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Introduction to workflows

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Workflows are a powerful tool that let you automatically act on monitoring data. Create workflows that generate scheduled reports, notify you about detected issues, or even mitigate them immediately.

Eager to get going? Check out the quickstart example!

In case you want to learn about the concepts involved, just read on.

The Workflows app is your entry point to manage and monitor workflows. The app interacts with the automation service via its API. The automation service is responsible for processing your workflows and keeping track of the executions. What are actually workflows and executions?

Workflow

Workflows assemble individual tasks and define a trigger. The sequence of task execution is defined by transitions between them. It defines state conditions to the predecessor tasks. A task is processed when all state conditions (for example, a predecessor task x was run successfully) for its predecessors are fulfilled.

To access the inventory of workflows
  1. In the Dynatrace Launcher, select Workflows

    A table displays all workflows and some of their properties, like Name, Trigger, Last execution, State, and Owner.

  2. Select a workflow in the list to open it in the editor. Alternatively, you can access further actions directly in the table using the context menu.

Task

A task is an atomic unit of the workflow, which is of a specific type of action (for example Run javascript) and can produce a result. Make use of the results of a task for the configuration of inputs of subsequent tasks.

Action

An action is a type of task that can provide a ready-made integration into a third-party system (for example query a ticketing system, send a notification). Dynatrace offers a catalog of ready-made integrations.

Execution

An execution is a runtime instance of a workflow with an optional set of inputs for parameterization. It is triggered either by schedule, events, or UI/API.

To access the overview of past and ongoing execution
  • Select Executions in the app header to access all executions in your environment. You can filter them by keywords, titles, state, or timeframe.
  • In the workflows table, select > View execution history to list execution for a particular workflow.
  • Use the Executions button in the workflow editor.