System Center 2012 Orchestrator — Lesson 2: Runbook Activities, Data, and Reusable Workflow Logic

Learning Objectives

• Build runbooks with standard activities, schedules, monitoring, conditions, and loops
• Use published data, variables, counters, links, junctions, and reusable child runbooks
• Handle files, services, events, commands, notifications, and common infrastructure tasks

Detailed Topics

• Build runbooks with standard activities: Build runbooks with standard activities, schedules, monitoring, conditions, and loops
• Use published data: Use published data, variables, counters, links, junctions, and reusable child runbooks
• Handle files: Handle files, services, events, commands, notifications, and common infrastructure tasks

Guided Demonstration

1. Review the requirement, environment, dependencies, roles, risks, and expected outcome.
2. Demonstrate the relevant configuration, analysis, code, or administration workflow step by step.
3. Capture settings, outputs, logs, screenshots, calculations, or test evidence.
4. Compare the observed result with the stated acceptance criteria.

Hands-On Activity

Create a multi-step runbook with reusable logic and published-data validation.

• Document assumptions and the planned sequence before making changes.
• Complete the activity and preserve evidence of normal and exception behavior.
• Record issues, corrective actions, and reusable operational or development notes.

Troubleshooting Focus

• Separate symptoms from causes and collect evidence before applying a fix.
• Check configuration, permissions, data, dependencies, capacity, connectivity, and recent changes.
• Validate rollback, recovery, support ownership, and user or business impact.

Validation Checklist

• The requirement and expected outcome are clear.
• The selected configuration, design, query, code, or process is documented.
• Normal, boundary, failure, security, and operational conditions are reviewed.
• The result is supported by evidence and the next improvement is prioritized.

Lesson Outcome

Learners can explain and apply Runbook Activities, Data, and Reusable Workflow Logic in a realistic scenario and validate the result with documented evidence.