses.
Giving self-service access to multiple users reduces the time which would have otherwise been wasted in the ticket system.
Also Read: Digital Process Automation Explained in Detail
IBM Runbook Automation enables DevOps and ITOps teams to automate repetitive processes.
It reduces reliance on manual intervention and simplifies complex organizational processes. This, in turn, reduces the delays in resolving the issue raised and the risk of error.
The IBM Runbook Automation supports varying levels of runbooks. These include manual, semi-automated, and fully automated. The fully automated runbooks are automatically selected by the system, with the help of an event trigger.
It also offers on-premise as well as cloud-based interoperability management and collaboration features.
Azure Automation Runbook Management is based on its PowerShell Workflow.
The PowerShell gallery provides users with multiple options for runbooks. Users can import these runbooks into their Azure Automation environment.
These runbooks contain predefined scenarios that have already been worked upon. This reduces the users’ task to create a runbook from scratch.
It also provides a feature to schedule your runbooks with a start time, expiration time, and recurrence frequency to execute.
Octopus Deploy offers all users a central place to create, manage, control, execute, and schedule their runbooks.
Users can see the changes made to the runbook when it was last used, and also the output of the execution.
The users can then use the same runbooks against multiple environments.
The Systemwalker Runbook Automation from Fujitsu helps you automate the operational processes that were manual and time-consuming earlier. It also helps in improving costs while increasing the efficiency of the processes.
Similar to Octopus deploy, the task history is made visible to the users. The task history also includes human activities such as requests and approvals.
Visualization and subsequent confirmation of operation quality can thus be monitored.
eyeShare Runbook Automation lets us automate repetitive and manual tasks of the operations process.
eyeShare lets you automate all procedures ranging from simple IT tasks to complex procedures over many systems. It lets you have complete control over the process.
It provides you with a wide array of pre-existing runbook templates for you to choose from. It also lets you modify the templates to suit your particular system.
eyeShare enables you to either program routine processes such as disk cleanup. It also allows you to control workflows from your mobile devices remotely.
Conclusion
With a lot of enterprises opting for automated processes, runbooks are gaining considerable traction.
Companies opt for automation tools owing to the challenge of rising costs and ensuring you maintain an optimal profit. They provide quantitative outputs for low cost with consistent quality.
Runbooks enables organizations to achieve just that. Companies can select the runbooks, based on their specific requirements and whichever suits them the best.
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