Now that you have visibility of your resources, and an understanding of them using insights, you are ready to take action with bots. Bots are automated programs that execute those actions. Bots are composed of scope, filters, and actions.
Scope
Scope specifies the resources the bot will evaluate; the bot will only evaluate resources within the scope of clouds or resource groups you choose.
A scope may confine the bot to act on resources of a certain type or resources contained within specific resource groups or cloud accounts.
Filters
Filters define the conditions specifying what a bot should act upon. There are numerous filters included within the BotFactory; you can also define custom filters.
A filter confines the bot to act only on scoped resources meeting specific conditions, such as the tags the resource has (or does not have), or whether ports are (or are not) open.
Actions
Actions specify what a bot does. Actions are executed for a single resource at a time. When a bot possesses multiple actions, the actions are executed in order. There are numerous actions included with BotFactory; you can also define custom actions.
An action may delete a resource, start or stop an instance, or send an email containing information about the evaluated resource.
Understand Resources and Insights
The BotFactory - Creating a Bot
- Give your bot a name and description. Select its category (security, compliance, best practices, curation, or miscellaneous).
Naming, Describing, and Categorizing Your Bot
- Define the SCOPE of your bot by selecting the appropriate resource types, badges, and clouds/resource groups.
Scoping Multiple Resource Types
You may select multiple resource types for the scope of your bot, but be aware that some filters and actions support only certain types of resources. You will only be able to choose bot actions which support all resource types scoped.
Scoping Your Bot
Resource Types - Use the search box to select one or more resource types. Note that selecting multiple resource types can impact the available conditions/actions.
Badges - Use the search box to select one or more badges. Unless the "Must have all badges" checkbox is set, any cloud with one or more badges specified will be included in the scope. If "Must have all badges" is checked, only clouds with all specified badges will be included in the scope.
Cloud/Groups - Use the search box to select one or more clouds or resource groups.
- Define the CONDITIONS of your bot by selecting the appropriate FILTERS. You can add multiple filters/conditions.
Bot Filters
Bots may have more than one filter. If a bot has more than one filter, resources are matched only if they match all of the bot’s filters.
Selecting Filters for Your Bot
- Define the ACTIONS your bot should take.
Defining Actions for Your Bot
Bot Actions
Bots may have more than one action. If a bot has more than one action, those actions are executed in series, i.e., the topmost action executes first and when it is finished, the following action is executed, and so on until the list of actions has been fully traversed.
Bots may also have specific actions for resources that match all of their filters as well as actions for those that do not.
Jinja2
Certain actions have the ability to use Jinja2 templating in the message body. This enables bot authors to insert a variety of useful data about resources into the message. To learn more click here.
- Choose WHEN TO RUN your bot.
The basic options for running your bot are Reactive, On-demand, and Scheduled. You may choose one or more of these options. Most use cases can be met using On-demand for initial analysis and Reactive for monitoring and enforcement.
Choosing When Your Bot Will Run
Reactive
The bot will take action as a reaction to changes detected by harvesting. These changes are:
- Resource Created - a new resource appears in a cloud account already connected to DivvyCloud, or any resource is discovered within a cloud account newly connected to DivvyCloud.
- Resource Modified - a resource in an already-connected cloud account changes, e.g., you up-size or down-size an instance.
- Resource Tags Modified - a resource's tags are modified.
- Resource Destroyed - an existing resource is destroyed.
On-demand
Selecting Enable Batch Execution will run your bot immediately.
Scheduled
The bot will take action according to a recurring schedule, as you specify:
- No Schedule
- Hourly
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly.
For example, you can specify that the bot should run at nightly shutdown by selecting Daily and then specifying the time of nightly shutdown.
- Save your bot. Click Save to finish creating your bot. After you save the bot, you will be returned to the BotFactory main page. From here, click on your newly created bot to review the bot's settings.
Bot Example: Resource Group Curation
A best practices action is resource group curation. Resource groups simplify cloud automation, management, and permissions at scale. End-users can leverage DivvyCloud curation capabilities to automatically add/remove resources to these groups. Learn more about resource group curation.
Creating a Bot from an Insight
You can also create bots from existing insights. You can pre-populate the Conditions and the Resource Type for your new bot by using an existing bot with those same attributes.
Creating a Bot From an Insight
- Go to the Insights page from the navigation menu; select the insight you want to leverage for your new bot.
- Click on the to the left of the insight name.
- Read the warning message displayed (see below).
- Complete the definition of your bot as you normally would.
Creating Multiple Bots From the Same Insight
Warning! Use caution when creating multiple bots from the same insight so as not to have them perform the same actions on the same resources.
Configuration Required! Bots created from insights require scope and actions be set. By pressing "SUBMIT", a bot will be created with defaults based on the insight you selected; you will be prompted to edit it.
Once you have successfully set up a bot (or bots), you can manage them using a number of DivvyCloud-provided displays and tools, including Listing, Overview (of your bot), History, Scheduled Events, Non-Compliant Resources, and Audit.
Listing
You can access a listing of your bots by choosing BotFactory from the navigation menu. The Listing page should be the default view; you can also select the Listing tab at the top of the page. On this page you can use the action hamburger (to the left of each listed bot) to execute the life-cycle actions shown in the table below:
On-demand Scan
Runs a scan against all known resources within the configured scope. Typically this action is useful when you want to retroactively audit and enforce policy.
Reconfigure
Allows you to make changes to bot properties, e.g., its filters/actions, schedule, and hookpoints. NOTE: if you reconfigure a bot, it will change to paused state. You will need to Resume the bot to change its state to Running. Reconfigure will not allow you to change bot scope. If you want to change bot scope, copy the bot and apply the new scope to the new bot.
Pause
Suspends a running bot. Typically this is done on newly created bots or bots that you want to suspend for maintenance.
Resume
Transitions a paused/suspended bot to a running state. Any hookpoints and schedules configured will be used as the bot’s execution point.
Archive
Permanently disables a bot. The bot’s history and metadata is retained, but scheduled events and noncompliance data are purged.
Copy
Copies the configuration of one bot to another. This action is useful when only changes to bot scope are needed.
Update Information
Allows you to make changes to information about the bot, e.g., its name, description, or category, etc., without affecting the bot’s state.
Save as Template
Allows you to create a bot template from which you can create new bots simply and consistently.
Clicking on the name of a bot (in blue) will open an additional page of information specific to that bot:
Accessing a Bot Overview
Overview of Your Bot
Once you click on the name of your bot from the Listing page, the Overview page opens, providing you with granular detail about your bot.
The Bot Overview Page
Info & Settings
The Info and Settings section displays:
- Name of bot creator
- Bot description
- Bot category - categories include Security, Optimization, Best Practices, Curation, and Miscellaneous
- Bot current state - current states can be Running, Paused, Archived, or Scanning (see the table below for details)
- Active Hookpoints - the number of reactive states of the bot (Resource Created, Resource Modified, Resource Tags Modified, Resource Destroyed)
- On-demand Enabled - shows whether bot is enabled for on-demand execution from the hamburger menu on the BotFactory page listing
- Schedule Enabled - shows whether bot has a recurring execution scheduled
Running
The bot is operational and functioning on select hookpoints and/or schedule.
Paused
The bot is in a suspended state and is not taking action. This state is typically found on newly created bots and/or bots that are in development.
Archived
The bot is no longer in use, but is kept for historical/auditing purposes.
Scanning
The bot is currently performing a retroactive scan of the configured scope.
Viewing & Changing Life-cycle Actions
Bot life-cycle actions are controlled using the Actions button on the Info & Settings panel of the Overview page. These same life-cycle actions can be changed by selecting the hamburger menu next to each bot's name on the BotFactory Listing page. (See the table of bot life-cycle actions above.)
Viewing & Changing Bot Life-cycle Actions from the Overview Page
Actions:Match
- Displays the different actions that your bot takes and the history of the last 5 evaluations.
Bot Configuration
- Displays the JSON configuration of your bot; you can copy this for another bot template.
BotScope
- Displays the particular clouds, resource groups, or badges you are using for your bot's scope.
Targeting Resource Types
- Displays the types of resources your bot is targeting.
History
The History tab for a bot selected from the BotFactory Listing page displays the log history when the bot runs Reactive to events and/or each resource when the bot runs as Batch or Scheduled. The history shows the context of the harvester (e.g., on-demand), the number of resources to which the bot was scoped, the number of matched actions and resources, and whether any errors were found.
Example Bot Evaluation History
Scheduled Events
The Scheduled Events tab displays the events or actions that are scheduled for the bot.
Display of a Bot With a Scheduled Event
Non-Compliant Resources
The Non-Compliant Resources tab displays the resources that the bot has identified as non-compliant.
Display of Non-Compliant Resources
Audit
The Audit tab displays a log (an API trail) of actions your selected bot has taken.
A green check for the status code indicates the action was successful; a red x indicates the action failed. In the latter case, you can click on the red x to view more information concerning the failed action.
The audit will also show who ("Name") initiated the action and the type of action executed, e.g., 'get compliance counts', 'edit', or 'validate permissions' (found in the '"Path" portion of the audit.
Also get same typre of info under system admin/API activity (Sys Admin is EVERYTHING/ANY API call) and audit is specf API tracking for only bot in question.
Bot Audit Display
Viewing All API Activity
Domain Admins can view a similar audit trail as shown above for all active bots from the System Administration page, API Activity tab. The audit shown above is for the single bot selected from the BotFactory listing.