Load and reset example runbooks

Load ready-to-go sample runbooks to explore what you can do with runbooks.

Warning: If you want to edit a sample runbook and adjust it to your requirements, or if you are considering publishing a modified sample runbook to use in production, it is recommended to first create a copy of the sample runbooks and then edit and publish the copy. Similarly, if the sample runbook uses an automated step, then create a copy of the automation action and use that copy within your new runbook. This is to avoid losing your work (or even disrupting production) if somebody deletes or reloads the sample runbooks.

  1. Click the navigation icon at the upper-left corner of the screen to go to the main navigation menu.

  2. In the main navigation menu, click Integrations.

  3. Ensure that a connection of type "SSH" has been configured. If not, you can configure it now (with default values).

  4. From the main navigation menu, click Operate > Automations.

  5. Click Runbooks.

    The Library tab is displayed by default.

Load sample runbooks

Load all pre-defined examples. You can also edit the example runbooks and create new versions.

  1. Click Load sample runbooks Load sample runbooks on the upper right of the window (beside the Create runbook button) and select Load sample runbooks.

  2. The sample runbooks are shown in the Library page. The runbooks will show up for Operators if they are published. The samples are marked by the text "Example:".

  3. Click Preview to view the runbook and see what it does.

  4. Click Run to run your first runbook. For more information about how to run a runbook, see Run your first runbook.

Sample runbooks with special administrative use cases

Some of the following sample runbooks go beyond just illustrating the features of runbooks:

  • Example: Convert existing operational procedures into runbooks: This runbook explains how to convert your existing operational procedures into runbooks. It covers file based procedures and web/wiki based procedures.

  • Example: Import runbooks from an existing runbook deployment: Provides instructions on how to export runbooks from one deployment and import them to another deployment. It uses the RBA API for both operations.

  • Example: Reduce amount of data in runbook data stores and its automated variant Example: Automatically reduce amount of data in runbook data stores: Offload runbook execution data into a secondary data store for auditing or long-term storage purposes. This will delete that data from the production data store to ensure less disc space usage and faster response times on the active system.

  • Example: Add new SSH key to target systems and Example: Remove old SSH key from target systems: These sample runbooks assist you during deployment migration. As part of the migration, you must install the SSH key of the new deployment to all target systems that were previously reached from the old deployment, using that old deployment's SSH key. This is a prerequisite step when you plan to migrate your runbooks and script actions from the old deployment to the new deployment. For more details, see Installing new SSH key during migration.

  • Example: Using the alerts API (basic) and Example: Using the alerts API (advanced): These sample runbooks demonstrate how you can create actions that use the Issue Resolution API to get and modify alerts. You can reference these actions within new custom menu items in the Alert Viewer as described in Working with alerts and menu customization to extend the built-in capabilities for managing alerts.

    As the Issue Resolution API is one of the supported IBM Cloud Pak® for AIOps APIs for HTTP actions, authentication is handled automatically provided that they are being run manually. For more information about automatic authentication, see the API endpoint section in Creating HTTP actions.

  • Example: Expand Kafka broker storage (troubleshoot Cloud Pak for AIOps cluster): This runbook assists in analyzing the Kafka broker's health, and in particular in getting the current size of storage that is available to the Kafka broker. If needed it assists in expanding the Kafka broker related storage. See also the related troubleshooting documentation, Kafka broker pods are unhealthy because Kafka PVCs are full.

Reset sample runbooks

Follow these steps if you edited the examples and would like to reload the original version, or if you have upgraded to a new version and want to get the latest versions of the examples:

  • Open the runbook Library page.
  • Open the Reload sample runbooks Reload sample runbooks menu.
  • Select Delete sample runbooks and wait for the sample runbooks to be deleted.
  • Open the Load sample runbooks Load sample runbooks menu.
  • Select the Load sample runbooks menu item and wait for the sample runbooks to be loaded.

Convert a sample runbook to a regular runbook

To save a sample runbook as a regular runbook:

  1. On the runbook that you want to convert, click the menu overflow icon (the three dots at the end of the row) and select Copy runbook.

  2. Change the runbook name. You can optionally update the description.

  3. Click Save.

    After saving, the runbook will no longer be tagged as an example.

  4. If the sample runbook references an action, then you need to create a "deep copy" manually:

    • Navigate to the Actions table and select the referenced sample action.
    • Copy the sample action and modify its name so you can identify the copy.
    • Edit the copy of the sample runbook, and replace the reference to the original sample action with a reference to your new copy of the sample action.

Delete sample runbooks

  1. Click Load sample runbooks Load sample runbooks and select Delete sample runbooks.

  2. Confirm that you want to delete the sample runbooks from the Library page.