HP Operations Orchestration software

Data sheet
HP Operations Orchestration helps reduce
operational costs and improve service quality
by automating routine IT tasks, such as repetitive
maintenance, change provisioning, and incident
resolution.

Slashing operational costs with IT For example, an HP OO customer (NSRI) saved over
$5 million annually by reducing the mean time to
Process Automation resolution from two-three hours to seconds by using HP
With the increasing scale and complexity of OO for incident/problem management. NSRI was also
data centers—including applications, virtual and able to handle the expansion of infrastructure without
physical servers, networking devices, desktops, adding to their support staff.
and storage infrastructure—many IT organizations
Common usage scenarios currently being implemented
have implemented critical IT management systems.
by customers using HP OO can be found in Table 1.
These systems include data center automation tools,
service desk tools, ticketing systems, and monitoring
tools to manage the growing complexity of the data
Create, document, and enforce
center. However, implementing and managing these standard ITIL-based processes
disparate systems in support of IT management Author
processes—such as event and incident management, HP OO Studio is the flow authoring and deployment
change management, virtualization, and disaster tool in HP OO. Intuitive drag-and-wire capabilities
recovery tasks—result in manually coordinated in Studio allow users to design, create, share, and
hand‑offs, which increase operational cost, customize flows with little or no programming skills.
time‑to‑market, and risks to service availability. Studio supports collaboration between multiple
HP Operations Orchestration (HP OO) helps reduce authors through version control capabilities. The
operational costs and improve service quality powerful built-in debugger that allows testing of
by automating routine IT tasks, such as repetitive flows on multiple environments accelerates content
maintenance, change provisioning, and incident development and enables validation of flows for
resolution. HP OO integrates with your IT environment to reliable execution.
ensure minimal impact on current procedures and tools Many IT organizations create scripts to perform standard
while fully utilizing your existing IT investments. tasks. However, they use largely manual processes for
task execution, and there are limits to this approach.

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Scripts for complex processes that touch multiple systems reduces the time to deploy a single change to a large
and applications are difficult to create. Scripts are also group of devices or to coordinate related changes
hard to maintain, hard to share and re-use, cannot be to different device types (for example, server and
validated for reliability prior to execution, and are storage devices). HP OO provides the ability for
not auditable. HP OO addresses the limitations of real-time inspection of step-by-step results and outcomes
scripting by reducing the administrative complexity of of flows. Flows can be executed in three different modes
flow creation and authoring through an easy‑to‑use depending upon preference, including:
drag-and-wire Studio. • Frontline operator: This is initiated in a guided mode
Deploy • Automatically triggered in a self-healing or
Studio also allows users to easily deploy flows. Studio automatic mode: These may be initiated from HP
allows users to compare and promote flows across and third-party systems or applications
multiple environments (development, test, staging, and • Pre-scheduled mode: This mode utilizes OO’s
production). Standard processes can be documented built-in scheduling feature or allows use of a
and structured documentation can be generated to third-party scheduling tool to run flows at specific
support compliance requirements using Studio. frequency and time
Run
Table 2 provides a list of the typical tasks performed
HP OO offers flexibility in flow execution to reduce
using HP OO and the features that support these tasks.
administrative time and increase agility. Flows may
also be executed sequentially or in parallel, which

Table 1: Common HP Operations Orchestration usage scenarios

Incident management Change management Virtualization Disaster recovery

• Service down detected in HP • Requestor creates SM ticket to • User

requests additional server • OO validates approval
Operations Manager (OM) provision a server capacity through self-service portal status on SM change ticket
for failing over from primary
• Alert launches OO flow • Change Advisory Board reviews • Request launches OO flow that
system to destination system
and approves ticket prompts user for parameters
• OO flow takes ownership of
• OO validates health and
OM alert • Ticket
approval launches OO flow • OO opens SM change ticket to
configuration of destination
provision a new VM
• OO opens incident ticket in HP • OO flow executes change system
Service Manager (SM) operations using HP Server • OO checks hypervisor capacity
• OO disables monitoring and
Automation (SA) and provisions additional
• OO workflow performs clustering on primary system
storage through HP Storage
diagnostics and repair • OO flow updates and closes
Essentials, if necessary • OO performs failover tasks,
procedure to fix service, such as SM ticket
validates success, and
restarting the service • OO triggers SA to provision
• O O flow updates HP Universal updates SM ticket
the new VM and configure
• OO flow updates SM ticket with CMDB with accurate data
the software • OO re-enables monitoring
full audit trail center state
and clustering for destination
• OO performs checks to confirm
• OO flow acknowledges the OM • OO flow notifies Change systems
successful completion
alert event Control Board
• OO notifies stakeholders that
• OO closes SM ticket
• OO closes SM ticket DR event complete
• OO acknowledges alert and
closes SM ticket

These are only some examples of how HP Operations Orchestration can seamlessly direct complex IT workflows and coordinate information sharing across
disparate systems and teams.

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Table 2: Process Lifecycle Automation using HP Operations Orchestration

Network Operations Orchestration

Operations Automate change approval, alert/event triage, routine Monitoring
App Center networking tasks Ticketing
Support

Process Lifecycle Automation

IT Systems
Author Deploy Run Report
IT Teams

• Drag-and-drop • Publish/deploy • Visually guided • Automatic audit

studio • Workflow sharing mode trails Event
• Out-of-the-box import/export • Fully-automated • OOTB dashboard Console
System Admin flow templates • Documentation mode reports
• Out-of-the-box generator • Scheduled mode • MTTR trending
integration • Enterprise • Gated transitions reports
adapters security model • Browse and • Built-in ROI
Network Admin • Built-in debugger • Single sign-on search in calculator Configuration
• Direct script integration browser UI • Dynamic drill down Management
import • Out-of-the-Box ITIL Databases
• Version tracking Reports
and control • Custom reporting

Operations Orchestration Content

Accelerator Packs Operations Utilities
Automation Platform
Global Deployment Architecture Scalable Secure Extensible
BSA Essentials

Out-of-the-box content for immediate value HP OO’s reporting feature allows you to create custom
HP Operations Orchestration includes over 3800 reports for executed flows. For example, a user could
out-of-box operations, flows, and integration adapters. run a report to list all flows that ran in a specific week
The included operations and flows offer tremendous and failed. Coupled with HP OO’s ability to generate
flexibility in terms of supporting many different HTML documentation automatically based on the
platforms and products. The comprehensive coverage flows and operations, the reporting feature provides
of integration adapters for systems management unprecedented flexibility to handle internal as well as
products offers the freedom to use existing products external audits.
without major tweaks or reprogramming.
Key benefits of HP Operations
Table 3 provides a list of the important Accelerator
Packs in HP OO. Table 4 includes the list of Integrations Orchestration
with Systems Management tools. • Reduced operational cost: Automates manual,
repetitive, and error-prone tasks so IT staff can
Reporting and dashboard
refocus on strategic initiatives
HP OO provides a built-in ROI (return on investment)
calculator to define, compute, and report the benefits • Improved service quality: Reduces escalations and
of executing flows. HP OO Studio allows users to mean time to repair (MTTR) by automating event and
specify the ROI for each flow; the dashboard in HP OO incident triage, diagnosis, and resolution
Central reports the cumulative ROI from executing the • Coordinated change and tasks across siloed systems
workflow in the production environment. This enables IT and teams: Reduces inefficiency, complexity, and
managers to demonstrate the value of HP OO without risk associated with manual hand-offs
having to use external tools, scripts, or spreadsheets.
The right panel in Figure 2 shows flows executed in the
last seven days with associated ROI values.

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Figure 1: IT process automation workflow
Orchestrate complex IT workflows seamlessly across your enterprise data center.

• Increased business agility: Reacts more quickly to

changing business needs by reducing the time to HP Services
deploy new infrastructure and provision end-to-end
business services Get the most from your software investment.

• New auditable process: Documents and enforces HP provides high-quality software services that
ITIL‑compliant, standardized processes address all aspects of your software application
• Increased time-to-value: Leverages out-of-the-box lifecycle needs. With HP, you have access to
content based upon best practices and integrations standards-based, modular, multi-platform software
to HP and third-party system management tools coupled with global services and support. The
wide range of HP service offerings—from online
• Ease of workflow creation: Reduces administrative self-solve support to proactive mission-critical
complexity by decreasing the need for dedicated services—enables you to choose the services that
development resources to author flows best match your business needs.

An integral component of achieving For an overview of HP software services, visit

www.managementsoftware.hp.com/service
Business Service Automation
Business Service Automation is achieved by automating all To access technical interactive support, visit HP
of the devices that comprise the business service—across Software Support Online at
client, server, network, and storage. Business Service www.hp.com/managementsoftware/services
Automation is an integrated process that orchestrates To learn more about HP Software Customer
changes, from simple tasks to end-to-end business service Connection, a one-stop information and learning
provisioning, across each IT domain’s tools and teams. portal for software products and services, visit
HP OO—through its tight integration to HP and third-party www.hp.com/go/swcustomerconnection
systems management, automation, ticketing, and CMDB
solutions—automates end-to-end IT management processes
by unifying the underlying technologies and teams in
support of the business service.

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Figure 2: HP OO Central showing flow dashboard

Table 3: Accelerator Packs (Flow Templates)

Category Supported platforms Out-of-the-box content examples

Operating systems Microsoft Windows, Red Hat/SUSE Linux, File system/memory diagnostics, service status, service restart, start/kill
Solaris, FreeBSD process, server reboot, clean logs, delete files, health check

App servers BEA Weblogic, Citrix Presentation Server, JBOSS, Check application list, get application state, query server configuration,
Tomcat, IBM Websphere start/stop server, deploy/start/stop application, add/remove user, run
garbage Collection)

Networking Cisco, Network Diagnostics, Web operations Enable/disable CDP, enable/disable routing, remove/modify VLANs,
add/delete users to routers, change interface IP, set banner for routers,
connectivity diagnostics, website health check, find Web pages with
dead links

Databases Oracle, MS SQL Server, Sybase List databases, number of active connections/processes, integrity check
for database/table, database server/tablespace diagnostic, PLSQL
search, Top SQL stats

Virtualization VMware Server, VMware Virtual Infrastructure, Create/start/stop VMs, migrate (hot/cold) VMs, snapshot VMs, get VM
Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Citrix Presentation Server info, reboot/shutdown guest, virtual network operations

Table 4: Integrations with Systems Management Tools

Category Supported systems management tools Out-of-the-box content examples

Service desk HP Service Desk, HP Service Manager, BMC Remedy, HP Peregrine Open incident/change ticket; Update incident/change ticket; Close
Service Center, CA Service Desk incident/change ticket

Monitoring HP Openview Operations, HP Operations Manager, HP Network Own alert, acknowledge alert, close alert, create alert, update priority,
Node Manager, BMC Patrol, IBM Netcool, CA Network and Systems enumerate alerts
Management, IBM Tivoli, MOM, SCOM 2007

Configure and change HP Server Automation, HP Network Automation, HP Client Automation, HP Provision server, remediate server, attach server to policy, add patch to
Storage Essentials, Microsoft SMS, Symantec Altiris policy, approve blocked job/task, start VM create, provision storage
to host

CMDB HP uCMDB, BMC Atrium Add/delete object, add/delete relationship, get topology map, get/list
class, get/list job runs

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Table 5: Glossary of HP Operations Orchestration terms

Term Description

HP OO Studio HP OO’s flow authoring and deployment tool. Studio provides an easy to use interface to
create and customize new flows, debug flows, generate documents, and deploy flows across
environments with single sign-on integration

HP OO Central Includes the flow engine that executes the flows and also provides an administrative interface
to manage users and flows. In addition, OO Central also provides dashboard and reporting
capabilities for ROI and execution metrics for flows

Operation An action and, optionally, subsequent manipulation of the data that the action produces.
For example, an operation may perform the “dir” command to obtain the list of files in a
Windows directory

Flow (sometimes referred to as an OpsFlow) A logically linked sequence of steps; each step represents an operation. A flow can perform
any task that you can program, on any computer anywhere on an intranet, extranet, or the
Internet. For example, a flow may check to see whether a service is running, and if not,
restart it

Integrations Operations that provide the ability for HP OO to work with common systems management
tools such as ticketing, monitoring and event consoles, virtualization, CMDB, and data center
automation. HP OO provides integration with both HP and third-party management tools

Accelerator packs Combinations of flows, typically grouped by platform, that provide the ability to manage
different software platforms and tools such as operation systems, Web/app servers,
databases, networking, and others

Content A generic term that refers collectively to both Integrations and Accelerator Packs in HP OO

Process A non-OO-specific term. May be defined as “a series of actions or steps towards achieving
a particular end.” Processes are modeled in HP OO to create a flow

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Technology for better business outcomes
To learn more, visit www.hp.com/go/btosoftware
© Copyright 2008–2009 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein
is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in
the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be
construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or
omissions contained herein.
4AA1-5782ENW Rev. 4, March 2009