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What is Runbook Automation?

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What do you do when you get a flat tire?

Have you ever been surprised by a flat tire, driving your car in the middle of nowhere? Or even worse, has your back tire blown out as you drove in the far left lane of an eight-lane freeway in heavy traffic?   Now let’s assume your cell phone battery is dead, and you can’t make a call. What would you do? Do you know how to change the tire to a spare? Would you know how far that spare can take you and how close the nearest mechanic is?

Many of us can relate to that feeling of helplessness and pressure in situations like these. It’s easy to imagine how we would react. (I’ve unfortunately experienced both scenarios, but my reaction would be inappropriate to share here). But what if the situation was not that dire? Maybe the low oil pressure light comes on while you’re on a road trip, or your tire pressure alert light shows you’re low. This can be a simple problem for a veteran driver, but a teenager with a new driver’s license may not know exactly what to do without some guidance. (I know my teenagers would have no clue how to put air into a tire without Youtube access).

These situations can be compared to common IT operations problems we face every day – both mundane and severe. How are your level 1 operators equipped to react to an outage? How do they take care of everyday situations like an application slowdown, or an alert that a file system is full?

Would they react like a car care expert would to a tire blowout, or like a teenager would Most operators I’ve talked to in a network operations center (NOC) or a data center know how to ping a device when an outage alert occurs. But not all of them are confident about what to do when certain file systems are full.

That’s where Runbook Automation comes in. It has the ability to provide guidance for problems big and small, and to help remove the ambiguity when a typical IT event occurs. Runbooks are nothing new. They have existed for years in static form to inform operations teams on which procedures to follow for certain tasks. But traditional runbooks are static, and do not always get updated. So just like many well-intended efforts, they are not used as widely as anticipated or what they cover is limited.

Most organizations need a more dynamic approach.   They need to trigger a runbook based on conditions or the types of events occurring – not just a static, one-size-fits-all set of steps. While a static set of steps may be good for an instructional Youtube video on filling your tires with air,it may not be the most useful option for IT operations issues.

That’s where automation comes in.   Most IT teams want automation at each step of the cycle: 1) The automated event-triggering of runbooks; 2) automated matching of event types with relevant guidance; 3) pre-set automated scripts and commands within the runbook steps; and 4) execution of deeper diagnosis and resolution of problems.

Getting to this level of automation is usually a progression.   Unless everyone on your team is the IT equivalent of a stock car pit crew captain, figuring out the progression path to automation is your next step. We have some tips (and even Youtube videos) to get you started. Are you ready to automate? Check out more about how IBM can help here.

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