Comment by PinkMilkshake | Hacker News Reader

Comment by PinkMilkshake | Hacker News Reader

I've struggled with this. I'm part of a smaller local faculty IT and our systems are created by a central IT.

Some problems I struggle with:

1. How do I automate in an environment of so many disparate systems. Some things are done through web interfaces, some RDP'ing to an AD server, email, spreadsheets sitting on shared drives, etc.

2. How do I handle credentials. Central IT won't create generic accounts for us, even for testing, so all automation would have to be done through my credentials. How do I set up an automated system that uses my credentials safely?

3. Where do I run this system from? From my own laptop, a box under my desk, somewhere in the cloud where I'd have to beg security to allow it to do anything non-trivial? And how do I pass this on to the next person?

I've looked in to RPA type solutions (expensive), headless browsers (so unreliable), Microsoft Flow (limited and confusing).

I'm at a loss but I did recently find TagUI which looks very interesting https://github.com/kelaberetiv/TagUI

> How do I automate in an environment of so many disparate systems.

1. Using disparate tools if need be. Fortunately we have PowerShell these days which covers a whole lot of stuff including being ok at various web-based interactions. Anymore, if it can't be done with PowerShell (in a Windows environment that is) then I think it's probably too fragile to leave to automation anyway... ok, that's not entirely true. There is at least one important production system in our environment I have to automate using AutoHotKey and that works pretty well.

2. I have no idea why anyone would think not allowing generic accounts for this sort of thing would be a good idea, but under your own account shouldn't be a big deal as long as you leave appropriate documentation about what needs to happen in case you're hit by a bus. Many sins are forgivable if there is adequate documentation.

3. I usually just run automation scripts on the system I'm scripting. If I'm dropped into an environment and asked to figure out how some system is automated, where's the first place I'm going to look?

The tooling isn't the first problem you need to work on; you need to change the system first. Take a look at this: https://www.eviltester.com/blog/eviltester/linkedin/2019-07-...

To help make the case to change the system, though, you could build a proof-of-concept that uses your credentials and present that - and the ACM Queue article! - to the folks you need to convince. Try showing it to someone who pays the bills too - they might be a useful ally to help change how things work if they recognise the productivity gains.

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