Remote action configuration

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Overview

Remote actions can be used for both diagnoses to detect issues and remediations to fix issues.

Required content library for out-of-the-box topics

You can use the out-of-the-box topics catalog that includes a list of remote actions, campaigns, scores and categories from the Chatbot Content Pack available in Nexthink Library. The content pack includes official remote actions that are a part of other library packs described in the Other content libraries documentation.

Remote action settings

Once the content pack has been imported, the additional configuration must be done in Finder.

Manual triggering

You must enable the remote actions used for diagnosis and remediation in Finder for manual triggering. This can be done by checking the box and saving the remote action.

For out-of-the-box topics, the list of remote actions that require manual triggering is as follows:

Remote action	Used in topics
Repair Outlook OST Problem	app_outlook_issues
Get Outlook Online	app_outlook_issues
Set Outlook online	app_outlook_issues
Set Outlook Plugins	app_outlook_issues
Disk Cleanup	device_bad_health l1_device_checklist pc_slow
System Cleanup	device_bad_health l1_device_checklist pc_slow
Disable Application from Startup menu	device_bad_health pc_slow
Update Group Policy Settings	pc_slow
Repair OneDrive	app_onedrive_issues
Repair Office 365	app_outlook_issues pc_slow
Reset Print Spooler	print_issues
Restore SCCM Client	pc_slow

Automatically triggered remote actions

One important aspect of the remote actions used in diagnosis is that the values can be cached internally by Chatbot SDK to speed up the conversation with the chatbot user. In order for this cache to be populated, the remote action must be scheduled in Finder to run automatically on a number of devices.

For out-of-the-box topics, the list of remote actions which require scheduling for automatic execution is the following:

Remote action	Evaluate frequency for new devices	Triggering period	Used in topics
Get OneDrive Status	1 hour	1 hour	app_onedrive_issues
Get Outlook Plugin Crash Details	1 hour	1 day	app_outlook_issues
Skype for Business Diagnostics	1 hour	1 day	app_sfb_issues
Get Battery Status	1 hour	1 day	device_bad_health
Get Startup Impact	1 hour	1 day	device_bad_health pc_slow
Get Gpo Startup Impact	1 hour	1 day	pc_slow
Get Hardware and BIOS Information	1 hour	1 day	pc_slow

Campaign configuration

Depending on the desired employee experience, the campaigns which are available for each remote action can be disabled. Please note that they are enabled by default.

There are three possibilities when dealing with two campaigns:

1. Remove all the campaigns, all the information is exchanged in the chat channel or other mechanisms.

2. Leave the notification campaign to get confirmation from the user to apply a change and another one after the change is applied.

3. Remove the initial campaign, since the confirmation has been given in the chat channel and leave the notification after the change is applied.

To remove a campaign, write zeros in the related CampaignID parameter in Finder.

Adding remote actions

When adding new remote actions as part of a topic configuration, follow these steps:

• Configure the new remote actions in Finder. Define if they need to be executed manually or automatically, as explained in the Remote actions settings.
• If they are diagnosis remote actions or remediation remote actions that will be launched online and configured to be launched manually in Finder, add them to the /var/nexthink/nexthink-chatbot-adapter/config/topics/remote_actions.yaml file.

Code

$ vi /var/nexthink/nexthink-chatbot-adapter/config/topics/remote_actions.yaml 

Remote_action_name_in_topic: 
  name: Name in Finder   
  uid: UID from Finder 

Note that both the Remote_action_name_in_topic and remote action name in Finder are case-sensitive.

• You must restart the containers to apply the changes in Chatbot SDK:

$ ./scripts/nexthink-chatbot-adapter-restart.sh

Limitations

The limitations of the Act module are described in the online documentation and are applicable to Chatbot SDK.