Orchestrating your Processes

This SQL script will get all none monitoring runbooks whitch are running more then  60 minutes.

use Orchestrator

Select POL.Path, JOB.Id, JOB.CreationTime FROM [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator].[Runbooks] POL JOIN [Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestrator.Runtime].[Jobs] JOB on Pol.Id = JOB.RunbookId Where POL.IsMonitor = 0 and Status = 'Running' and DATEDIFF(MI,JOB.CreationTime,GETUTCDATE()) > 60

https://support.microsoft.com/kb/3096381

Introduction This article describes the issues that are fixed in Update Rollup 8 for Microsoft System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator. It also contains the installation instructions for Update Rollup 8 for System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator.

Issues that are fixed in this update rollup Orchestrator

SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now supported in Orchestrator 2012 R2.

After you export and then import a Runbook, the Password field of Run Program activity is corrupted.

Service Management Automation

SQL Server 2014 Service Pack 1 is now supported in Service Management Automation 2012 R2.

Service Management Automation 2012 R2 does not let you stop jobs that are in the queued state.

How to obtain and install Update Rollup 8 for System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator Download information Update packages for Orchestrator are available from Microsoft Update or by manual download from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Windows Update To obtain and install an update package from Windows Update, follow these steps on a computer that has an Orchestrator component installed:

Click Start, and then click Control Panel.

In Control Panel, double-click Windows Update.

In the Windows Update window, click Check Online for updates from Microsoft Update.

Click Important updates are available.

Select the Update Rollup package, and then click OK.

Click Install updates to install the update package.

Microsoft Update Catalog Go to the following website to manually download the update package from the Microsoft Update Catalog:

Installation instructions To install this update, follow these steps:

Download the update packages that Microsoft Update provides for each computer. Microsoft Update provides the appropriate updates according to the components that are installed on each computer. Or download from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Some use the Orchestrator Encrypted Var, some use plain (JUG) text, some use a password text file and some (like me) use the password XML file..

To create an XML file :

New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential('UserName', (ConvertTo-SecureString -AsPlainText -Force 'Password')) | Export-CliXml Credential.xml'

And to (re) use this semi XML file :

Why should we use Powershell scripts within Orchestrator, and most important of all, why not start just one big funky script to automate a process, instead of all small scripts to do the same ??

Well this question is really simple to answer, REUSABLE...

Small scripts can be re-used by other Runbooks, Create a library Runbook and go ahead :)

We are all aware of the fix for the runbook server to speed up the .net script powershell activity. But did you know that this fix also works for Orchestrator Designer as well ??

Just create a designer.exe.config file in the same folder as where you can find the Designer.exe. 

Just add the the following (xml) text and save the file

<configuration>      <runtime>           <generatePublisherEvidence enabled="false"/>      </runtime> </configuration>

I love Orchestrator... but one thing i can’t stand is the Powershell version Orchestrator is using. Sure i understand why (Windows 2003) but still, all those workarounds to get Powershell V3 or higer working.

This simple hack allows you to use the native Windows Powershell instead of version 2.

Create a Reg_DWORD: OnlyUseLatestCLR with value 1 at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\.NETFramework] "OnlyUseLatestCLR"=dword:00000001

You see this on almost every good :-) System Center Orchestrator website, and yes it will save your Runbook.

How to check if a (returned) entry is blank. Use Smart Link option "Matches Pattern" ^$

When you use child Runbooks (Yes you should), you want to know if the run was successfully or (worse) not. This article describes some best practices.

1. Make sure you stop your child proces with the "Return Data" activity. Use published data like ReturnText (free text for usage in your parent Runbook), ReturnCode (integer for your parent Runbook to start the correct following smart link) and ReturnStatus ( like Failed, Warning and Succes).  With this published data you can dynamically start (or write a log) a following parent proces 

2) If your Child Runbook crashes or stops somewhere in your proces with an error, and you didn't create some kind of error handling, you won't get any published data. In this case you have to monitor (set you fault smart link) the return value of the Invoke Runbook for "Child Runbook status" which will return warning.

3) And last, use smart link to monitor the "Invoke Runbook" itself for crashing.

Well Orchestrator is never intended to be a scheduler. Sure it is possible but if you used it with a couple of Runbooks, you know why it's not.

If you not have something like a Workload planner in your organisation us the windows task scheduler, combined with the  SCO Job Runner.

Sometimes Orchestrator think that the outcome is an array when you try to trim a string

For example, you only want to have the Servername :

record:host/ZG5zLmhvDEucmJhd3N2MTERTzY:servername.domain.net/intern

This string is easy to trim with the following powershell query

($GetRefSRV.split(“/”) | select -Skip 1).split(“:”)[1]

Powershell 3 will understand this, although the native Orchestrator powershell version 2 doesn’t and you’ll have to use a 2 trap rocket to achieve the same…

We all like the password generator from Orchestrator, don’t we , better known as the activity "Generate Random Text"

But sometimes you can’t use all the symbols, although you want use some symbols. Well look no further, Powershell to the rescue

And again, we have some information about the successor of System Center Orchestrator,

How many times did you created something like a text file with a time and or date name, and because the date is 4 September you’ll get 49?

Me (a truly Dutch guy) don’t like this kind notation, I want to have 0409.

True, I do understand that we can do some manipulation with the Format Date/Time activity, but that is just another activity to add to the chain, and we like them as small as possible, don’t we :)

Ever heard of “Nested Functions”???

[Right('0{Object end time (seconds) from "Run Program"}',2)]