Managing automation

The Instana automation framework supports automating actions to diagnose and remediate events. By using the action catalog, you can create new actions or integrate with existing automation through a script, webhook, or other third-party automation providers. You can associate actions with various Instana events and run the actions by using an action sensor on the Instana host agent.

The Action Script sensor is supported for agents that run on the AIX, Linux, Solaris, macOS, and Windows operating systems.

Prerequisites

To use the automation framework on self-hosted Instana environments, you must enable the feature flag for the automation framework

Securely using the automation framework

Before you get started, review the security guidelines, which provide guidance to ensure the optimal secure usage of the automation framework.

Deploying and configuring action sensors

To run actions, enable the action sensors that correspond to your action types. Ensure that the following action sensors are deployed and configured on at least one Instana agent:

Enabling feature flag

To use the automation framework on self-hosted Instana environments, you must enable the feature flag for the automation framework.

Self-hosted Instana on Kubernetes/OpenShift (on-premises)

  1. Enable the feature flag in the core.yaml file as follows:
    apiVersion: instana.io/v1beta2
kind: Core
metadata:
  name: instana-core
  namespace: core
spec:
  ...
  featureFlags:
    - name:  feature.automation.enabled
      enabled: true
    - name:  feature.action.automation.enabled
      enabled: true
  ...
  2. Apply the changes by running the command kubectl apply -f core.yaml.

For more information about self-hosted Instana backend on Kubernetes/OpenShift (on-premises), see feature flags API reference.

Configuring user permissions

The following user permissions are required to work with the automation framework:

  • Configuration of automation actions: Required to add, delete, or modify actions.
  • Configuration of automation policies: Required to add, delete, or modify automation policies.
  • Running of automation actions: Required to run actions (either from event context or through “Test” in the action catalog).
  • View action history: Required to access the Action History, to view the details of action runs.
  • Access to logs: Required to access the log output of actions.

For information about how to configure users, roles, and permissions, see Managing user access.

Procedure

To use the automation framework in Instana, follow the steps:

  1. Enable the action sensors on one or more Instana agents where you can run actions. For more information, see Deploying and configuring action sensors.
  2. In the Instana UI, go to Automation > Action Catalog. For more information, see action catalog.
  3. Associate your actions with an Instana event definition or Smart Alert by creating an automation policy. For more information, see Automation policies.
  4. Run an action directly from an event instance. For more information, see Running actions.
  5. From the Instana UI, go to Analytics > Logs. You can view the output of an action that is run. For more information, see Action output.