Worklets and the Automox Community

Episode Summary

This episode of the Automox Hands-On IT podcast discusses Automox Worklets, their purpose, and how they can simplify endpoint management. Worklets are automation scripts written in Bash or PowerShell that can perform various tasks across different operating systems. The episode also highlights the Worklet catalog, which contains over 350 pre-made Worklets that users can utilize. Additionally, the episode introduces the Automox community, a space for IT professionals to connect, share knowledge, and access community-created Worklets. The episode concludes with a discussion on how Worklets work and provides tips on getting started with Worklets.

Episode Transcript

Hello, and welcome to the Automox Hands on IT podcast! This month, we’ll be talking about Automox Worklets, what they are, how they work, and how they can make your IT life much easier. 

What is an Automox Worklet?

An Automox Worklet is an automation script, written in bash or PowerShell, designed for seamless execution on endpoints – at scale – within the Automox platform. Worklet automation scripts perform configuration, remediation, and the installation or removal of applications and settings across Windows, macOS, and Linux.

This cross-platform support ensures that no matter where your devices are located or what domain they belong to, Worklets can manage them effectively.

Put as plainly as possible – Automox Worklets simplify endpoint management. 

They can install software, apply configurations across various devices, and automate vulnerability remediation. Worklets enable consistent configuration management across different operating systems. 

Anything you can write a bash or PowerShell script for, a Worklet can do. At scale. And in case you can’t write bash or Powershell scripts (yet), Automox has over 350 ready-made Worklets, so you can just search for the task you want to accomplish across your endpoints, select the right Worklet for it, and carry out the action across your entire environment with a click. It’s so freaking easy. And we’re making more Worklets all the time.

This uniformity reduces complexity and enhances operational efficiency – and the elimination of code drift. 

Worklets also help mitigate (and eliminate) code drift by centralizing script and configuration management within the Automox console.

Centralizing the automation code base ensures that all endpoints adhere to a consistent set of instructions, reducing discrepancies caused by manual interventions. 

Worklets help to maintain uniformity across your IT environment. 

Automox Worklets also excel in automating vulnerability remediation. When new vulnerabilities emerge that aren’t patchable through traditional means, Worklets provide a way to address those issues automatically. 

When new vulnerabilities arise, Automox will release Worklets to help mitigate these. From Log4j, Anydesk, and the XZ vulnerabilities, Worklets have your back for mitigation & remediation

Automox Worklet Catalog

So, we briefly talked about it a second ago, but let’s take a look at the Automox Worklet Catalog. Worklets in the Worklet Catalog are developed, rigorously tested, and approved by Automox. Each Worklet undergoes a thorough review process to confirm that the code is secure, stable, and most importantly: that it works. 

This vetting process ensures all Worklets adhere to high standards of security and functionality, providing users with reliable tools for IT automation. 

You can take a look at code previews within the Worklet Details window, for transparency and informed utilization.

Again, Automox offers over 350 Worklets in the Worklet catalog – and counting. They can be found at automox.com/worklets.

If for some reason, the Worklet you’re looking for isn’t available in the catalog, you’ve got two other options. 

Automox Community and Developing Yourself

Option 1: Check out the Automox Community. To tell us more about the Automox Community, I’ve invited Sophia Paul on to speak about it. Sophia is in the person in charge of the Automox Community. 

Landon Miles:

All right. Hello, Sophia and welcome to the Hands-On IT podcast. Would you like to give us a quick little intro about yourself and what you do at Automox?

Sophia Paul:

 Thanks for having me, first of all. My name's Sophia. I live in North Texas with my husband and our little gold retriever puppy named Gravy. I've been working at Automox for probably a year and a half now, and I manage all the social media and the wonderful Automox community. Before that, I was at Pluralsight and A Cloud Guru / Linux Academy doing the same thing. So.

get to interact with a lot of techie people.

Landon Miles:

Well, very cool. Well, thanks so much for coming on also. And yeah, I just wanted to learn a little bit more and tell our listeners a little bit more about the Automox community, what it is, where to find it, why it's important. And if you want to touch on that, that would be great.

Sophia Paul:

Sure. So you can find us at community.automox.com. It's free and very simple to make an account and join. You don't have to be a customer or anything. So the Automox community is a space we created for people to keep up with Automox happenings or events and product updates. You can connect with other customers, whether you're a customer yourself or not, and kind of find those best tips and best practices.

And probably the best part of the community is those community created Worklets.

Landon Miles:

Yeah. Yeah. So I want to touch base on those real quick too, but it just, to me, it seems communities for anything are just so important to kind of interact with and understand how other people are doing things. And, the Automox community, I think we've, you've done a great job with getting that set up where it's just a place for people to come with questions. so we want to encourage our listeners to go and sign up for the community if you're not already there. and then.

So yeah, these community Worklets. So we've been talking about Worklets in our podcast a little bit, but we've kind of gone over the Worklet catalog and other things, but would you like, would you be able to touch on the community Worklets a little bit too?

Sophia Paul:

Yes, so very similar to the Automox Worklets that our team has created, but we just have a lot of talented people out there in the community who over the years have created their own Worklet automation scripts and they've shared them publicly for.

others to use. And there's also Automox employees who've gone in there and like made tweaks to those Worklets and just given feedback. So it's just a place where people have shared those scripts and made a lot of lives easier taking the medial tasks off their plate.

Landon Miles:

 very cool. Yeah. I mean, it's kind of, we were, it's a place where if it's a Worklet that we don't have at Automox in the catalog, you can go and that's kind of the second next place to look and see if someone else has had the same problem as you. And it's a really, I think that's a really neat thing that we do is say, Hey, like post your post the problems you solved here. And it's always fun to see, see the interesting things that people come up with also.

Sophia Paul:

Exactly.

And if you're not super comfortable writing your own script, you can kind of see how someone else started their own. Go from there.

Landon Miles:

Yeah. Yeah. For me, it's always easier to, to edit or look at someone else's work instead of just starting from scratch. So that's been a, it's been a really neat spot to be able to do that too. But yeah. And then, what's the best way to get involved in the automox community?

Sophia Paul:

Sure, so a couple of things you can start with, just introduce yourself. We have an introduction category where you can share as much or as little about yourself as you want. We also started doing these icebreaker questions. So I think right now we're asking people what's a cool project they're working on outside of work. So feel free to share any hobbies or passions that you have.

Or if you're not super comfortable talking or sharing, you can just lurk. We love the lurkers too. So feel free to poke around those community created Worklets or just see what other people are asking about Automox.

Landon Miles:

Well, great. Well, thanks so much for hopping on. And I mean, we see you post in the community all the time. Is it SophiaAX is your, is your username. I'm Landon-Automox. And if we're not, if we're not posting, we're lurking. So feel free to join us in lurking or in posting. So, but, well, thank you so much, Sophia, for coming on the podcast and giving us some insights into the Automox community and feel free. I would want to push everyone to go sign up. It's free to sign up and it's a, it's a,

fun community to be a part of. All right. Well, thank you so much, Sophia, and we will talk to you soon.

Sophia Paul:

Thank you.

See ya.

The Automox Community is your go-to resource for leveraging the full potential of Automox. This community hub is designed to facilitate collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation among IT professionals and technical users. 

If you can’t find a Worklet in the Automox catalog, the Automox community is the next place to check out. 

Option 2: Get to coding.. Do it yourself!, And then post it in the Automox community to share with others who may want to accomplish the same task.

 It’s not as hard as it sounds, and there’s a lot of information that can be found online if you’re new to bash or PowerShell. A good place to start can be looking through the Worklet Catalog – and checking out the evaluation and remediation code – for me, that’s how I learned to code. By looking at, and trying to understand other people's code. 

Youtube also has a ton of free tutorials. For PowerShell, Microsoft has extensive documentation. This wasn’t around when I was learning, but AI is amazing at explaining and generating code. Can’t figure out what a line of code does? Drop it into an AI chatbot, and ask. 

Ok, so we know what Automox Worklets are… But, how do Worklets work? 

How Automox Worklets Work

So, Automox Worklets are built using two primary code blocks: the evaluation block and the remediation block. The evaluation block runs first. If the evaluation block returns a non-zero value, the remediation block then executes. 

This if-then relationship ensures that remediation actions are only taken when necessary.

The execution process is straightforward. The evaluation code runs every time a Worklet is run, if it’s in a defined policy schedule, or if this option is selected if the Worklet is run with FixNow (FixNow allows you to execute Worklets immediately on select endpoints without creating a policy).

If a policy is ran manually, the evaluation code will be skipped, and the remediation will be run immediately. 

If the evaluation flags the device as needing remediation, the remediation code executes according to the Worklet policy schedule. Quick note – no code or variables are preserved between the evaluation and remediation blocks.

For manual execution, you can use the "Execute Now" button on a policy. This action triggers only the remediation code. The results of the remediation code are then logged in the Activity Log report, providing a clear record of the actions taken and their outcomes.

Getting started with Worklets is easy. 

First, make sure you have a test group set up. This group will be used to test your Worklet policies before deploying them more broadly. This can be a set of VM’s representative of your environment – either hosted on a cloud provider, or even locally. 

Next, either select a Worklet from the catalog, or write one yourself. At each step, take a moment to test, and make sure there are no unintended consequences. 

Once your Worklet is tested, create a policy with the Worklet script, and connect it to the test group. 

To trigger the evaluation code, scan the endpoint and check the result on the policy reports. 

For testing purposes, you can manually execute the policy. Manually executing the policy will automatically run the remediation code. This allows you to verify that the remediation actions perform as expected.

If you want to test the evaluation code, set up a schedule and run it. Or if like me, you’re impatient. Drop it in the remediation code section, and test it there, so you can just click the execute button. 

That’s all we have for today, thanks for listening! In short, Worklets are great, automation is awesome, and the Automox Community is a great resource, and can be a lot of fun. 

Have a great day, and we’ll catch you next time, and go sign up for the Automox community!