Remediation Management › Create Remediation Profiles

Create Remediation Profiles

CA Configuration Automation enables you to use Remediation to change server or service component attributes by running a Remediation Job or making the change immediately. Remediation changes can be made to the following components:

• Registry keys and values located in the Managed folder.
• Parameter values located in the Configuration folder.
• Values returned by a macro step being executed. A macro step is a special set of Component Blueprint directives that perform utility and diagnostic operations. Each macro step returns a status and a value that is either extracted directly from the tree view of a server, component, or service or by Agent interrogation.

Each attribute change added to a Remediation Profile is considered a step. Remediation Profiles can include multiple steps. When the profile is specified by a Profile Job, the steps can be performed on one server, one step performed on multiple servers, or multiple steps performed on multiple servers.

Additionally, macro steps can be added to a Remediation Profile from elements contained in the Component Blueprints, Macro folder. When you click an element in the Macro folder, the Macro attribute sheet is displayed. Macros can be used to perform steps like stopping a service before making Remediation changes, and then restarting it after the changes are made. For example, WebLogic caches its config.xml file when it is running, and then writes the cached file to disk when it is shut down. If you make changes to the config.xml file using CA Configuration Automation without stopping WebLogic, your changes will be overwritten when WebLogic stopped and writes the cached file to disk.

To avoid this problem, you can create a Remediation job that includes a macro that stops WebLogic as the first step, makes the desired changes in subsequent steps, and then runs another macro that starts WebLogic as the final step.

Note:  Some configuration files cannot be modified using Remediation (for example, listener.ora). To disable Remediation on these files, an Allow Remediation Jobs option has been added to the Class attribute sheet. By default, these files have this option set to No to prevent Remediation changes. To check if a file can be modified using Remediation, go to Blueprints, Structure Classes, select a file, then select Edit/View Structure Class to display the Class attribute sheet. If the Allow Remediation Jobs option is set to Yes, you can modify the file using Remediation.

The following section describes how to perform a simple, immediate attribute change using Remediation manually. The section that follows it describes creating a multi-step Remediation job that can include macro and Remediation job steps, and can be scheduled and managed as a job.

To create a Remediation Profile

1. Click the Management link, then click the Remediation tab.

   The Remediation tab page appears.

2. Click the Profile link (below the main tabs)

   The Remediation Profile page appears and lists all existing profiles in the Remediation Profiles table.

3. Select Create Remediation Profile from the Table Actions drop-down list.

   The Profile page of the Create Remediation Profile wizard appears.

4. Enter the following information in the corresponding field, then click Next:

   Name

   Specifies the name of the profile

   Description

   Describes the function or purpose of the profile.

   The Steps page appears.

5. Select Create Step from the Table Actions drop-down list.

   The software components known to CA Configuration Automation are listed in the Components pane.

6. Navigate the components tree and click the element whose value you want to remediate.

   The Details pane displays the selected element in the Name field, and Update is displayed in the Action field.

7. Enter the appropriate information in the corresponding field, then click Add Step:

   New Value

   Specifies the value that is assigned to the selected element.

   Change Description

   Describes the change being made by the Remediation Profile.

   Fail if Expected Value Not Equal to Actual Value

   Specifies whether the change is allowed to fail instead of completing when the differences in the values affect the current change.

   This is important because the value stored in the CA Configuration Automation Database may not be the actual value on the server if the value has changed and the component has not been refreshed since the change. Having the operation fail lets you investigate and evaluate the differences before re-running the Remediation Job.

   Stop If Step Failed On Target Server

   Specifies whether the Remediation Job associated with this profile stops if this step fails.

   A message confirms that the step was created.

8. Click the Servers link (above the Details fields).

   A pie chart appears above the Summary table.

   • The pie chart shows the total number of servers where the component is present. It divides the total into segments where the selected configuration setting has the same value. You can mouse-over a segment to display the value associated with the represented servers.
   • The Summary table lists the colors that represent the servers in the pie chart, the value of the selected setting, and the number of servers where the component is present.
9. Do one of the following:
   • Repeat steps 6 through 8 if you want to add additional steps.
   • Click Done Adding Steps.

   The newly-created step appears in the Steps table.

10. (Optional) Reorder the steps using one of the following options:
    • Click the check box next to the step you want to move, then select Move Step Up or Move Step Down from the Select actions drop-down list.
    • Click the check box next to the step you want to move, then click the up- or down-facing arrow to the right of the table to move the step up or down.
11. Click Finish.

    The profile appears in the Remediation Profiles table.