Agile Service Management

Automation: Service Manager &

Orchestrator/SMA

Cireson Presentation TeamAnd ready to start today

SETH COUSSENSPractice Lead – Cireson

Consulting Services

Houston, TX

CHRIS ROSSDirector of Program

Management

Houston, TX

Today’s Agenda

System Center 2012 Overview

Integrated Service Management

Building the Core for Automation

User Experiences

Enhancing Native Capabilities

Value of Automation

Orchestrator and SMA

Cireson Decision Engine Example and Demo

Next Steps

System Center 2012 R2 + Cireson

Virtualize, Deploy & Manage

Monitor & Manage Service End to End

Service Management

Data Protection & Recovery

Design, Configure & Deploy

Service Manager

Integration & Process Automation

Orchestrator & SMA

IaaS

INTEGRATED SERVICE MANAGEMENT

Service Management

Service Management is a customer-focused approach to service delivery which crosses organizational boundaries

In the age of cloud computing and the coming age of Internet of Things (IoT), Service Management must be easily extensible, integrated and highly automated in order to continue to meet the needs of the business and respond to technological changes and advances

Third party management

tools

Service Catalog Templates

Workflows

CMDB

Wo

rk It

ems

Co

nfi

gu

rati

on

Item

s

Kn

ow

led

ge

Reporting and data warehousingSelf Service

Standardization

Automation

EmailMobile Portal

Service Management Foundations Building a strong CMDB

User ExperienceInterfaces for enterprise user roles and use cases

FULL CONSOLE

Targeted to key IT support roles:

SCSM Administrators

Service Desk Analysts

Change Managers

Asset Managers

SELF-SERVICE PORTAL

Targeted primarily to end users and “light” IT users:

Incident and service request submission

Request approval

Knowledge search

E-MAIL WORKFLOW

Enables productivity when not at the keyboard:

Incident and request submission and

processing

Request approval

Service level warnings

Incident & Service RequestsFlexible and extensible foundation for core service management functions

TEMPLATED

Incident and service request templates

out of box.

Ability to add custom templates.

CONFIGURABLE

Configure drop-down menus and text field values to match your

process.

Add custom properties and fields with visual authoring

tool.

CONNECTED

Connectors synchronize hardware items and other

relevant info to Service Manager CMDB.

Affected assets can be associated to incidents and

problems

AUTOMATED

Automatic ticket creation via

connectors, e-mail and orchestration.

Automatically close child incidents

related to a problem.

Enhancing Native Capabilities

SharePoint-based End User Portal

Analyst / Administrator Console

E-mail Assignment & Workflow

Common Challenges

Assignment to Individual Analysts

Choice of Work Item Type Up-front

No Web Console for Analysts

Visibility into Analyst Workload & Team Performance

Cireson offers a number of solutions to enhance the out-of-box user experience:

OOB Experience Cireson Enhancements

Analyst Portal

Self-Service Portal

My Active Work Items

Outlook Console

Lync Integration Preview Pane

Remote Manage

Tier Watcher

Group Assign

Affected User

Dashboards Action Log Notify

Learn PowerShell or practice the phrase “Would you

like fries with that?”

-Don Jones, PowerShell MVP

Blue Collar IT vs. White Collar ITJeffrey Snover, Windows Server Lead Architect, Distinguished Engineer, Father of PowerShell

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66cYDdmF9u0#t=64

Value of Automation

Lower costs

Reduce time to completion

Minimize human error

Ensure processes are followed and documented

Abstract away high security operations

Configurable & Controlled Translate business language users understand into IT language.

Requests can be tailored capture info required for manual or automated fulfillment

Role-basedOfferings are delivered based on user’s role in the organization

Leverages your investment in Active Directory

Enables an intuitive and customized self-service experience

SimplifiedService catalog designed for easy navigation for less technical users

Automate high-frequency repeatable tasks

Requests can be approved via web or e-mail

Self-Service & AutomationService Request Management

Automation Compared

Orchestrator

• 32-bit support

• PowerShell execution and PowerShell 2/3 support

• Single Management Server

• Runbook Auditing

• Schedule runbooks

• Sequential processing

• Visual designer

Service Management Automation (SMA)

• SMA is a component in the Orchestrator setup

• Supports requirements for scale and high availability

• Import PS modules and create additional modules and runbooks for existing resources or to connect into 3rd party systems (ticketing system, billing system, etc.)

• Check out the Building Clouds Blog for an Introduction to SMA http://aka.ms/IntroToSMA

A guided tour: Orchestrator & SMA

SCSM

SCOM SCCM AD

CSV/LDAP/SQL (Asset Management

Information) – Cireson Add In

Exchange Connector (E-Mail)

OrchestratorSMA – Cireson Add

InVMM

SCOM SCCM AD SQL/LDAPExchange (Admin/

User)Static Files (CSV, XML, TXT, etc.)

PowerShell v2/v3 and anything

potential via PS2/PS3

VMM

PowerShell v4 and anything potential

via PS4

Connecting SCORCH & SMA

Cireson Decision Engine

The Problem:

Service Manager lacks built in functionality for dynamic workflows that change

based upon questions/decisions that are made at required points in the workflow

process.

Example:

Within your ‘Request Computer’ workflow the question must be asked as to

whether the user travels or not in order to determine whether they need a laptop or

a desktop machine. If the user does not travel, IT must requisition a desktop and

follow a separate setup process than if they do travel, where a laptop would be

required.

Cireson Decision Engine

Solution:

The Cireson Decision engine allows you to use a manual activity within a workflow

as a branching decision activity based upon a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the question

posed at that point in the workflow.

Before After

Cireson Decision Engine

How It Works

The solution is comprised of three customized components Custom extension to Manual Activity class

Custom PowerShell workflow run by Orchestrator on Manual Activity updates

User created Sequential Activity templates

Cireson Decision Engine

How It Works (cont)

Process User creates a set of SA templates that use a specific naming convention to identify

the workflow they pertain to and the stage in the process where they should be applied

User then creates a regular SR workflow that contains the root SA template where

they require a decision

Once the workflow hits that stage in the process, the Analyst can answer the question

posed by the activity as ‘yes’ or ‘no’

Based on that response the corresponding SA template containing the new set of

activities will be appended to the existing SA

Cireson Decision Engine

Pros

Provides decision functionality

Can be added to and expanded by the user without PS/Scorch skills

Very low overhead

Can be easily removed if necessary without issues

Cons

No ability to answer the question through Cireson Portal (Yet!)

Activity must be active for the workflow to run and work against it, so if the Analyst

completes the activity when setting the decision it will not work (custom class will

solve this problem)

User customizable template design can become complicated/confusing for large

workflows with large numbers of decisions

DECISION ENGINE

DEMO

Next Steps

Summary

Service Management must cross Organizational Boundaries and be highly automated

Agile automation is required for operational success

Agile Service Management is the result of the above

Summary & Call to Action

Next Steps

Call to Action

Learn more on Orchestrator and SMA with Microsoft Virtual Academy

Reach out to your Cireson Account Executive or your preferred partner (SI/LAR) to obtain the Cireson Decision Engine for your own use! P.S. It’s Free!

Learn more about the Cireson SMA Connector here: http://cireson.com/apps/sma-connector/

Learn more about how Cireson uses Microsoft Azure to host our Service Manager Environment: https://vimeo.com/120201818

Summary & Call to Action

Questions?