Usage guide

What Auto UX does?

Auto UX is a Microsoft Service Management Automation (SMA) client for Windows and Windows Phone. It allows you to connect to SMA or Azure Automation environments via web service and enables you to monitor it while on the go. SMA is a set of tools that is integrated as the Automation extension in Windows Azure Pack for Windows Server. IT pros and IT developers can use Automation to construct, run, and manage runbooks to integrate, orchestrate, and automate IT business processes. Automation runbooks run on the Windows PowerShell workflow engine. Learn more about SMA in Technet Library. Azure Automation is basically a public cloud version of SMA. Learn more about Azure Automation here.

 

How to connecting to SMA environment?

You can add a connection to SMA environment by clicking add account button from Accounts page. You can get to Accounts page from settings menu in Windows Store app or app bar menu in Windows Phone app. In order to connect you will need to provide SMA web service URL, which is different in each environment. If you installed SMA with default settings the URL will look like this: http(s)://servername:9090/. The are are some requirements that needs to be meet for successful connection from the app:

  • SMA web service URL has to be reachable from device. Both http and https protocols are supported, but for production deployments it is not recommended to use unsecure http connection.
  • Http Basic authentication has to be enabled on SMA web service. If you installed SMA with default settings this is already enabled.
  • If https is used than server’s certificate has to be valid, which means
    • Certificate has to be trusted by device. If you are using certificates that are not issued by a public CA, you will have to install CA’s root certificate to device.
    • Certificate must not be expired.
    • DNS Name(s) on the certificate hast to match SMA web service server name. Wildcard certificates are also supported.
  • Account which are you using to connect has to be a member of smaAdminGroup. This group is a local group on servers where SMA web service is installed.

 

Can I access SMA environment from the internet?

Sure, but the same rules as above still applies. You have to provide connectivity from device to SMA web service. You can do that on many ways. Usually the good idea is to publish the web service via http reverse proxy (Microsoft TMG, Citrix NetScaler). If you don’t have such a product available, a good alternative is Web Application Proxy feature which is available by default in Windows Server 2012 (R2). Please note that the same rules about certificates also applies when you are connecting to SMA web service via reverse proxy. If you are doing pre-authentication you have to ensure that authentication type on reverse proxy is http basic.

 

How to connect to Azure Automation environment?

You can add a connection to Azure Automation environment by clicking add account button from Accounts page. You can get to Accounts page from settings menu in Windows Store app or app bar menu in Windows Phone app. You will first be prompted for credentials to discover an connect to your Microsoft Azure subscriptions. After successful authentication a list of subscriptions available to your account will be shown. Select the appropriate subscription from which you want to add the Automation account. Next, you will be provided with a list of all of the Automation accounts available for the subscription. Select the appropriate account.

 

Please note that this guide is provided as is with no warranty. If you have a specific problems or questions you can get support here.