Self-Service Panel

Automate is a module developed for the interaction of the client 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 workflow or the selection of various parameters before they can be executed.

Features

On the main screen of the Automate portal, there's a section called “Open a Request”.

This section leads to a catalog of microservices available based on the services contracted by the client. This catalog may contain automations for FlexxClient, FlexxDesktop, or even both, depending on the active subscription products.

To access the available microservices, the user only needs to select the available/desired option and the different categories with the existing microservices will be displayed. By selecting one of the categories, the enabled microservices for it 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 want to obtain:

In other cases, it is necessary for the user to directly enter the variable value of the microservice execution; for example, in “Kill Process by EXE name” it will be the user who must indicate the name of the executable they want to remove from the computer:

Approval Workflow

Certain requests may require approval before they can be executed automatically, as they may have a financial impact, or perhaps 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 machines for specific application configuration.

Automate allows approval workflows to be defined for the microservices identified within that casuistry. By default, there are two types of approval flows:

• Approval by a client or MSP manager: in this case, one or more users within the organization with permissions to approve requests are identified. When a user requests the execution of a microservice that requires approval, the approvers will receive an email indicating the details of the request, as well as the possibility 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 where new resources are deployed 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 provided to the client.

The image below shows an example of the notification automatically sent by the system requesting approval for the execution of the microservice to create a new Azure subscription. In this case, given the economic impact, the client has decided to include it within the approval flows.

Default Microservices Included

Flexxible has an Automate catalog of microservices available to FlexxDesktop customers. The following are included:

• 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 Resources Assigned to VM
  • Set maintenance OF/OFF for a workspace
  • Set maintenance OF/OFF for a workspace group
  • Update Set of VMs

The client can request through their service provider or directly to Flexxible the creation of other microservices to meet the specific requirements of their operation.