Set up automations

Automations read and propose; they never change a device

An automation runs when something happens, gathers evidence and tells people. It may propose a fix for a person to review and apply; it never applies one itself. Automations are in Settings › Reports and notices › Automations, behind the Automations switch in Settings › System › Features, off until a district turns it on. Administrators write them; an Administrator EX publishes them.

Build one

1. Choose when it starts: An outage opens, A device answers again, Configuration changed outside Cenovel, or, in the K-12 edition, A testing window is coming (1 to 14 days ahead). For outages, narrow it with Which outages.
2. Add up to five steps: Capture logs, Run a script (a published one), Run a network test (ping or traceroute), Note it on the outage, Tell people (through Alerts) and Propose a fix.
3. Propose a fix offers Cycle PoE or Bounce the port, once per automation, only when an outage opens, only on an access port Configure calls safe, and never on an uplink or a link aggregation member. It needs switch changes turned on.
4. Use Try it to run it against a past outage: nothing is noted, told, proposed or sent.
5. Publish it (Administrator EX).

Review a proposed fix

The Proposed fixes panel lists each proposal for 24 hours. Open in Configure opens the switch with the change filled in, for a person to review and apply with the usual dry run and checks; see Change a switch port.

Limits and pausing

Automations pause by themselves while Cenovel can’t read the network, while a school’s collector is quiet, or when more than 5 outages open at one school (20 across the district) within 2 minutes. Cenovel’s own problems never start one. Pause all can be used by any Administrator; only an Administrator EX resumes, and what happened meanwhile is listed as paused and not acted on later.

See also: Set up alerts · Run a read-only script