Runbook Instance Parameter

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

The RunbookInstanceParameter entity represents values from the parameters of running Orchestrator runbooks. The RunbookInstanceParameters collection includes all of the runbook instance parameters from all runbooks in the local Orchestrator environment. You can use the Runbook collection on the RunbookInstanceParameter to retrieve the runbook instance parameters for a particular runbook.

A runbook can have input parameters that are defined in an Initialize Data activity. These are values that the runbook requires to run properly. It can also have output parameters that are defined on the Returned Data tab of the runbook’s properties. These values can be set with a Return Data activity. The type of parameter is specified with the Direction property.

Properties

The following table lists the properties of the RunbookInstanceParameter entity.

Name	Type	Key	Description
Direction	String	No	The direction of the parameter. A value of In specifies an input parameter for the runbook. A value of out
GroupId	Integer	No
Id	GUID	Yes	Unique identifier of the runbook.
Name	String	No	Name of the runbook parameter.
RunbookInstanceID	GUID	No	Unique identifier of the runbook instance.
RunbookParameterID	GUID	No	Unique identifier of the runbook parameter.

Relationships

The following table lists the entities that share a relationship with the RunbookInstanceParameter entity and the key property in each entity used to define the relationship.

Collection	Entity	Relationship	Related Entity Property	RunbookInstanceParameter Property
RunbookInstance	RunbookInstance	Parent	Id	RunbookInstanceId
RunbookParameter	RunbookParameter	Parent	Id	RunbookParameterId

Code Samples

Getting Runbook Instance Parameters using C#

The following code retrieves the parameter values from a particular runbook instance using C#. This example uses a service reference named SCOService and uses the credentials of the current user context. You can uncomment the line that specifies alternate credentials if the current user does not have appropriate permissions to the runbook being started. For more information see Programming in Visual Studio With the Orchestrator Web Service and Authentication and Authorization.

namespace CodeSample.Microsoft.SystemCenter.Orchestration.WebService
{
   using System;
   using System.Collections;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Text;
   using System.Net;
   using System.IO;
   using System.Data.Services.Client;
   using SCO.SCOService;   

   public class RunbookInstanceParameters
   {
      public static void Main()
      {
         Guid runbookId = new Guid("00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000");

         // Path to Orchestrator web service
         string serviceRoot = "http://server01.contoso.com:81/Orchestrator2012/Orchestrator.svc";

         // Create Orchestrator context
         SCOService.OrchestratorContext context = new SCOData.OrchestratorContext(new Uri(serviceRoot));

         // Set credentials to default or to a specific user.
         context.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
         //context.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user", "pwd", "domain");

         // Setup Data Services query
         DataServiceQueryContinuation<RunbookInstance> nextRunbookInstanceLink = null;
         try
         {
            // Setup the query to retrieve the runbook instance. In this case, it’s the last instance to have run.
            RunbookInstance runbookInstance = (from rbkInstance in context.RunbookInstances
                                         where rbkInstance.RunbookId == runbookId
                                         orderby rbkInstance.CreationTime descending
                                         select rbkInstance).FirstOrDefault();

            // Query for the parameters of the runbook instance
            IEnumerable<RunbookInstanceParameter> runbookInstanceParameters = context.RunbookInstanceParameters.Where(rip => rip.RunbookInstanceId == runbookInstance.Id);

            // Output the properties of parameter to the console
            foreach (RunbookInstanceParameter runbookInstanceParameter in runbookInstanceParameters)
            {
               Console.WriteLine("Direction: {0}, Name: {1}, Value: {2}", runbookInstanceParameter.Direction, runbookInstanceParameter.Name, runbookInstanceParameter.Value);
            }
         }
         catch (DataServiceQueryException ex)
         {
            throw new ApplicationException("An error occurred during query execution.", ex);
         }      
      }
   }
}

Getting Runbook Instance Parameters using Windows PowerShell

The following code retrieves the parameter values from a particular runbook instance using Windows PowerShell. The example uses the credentials of the current user context. You can uncomment the line that specifies alternate credentials if the current user does not have appropriate permissions to the runbook being started. For more information see Authentication and Authorization.

# Details of the runbook we want to get
$runbookId = "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

# Create the request object for the runbook instance
$runbookInstanceUrl = -join ("http://server01.contoso.com:81/Orchestrator2012/Orchestrator.svc/","Runbooks(guid'",$runbookId.ToString(),"')/Instances")
$queryOptions = "?`$orderby=CreationTime desc&`$top=1"
$url = -join($runbookInstanceUrl,$queryOptions)
$request = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($url)

# Set the credentials to default or prompt for credentials
$request.UseDefaultCredentials = $true
# $request.Credentials = Get-Credential

# Build the request header
$request.Method = "GET"
$request.UserAgent = "Microsoft ADO.NET Data Services"

# Get the response from the request
[System.Net.HttpWebResponse] $response = [System.Net.HttpWebResponse] $request.GetResponse()

# Write the HttpWebResponse to String
$reader = [IO.StreamReader] $response.GetResponseStream()  
$output = $reader.ReadToEnd()  
[xml]$output = $output
$reader.Close()

# Get the runbook instance Id which we need for the next request
$runbookInstanceId = $output.feed.entry.content.properties.id.innertext

# Create the request object for the parameters
$parameterUrl = -join ("http://server01.contoso.com:81/Orchestrator2012/Orchestrator.svc/","RunbookInstances(guid'",$runbookInstanceId.ToString(),"')/Parameters")
$request = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($parameterUrl)

# Set the credentials to default or prompt for credentials
$request.UseDefaultCredentials = $true
# $request.Credentials = Get-Credential

# Build the request header
$request.Method = "GET"
$request.UserAgent = "Microsoft ADO.NET Data Services"

# Get the response from the request
[System.Net.HttpWebResponse] $response = [System.Net.HttpWebResponse] $request.GetResponse()

# Write the HttpWebResponse to String
$reader = [IO.StreamReader] $response.GetResponseStream()  
$output = $reader.ReadToEnd()  
[xml]$output = $output
$reader.Close()

# Output properties of each parameter
foreach ($parameter in $output.feed.entry)
{
    Write-Host "Direction: " $parameter.content.properties.Direction
    Write-Host "Name: " $parameter.content.properties.Name
    Write-Host "Value: " $parameter.content.properties.Value
}

See Also

Concepts

Programming Using the Orchestrator Web Service
OData Queries Using the Orchestrator Web Service