The document discusses event-driven automation and workflows, highlighting its evolution and importance in IT automation and business process management. It emphasizes the role of workflows in managing tasks, keeping state, and passing data across systems, while outlining various patterns and practical examples of event-driven automation. The author promotes StackStorm as an open-source solution that integrates these concepts effectively.

1. Event Driven Automation
and Workflows
Dmitri Zimine
CTO, StackStorm
#Stack_Storm

2. About myself
• Past:
– Opalis Software (now aka M$ SC Orchestrator)
– VMware
• Present:
– StackStorm CTO & co-founder
– Mistral core team member
– I don’t ops (but most Stormers do)

3. Agenda
1. High level:
Brief History Of Event Driven
Automation
2. Into the weeds:
Workflow patterns for IT automation

4. Business Process Management

9. VMware
CA
BMC
OpsWare HP
CISCO
Microsoft
BMC
Citrix

12. The Problem is Bigger
than it was
5 years ago

15. More tools…

16. Still…
• Manual operations
• Custom scripts

18. Solution
• Event Driven Automation – with modern twist
– FBAR (saving 1532 hours/day)
– Salt Conf - Event Driven Infrastructure
– Microsoft – new Azure Automation (RunBooks)

19. Solution: Event Driven Automation

20. Event Driven Automation
Actions
Trigger
Rules
Infrastructure – Cloud – Applications – Tools – Processes
{.}
Sensors
Call
Workflows
/
/

21. WORKFLOWS

22. Zoom to Workflow, and Get Practical
• From now on I focus on workflow
• Reminder: EDA != Workflow, but Workflow is a
big part of it.

23. Patterns vs Practice
• ~100 patterns
http://www.workflowpatterns.com/
• Practice – IMAO: only few sufficient
• Workflow do two things well:
– Keeps state
– Carry data across systems

24. Basic: Sequence
...
tasks:
t1_update_config:
action: core.remote_sudo
input:
cmd: sed -i -e"s/keepalive_timeout
hosts: my_webserver.example.com
on-complete: t2_cleanup_logs
t2_cleanup_logs:
action: core.remote_sudo
input:
cmd: rm /var/log/nginx/
hosts: my_webserer.example.com
on-complete: t3_restart_service
t3_restart_service:
action: core.remote_sudo cmd="servic
t1 t2 t3

25. Basic: Data Passing
t1.code=0
msg=“Some string..”
t1 t2
examples.data_pass:
input:
- host
tasks:
t1_diagnose:
action: diag.run_mysql_diag
input:
host: <% $.host %>
publish:
- msg: <% t1_diagnose.stdout.summary %>
on-complete: t2_cleanup_logs
t2_post_to_chat:
action: chatops.say
input:
header: Returned <% $.t1_diagnose.code %>
details: <% $.msg %>

26. Basic: Conditions
t1
t3
t2
tasks:
...
t1_deploy:
action: ops.deploy_fleet
on-success: t2_post_to_chat
on-failure: t3_page_ops
t2_post_to_chat:
action: chatops.say
input:
header: Successfully deployed <% $.t1_diag
t3_page_admin:
action: pagerduty.launch_incident
input:
details: Have to wake up dude...
details: <% $.msg %>

27. Basic: Conditions on Data
t1
t3
t2
t1_diagnose:
action: ops.run_mysql_diag
publish:
- code: <% t1_diagnose.return_code %>
on-complete:
- t2_post_to_chat: <% $.code == 0 %>
- t3_page_mysql_admin: <% $.code > 0 %>
t2_post_to_chat:
action: chatops.say
input:
header: "mysql checked, OK"
t3_page_mysql_admin:
action: pagerduty.launch_incident
input:
details: Have to wake up dude...
details: <% $.t1_diagnose.stdout %>
t1.code==0
t1.code >0

28. THAT’S THE BASICS!
SUFFICIENT.
THERE’S MORE…

29. More: Parallel Execution
t1
t4
t2
...
t1_do_build:
action: cicd.do_build_and_packages
on-success:
- t2_test_ubuntu14
- t3_test_fedora20
- t3_test_rhel6
t2_test_ubuntu14:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="UBUNTU14"
t3_test_fedora20:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="F20"
t4_test_rhel6:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="RHEL6"
t3

30. More: Join
t5
t4
t2
t3t1

31. More: Join
t5
t4
t2
t3t1
16 ways to join

32. More: Join – Simple Merge
t5
t4
t2
...
t2_test_ubuntu14:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="UBUNTU14”
on-success: t5_post_status
t3_test_fedora20:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="F20"
on-success: t5_post_status
t4_test_rhel6:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="RHEL6"
on-success: t5_post_status
t5_post_status:
action: chatops.say
input:
header: Test completed!
t3
http://www.workflowpatterns.com/patterns/control/basic/wcp5.php
Simple Merge
t5
t5

33. More: Join – AND Join
t5
t4
t2
...
t2_test_ubuntu14:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="UBUNTU14”
on-success: t5_post_status
t3_test_fedora20:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="F20"
on-success: t5_post_status
t4_test_rhel6:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="RHEL6"
on-success: t5_post_status
t5_tag_release:
join: all
action: cicd.tag_release
t3
http://www.workflowpatterns.com/patterns/control/new/wcp33.php
Full AND Join

34. More: Join - Discriminator
t5
t4
t2
...
t2_test_ubuntu14:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="UBUNTU14”
on-failure: t5_report_and_fail
t3_test_fedora20:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="F20"
on-failure: t5_report_and_fail
t4_test_rhel6:
action: cicd.deploy_and_test distro="RHEL6"
on-failure: t5_report_and_fail
t5_report_and_fail:
join: one
action: chatops.say header=“FAILURE!”
on-complete: fail
t3
http://www.workflowpatterns.com/patterns/control/advanced_branching/wcp9.php
Discriminator

35. More: Multiple Data
t1 t2
ip_list=[...]
...
t1_get_ip_list:
action: myaws.allocate_floating_ips num=4
publish:
- ip_list: <% $.t1_get_ip_list.ips %>
on-complete: t2_create_vms
t2_create_vms:
with-items: ip in <% $. ip_list %>
action: myaws.create_vms ip=<% $.ip %>

36. And More Details…
• Nesting
– Nothing to say except
– Input and output
– Nested workflow is an action, not a task
• Retries, Waits, Pause/Resume
• Default task policies

37. Recap: Workflow Operations
• Sequence
• Data passing
• Conditions (on data)
• Parallel execution
• Joins
• Multiple Data Items

38. What else
• Other than pattern support:
• Reliability
• Manageability – API, CLI, DSL, infra as code…
• Good to have: good GUI

39. Summary
• Event Driven Automation is coming back
– with a new twist
• EDA > Workflow,
but Workflow is a key component
• Shameless plug
StackStorm is covering it all

40. • OpenSource Event Automation Platform
• Github: github.com/stackstorm/st2
• Twitter: Stack_Storm
• IRC: #stackstorm on FreeNode
• www.stackstorm.com