Self-Service Panel
Automate is a module developed for client interaction with the Flexxible support team and is also responsible for the automatic execution of microservices that, due to their particular configuration, need to go through an approval flow or select various parameters before they can be executed.
Features
On the main screen of the Automate portal, there is a section called “Open a Request”.
This section leads to a catalog of available microservices based on the services contracted by the client. This catalog may contain automations for FlexxClient, FlexxDesktop, or even for both, depending on the active products of the subscription.
To access the available microservices, the user only needs to select the available/desired option, and various categories with existing microservices will be displayed. By selecting one of the categories, the enabled microservices will appear on the right:
Parameters
Certain microservices may have different selectable values; for example, in the case of "Get Wifi information," where the user can select the type of information they wish to obtain:
In other cases, the user needs to directly enter the value of the variable for the microservice execution; thus, for example, in "Kill Process by EXE name," the user must indicate the name of the executable they wish to remove from the device:
Approval Flow
Certain requests may require approval before they are executed automatically, as they could have a financial impact, or they may require prior analysis to ensure they can be executed safely. For example, the deployment of new virtual desktops within a DaaS service environment, or the modification of a registry key on physical devices for the specific configuration of an application.
Automate allows for the definition of approval flows for the microservices identified within these cases. By default, there are two types of approval flows:
- Approval by a client or MSP manager: in this case, one or more users with permissions to approve requests are identified within the organization. When a user requests the execution of a microservice that requires approval, the persons responsible for approval will receive an email with the details of the request, as well as the option to approve, reject it directly from the email, or access the request for more information.
- Approval by a client or MSP manager and the Flexxible manager: this type of approval flow is indicated for requests involving the deployment of new resources within a FlexxDesktop environment, where Flexxible is responsible for the service (FlexxDesktop Advanced, Enterprise, or Edge). In this way, the request is analyzed by the technical team before execution to ensure it does not affect the service being provided to the client.
In the image below, you can see an example of the notification automatically sent by the system requesting approval for the execution of the microservice for the creation of a new Azure subscription. In this case, due to the economic impact, the client has decided to include it within the approval flows.
Default Included Microservices
Flexxible has within Automate a catalog of microservices available for FlexxDesktop customers. Within this, the following are included:
- Active Directory (Active Directory):
- Active Directory VM reset Account
- Create AD user account
- Image Management
- Create Snapshot from Template
- Restore Snapshot from Template
- Session Management
- Backup User Profile
- Close user Session
- Close all user sessions
- Reset user Profile
- Restore user profile Backup
- Workspace Management
- Create a set of APPServers or VDIs
- Execute action over workspace
- Execute action over workspace group
- Modify the resources assigned to a virtual machine (Modify Resources Assigned to VM)
- Set maintenance OF/OFF for a workspace
- Set maintenance OF/OFF for a workspace group
- Update a set of machines (Update Set of VMs)
The client can request through their service provider or directly from Flexxible the creation of other microservices to meet the specific requirements of their operation.