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Workflow Automation

Build custom workflows and schedule recurring network maintenance tasks

Overview

The Workflow Automation module lets you chain multiple actions into repeatable, auditable workflows. Instead of manually running each step of a maintenance procedure, define it once and run it on demand or on a schedule.

Use cases

  • Weekly compliance checks (pull show commands, compare against baseline)
  • Automated pre/post change verification
  • Nightly flash capacity monitoring
  • Scheduled configuration backups
  • Automated security advisory scans with email alerts

Creating Custom Workflows

1
Navigate to Workflows → New Workflow.
2
Name your workflow and add an optional description.
3
Define the device scope. Choose specific devices, device groups, or dynamic filters (e.g. all devices at Site A running IOS-XE 17.x).
4
Add steps. Each step is one of: Run Command, Run Upgrade Phase, Run Scan, Send Notification, or Wait/Pause.
5
Configure step behavior. Set whether each step runs in parallel across devices or sequentially, and define the failure action (stop workflow / continue / alert).
6
Save and test. Use Dry Run to validate the workflow steps without executing commands on devices.

Step types

  • Run Command - execute a command from the approved library on all scope devices.
  • Run Upgrade Phase - trigger a specific upgrade phase (e.g. flash check, image upload).
  • Conditional Branch - check output of a previous step for a pattern, then fork to a different path.
  • Send Notification - email or webhook alert with workflow status and output summary.
  • Wait - pause execution for a defined time before the next step (useful for reload windows).

Using Pre-Built Templates

NetGUI ships with templates for common network maintenance tasks:

  • Weekly Health Check - runs show version, show ip interface brief, show environment, and emails a summary.
  • IOS Upgrade - Bundle Mode - full bundle mode upgrade pipeline.
  • IOS Upgrade - Install Mode - full install mode upgrade pipeline with rollback option.
  • Flash Cleanup - scan and remove inactive IOS images across device groups.
  • Config Backup - runs show running-config on all devices and archives output.
  • Security Advisory Report - cross-references inventory against Cisco PSIRT and emails results.
Tip: Clone a template with Duplicate and customize it for your environment instead of starting from scratch.

Scheduling and Execution

Running immediately

Click Run Now from the workflow list or detail page. A job is created and you are taken to the job monitor.

Scheduling

  1. Open a workflow and click Schedule.
  2. Choose recurrence: Once, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Custom (cron).
  3. Set the execution time and time zone.
  4. Optionally require manual approval before execution starts (useful for change-managed environments).
# Example cron: every Sunday at 2:00 AM 0 2 * * 0

Monitoring Job History

Every workflow run creates a Job record with a full step-by-step log.

Job states

  • Queued - waiting to start.
  • Running - actively executing steps.
  • Completed - all steps finished successfully.
  • Completed with Warnings - some steps produced non-fatal errors.
  • Failed - a critical step failed and the workflow stopped.

Job detail view

Click any job to view the per-step timeline, per-device output for each command step, any warnings or errors, and the full notification log. Export job results as PDF for change management documentation.