Skip to main content

26 posts tagged with "automation"

View All Tags

Note

This release will go to our early adopters on the 12/12/2023 and will be rolled out in stages to all our partners over the 2-3 weeks following. You will get an email with the Release Notes when you receive the latest version.

If you are interested in being an early adopter, talk to your Partner Success Manager!

We are excited to announce our new Automation Release, RFC352- Automation 7.0!

With this release, we are launching some exciting new features that the Pia Team has dedicated significant time and effort to creating.

🌟Introducing SmartForm Automations!​

Note

To get started with your SmartForms Addon Journey, please speak to your Partner Success Manager.

In the past few releases, we've provided a glimpse into the SmartForms portal and its features. Now, in this latest release, you can get your hands dirty with a variety of new SmartForm Automations.

We have chosen our top 8 most popular Automations and created new versions of them that your clients can use to submit their requests. Additionally, we've included an extra SmartForm Automation that enables you to configure submissions for requests that fall outside the scope of the initial eight automations.

Here are the SmartForm Automations that are now available for you to configure for your clients:

  • User Onboarding (New User)
  • User Offboarding (Terminate User)
  • Account Locked Out
  • Change Calendar Permissions
  • Create or Remove a Mail Forwarding Rule
  • Grant or Revoke Mailbox Access
  • Reset Network Password
  • Setup Out of Office

Additional SmartForm Automation: Basic IT Request

Note

Click here to learn more about SmartForms.

🀝 Full Integration with Pax8!​

To offer full integration with Pax8, we have updated two of our existing automations (New User & Terminate User) and created a new package (Pax8: Modify Subscription) allowing you provision and decommission licenses using the Pax8 licensing service and opt in for various licensing services offered by Pax8.

Note

For these packages to function, you must have a licensing-connected service set up for Pax8 in your Pia Portal. Click here to learn about Pax8 Connected Service.

Updates to the New User Package​

Note

Please note that it will only work for Pax8 at this stage. We will be adding support for the other CSPs in an upcoming release.

The Pia: New User package has been updated with additional configuration options that allows you to enable Pax8 license provisioning via Pia. These options are available in the Package Configuration Form and must be enabled for the package to use Pax8 as your licensing service.

Updates to the Terminate User Package​

Note

Please note that it will only work for Pax8 at this stage. We will be adding support for the other CSPs in an upcoming release.

Like the New User Package, you will find additional package configuration options available in this package which must be enabled to de-provision Pax8 licenses using Pia.

New Pax8: Modify Subscription Package​

To simplify the management of Pax8 subscriptions, we are introducing the Pax8: Modify Subscription package. This package presents the license and the cost within the Pia Chatbot, allowing you to review and choose how you wish to adjust the subscriptions. (#13094)

You can also set the maximum number of licenses that can be provisioned/deprovisioned in a single order using the settings option in the package configuration form.

Note

For further information on any of the above packages, please speak to your Partner Success Manager.

βš’οΈ 4 New Automations!​

Pia: Change User Details Package (Semi Hybrid)

The Pia: Change User Details package now supports Semi Hybrid environment. (#15150)

Pia: Create a Group Package

You can now use the Pia: Create a Group package that is supported by these four environment types:

  • Cloud Hybrid
  • Cloud Only
  • On Prem
  • Semi Hybrid

With this package, you can create the following types of groups:

  • Distribution Lists
  • Security Groups
  • Mail-Enabled Security Groups
  • Unified/Microsoft 365 Groups (#22181)

Pia: Hide Mailbox from GAL Package

With the Pia: Hide Mailbox from GAL package, you can hide user(s) and/or mailbox(es) from the Global Address List without having to log into your customer's Exchange.

This package is available for Cloud Hybrid, Cloud Only and Prem Only environments . (#8475)

Pia: Reset MFA Package

Use the Pia: Reset MFA Package to manage user's MFA through Pia. This package allows you to revoke user MFA sessions (requiring users to re-register MFA), remove MFA methods and check current MFA methods configured for the user. (#3384)

πŸ”₯ Additional Package Enhancements​

  1. Packages with drop-down fields to select the mailbox addresses have now been updated so that you will now be able to see the email address of the user along with the user name to avoid confusion when there are multiple users with the same name. (#13290)
Updated Packages...

Pia: Log Out User from Citrix Session
Pia: Log Out User from Windows RDS
Pia: Send SMS to User
Pia: File Share Security Change
Pia: Remote Desktop Setup
Pia: Network Drive Troubleshooting
Pia: Install/Uninstall/Reinstall Software
Pia: Microsoft Teams Troubleshooter
Pia: Win10 Outlook Package
Pia: Troubleshoot Windows VPN Configuration
Pia: Remote Desktop Troubleshooting
Pia: Remote Desktop Setup
Pia: Computer Space Cleanup
Pia: Computer Performance Report
Pia: Outlook Mail Flow Troubleshooting
Pia: Grant Public Folder Permission
Pia: Setup Mail Forwarding
Pia: Setup Out of Office
Pia: Release Quarantined Emails
Pia: Recover Lost Folder in Outlook
Pia: Grant Mailbox Permission in Bulk
Pia: Get Mailbox Information
Pia: Change Calendar Permissions
Pia: Add/Remove access to Mail Distribution List
Pia: Upload Staff Photo
Pia: Reset Network Password
Pia: Re-enable Terminated Account
Pia: Manage User Licenses
Pia: Get User Account Details
Pia: Change User Details
Pia: Bulk Update User Details
Pia: Bulk Add/Remove users to group
Pia: Add/Remove User from Groups
Pia: Account Locked Out
Pia: Re-Allocate User License
Pia: Terminate User

  1. The Bulk Update User Details Package has now been updated with additional validation on the inputs in the user details form to minimise errors. (#14018)
  2. The New User (All Environments) Package has now been updated to offer additional ways to fix upn conflicts in the package configuration form allowing you to pick alternative methods for making the upn unique. (#22179)

πŸ› Bug Fixes​

  1. The Add/Remove User From Groups (All Environments) Package was allowing users to select non-synced AD users with disabled account. This has now been modified by adding a filter in the package to only list synced accounts with valid samAccountNames or non-synced accounts with null SamAccountNames to minimise package erroring. (#22439)
  2. The Bulk Add/Remove User to Groups (All Environments) Package was not displaying the users from the group correctly in some edge case scenarios. This has now been resolved. (#21805)
  3. The Bulk Add/Remove Users to Group Package was not including shared mailboxes in the mailbox selection dropdown in some edge case scenarios. This has now been modified to display shared mailboxes as well. (#21969)
  4. The Change User Details (Cloud Only) Package has been updated with additional validation of proxy addresses prior to updating the user details. (#18480)
  5. The File Share Security Change (Cloud Hybrid) Package now handles situations that includes corrupted GPOs more gracefully. (#22141)
  6. The Install/Uninstall/Reinstall Software Package has been updated with improvements to resolve the issue when installing certain software packages under the 'User' context. (#22228)
  7. The Modify Distribution Group (Cloud Hybrid) Package was erroring if the Global Configuration Form did not have OnPrem Exchange configuration. This issue has now been resolved so that the package now skips On Prem Exchange activities if the exchange configuration is not available in the Global Configuration Form. (#19167)
  8. The New User (All Environment) Package was having an issue where the name of the selected license was not consistent between the Chatbot and the ticket audit note. This has been fixed to display friendly name of the license in both areas. (#20371)
  9. The New User (All Environments) Package was has been added with an additional license in the license dropdown for Windows Defender. (#22273)
  10. The New user (Cloud Hybrid) Package was added with a friendly name for Minecraft Education Faculty, Microsoft 365 A3 Suite features for faculty and Minecraft Education Student licenses as it was showing SKU to make it easier to read. (#22600)
  11. The New User (Semi Hybrid) package has been updated to improve handling for misconfiguration of UPN suffixes. (#22368)
  12. The Terminate User (Cloud Hybrid) Package has been updated with additional waiting time to better support clients with large number of mailboxes. (#22199)

We are excited to announce our RFC271 release, introducing new and improved automations alongside some important fixes.

More Extension Points ! πŸŒŸβ€‹

We have added more extension points in some of your favourite automation packages (i.e. New User package, Terminate User package and Reset Network Password package) allowing you to create and link more extensions into these packages. (#21889)

Below are the areas the packages will now have extension points available:

Package NameExtension Points
New User Package
  • Start of the Package
  • Before New User is created
  • End of the Package
  • Terminate User Package
  • Start of the Package
  • After the Terminate User form is submitted
  • End of the Package
  • Reset Network Password Package
  • After the user is selected
  • For more information on Extension Points, refer to this article.

    Added Support for the Lastest version of Azure AD Connect Cloud Sync​

    We have extended our support to the latest version of Azure AD Connect Cloud Sync enabling you to use Pia for clients that are on the latest version.

    What do I need to do to use Cloud sync?​

    • You need to re-authorise and re-delegate the client that you want to use Cloud Sync on because we have added a new scope which requires your client to do this.
    • if you have not already filled this out, you need to add the Cloud Sync server to the Global Config Form. This may already be filled out if you were previously using AD Sync. (#18226)

    Additional Functionalities in Get User Details Package​

    The Get User Details (All Environments) Package has been updated to retrieve additional information about the user which are:

    • Locked out status
    • Password expiry status
    • Enabled/Disabled status

    Based on the status for each of the fields above, the package will then suggest additional actions that you can perform to change the status eliminating the need for you to manually search for a package which will perform the required action. (#9974)

    New Bulk Add/Remove users to Group Package to support Semi Hybrid Environment​

    A new version of the Bulk Add/Remove users to Group package has now been created to support semi hybrid environment so you can now run the package for the clients that are on semi hybrid environment. (#15146)

    Improved Performance for New user Package​

    Performance improvements should now be noticeable when executing the New User(All Environments) package in your Pia chatbot. (#22003, #22140)

    Added Description Field to multiple packages​

    A description field has been added to Terminate User, Re-enable terminated User and Change User Details packages allowing you to store and view custom information about the user for whom the action is being performed.

    This feature is ON by default for Change User Details Package. For Terminate User and Re-enable Terminated User Packages, this is OFF by default. (#21826)

    Additional Package Enhancements​

    1. The Bulk Update User Details (Cloud Only & Cloud Hybrid) Package Form has been added with validation rules in the First Name, Last Name and Mobile Number fields to eliminate typos and validation errors. (#14018)
    2. The New User (All Environments) Package has been added with one more configuration option called "Enable Default Password Never Expires" which when ticked will force the 'Set the password to never expire' to be ticked when creating a new user. You can Opt In this feature in the Package Configuration Form. (#8749)
    3. The New User (All Environments) Package form has been modified so that you are now able to customise the email address to be different to the UPN of the use you are creating if the suggested email does not match your company policy. You can Opt In this feature in the Package Configuration Form. (#21708)
    4. The Reset Network Password (Cloud Hybrid) Package has now been updated allowing you to set a default password. You can Opt In this feature in the Package Configuration Form. (#15004)
    5. The Setup Mail Forwarding (Cloud Only & Cloud Hybrid) Package has now been renamed to Setup/Remove Mail Forwarding to correctly indicate the actions that can be performed through the package. (#9082)
    6. The Terminate User (Cloud Only & Cloud Hybrid) Package has now been updated to force Sign out the user from their account in azure and force disable the user in azure upon termination. (#22180)
    7. A handful of packages has been promoted to full release and the beta tag has been removed. (#21355)
    8. We have increased the number of suggestions after each package executions based off common patterns of how they are used. Your automation will now finish before you are suggested with the automation options which means the suggestions will not affect the completion of your automation. (#12522)

    πŸ› Bug Fixes​

    1. The Bulk Update User Details Package displayed UPN which was not required. This can been modified to only show relevant form fields. (#19771)
    2. Changed the Chat Message Option from "Done" to "None" when Pia asks if you would like to perform any other action with the user after the original package execution is complete. (#18371)
    3. The Create Shared Mailbox (Cloud Only) Package was sending incorrect values for display name which has now been amended. (#21867)
    4. The Delete Mail Contacts (Cloud Only) Package had a clerical error denoting the wrong action which has now been fixed. (#21262)
    5. The New User (All Environment) Package was waiting for the license even if the "Enable wait for group based license" option was not ticked. This has been fixed now so that the package behaves correctly as per the option selected/unselected. (#22261)
    6. The New User (All Environments) Package was not updating the job title of the CW contacts. This has now been fixed so that the package now updates additional properties of a CW contact. (#22067)
    7. The New User (All Environment) Package was not populating the Teams Phone with Phone Calling Plan licenss in the list of available license which has now been updated to consider the license. (#21720)
    8. The New User (Cloud Hybrid) Package was having a validation issue in the form which has now been fixed to allow the users to be created with only one character in the Last Name field. (#18879)
    9. The New User (Cloud Hybrid) Package was failing to create users due to an edge case scenario which has now been fixed. (#22130)
    10. The New User (Cloud Hybrid) Package displayed negative license count. This behavior has now been modified to only display licenses with count above 0. (#22144)
    11. The New User (Cloud Only) Package was not able to create a New User as the "Company Name" was longer than the defined limit. Updated the character limit in the form so that the package can accept longer names. (#19805)
    12. The New User (Prem Only) package was failing due to the presence of extra grave (`) accent characters within the filter block. This has now been fixed. (#21974)
    13. The OpenVPN Setup/Reinstall Package errored when configuring the end user's PC which has now been fixed. (#22289)
    14. The Reset Network Password (Cloud Only) Package option "Change Password at next logon" was not working as the users were having to reset their password upon attempting to login in some cases. This has now been fixed so that if the option is not selected, the password is reset instantly. (#21319)
    15. The Teams Troubleshooter Package was failing if the Teams cache could not cleared. This behaviour has now been modified so that the engineer will get a message in the chat if the Teams cache could not be cleared and also will get option to Force shut down Teams. (#18791)
    16. The Terminate User (Semi-Hybrid) Package was not providing a list of OUs to move the terminated user to. This has now been fixed so that the package now displays a list of available OUs where the user can be moved upon termination. (#21604, #19268)
    17. The Terminate User (Semi Hybrid) Package was only disabling Azure Account skipping the DC Account in some cases which has now been fixed to disable account is both areas. (#21915)
    18. The Triage Package was not firing the tickets and assigning an engineer to the tickets due to an edge case scenario which has now been fixed. (#22166, #21513)
    19. The Win10 Install Network Printer Package was erroring if the required information for the printer was not available. This has been modified to take into account additional information which can be used by the package alternatively. (#21281)
    20. The Win10 Printer Troubleshooting Package was failing when no printers were found for the user. An error handling has been added so that a message is displayed in the chat advising the engineer that no printers are found. (#22276)

    We are excited to announce our RFC308 release, introducing new and improved automations alongside some important fixes.

    In this release, we have focused on improving the Pia: New User package with added functionalities and several bug fixes.

    πŸ”₯ New User Automation Changes​

    Here are the new functionalities you will come across when running your New User Package:

    Display name formatting Options​

    Display name format is now an option when configuring the New User automation - you can change the default display name generated during new user creation (you can still modify the display name during the confirmation step during the new user creation process). (#21710)

    Ticket Audit Log Note Options for Password​

    An option has been added to the New User package configuration to allow the password for the new user to be written onto the ticket audit log during new user creation (note, this is turned OFF by default) (#21706)

    New User Description Field​

    The user description field has been added, you can now optionally fill this field in when creating a new user. (#21695)

    πŸ› Bug Fixes​

    New User Fixes​

    1. When creating a user with more than 1 first name, the display name generated would trim the space in between the two first names. This has been fixed. (#21709)
    2. Hyphens were being stripped when the proposed display name and username was being generated. This has been resolved, hyphens are no longer stripped. (#21707)
    3. When selecting a user to copy, the OU was not being copied into the OU selection field on the user confirmation form. (#21721)
    4. The package was only reading the first item in scenarios where the AD Forest had multiple domains, this has been fixed now so that the package can now identify the correct domain. (#20800)
    5. Fixed an issue with New User (On-Prem) when copying a user, the groups were not being presented as selected in the confirmation form. (#20819)
    6. The New User (Semi Hybrid) package has been updated to take into account licenses that have warnings in the 365 license portal when retrieving the number of available licenses. (#21073)
    7. Added an option in the access level drop-down to handle errors when there are no access level present in the New User configuration. This was for the New User (Semi Hybrid)package. (#21609)

    Other Fixes​

    1. The Pia: Account Locked Out package was failing to unlock the user account in certain edge case scenarios, which has now been fixed. (#20834)
    2. The Pia: Bulk Add User to Groups package had duplicate items appearing in dropdown due to on-prem groups value being different to the cloud only groups. This has now been fixed. (#21697)
    3. The Pia: Bulk Update User Details package will now create contact for a user if there no existing contact found in the ticketing system. (#20806)
    4. The Pia: Create Mail Contacts package has now been updated to allow whitespace which the package will automatically trim while creating contacts. (#21350)
    5. The Pia: Create Shared Mailbox Package has been modified to automatically trim spaces at the beginning and end of the Display Name so that the package does not error when you use a display name with a space at the end. (#18412)
    6. The Pia: Win10 Install network Printer package was having an issue caused due to insufficient permissions when installing the driver or certain printer functions which has now been fixed. (#19730)
    7. The Pia: Win10 Install network Printer package was having an issues caused due to insufficient permissions when installing the driver or certain printer functions, this will now try different escalating permission levels. (#19812)
    8. The Pia: Recover Lost Folder in Outlook package was failing to obtain information from Outlook in certain edge case scenarios. Additional checks and error handling have been added to the automation to ensure that the package does not fail. (#20569)
    9. The Pia: Release Quarantined Emails package now also finds the emails that have the status "release requested". (#21277)
    10. The Pia: Re-enable Terminated Account package has now been updated to hide the warning messages in the chat once the correct step has been selected. (#20917)
    11. The Pia: Re-enable Terminated Account (Cloud Only) package was failing to convert user mailbox if the mailbox was not a shared mailbox and had already been converted to a user mailbox outside of Pia. This has now been fixed. (#21798)
    12. The Pia: Setup Mail Forwarding package has been updated so that duplicate messages have been removed from the ticket auditing notes written by Pia. (#21213)
    13. The Pia: Terminate User (Semi-Hybrid) package was updated with a task to disable ConnectWise contact after disabling Azure Users. (#21628)
    14. The Pia: Terminate User (Semi-Hybrid) package now allows the user to add pre-termination manual tasks in the package configuration. (#21501)

    As always, your feedback matters to us! Please share your thoughts at ideas.pia.ai.

    We are quietly excited to announce our RFC257 release, introducing new and improved automations alongside some important fixes.

    πŸ”₯ Major Changes​

    1. πŸ“¦ NEW PACKAGE: Get Software Info - Our latest package allows engineers to generate a comprehensive list of software installed on servers or machines, selectable by user, and presented in an easy-to-read table format (#10030).
    2. πŸ’₯ MAJOR UPDATE: Computer Performance Troubleshooting - Based on your feedback, we've enhanced the Computer Performance Report package. It now incorporates additional statistics, including network speed and detailed disk space usage. Plus, it presents them in a new, user-friendly report format (#17752).
    3. πŸ”€ Triage Automation - AutoTask Support - AutoTask support for the Triage automation. Auto categorisation, ticket stamping, routing are now available on AutoTask. (#12768).

    🌟 Other Enhancements​

    Several more additions to refine your automation processes:

    1. Ticket Triage: Routing Rule Conditions for PIA-Enabled Clients - PIA triage will now only run for clients meeting certain criteria such as PIA-enabled, automation available, or under a certain agreement type. This enhancement grants you greater control over your processes (#13505).
    2. Limit On-Prem Mailbox Creation to Exchange On-Prem - With granular control of plans in Microsoft 365 licensing, mailboxes will only be created on-premises when the mailbox creation environment is set to Exchange On-Premises (#19770).

    πŸ”„ Extended Semi-hybrid Support​

    We've extended our range of Semi Hybrid automations to include 12 more! Effective immediately, the following new automations are available for your Semi Hybrid clients:

    • Manage User Licenses
    • Re-Allocate User License
    • Blacklist Email
    • Whitelist Email
    • Get Mailbox Information
    • Create Shared Mailbox
    • Grant Mailbox Permission
    • Release Quarantined Emails
    • Send SMS to User
    • Grant Public Folder Permission
    • Setup Mail Forwarding
    • Setup Out of Office

    Note: πŸ’β€β™‚οΈ Cloud mailboxes only: Β The above Semi-Hybrid automations only support cloud mailboxes.

    πŸ› Bug Fixes​

    Addressing known issues to boost the overall stability of the platform:

    1. Duplicate Audit Log Notes - We've resolved the issue where duplicate audit log notes were being written to tickets when packages were executed, reducing redundancy (#13255).
    2. No Install with Install/Uninstall/Reinstall Package - We fixed an issue that prevented app installation verification due to unknown version and conflicting source URLs by adding additional logic and reset/remove logic for PiaFeed source (#14444).
    3. Create Shared Mailbox - Improved SMTP Addresses - We've resolved an issue where a special character in the $name variable was leading to non-primary SMTP addresses being appended to the -EmailAddress property. The fix eliminates special characters from the $name variable (#20130).

    As always, your feedback matters to us! Please share your thoughts at ideas.pia.ai.

    We're pleased to share our release of RFC231

    🌟 Enhancements​

    Some improvements that will improve your experience on our platform:

    1. Middle Name Input for New Users - We've added the ability for engineers to specify a middle name when creating a new user in the form (#17826).
    2. Custom Fields for Ticket Triage - You can now set up conditions and actions for custom fields in ticket triage (text-based fields only). This update includes a new routing condition and action (#13297).
    3. Audit Logs for Triage Actions - Gain deeper insights into ticket triage with our updated package, which now logs the triage actions, such as ticket routing (#13254).
    4. Clarified Mailbox Permissions Package Wording - We've improved the Grant Mailbox Permissions package to clearly indicate who is granting access to which mailbox, and have revised the form's order and wording (#18992).
    5. ML-Additional Package Categorization - Machine learning classifications have been introduced, preventing missed reporting opportunities and offering better usage suggestions (#9635).
    6. Search Function in Create Shared Mailbox - We've added a handy search feature for browsing the list within the Create Shared Mailbox package, making it easier to find the right mailbox (#10633).

    As always let us know if you have any feedback at ideas.pia.ai RFC231 Release πŸš€

    We're pleased to share our release of RFC231

    🌟 Enhancements​

    Some improvements that will improve your experience on our platform:

    1. Middle Name Input for New Users - We've added the ability for engineers to specify a middle name when creating a new user in the form (#17826).
    2. Custom Fields for Ticket Triage - You can now set up conditions and actions for custom fields in ticket triage (text-based fields only). This update includes a new routing condition and action (#13297).
    3. Audit Logs for Triage Actions - Gain deeper insights into ticket triage with our updated package, which now logs the triage actions, such as ticket routing (#13254).
    4. Clarified Mailbox Permissions Package Wording - We've improved the Grant Mailbox Permissions package to clearly indicate who is granting access to which mailbox, and have revised the form's order and wording (#18992).
    5. ML-Additional Package Categorization - Machine learning classifications have been introduced, preventing missed reporting opportunities and offering better usage suggestions (#9635).
    6. Search Function in Create Shared Mailbox - We've added a handy search feature for browsing the list within the Create Shared Mailbox package, making it easier to find the right mailbox (#10633).

    As always let us know if you have any feedback at ideas.pia.ai

    Introducing Extension Automations πŸ€–β€‹

    Extension Automations provide a new way to customize our existing automations. Learn more here.

    We've added Extension Points (EPs) to our existing automations; you can create and integrate custom child packages at crucial execution stages using the data from the parent automation.

    In this release, extension automations are available across all environments for:

    • New User (#15845); and
    • Terminate User (#15846)

    Get started with a quick demonstration in this video (5min)​


    For a more in-depth understanding, watch this deep dive (9mins)​