The Reporting feature of Nutanix Cloud Manager Intelligent Operations enables you to create reports and schedule them to be e-mailed on a regular basis. But did you know you can also send these reports to Slack?
While the reporting framework currently only allows you to specify e-mail, you can set up a time-based playbook using Nutanix’s low-code/no-code automation tool (also known as X-Play), along with the Generate Report and Slack actions.
Note: Be sure to set up your Slack app as per the documentation. You’ll also need to ensure that the file:write permission scope is granted to the app.
Once you have a report configured, set up your playbook.
From the main Prism Central 2023.3 dashboard, select Intelligent Operations from the drop down menu, then navigate to the hamburger menu > Playbooks. Alternatively, just search for Playbooks in the search bar.
Click on Create Playbook, then select the Time trigger.
Specify the schedule you want the playbook to run on (i.e. how often you want the report generated and sent).
Then, click Add Action, search for Generate Report, and fill out the following:
- Report Type - The report configuration you want to run
- Report Instance Name - what to call this instance of the report, e.g. xplay
- Optional description
- Time Period for Report
- Report Format - PDF or CSV
Click Add Action again, search for Slack, and fill out the following:
- Slack Token - OAuth access token for your Slack instance
- Channel Name - The channel name of the instance you want to send the report to
- Message - Content of the slack message
- Attachment - click Parameters, and select the Report from the previous action.
Save and enable the playbook by clicking Save and Close, giving the playbook name, toggling “Enable” on, and clicking Save.
That’s it! Now your report is scheduled to be sent to Slack on an ongoing basis.
To troubleshoot any issues, click on the playbook name in the main playbook list. Then click Plays to view a list of the playbook executions. You can get more details by clicking on the playbook name and expanding the actions.