Workflow - Allowing multiple instances of one trigger

[AC_Martin_J]

Hi there! 

 

I think the workflows introduced in Pulseway 8.0 are powerful but not necessarily intuitive and easy to use.. My main concern is that you are only able to have one instance of a certain trigger enabled at once. For example "Service Stopped". I get the idea that you want to collect everything in one schematic, but it becomes problematic because you can't create branches directly under the trigger. Instead you have to add something like a condition first, and then create branches depending on the outcome, and then add multiple scenarios depending on what needs to be accomplished.

 

In my case, I'd like to create a workflow where Service X is restarted on all workstations if it's found in a stopped state. At the same time as I want a notification when Service Y is in a stopped state on a specific machine. They are completely unrelated, but with the current configuration I somehow need to merge them in a single workflow. 

• Trigger - Stopped state
  • Condition - if service = X
    • Action - Start service X
      • Condition - if service = Y and machine = 1
        • Notify user via email
  • Condition - if service not = X
    • Condition - if service = Y and machine = 1
      • Notify user via email

As you can see, one of the services (Y) needs to be added twice, simply because the machine may or may not fulfill the service X condition. This behavior will scale exponentially when I add more services to the mix.

A better solution would be to either allow more workflows with the same trigger (and then maybe let the administrators decide in which order they will run), or let the administrator add branches directly below the trigger. In that case it could've looked something like this: 

• Trigger - Stopped state
  • Condition - if service = X
    • Action - Start service X
    • Re-evaluate workflow
  • Condition - if service = Y and machine = 1
    • Notify user via email
    • Re-evaluate workflow
  • If no conditions are met, end workflow as successful

 

One more thing.. Being able to get a preview of which machines will be affected when creating filters within the workflow would help a lot. A short list of 1-5 machines is enough to let the administrator know if the filter is misconfigured.

Edited May 20, 2020 by AC_Martin_J