Converting existing operational procedures into runbooks

Convert your existing operational procedures to runbooks by using a tool that is provided within a sample runbook.

Before you begin

1. Load the sample runbooks as described in Load and reset example runbooks.
2. Determine the Runbook Automation API target hostname (and port, if applicable). The API target hostname depends on the type of deployment you have. See Runbooks API for more information. The API target hostname is the hostname part of the respective base URL.
3. Create an API key and take note of the API key name and password. For more information, see API Keys.

About this task

The sample runbook Example: Convert existing operational procedures into runbooks provides a tool and instructions to convert your existing operational procedures into runbooks, and to import these runbooks. If your operations instructions are already available in HTML format (either provided by an internal website or as plain files), you can use the tool directly. If your operations instructions are available in another format, you need to convert them to HTML first.

1. Click Library.
2. Click the Filter table search field and start typing Example: Convert existing operational procedures into runbooks.
3. Select the runbook and click Run.
4. Set the TARGET_RBAHOST parameter to the Runbook Automation API target hostname (and port if applicable).
5. Set the TARBET_APIKEY parameter to the API key that you created previously.
6. Click Start runbook.
7. Follow the instructions within the runbook to complete the following tasks:
   1. Install the tool.
   2. Run the tool with its default configuration. It is set up to convert some pages from IBM Documentation into runbooks.
   3. Import the created runbooks.
8. Review the created runbooks from within the Runbook Automation Library page.
9. Adjust the tool configuration to convert and import your own runbooks.