Smart Links

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 - Orchestrator, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator

The links that connect individual activities in a runbook are called smart links. Smart links in System Center 2012 - Orchestrator support precedence between two activities. Smart links invoke the next activity in the runbook as soon as the previous activity finishes successfully. Smart links also provide filtering capabilities for the data so you can limit the data passed to subsequent activities in the workflow.

You can modify the smart link condition properties by double-clicking the smart link.

Use the following procedure to enable or disable smart links.

To create a smart link

1. In the Runbook Designer Design workspace, click and drag two activities from the Activities pane to the Runbook Designer Design workspace.

2. In the Runbook Designer Design workspace, hover the mouse cursor over one of the activities, click the Right Arrow, and then drag it to the destination activity.

   A line is created between the two activities indicating a smart link is created.

To disable a smart link connection while preserving configured properties

• To disable the smart link, right-click the smart link to toggle Enable.

  The smart link changes to a dashed line indicating that it is disabled.

To enable a smart link connection

• To enable the smart link, right-click a disabled smart link to toggle Enable.

  The smart link changes to a solid line to indicate that it is enabled.

In the Link Properties dialog box, on the General tab, you can add Name and Description values to the smart link. These properties are not required, but are useful in identifying the purpose of the smart link. These properties are not displayed unless you configure the runbook option to show link labels.

To add a smart link label from the Runbook Designer

• To view the smart link name, right-click a smart link to select Properties.

• In the Properties dialog box, on the General tab, in the Name box, enter a descriptive name.

• Click Finish.

To display smart link names in the runbook

1. On the Runbook Designer menu, click Options, and then click Configure to open the Configuration dialog box.

2. Select Show link labels.

3. Click Finish.

Orchestrator lets you configure conditions for passing data to the following tasks in the runbook. By using link conditions, you can build branching capabilities into your runbooks. For example, a runbook must stop a database server before backing it up. If the database server stops correctly, the runbook starts the backup application. If the database does not stop correctly, an email is sent to the administrator to escalate the issue.

On the Include tab, you can specify the conditions that enable data to flow to the next activity in the runbook. The Exclude tab specifies the conditions that cause data to be excluded from the next activity in the runbook.

Use the following procedure to add or remove a condition to a smart link.

To add a smart link condition

1. Right-click a smart link to select Properties to open the Link Properties dialog box.

   Important

   To change the values that make up the rule, you have to select each underlined portion of the smart link condition.

2. Click the listed activity in the condition to open the Published Data dialog box.

3. Select the Show common Returned Data box to display properties that are common to all activities.

4. Select a property from the Published Data and click OK. The criteria expression is changed depending on the type of data that the property returns.

5. To change the different parts of the expression, select the underlined text, and then either select or type in an appropriate value. For more information about criteria, see Smart Link Criteria.

6. Click Finish.

To remove a smart link condition

1. In the Link Properties dialog box, click either the Include tab or Exclude tab.

2. To select the condition that you want to remove, click to the right of the link condition on the word or, and then click Remove.

3. Click Finish.

In the Link Properties dialog box, on the Options tab, you can specify different link colors on your branches to make them easier to read. For example, you can select green for the Pass branch and red for the Fail branch to identify the difference logic paths.

On this tab, you can also specify a delay before the activity runs.

Use the following procedure to configure these settings.

To configure smart link colors

1. Click Color, and then click the color of the smart link that you want.

2. Click Width of the smart link line in pixels to specify the width.

3. Click Finish.

To configure smart link activity delay

1. In the Trigger delay box, type the number of seconds that you want the smart link to wait before invoking the next step in the runbook.

2. Click Finish.

Link criteria can be created for any data published from the activity that initiates the link. The type of criteria depends on the type of data returned from the particular property. The following sections provide details on the different types of data that activities can return.

Activity Completion Status

When you add a new criteria to the link, it will default to the completion status of the activity. This status returns one of the following values:

• success

• warning

• failed

Each time you create a new link, it creates a default criteria specifying that the activity’s completion status must return success. If you want the next activity to run regardless of whether the first activity successfully finished, you should delete or change criteria.

Binary Values

Some properties return a value of true or false. You can set a criteria of equals or does not equal, and the value prompts you for the two possible values.

Text Values

Certain published data properties return text that you can compare to an expected value or pattern. The following table shows the different criteria that can be used.

Numeric Values

Certain published data properties return numeric data that you can compare to an expected value. The following table shows the different criteria that can be used.

Workflow Control