About Altiris Workflow Solutions
Workflow is a term used for the automation of a business process requiring input from multiple parties and communicating with disparate technologies to accomplish a business goal. This business process can render segments of its work to its consumers through different mediums or user interfaces depending on the available and appropriate access points for all contributing parties. Examples of interaction include email, Web forms, handheld devices, or a queue of workflow tasks requiring action.
Components of Altiris Workflow Solution
Altiris Workflow Solution is graphical development software that lets you define, build, customize, test, and deploy either pre-built or custom built integrated workflows leveraging the Altiris platform and functionality.
Workflow Solution gets installed on the Notification Server. As part of the installation, the Workflow Designer executable gets placed on the Notification Server computer. You use the Workflow Designer executable to install Workflow Designer on one or more client computers. This lets multiple users design and make changes to workflows. The workflows created on Workflow Designer can run on one or more Notification Servers.
Out of the box, Workflow Solution contains general components, Altiris specific components, component generators, and facilities to take a workflow from definition to deployment. Workflow Designer lets you arrange components into processes that manage communication and control a workflow consumer's path through the process depending on the input.
After the workflow is complete, Workflow Server is the execution engine (or runtime engine) for processes built or customized using the Workflow Designer. Workflow Server is a component of Workflow Solution and, therefore, is installed on the Notification Server.
To work with the Altiris platform, Workflow Solution contains Plug-ins, Components, Component Generators, and Web Service Regenerators all built to enable Altiris administrators to customize workflow.
Altiris Workflow Solution contains over one hundred hand-coded Altiris components. Most are available when the software is installed on the client computer; however, the task and report components must be installed and run. The Altiris components work with different parts of the Altiris platform in order to accomplish discrete goals within a wider workflow process. The components interact directly with resources, tasks, and activities available through Notification Server.
All Altiris components have a live connection to the Notification Server. This connection lets components view available resources and tasks and perform actions against them as part of a workflow.
How Altiris Workflow Solution Works
The Altiris platform architecture consists of several key parts: CMDB, Item Object Model, Resource Model, Solution Layer, UI Framework, and the ASDK (Altiris Software Development Kit). Altiris Workflow Solution interacts with the Altiris Platform and its parts through a Web services layer, through components, plug-ins, and custom Web services installed directly onto Notification Server. To build and execute a workflow, Altiris Workflow Solution makes method calls to different parts of the Altiris platform depending on the interaction. For example, a component that can escalate a Service Desk incident or ticket would make a method call to Helpdesk Solution to change the priority, impact, or urgency.
What You Can Do With Altiris Workflow Solution
The current Altiris solutions are linear, making interaction with people while executing the process a challenge. With Altiris Workflow Solution, these interaction points can be inserted in key places, while leveraging data and existing solutions available through the Altiris Platform.
Using Workflow Solution and Workflow Designer, each interaction point, with either a person or a technology, is controlled by components that manage the interaction. This interaction can include communicating with a database, people involved in the process, and any supporting or third party technology necessary to accomplish the goal.
Where to get more information about Altiris Workflow Solution
For more information, refer to the information sources in the following table.
Chapter 2: Installing and Configuring Altiris Workflow Solution 6.0