Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Designing a Runbook with Visual Designer

Use the visual designer to design and create custom runbooks in Fleet Application Management. The designer provides a drag interface with an option to add code so you can create and edit runbooks more easily. Runbook can be written in YAML or JSON. However, you can create a runbook without the need to author it in native JSON or YAML by using the visual designer.

With the visual designer, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Design a runbook by using the runbook components.
  • Streamline the runbook execution.
  • Configure conditional statements with the condition builder.
  • Configure conditional task executions based on product components, input and output variables, or both.
  • Configure error handling.
  • Illustrate runbooks provided by Fleet Application Management.
  • Clone illustrated runbooks to help you create custom runbooks where you add your code in the source or designer mode.

As you create a runbook, the visual designer validates your work and automatically generates code. You can review the generated code or export it for local development. After you create the runbook, you can save it, publish it, and examine the results on the Console.

The visual designer has the following interface components:
  • The actions pane on the right side contains the Components and Properties tabs.
  • The canvas in the center is a placeholder where you design the runbook. You can drag the components from the actions pane such as parallel or rolling resource containers, and drag tasks into these containers. You can change the order of the components on the canvas by placing them in the order in which you want the tasks to be run, or select actions to configure properties or handle errors.

    The canvas also contains the edit icon next to each task component to view and modify the runbook task.

    To view the automatically generated YAML or JSON code for the runbook as you're using the visual designer, select Source on the canvas. When you update the YAML or JSON, the changes are automatically generated in the designer mode.

Actions Pane

From the actions pane, you can select components to drag into the work area on the canvas. The pane contains the following items:

  • The Components tab provides a set of components that you can drag into the runbook's work area on the canvas. These components are a new task, parallel task container, parallel resource container, and rolling resource container.
    Important

    To add a task, you must first add a parallel or rolling resource container. A task must be inside a container. For more information about the container types, see Creating a Runbook.
  • The Properties tab provides settings to control the conditional statements and configure error handling of the components that you add to the canvas. After you add a component to the work area on the canvas, configure it to meet your use case. Select the component to configure, and then click the settings icon ( settings-iconsettings-icon) to configure its properties and options. You can also see the YAML or JSON code by selecting Source.
  • The Library of tasks provides a list of ready-to-use reusable tasks that exist, or that you created. You can use the drag handle icon ( drag-handle-icon) at the left corner of a task to drag it into the runbook's work area on the canvas.
  • To roll back a defined task if it fails, switch on the Rollback tasks toggle on the Components tab. This action provides a placeholder on the work area of the canvas where you can add a container and then add the task to roll back.

Canvas

After you determine an action to add to the visual designer, drag a component into the work area of the canvas. To change the order of the components, use the drag handle icon ( drag-handle-icon) at the left corner of a component to drag it to a different place on the runbook's work area. This new action is added to the work area and its code is automatically generated.

Keyboard Shortcuts for Navigation

The visual designer supports the following keyboard shortcuts when designing runbooks.
Keyboard Shortcut Action
Tab Navigate the focus to the next runbook element.
Shift+Tab Navigate the focus to the previous runbook element.
Arrow keys Move a component after that's on the canvas. For example:
  • Move a new task component within a container on the canvas by pressing the left arrow key.
  • Rearrange tasks or containers on the canvas after selection when the focus is on the elements' drag handle icon ( drag-handle).
Spacebar or Enter/Return Select a component from the Components or Properties tab, or a runbook element.
Esc Cancel the move of a component onto the canvas, or any action before it's triggered.
Spacebar or Enter Trigger an appropriate activity when the focus is on any of the components, properties, or runbook elements. For example:
  • Place a component at the current position after selecting it.
  • Switch on the toggle for rollback tasks configuration.
  • Place the selected container on the canvas after it's moved by using the arrow keys for the parallel resource or parallel task container components.
  • Place a new task component within a container on the canvas after moving it by using the respective arrow keys. After this action, press the keyboard shortcut (Spacebar or Enter) to open the create task dialog box for the task.