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Manage workflows with the Service Manager Authoring Tool

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To use a workflow to automate a process in the Service Manager Authoring Tool, you must define what the workflow should do, when it should run, and what information it needs. You can start with general definitions and then refine them until you have details that you can work with in Service Manager.

Use the procedures in this section to create or delete workflows in the Service Manager Authoring Tool. The Authoring Tool provides a wizard to help you create workflows.

All workflows run under the security context of the Service Manager Workflow account.

Create a new workflow

Use the Create Workflow Wizard to create a new workflow in the Service Manager Authoring Tool. After you create the workflow, you can populate the workflow with activities, as described in Adding or Removing Workflow Activities.

Important

All the workflows run under the security context of the Service Manager Workflow account.

The following procedures guide you through the process of creating a new workflow:

  • If you want to create a workflow that runs according to a schedule or a fixed time interval, use the procedure To create a new workflow triggered by a timer or schedule.
  • If you want to create a workflow that runs in response to a change in the Service Manager database, use the procedure To create a new workflow triggered by a database change. In the Woodgrove Bank customization scenario, Ken uses this procedure to create a workflow named AddComputertoADGroupWF.

Important

After you've completed the wizard, you can't change the type of trigger that the workflow uses. For example, after you create a workflow that uses a timer trigger, you can't change it to use a database trigger instead.

To create a new workflow triggered by a timer or schedule

  1. In the Authoring Tool, open the management pack where you want to store this workflow.
  2. In the Management Pack Explorer, right-click Workflows, and select Create.
  3. On the General page of the Create Workflow Wizard, enter a name for the workflow. The name must include only alphanumeric or underscore characters, have 50 or fewer characters, and start with an alphabetical or underscore character, and it can't have spaces. For example, enter AddComputerToADGroupWF.
  4. If you want to add a description of the workflow, enter it in the Description box. Although there's no limit on the length of this text, some views (such as the list of the workflow's properties on the Summary page of the wizard) might only display the first 200 characters.
  5. If you want to change the default values for the workflow retry interval and the maximum time to run, on the General page, select Advanced. In the Advanced dialog, set new values for Interval and for Maximum time to run the workflow, and select OK. The value for the maximum time to run must be more than 60 seconds, but less than 24 hours.
  6. On the Trigger Condition page, if you want the trigger to run at a specific time or at a specific interval, use the default setting Timer, and select Next.
  7. On the Trigger Criteria page, configure the interval at which to run the workflow (either Weekly or Other Interval):

    1. To set the workflow to run on specific days of the week, select Weekly. Use the Start time dial control to set a start time for the rule. To set the hour, minutes, or 00:00-24:00 values, select the value, and select the up or down arrow. Then, select the checkboxes for each day that you want the rule to run.

      Note

      The time that you set is the time on the Service Manager server that runs the workflow, not the local time on the server that runs the Authoring Tool.

      -or-
      To set the workflow to repeat after a specific time, select Other Interval. In the Frequency box, enter an integer value, and then select the type of interval (Days, Hours, Minutes, or Seconds).

    2. After you've set the interval for the workflow, select Next.

  8. On the Summary page, review the settings for the new workflow, and select Create. After the wizard is completed, select Close.

Create a new workflow triggered by a database change

  1. In the Authoring Tool, open the management pack where you want to store this workflow.
  2. In the Management Pack Explorer, right-click Workflows, and select Create.
  3. On the General page of the Create Workflow wizard, enter a name for the workflow. The name must include only alphanumeric or underscore characters, have 50 or fewer characters, and start with an alphabetical or underscore character, and it can't have spaces. For example, enter AddComputerToADGroupWF.
  4. If you want to add a description of the workflow, enter it in the Description box. Although there's no limit on the length of this text, some views (such as the list of the workflow's properties on the Summary page of the wizard) might only display the first 200 characters.
  5. If you want to change the default values for the workflow retry interval and the maximum time to run, on the General page, select Advanced. In the Advanced Workflow Limits dialog, set new values for these options, and then select OK. The value for the maximum time to run must be more than 60 seconds, but less than 24 hours.
  6. On the Trigger Condition page, select Run only when a database object meets specified conditions, and select Next.
  7. On the Trigger Criteria page, to select a Class name, select Browse. In the Class Property dialog, select the class of object with which the workflow will interact, and select OK. For example, select Automated Activity: Add Computer To AD Group.
  8. To select a Change event, select the dropdown list, select one of the options, and select Next. For example, select the dropdown list, and select When an instance of the class is updated.
  9. Optionally, under Add Criteria to this trigger, select Additional Criteria to set advanced criteria, such as when the activity status changes from Pending to In Progress.
  10. On the Summary page, review the settings for the new workflow, and select Create. After the wizard is completed, select Close.

Save and build a workflow

Workflows are saved whenever you save the management pack. In addition, when you save a management pack, the Service Manager Authoring Tool automatically identifies the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) workflow files that are associated with the workflow information in the management pack and builds them into workflow assemblies. (Each WF workflow may have multiple raw files.) The tool builds one assembly per workflow.

To save and build workflows, follow these steps:

  • In the Management Pack Explorer, right-click the management pack, and select Save.

Copy a workflow

Use this procedure to create a copy of a workflow in the Service Manager Authoring Tool. After you copy the workflow, you can edit the properties of either the copy or the original.

To copy a workflow

  • In the Management Pack Explorer, expand Workflow, right-click the workflow you want to copy, and select Copy.
    The Authoring Tool creates a copy of the workflow and gives it a name that consists of the original workflow name and "_Copy."

Edit a workflow's details

Use this procedure to edit workflow details in the Service Manager Authoring Tool.

To edit workflow details, follow these steps:

  1. In the Management Pack Explorer, expand Workflow, right-click the workflow, and select Details. If you're already editing the workflow, right-click the authoring pane background, and select Details.

  2. If you want to edit the workflow description, in the Details pane, select the Description box and enter a new description, or select the ellipsis button (...) to open the Workflow Properties dialog. Select the Description box, and then edit the description.

  3. If you want to edit any of the other workflow details, in the Details pane, select any of the details, and select the ellipsis button (...) to open the Workflow Properties dialog. You can edit the following details:

    • Name: On the General tab, select Name, and then edit the workflow name.

    • Retry and timeout limits: On the General tab, select Advanced, and then edit the appropriate values.

    • Trigger condition for a timer-based workflow: On the Scheduler tab, edit the appropriate values.

    • Trigger condition for a query-based workflow: On the Trigger tab, edit the appropriate values.

      Important

      If you change the trigger class of the workflow while the workflow is open in the authoring pane, any activity details that were set to use values from properties of the trigger class are cleared. The workflow doesn't run until you reset those activity details to use values from the new trigger class. You can't change the type of trigger that the workflow uses. For example, after you create a workflow that uses a timer trigger, you can't change it to use a query trigger instead.

Delete a workflow

Use this procedure to delete a workflow in the Service Manager Authoring Tool.

To delete a workflow, follow these steps:

  1. In the Management Pack Explorer, expand Workflow, right-click the workflow you want to delete, and select Delete.
  2. To ensure that the workflow is permanently deleted, save the management pack.

Next steps

  • To add activities to a workflow; remove, copy, and paste activities; and configure specialized activities to import Windows PowerShell scripts into your workflow, see Add or remove workflow activities.