Command Line Activity Wizard

Article
04/26/2023

Important

This version of Orchestrator has reached the end of support. We recommend you to upgrade to Orchestrator 2019.

The Command-Line Activity Wizard enables you to quickly create new activities in Orchestrator by encapsulating commands, arguments, and parameters into a Microsoft .NET assembly (.DLL). The wizard automatically creates C# source code using the Orchestrator SDK and compiles it for you. Using this assembly, you can utilize the .NET Integration Pack (part of the Integration Toolkit) to test your activities, and then use the Integration Pack Wizard to package the assembly into a custom Integration Pack that can be distributed and deployed just like other Integration Packs.

An assembly can contain one or more activities (commands), and the activities can be one or more of the available command types (Command, Command Line, PowerShell, or SSH command). You define the activity name, command structure, input parameters, and even published data (output).

Overview of Activities in Orchestrator

An activity is a single functional part of an Orchestrator runbook. Activities are what do the actual work within runbooks and are joined together using links that can be defined with conditions to create workflow branches. When building a runbook using the Runbook Designer, you drag and drop activities from the Activities pane into the runbook and link them together to form the workflow. As the runbook runs, it invokes each activity in sequence according to the way they were linked. Each activity performs a specific duty and can collect input data from the Orchestrator data bus, and publish its output to the same data bus. Each activity has the ability to draw published data from any of the activities that ran prior to it in the runbook, and publishing output data allows the following activities to access it.

Activities range from simple to complex. You can create an activity using the Command-Line Activity Wizard that does nothing but echoes text to an output property. You can also create a single activity that performs a complex, multi-step action such as virtual machine deployment. It’s up to you to define what each activity will do. However, your goal should be to define activities that encapsulate single sets of functionality that allow for easy reuse in many different types of situations. The key is flexibility. It’s better to create a set of 10 different activities that each do something specific and be able to use those activities in 20 different ways, rather than create 20 different activities to solve the specific individual scenarios. More information about best practices is covered later in this document.

Create a New Activity Assembly

Create a new command-line activity assembly

Follow these steps to create a new command-line activity assembly:

Select Start > All Programs > Microsoft System Center 2012 > Orchestrator > Integration Toolkit > Orchestrator Command-Line Activity Wizard
Select Next.
On the Assembly Details page, enter a value for Name that begins with a letter and is followed by zero or more alphanumeric characters. This name is used as a C# namespace identifier for the assembly and your activities.
In Assembly file, enter a path and filename of the assembly file that will be created by this wizard. If this file already exists, you'll be prompted to overwrite the file.

Select Assembly information. You can enter information here that will become the properties of the assembly file, visible in Windows Explorer via file properties. The property values are defined in the table below. This information is optional and not required to build an assembly.

Property	Description
Title	Specifies a title for the assembly, which appears as the File description property in Windows Explorer properties
Description	Specifies an optional description for the assembly, which doesn't appear in Windows Explorer properties
Product	Specifies a product name for the assembly, which appears as the Product name property in Windows Explorer properties
Company	Specifies a company name for the assembly, which doesn't appear in Windows Explorer properties
Copyright	Specifies a copyright notice for the assembly, which appears as Copyright in Windows Explorer properties
Trademark	Specifies a trademark for the assembly, which appears as Legal trademarks in Windows Explorer properties
Version	Specifies the assembly version and file version. These appear in Windows Explorer properties as File version and Product version. The version number has four parts as follows: <major version>.<minor version>.<build number>.<revision>

Select OK when you're done entering assembly information.
Select Next. The Commands page displays.
Add one or more commands by following the instructions provided in Add Commands to an Assembly.
When you've completed the definition of your activity, select OK. The dialog closes, and your new activity is added to the list on the Commands page. If you need to go back and edit a command, select the command in the list and select Edit. If you need to delete a command, select the command in the list and select Remove.
When you're finished adding and modifying commands, select Next. The assembly file specified at the start of the wizard is compiled, and when the process is complete, the final wizard page displays.
If you wish to immediately build an Integration Pack from this new assembly, select the Build Integration Pack button, which launches the Integration Pack Wizard and pre-loads the information from the assembly. Then, follow the instructions in Creating a New Integration Pack to create the Integration Pack.
If you wish to test your assembly using the Invoke .NET activity or just skip the IP build process for now, select Finish.

Add commands to an assembly

Add a command to an assembly

Follow these steps to add a command to an assembly:

On the Commands page, you can define one or more commands (which become activities) which will be added to the assembly. To add a new command, select Add.
The Add/Edit Command dialog displays and contains three tabs: General, Arguments and Published Data. Enter a Name for the command. This becomes the name displayed in the Runbook Designer for the activity. You can optionally enter a Description for the command as well.
The Mode property selector contains four options: Run Command, Run Windows PowerShell, Run Program, and Run SSH Command. If you selected the Run Program mode, the Program field becomes active. Select the ellipsis button (...) and browse for the program that you want to run.

Note

The program selected in a Run Program command will be invoked on the Runbook Server where the runbook containing this activity is being run. Therefore, this program must exist on all Runbook Servers where you expect to run the runbook.
Select the Arguments tab.
In the Command Line field, type the command or command line parameters needed by your activity. If your command will take parameters that you want users to specify, you'll need to add them in the Parameters list below, and then use the Insert button to add them to the command line.

Important

If you specified Run Windows PowerShell for the Mode and you're referencing a PowerShell script included with your Integration Pack, you must precede the name of the script with dot and slash characters to refer to the local directory. For example, .\MyScript.ps1 would be specified for a script named MyScript.ps1. This is because the script file will be copied to the default directory for the Integration Pack. When Windows PowerShell runs a script from the local directory, it must specify this notation.
To provide parameters for a command line, select Add. The Add/Edit Parameter dialog appears.
In the Name field, type a name for the parameter that you're adding. This is the display name of the parameter shown in the Properties list of the activity.

From the Usage mode dropdown list, select the mode that you'll use for the parameter. The Usage mode has two choices:

Usage Mode Description

Command Argument Select to use this argument as parameter within your command line (using the Insert button). For example, a command argument parameter named “Folder” could be placed in the command line like this:

Dir $(folder) Note: If command line arguments contain spaces (such as folder names), you may need to enclose them in quotes for the command to work properly. For example: Dir "$(folder)"

Environment Variable Select to use this argument as an environment variable that will be set before the command line is run. It can be used as a command line parameter or as an environment variable within a script that is run.

For example, an environment variable parameter named “Folder” could be placed in the command line like this:

Dir %Folder% Important: The environment variable name already exists in either user or system environments; the command will fail with an error message similar to the following: Item has already been added. Key in dictionary: 'folder' Key being added: 'folder'. You can determine what environment variables exist on a local or remote computer by selecting Start > Run, and typing MSINFO32.EXE. Then select Software Environment > Environment Variables. To select another computer, press <CTRL+R>, select Remote Computer on the Network, enter the computer name, and select OK.

Usage Mode	Description
Command Argument	Select to use this argument as parameter within your command line (using the Insert button). For example, a command argument parameter named “Folder” could be placed in the command line like this: `Dir $(folder)` Note: If command line arguments contain spaces (such as folder names), you may need to enclose them in quotes for the command to work properly. For example: `Dir "$(folder)"`
Environment Variable	Select to use this argument as an environment variable that will be set before the command line is run. It can be used as a command line parameter or as an environment variable within a script that is run. For example, an environment variable parameter named “Folder” could be placed in the command line like this: `Dir %Folder%` Important: The environment variable name already exists in either user or system environments; the command will fail with an error message similar to the following: Item has already been added. Key in dictionary: 'folder' Key being added: 'folder'. You can determine what environment variables exist on a local or remote computer by selecting Start > Run, and typing `MSINFO32.EXE`. Then select Software Environment > Environment Variables. To select another computer, press <CTRL+R>, select Remote Computer on the Network, enter the computer name, and select OK.

From the Display style dropdown list, select the style that you'll use to display the parameter. The display style determines how the user will interact with the input when it's presented to them. The choices are described below:

Display style	Description
Text	The user will be presented with a free-form text box for entering a value
Encrypted Text	The user will be presented with a masked text box. The data in this field will be encrypted within the database and won't be shown in any logs
True/False	The user can select True or False from a popup dialog
Text with Selection	The user can select from a group of Options that you specify
Date/Time	The user can select the value using a Date/Time Picker control
File	The user can select the value using a File Browser control
Folder	The user can select the value using a Folder Browser control
Computer	The user can select the value using a Computer Browser control

If the parameter requires or you wish to provide a default value, type it in the Default value field.
If you selected Text with Selection, the Options field is enabled. To add option values that the user can select from, select the ellipsis button beside the Options field and enter them. Each option is listed on a separate line. When you've finished adding options, select OK.
When you're finished with the parameter definition, select OK.
If defined as a Command Parameter, the parameter can now be added to the command line by placing the cursor at the desired insertion point in the command line, then selecting the Insert button and selecting the parameter name. If defined as an Environment Variable, you must manually type in the variable (in the format %variable%) if you want it in the command line.
If you chose the Run Program or Run Command Line modes, the checkbox for Include working directory parameter is enabled.
Select the Published Data tab. Settings on this tab allow you to publish output data to the Orchestrator data bus so that other activities can use the information.
To add a new published data property, select Add.

If you selected the Run Command, Run Program, or Run SSH Command option from the Mode dropdown list on the General tab of the Add/Edit Command dialog, the following items appear on the Add/Edit Published Data dialog:

Items	Description
Name	The display name of the Published Data item that you're creating
Source	The source of the Published Data item. You can choose from Standard Output Stream or Standard Error Stream from the command line
Mode	The mode that you want to use to select the data published. Use Match Pattern to determine if a given pattern is found within the Source. This will return True or False. Use Extract Group to retrieve each item of data that matches the Pattern that you specify
Pattern	The regular expression that applies to the Mode setting
Description	The description text that displays next to the published data property in the Runbook Designer. (optional)

If you selected the Run Windows PowerShell option from the Mode dropdown list on the General tab of the Add/Edit Command dialog, the following items appear on the Add/Edit Published Data dialog:

Items	Description
Name	The display name of the Published Data item that you're creating
Property	The name of the Windows PowerShell property that will be saved to the Published Data item. This property must be contained in an object output to the PowerShell pipeline during the script and must not be an object (should be able to be converted to a string).
Description	The description text that displays next to the published data property in the Runbook Designer. (optional)

Select OK to finish adding the Published Data item. Repeat steps 16-18 for each Published Data item you wish to add.
Select OK to close the Add/Edit Command dialog and return to the Commands dialog.

Test an Activity Assembly

After you've created an assembly, you can test it using the Invoke .NET activity (contained in the Integration Toolkit IP for .NET) to verify that it works as expected before converting it into a custom Integration Pack.

Test an assembly

Follow these steps to test an assembly:

Open the Runbook Designer.
Create a new runbook.
In the Activities pane, select the Integration Toolkit category to expand it, and drag an Invoke .NET activity into the new runbook.
Double-click the Invoke .NET object to view the Properties dialog.
In the Assembly field, browse for the assembly file that you created using the Command-Line Activity Wizard (or via custom development using the SDK) by selecting the ellipsis button (...) to the right of the field. Select the file, and select Open.
Select the ellipsis button to the right of the Class field to view a list of the individual commands in the assembly. Select a command class, and select OK. Parameters for this class appear on the Properties tab of the dialog.
The Setup field is used only by custom-developed classes using the Orchestrator SDK with the OrchestratorData attribute. For more information about the SDK, see System Center Orchestrator Integration Toolkit SDK.
Select the Properties tab.
Provide the information for each of the properties as necessary.
Select Finish to save the settings and return to the runbook.
Select Runbook Tester in the toolbar in the Runbook Designer. The Runbook Tester starts.
Select Run to Breakpoint in the toolbar. The runbook starts, and your activity runs. Results of the activity are shown in the Run Log pane.
Select Show Details under the activity name in the Run Log pane to see the detailed results, including the input properties and published data.

QIK CLI Activity Migration

If you've an assembly that was created using the Opalis 6.3 QIK CLI Wizard, you'll need to convert it to be compatible with Orchestrator before it can be used either in an Orchestrator Integration Pack or used directly in runbooks via the Invoke .NET activity. The conversion process is simple and only takes a few seconds per assembly.

Important

The install for the Orchestrator Integration Toolkit won't fail if Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Service Pack 1 is not installed, but different operations in the Command-Line Activity Wizard will fail if it isn't present. Ensure that Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, Service Pack 1 is installed before using the CLI.

Convert an Opalis QIK CLI Assembly

Follow these steps to convert an Opalis QIK CLI Assembly:

Launch the Orchestrator Command-Line Activity Wizard by selecting Start > All Programs > Microsoft System Center 2012 > Orchestrator > Command-Line Activity Wizard
When the wizard loads, select the Load existing assembly button on the first page.
Select your existing assembly file and then select Open. The name and file location of the assembly is shown.
Modify the file path so that the changes will be saved to a new file. You can also change the name of the assembly if necessary.
If you need to make further changes to the assembly information details, select the Assembly information button and make those changes. Select OK when done to return to the Assembly Details page.
Select Next to go to the Commands page. You should see a list of commands that were previously defined in the assembly. Review the commands if necessary, and select Next to continue to the Building Assembly page.
Your new assembly will be built for you and saved using the path and filename you defined previously.
You can now use your new Orchestrator-compatible assembly in runbooks with the Invoke .NET activity, or you can build an Integration Pack from this assembly by selecting the Build Integration Pack button. If you don't wish to build an IP at this time, select Close to end the wizard.

Orchestrator resources

In addition to this online reference provided for System Center 2012 Orchestrator, there are a number of resources that can provide additional information on building runbooks, using the Integration Toolkit, and best practices.