What’s new in the Automation Cookbook
Every month we add new articles to the N‑able Automation Cookbook, and I’ve been meaning to start highlighting what’s new. Of course, anyone can go to the cookbook www.n-able.com/cookbook at any time, but it’s nice to showcase some—or all—of the recently added articles and explain a bit about the intent behind them, and how they can help you in real life.
I’ll cover some of the most recent policies we’ve added. Unless specified, all scripts will work with both N‑able™ N‑central® and RMM.
Pre-Patch Prompt and Staging
URL: https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Pre-Patch-Prompt-and-Staging
This automation policy was created to improve the success rate of patching Windows. It starts by deleting old Windows update downloads, then prompts the user to reboot prior to patching. This ensures a fresh Windows environment is available when patching starts. This would be run the day of patching.
Is OneDrive Running, and Restarting OneDrive
URLs:
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Is-OneDrive-Running-NC
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Is-OneDrive-Running-RMM
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Restart-OneDrive-if-OneDrive-is-not-running
These policies are used to monitor OneDrive, and, if required, to trigger a self-healing restart. Note that the advantage of monitoring and self-healing vs. simply running a script periodically is that it provides insight into how often the script was required and what was done. It will also let you know if the self-healing fails, as the monitoring will remain failed after a self-healing restart.
Capturing FortiOS Firmware Version
URL : https://me.n-able.com/s/article/FortiOS-Version
This monitoring script for N‑central pulls the SNMP information for the FortiOS version and reports back on it. This can be used to export that information and make it available visually in N‑central. It could be also be easily rebuilt in RMM by using the same OID.
Is Application Installed and Is It the Correct Version?
URLs:
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Is-application-Installed-and-Desired-Version-NC
https://me.n-able.com/s/article/Is-application-Installed-and-Desired-Version
This automation policy has been built to look for a specific application and if it is the correct version. For RMM, it will return a failed status if it is not matching. For N‑central, it will return the app name and version so a custom service response can be built, and it can alert if the app doesn’t match the desired version.
Note that most of these scripts were built during the Automation Office Hours, so make sure you register for them and come ask any questions you have. To register, click here : https://www.n-able.com/events/office-hours?filter_products=all&filter_topic=all&filter_event-region=all#filtered
Don’t forget you can create your own automation and submit it to the Cookbook by clicking on the Upload a Script button on the Cookbook homepage. This way, you can get your script(s) showcased in our blogs, on social, and more importantly, help your peers and the community.
To visit the cookbook, go to www.n-able.com/cookbook.
If you have suggestions on future topics, feel free to reach out to me by email at [email protected]
Marc-Andre Tanguay is head automation nerd at N‑able. You can follow him on Twitter at @automation_nerd.