I'm looking for recommendations on tools to help automate various IT tasks, such as onboarding and offboarding employees, spinning up new servers, and handling access requests. Given that we still have some on-prem systems and Active Directory, I'm hoping for something that can work in a hybrid environment. While I know I could technically script these tasks with PowerShell, it feels a bit daunting to manage lots of scripts or just one large one. Ideally, I'd prefer a solution that offers a more user-friendly point-and-click interface, though I'm open to incorporating some scripts where necessary. Any suggestions?
5 Answers
We have a mix of PowerShell and Python scripts that run in succession for onboarding. This approach covers Active Directory, Office 365, and MFA tools. Most of the script setup takes a bit of time, but with tools like Rundeck, you can get a web interface for task scheduling which speeds things up quite a bit. It's worked well for us!
Have you looked into tools like Rewst or other RMM platforms? They can be very effective for automation in terms of user management and system integrations, especially in managed service provider environments.
I’d recommend checking out Ansible. It works great for hybrid environments and allows you to run the same playbooks for both on-prem and cloud setups. The learning curve isn’t as steep as some say—around two to three weeks and you’ll be productive. We’ve managed to cut down our provisioning time from several hours to just twenty minutes using it with our ticketing system!
For onboarding and offboarding, I personally use Power Automate. It integrates with SCIM and conditional assignment, so it's pretty seamless—just run the flows, and you’re done! Do you have any specific tasks you want to automate?
That sounds great! I'd love to see your flow setup if you can share it!
Don't forget about using a dedicated ticketing system that can interface with PowerShell scripts. This allows for scheduled tasks that automate a lot of the mundane work, which can greatly increase efficiency.
It's nice to see a practical answer, unlike the usual PowerShell hype.