Custom WorkFlow

Introduction

Custom Workflow is used to automate multiple actions on different BizTalk Artifacts at the same time in a single task configuration.

At times maintenance needs to be held for various reasons, such as application deployment, Windows patch updates, or infrastructure configuration upgrades. During the scheduled maintenance, administrators need to perform multiple tasks based on their BizTalk architecture model and business requirements. Disabling the host instances, receive location, and stopping the send ports, or enlisting the orchestrations are possible tasks. These tasks must be carried out according to a specific workflow. To handle this situation, administrators can schedule Automated Tasks – Custom Workflow or invoke the BizTalk360 Custom Workflow Tasks API Method from their BizTalk Automation framework, like Azure DevOps Pipeline, during application deployment or patching.

You can automate multiple actions by creating multiple steps. In each step, you can configure what action needs to be performed on which artifacts.

BizTalk360 Automated Tasks Custom workflow allows you to operate on the below Artifacts

1. Receive Location - Enable/Disable 
2. Send Ports - Start, Stop, Enlist, UnEnlist 
3. Send Port Group - Start, Stop, Enlist, UnEnlist 
4. Orchestration - Start, Stop,Enlist,UnEnlist 
5. Host Instances - Start/Stop/Restart/Enable/Disable 

Custom Workflow Task Configuration 

1. Navigate to Environment Settings->Automated Task ->New Task Configuration 
2. In The New Task Configuration select Custom Workflow which will open the task configuration blade  
3. Add the Task Name and Description 
4. Task Type - Custom Workflow will be chosen by default, which you cant edit
5. Enable/Disable the task for execution. By default, the task execution will be enabled
6. Run this task immediately after saving - Enable this option to run the task immediately after saving the task configuration. However, the same task will execute again during the scheduled time.
7. Add WorkFlow Step- The workflow step can be created for Application Artifacts, Alarm, and Powershell Script. Multiple actions can be triggered by creating multiple flows. you can create an up-to a maximum of 10 flows.
   1. Artifact Flow
      1. This flow helps to take action on Application artifacts and Host instances
      2. Select the artifact type from the list and choose actual artifacts that need to be operated, and the action you wish to perform on the selected artifacts
   2. Alarm Flow 
      1.  This flow helps to take automatic action on Alarms
      2. Select one or more alarms from the list and map the action to be taken say enable or disable 
   3. Powershell Script
      1. This flow helps to execute the PowerShell script on local or remote servers
      2. Enter the server name in which the script needs to execute and enter the script name, this may be the friendly name. In the script field enter the actual script you wish to execute
8. Execute the next workflow step, even if the previous step fails - Enable this if you want to continue executing all the workflow steps even though any steps fail in between 
9. Follow this article for Schedule Configuration
10. Notification Configuration - Enable the channels in which you wish to get notified about the actions performed on Application Artifacts.

The below gif image goes through to configuring the Custom Workflow task to stop the specific ports and host instances during maintenance.

Alarm Configuration Conflict

If the artifacts you are trying to take action through the custom workflow are already mapped with a monitoring alarm with auto correction enabled, then an indication will be prompted to notify this during workflow configuration. You can decide whether you want to continue the configuration or you want to disable the alarm during the task execution.