Run the Runbook Tester in System Center 2012 R2

 Aug 07, 2014

In my opinion, System Center 2012 R2 Orchestrator is the ultimate automation tool in the System Center stack. More specifically, in today’s article, I will go through how to use the Runbook Tester to test the run books we have created. The Runbook Tester is a built-in tool that you can use to check your runbooks and progress of the runbook in different steps in a debugging environment. This comes with separate error reporting at different steps and will help you to troubleshoot the information flow and automation process in different stages. So, for an example, if you build a new run book, you can test the run book and easily debug each step or activity on entire run book before it runs live. More importantly, the Runbook Tester works with the currently logged in user credentials, not with the service accounts. I recommend that you run the Runbook Tester as the administrator for best practice.

How to use the Runbook Tester

  1. In order to use the tester, you will need to ‘Check In’ the Runbook. Run the Runbook Tester in System Center 2012 R2
  2. Then click on the ‘Runbook Tester’ tool as below. Run the Runbook Tester in System Center 2012 R2
  3. When you click the ‘Run Book Tester’ from the tool bar it will load the ‘Run Book.’ You’ll notice that there are 5 sections that make up the Run Book Tester interface: Run Time Properties, Design Time Properties, Workspace, Log, and Resource Browser.
  4. In the ‘Runbook,’ you can then select either the ‘Run’ option or the ‘Step Through’ option.
    • ‘Run’ option – this executes all run book steps consecutively, one after another.
    • ‘Step Through’ option – this executes a step and waits for your instructions before proceeding to the next step.

Run the Runbook Tester in System Center 2012 R2

If you select the ‘Step Through’ option, it will display the status of the step in the Log section as per the image below. You can continue testing your run book by proceeding with all the steps until the end of the run book or you can stop it at any time by clicking the “Stop” button.

Run the Runbook Tester in System Center 2012 R2

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About the Author:

Praween Pathinayaka  

With over 10 years of in-class training and IT industry experience, Praween is one of New Horizons’ senior IT Infrastructure & networking instructor. His vast experience is backed by an Honours in Computing and Information Systems. With his extensive skills-set he brings a thorough mentoring capability to the classroom where he can advise on technical issues and challenges often beyond the scope of the course curriculum. Praween is a highly experienced and very approachable training professional with the ability to establish credibility fast with students at all levels. As a trainer at New Horizons, Praween is able to pursue his two main passions in life; technology and helping others to expand their knowledge and skill sets.

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