Automation Orchestrator is composed of three distinct layers: an orchestration platform that provides the common features required for an orchestration tool, a plug-in architecture to integrate control of subsystems, and a library of workflows. Automation Orchestrator is an open platform that can be extended with new plug-ins and content, and can be integrated into larger architectures through a REST API.

Automation Orchestrator includes several key features that help with running and managing workflows.

Persistence

A production-grade PostgreSQL database is used to store relevant information, such as processes, workflow states, and the Automation Orchestrator configuration.

Central management

Automation Orchestrator provides a central tool to manage your processes. The application server-based platform, with full version history, can store scripts and process-related primitives in the same storage location. This way, you can avoid scripts without versioning and proper change control on your servers.

Check-pointing

Every step of a workflow is saved in the database, which prevents data-loss if you must restart the server. This feature is especially useful for long-running processes.

Control Center

Control Center is a web-based portal that increases the administrative efficiency of Automation Orchestrator instances by providing a centralized administrative interface for runtime operations, workflow monitoring, and correlation between the workflow runs and system resources.

Versioning

All Automation Orchestrator platform objects have an associated version history. Version history is useful for basic change management when distributing processes to project stages or locations.

Git integration

With the Automation Orchestrator Client, you can integrate a Git repository to further improve version and source control of your Automation Orchestrator content. With Git, you can manage workflow development across multiple Automation Orchestrator instances. See Using Git with the Automation Orchestrator Client in the Using Automation Orchestrator guide.

Scripting engine

The Mozilla Rhino JavaScript engine provides a way to create building blocks for the Automation Orchestrator Client platform. The scripting engine is enhanced with basic version control, variable type checking, name space management, and exception handling. The engine can be used in the following building blocks:
  • Actions
  • Workflows
  • Policies

Workflow engine

The workflow engine allows you to automate business processes. It uses the following objects to create a step-by-step process automation in workflows:
  • Workflows and actions that Automation Orchestrator Client provides.
  • Custom building blocks created by the customer.
  • Objects that plug-ins add to Automation Orchestrator Client.
Users, other workflows, schedules, or policies can start workflows.

Policy engine

You can use the policy engine to monitor and generate events to react to changing conditions in the Automation Orchestrator Client server or a plugged-in technology. Policies can aggregate events from the platform or the plug-ins, which helps you to handle changing conditions on any of the integrated technologies.

Automation Orchestrator Client

Create, run, edit, and monitor workflows with the Automation Orchestrator Client. You can also use the Automation Orchestrator Client to manage action, configuration, policy, and resource elements. See Using Automation Orchestrator.

Development and resources

The Automation Orchestrator landing page provides quick access to resources to help you develop your own plug-ins, for use in Automation Orchestrator. You will also find information about using the Automation Orchestrator REST API to send requests to the Automation Orchestrator server.

Security

Automation Orchestrator provides the following advanced security functions:
  • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to sign and encrypt content imported and exported between servers.
  • Digital Rights Management (DRM) to control how exported content can be viewed, edited, and redistributed.
  • Transport Layer Security (TLS) to provide encrypted communications between the Automation Orchestrator Client, Automation Orchestrator server, and HTTPS access to the Web front end.
  • Advanced access rights management to provide control over access to processes and the objects manipulated by these processes.

Encryption

Automation Orchestrator uses a FIPS-compliant Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with a 256-bit cipher key for encryption of strings. The cipher key is randomly generated and is unique across appliances that are not part of a cluster. All nodes in a cluster share a cipher key.