Administration Guide › Using Rules and Actions › Rules and Actions › Use a Predefined Action Type › Action Types

Action Types

Several categories of action types are available.

Note: When using special or reserved characters in any operation, consider operating system and shell behavior. Behaviors include, but are not limited to, the invocation of custom scripts run by the operating system shell. For more information about shell behavior and how to escape special characters, see the Microsoft TechNet website at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc723564.aspx.

Predefined Action Types

Predefined action types are commonly used actions that are available for you to use when creating actions for your rules. Action types are calling command-line utilities. All action types are listed in a drop-down list in the Policy, Actions & Rules pages of the user interface.

Note: For detailed descriptions of action types, see the Online Help.

Custom Action Types

You can create custom action types using substitution strings rather than typing the full command line. The custom action types are added to the drop-down list of predefined action types. You can control user access to custom actions, in general, or you can control access to individual custom actions through the Administration page in the user interface.

The Run Command Script action type provides string substitutions that let you perform multiple actions on servers. String substitutions provide more flexible rules and reduce the need for custom scripts. The following string substitutions are available:

• %ACTIONNAME%
• %EVENTMESSAGE%
• %EVENTSOURCE%
• %RULENAME%
• %SERVER%
• %SERVICE%

The following string substitutions are only valid for actions running in an action sequence:

• %STDOUT% - standard output
• %STDERR% - standard error
• %EXITCODE% - action exit code

Action Sequences

Action sequencing is treated as an action type and is listed in the drop-down with the other action types in the Policy page. Action sequencing lets you define multiple actions for a rule in a specified sequence and run them as a single action. You can save the sequence of actions you specified with a name and that sequence is saved to the Management DB for repeat usage. You can schedule your action sequences as a job using the Policy, Actions & Rules pages in the user interface. CA SDM support for action sequencing is handled differently from other action types. You can set help desk approval for individual actions running in a sequence, but you cannot set help desk approval for the overall action sequence.

Consider these key points when using action sequences:

• Do not configure sequences that create infinite loops. The action sequence is performed synchronously, but some actions are performed asynchronously. Therefore, if you are expecting certain actions to have completed their tasks when they return, use care. Some actions that are typically long running and asynchronous have a -wait parameter that causes them to wait until their task is complete before returning or after a specified timeout.
• If you attempt to delete an action that is associated with an action sequence, the product prevents you from deleting that action.
• If your action sequence terminates abnormally, it restarts at the last known sequence when the Policy Manager restarts. You can manually cancel an action sequence in progress through the user interface or from a web service.
• When you specify the %STDOUT% (Standard Output), %STDERR% (Standard Error), or %EXITCODE% (Action Return Code) substitution string actions in a custom action running in an action sequence, the standard output/standard error/exit code of the previous action can be piped into the current action. Piping uses the output of the first action as input for the next action. If you redirect the output in your action, then it cannot be piped to the next action. For example, if the custom action ipconfig is redirected to a text file named ipconfig_output.txt, then that output is not available for piping to the next action.