As IT environments become more dynamic in nature, there’s a need to move beyond static inventories in order to keep up in an ever changing environment. We’re excited to introduce a new feature in the 6.0.1 release of the platform that enables automation tasks and workflows to be executed on targets based upon target metadata (currently labels) instead of just a static inventory. The use of labels in the Morpheus platform was expanded in the 5.5.2 release of the platform, this was covered in a previous blog post. This provides a more dynamic and scalable way of selecting targets for either ad-hoc or scheduled automation execution.
The new dynamic automation targets feature provides the platform with a more robust automation capability to better handle use cases like patch management, security remediation, and routine maintenance. In the diagram below you can see that there are two instances with the production label as well as two instances with the patch group 1 label. A label can be selected instead of creating a static list of instances to target when triggering the execution of a task or workflow. The patch group 1 label could be used as an indicator that the systems with that label are part of the initial group that receive patches during a rollout. The production label could be used as a quick way to check for a certain system configuration on all production systems that could be a security issue.
A label is arbitrary metadata assigned to an instance for classification or informational purposes. Labels can be added to instances during and after provisioning. Multiple labels can be applied and are comma separated.
Once an instance has been provisioned an instance’s labels can be updated by clicking the Edit button on an instance’s details page.
The execution of tasks and workflows now support Instance Label and Server Label context types. These new context types allow a label to be specified as the selection criteria for determining which instances or servers the automation is executed against.
The Morpheus platform supports scheduling the execution of automation in addition to ad-hoc execution. Jobs also support the new Instance Label and Server Label context types. We’re really excited about the new use cases this new feature unlocks for scheduled operations that need to adjust on the fly as instances come and go from the environment.
Join the Morpheus community and engage other Morpheus community users to learn more about ways to use the platform. Also, downloading the Morpheus Community Edition lets you fully experience the Morpheus platform including nearly all features and capabilities! Register at Morpheus Hub and try it in your home lab or test environment today!