Create Approval Workflows for Change Requests

You can create approval workflows that will allow administrators to either reject or provide consent for changes to deployed services that users request.

When you create approval workflows for change requests, you can also add workflow steps so that approval or notification emails are sent out, or scripts that will perform automatic approvals or tasks on the deployed services are run.

1. Click the Approval tab.
2. Click Add.

   You can also select an existing workflow and click Copy. This can save time because it copies the selected workflow's configuration.

3. On the Name & Type page, provide a name for the workflow, and the Apply this workflow menu, select When a change request is created. Then click Next.
4. On the Assignment page, specify who should have access to this workflow:
   • Make this the Global workflow: This workflow will serve as the default. That is, it will be available to all users who don't have a workflow assigned specifically for them.

     There can be only be one default approval workflow for change requests. All new approval workflows for change requestsexcept for the default must be assigned to specific organizations, users, or groups.

   • Allow these specific organizations, users and groups to access this workflow: The workflow is assigned to specific organizations or users.
     • To add an organization, click the Organizations tab, select an available organization, and click Add. Repeat for each organization that you want to add.
     • To add users, click Users/Groups, enter a valid user name (either a local user, such as Manager, or a directory service user name, such as <username@domain>) and click Add. Repeat for each user that you want to add.
5. Click Next after you've finished making your assignments.
6. On the Steps page, click Add and select a step to include in the workflow, and then set its configuration parameters in the step details section. Continue to add steps to the workflow module, as appropriate.

    

   • By default, a step automatically executes. However, you can set a step to execute only when specific conditions are met. To make a step conditional, from the Step Execution list, select Execute when conditions are met. Then click Edit and define the condition. For more information, see Make Workflow Steps Conditional.
   • To change the order of a step, use the up and down arrows, or click Delete to remove it.
7. Optional: By default, if a step fails when a workflow is run, no re-attempt is made. To have the workflow re-attempt a step if it fails, select an added step from the Step Order section, then click Add > Retry Selected Step. For more information, see Add Retry Steps to Workflows.
8. Click Next after you've finished adding steps.
9. On the Automation Options page, specify how approved requests will be fulfilled.
   • From Default Fulfillment Behavior, select one of the following default fulfillment behaviors:
     • Manual: An administrator must fulfill change requests manually.
     • Automatic/Scheduled: The request will be fulfilled during the next maintenance window. For more information, see Configure Maintenance Windows.
     • Automatic/Immediate: All changes, including those requiring a power-down, will be fulfilled automatically upon approval.

     For the Manual and Automatic/Sheduled options, you can select the Immediately fulfill changes not requiring power down checkbox, if you want any part of the change request that doesn't require powering down a resource to be fulfilled immediately upon approval. For the Automatic/Immediate option, any changes that don't require a power down are immediately fulfilled. For information about required power-downs, see Resource Changes That Require Reboots.

   • Optional: To set a different behavior for a specific change request:
     • Select a listed change request, and select a fulfillment behavior from the menu if you want to use a fulfillment behavior other than the default.

       For the Manual and Automatic/Sheduled options, you can also optionally enable Immediately fulfill changes not requiring power down for the change request.

10. On the Summary page, enter a comment about the workflow in the Description of Changes field, review your settings and click Finish.

    For the description of changes, you can indicate the purpose of a new workflow or, if you're editing an existing workflow, indicate what changes were made.