Automate common workflows

Use Workflow Automation and App Builder to automate end-to-end processes. Integrate them with Datadog’s Service Catalog to enable dynamic and self-service workflows.

Create software template workflows using Cookiecutter

To use software templates in Datadog, create a git repository with the desired template. Then, navigate to the Workflow Automation page to configure the template in Datadog. A common choice for templating is Cookiecutter, an open source project for project templates and auto-generating new projects. Check out this gist for a quick-start guide, or complete the following steps.

1. Create a workflow for your template:

   • From the Workflow Automation page, click New Workflow.
   • Enter a name, add relevant tags, and define the input parameters you want to collect from users.

2. Configure the templating workflow:

   • Use GitHub, Gitlab, or HTTP workflow actions to retrieve your template files.
   • Use Cookiecutter to generate the project files from the template.
     • Tip: Create and invoke an AWS lambda function to generate the project with Cookiecutter.
   • Use GitHub, Gitlab, or HTTP workflow actions to upload the project files to the repository.
   • Save the workflow.

3. Create your templating app:

   • Navigate to Service Mgmt > App Builder and select New App.
   • Enter a name and description, and use the drag-and-drop editor to create a form that collects the required parameters for your template.
   • Select New Query, and use the Trigger workflow action to call your templating workflow and pass in the relevant parameters.
   • Create a Button that submits the form, triggers your workflow, and passes in the parameters for the template.
   • Save and publish the app.

4. Run your application and workflow:

   • Click View App to view the app on a standalone page, or Add to a Dashboard to place the app in a dashboard.
   • Navigate to Service Mgmt > App Builder, and select your app. Fill out the template form, and click the submit button.
   • Track the success of the workflow templating process in Workflow Automation.

Find Service Catalog actions

To explore the complete set of actions specifically related to Service Catalog, navigate to the Datadog Action Catalog. Filter for the actions you need:

1. Access the Action Catalog: Look for the Action Catalog within your Datadog Workflow Automation environment.
2. Search Functionality: Use the search bar to search for keywords like “Service Catalog” or more specific terms related to desired actions (for example, “get service dependencies”).

Available Service Catalog Actions

Below is a comprehensive list of actions available for Service Catalog in Datadog Workflow Automation. Note that this list may evolve as new actions are added.

• Retrieve Service Information
  • “Get service definition” for a single service
  • “List service definitions” to get all definitions from Datadog Service Catalog
  • “Get service dependencies” to get a service’s immediate upstream and downstream services
• Incident Triage
  • “Get service PagerDuty on call”
  • When integrated with other actions, you can trigger workflows based on critical events (for example, execute runbooks).

Further reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

Remediate incidents faster with App BuilderBLOG Learn about App BuilderDOCUMENTATION Learn about WorkflowsDOCUMENTATION