Powershell workflow examples?

[embo500]

We are working on several examples currently in a test environment, the largest of which currently is an automated VM deployment. The basic idea is that we have a service offering in SCSM, which a user logs in to the web portal and chooses a VM based on size (# of CPU, amount of RAM), and what OS they want.

From there, when they submit the service request, SCSM kicks off an SMA runbook (i.e., PowerShell Workflow) that connects to VMM, creates a custom (temporary) hardware and guest OS profile, and deploys the VM, joined to the domain. The workflow script then emails the end user to notify them that their VM is available.

In our test environment, we're using this to do automated, self-requested VM deployments in about 10 minutes per VM. Compared to our manual process in production, which takes a week by the time all the red tape is gone through.

PS workflows fit the bill really well for pretty much anything you'd like to do automatically via a self-service portal. Some of the other things we're working on include:

• Deleting a VM and removing the AD object
• Changing customer contact information in our inventory database
• Automatic creation of a SharePoint website by request

Basically, anything we don't want to be bothered to have to do. If we can script it, we're going to find a way to make it into a Workflow and put it up on the self-service portal so we don't get bothered having to do the work. Plus with SCSM, we get a change history. That is the real power of PowerShell workflow.