Pipelines to reduce manual tasks and boost productivity

Automations are designed to enhance the efficiency of your IT operations by enabling you to set up automatic responses to specific events on your devices. This powerful tool allows for actions such as auto-installing software when a device is tagged, setting up new devices automatically upon detection, and applying tags when a device joins a group.

Before diving into the technical specifics, it's important to understand how Level automations are different than what might be expected. They are not like Level scripts, which are only run when specifically called upon. Once an automation is created, it is always on and is watching for devices that should be targeted.

Automations have two main components: Triggers, and Actions. Triggers are criteria that Level watches to determine if and when an automation should target a device. Actions are sets of commands that will be run on devices when they match a trigger.

Once created, an automation is always on! Unless disabled (or created without a trigger), they are constantly monitoring for matching triggers and will run the specified actions on a corresponding device.

Video walkthrough

The Automations List

When Automations is selected in the top navigation, this brings up the list of automations. From this page new automations can be created by selecting Create Automation at the top right.

The actions column displays information about how many steps (triggers and actions) are in the automation. Other columns provide details on the number of devices that have run through the automation pipeline, and when a device was last run. If the automation has an automated trigger assigned it will be listed with an Active status, whereas automations with no triggers will show Manual status.

If the History tab is selected at the top, then an aggregated history of all devices run through all automations will be displayed. If History is selected from the three dots, then the history of that specific automation will be displayed.

Selecting an automation from the list will open the automation. Selecting the three dots to the right of an automation reveals actions that can be taken on an automation. Archive will delete the automation.

The Automations page is where you can manage your team's automations!

 

What Does an Automation Look Like?

The following image shows a sample automation named "My Automation - Demonstration".

This is an automation in View mode.
  1. Title, and automation details including status. The status can either be Active or Manual. Active means that the automation is running and looking for agents that match triggers. Manual means the automation has no active triggers and devices will only match the automation when a device is manually assigned to the run through the pipeline.
  2. Buttons to edit the Automation, manually assign a device to the pipeline, and actions to rename or archive the automation.
  3. The Overview tab is shown by default. The History tab shows a list of each time any device has run through the automation pipeline.
  4. The device status pane shows the quantity of devices currently active in the pipeline and their states. The View All link will show which specific agents are active.
  5. The Trigger area lists one or more triggers that contain conditions that can match devices. When any of the triggers are matched, then a device will be assigned to the automation and run through the pipeline.
  6. The Action area lists one or more actions that will take place once a device has been assigned to the pipeline.
  7. Icons representing devices are be displayed next to where they are in the pipeline.

 

Display Modes

The automations page has two modes, View Mode and Edit Mode. The default view mode will show details and history about devices that have previously (or are currently) running through the automation pipeline. In view mode, no changes can be made to the automation with the exception of enabling or disabling a trigger or action via the blue toggle button.

 

View Mode

In View Mode, selecting a trigger or or action will reveal a panel on the right that will show details about the item along with a history tab to show when devices have passed through this step of the pipeline. This pane lists recent devices on the overview tab, and a more detailed history of all devices that have run this step are available on the History tab.

This is an automation in View mode.

Selecting the carat icon next to any device will reveal detailed information about the output and input for the agent in this automation step.

Edit Mode

To switch to Edit Mode, select the Edit button at the top right. Once in Edit Mode, the the view and behavior of the pipeline graphic will change slightly.

  1. A plus (+) indicator is shown between triggers and actions. Clicking on the plus will insert a new trigger or action at that location.

  2. The order of actions can be changed by drag-selecting the six dots on the left of the action. Drag the action up or down to change the order. Triggers can not be reordered because any match of a trigger will start the pipeline, the order is irrelevant.

  3. In Edit Mode, selecting a trigger or action will allow the object to the edited. Changes are not saved for each item until the Save button inside the trigger or action panel has been pressed.

  4. In order to leave Edit Mode, select the "Done" button at the top right of the Automations page.