This book provides you with an introduction to the Microsoft automation solutions: Azure Automation and Service Management Automation. Throughout the chapters, the text explores these tools and how they can be used to meet the automation needs of your Microsoft Azure cloud solutions or your enterprise datacenter environments. We provide considerations on the features of each solution, and how they can be architected to fit your needs. Next, the text explores the interfaces you will use to interact with the solutions, including the web-based portals, Windows PowerShell command-line interaction, and programmatic access via the web services. The text then covers how you implement and manage automation using runbooks, assets, and Integration Modules, along with how you can use a source control system to manage runbook content. Finally, some examples of automation scenarios are discussed, providing you with samples that can be used to speed development in your own solution.

Part of a series of specialized guides on System Center - this book delivers a focused drilldown into designing runbooks for Orchestrator workflow management solutions. Series editor Mitch Tulloch and a team of System Center experts provide concise technical guidance as they step you through key design concepts, criteria, and tasks.

Part of a series of specialized guides on System Center - this book shares real-world expertise for using Configuration Manager capabilities to deliver more effective IT services. Series editor Mitch Tulloch and a team of System Center experts provide concise technical guidance as they step you through key deployment and management scenarios.

Part of a series of specialized guides on System Center - this book provides focused drilldown into building a virtualized network solution. Series editor Mitch Tulloch and a team of System Center experts provide concise technical guidance as they step you through key build, configuration, and implementation tasks.

Microsoft Azure Essentials from Microsoft Press is a series of free ebooks designed to help you advance your technical skills with Microsoft Azure. The second ebook in the series, Microsoft Azure Essentials: Azure Automation, introduces a fairly new feature of Microsoft Azure called Azure Automation. Using a highly scalable workflow execution environment, Azure Automation allows you to orchestrate frequent deployment and life cycle management tasks using runbooks based on Windows PowerShell Workflow functionality. These runbooks are stored in and backed up by Azure. By automating runbooks, you can greatly minimize the occurrence of errors when carrying out repeated tasks and process automation. Watch Microsoft Press’s blog and Twitter (@MicrosoftPress) to learn about other free ebooks in the Microsoft Azure Essentials series.

Part of a series of specialized guides on System Center - this book provides focused guidance for deploying and customizing Service Manager, an integrated platform for automating and adapting an organization’s IT service management best practices. Led by series editor Mitch Tulloch, a team of System Center experts step you through key technical scenarios and tasks.

The System Center Operations Manager data warehouse stores many objects, making it possible to report on performance, availability, configuration, and security. You can use data collected by Operations Manager for issue tracking, awareness, planning, and forecasting, all of which are important factors for maintaining and managing your environment. But understanding what to report on and how to do so is what actually contributes to the stability of your infrastructure. If you're not using the data you collect about your environment, you're simply wasting space. If you use Operations Manager to monitor your environment, whether your infrastructure or a public, private, or hybrid cloud, this book is a good resource to help you understand the basics of reporting and how to build queries and stored procedures for your reports. It can also help you understand the various elements of Operations Manager management packs that are used when you create reports.