Bots - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) & Quick Reference

How do I create a Bot?

Bots can be created in one of three ways:

• From the BotFactory landing page via the Create Bot button.
• From an Insight.
• Through a template (InsightCloudSec does not have out-of-the-box Bot templates, as they are unique to the customer environment).

What permissions do I need to create a Bot?

In order to create Bots, basic users will require Editor or Admin rights under Permissions Entitlements.

• If you only have View permissions, your Bot inherits your permissions and will not be able to take any lifecycle actions (e.g., start, stop, edit, etc.) on resources.
• If you have Modify permissions, some additional actions are available.
• In order to Delete, specific delete permissions are required.

Check out the full User Entitlements Matrix.

How do I copy an existing Bot?

• Locate the Bot you are interested in copying, open the Bot by clicking on the name from the Bot Listing page, and in the details, copy the Bot Configuration JSON code.
• In BotFactory open the templates capability and paste the JSON you just copied from the previous Bot Configuration to make a copy of the previous Bot.

How do I remove a Bot?

You can select Archive from the Actions menu next to the name of an individual Bot. You can also select multiple Bots from the Bot Listing page and select the trash icon to archive multiple Bots at once.

What does archiving do?

Archiving permanently disables a Bot. The Bot’s history and metadata are retained, but scheduled events and noncompliance data are purged.

How do I see a Bot's recent actions?

From the Bot listing page, click on the name of the Bot you want to review and select the Audit tab. This displays a log, in the form of an API trail, of actions your selected Bot has taken. Audit shows successful and failed actions and who initiated the action.

What happens to a Bot (or Bots) if the cloud account is removed from InsightCloudSec?

These Bots are not automatically deleted (there is no way for InsightCloudSec to automatically check for changes like this).

• These Bots will remain active and operate on their defined schedules but return 0 resource results.
• Customers will need to pause or delete these Bots manually.

What happens to a Bot if the linked Insight is edited?

For example if an additional filter is added:

• The Bot configuration will automatically update to include the new filter.
• The Bot will continue to run.

What happens to a Bot if the linked Insight is deleted?

When the Insight is deleted, a message will appear showing any linked Bots. Associated Bots will be put into a paused state.

Renaming a Bot and Scheduled Events

If you reconfigure an existing Bot to change the name, any related scheduled events will be deleted because it is effectively being reconfigured.

To simply rename a Bot, use Update Information and any scheduled events will remain.

Bot Run Options - When Should I Use Resource Created (Delayed)?

The BotFactory hookpoint Resource Created (Delayed) triggers after a creation event, but rather than trigger the Bot to run immediately, it triggers the Bot to run after defined period of time (by default, 20 minutes).

This hookpoint is most useful when Event-driven Harvesting (EDH) is enabled and when examining resources that require additional time to configure for Bot analysis or to achieve a ready state for Bot corrective action. With the speed of EDH, a Bot using the Resource Created hookpoint can be triggered to evaluate or act before the cloud provider is ready -- a function of the cloud provider's guarantee of eventual consistency.

For example, with EDH and the Resource Created hookpoint, a Bot can be triggered by the creation of a misconfigured database instance while the database instance is still in a creating state. The cloud provider generally blocks any corrective action until after the database instance has reached a ready or available state. The Resource Created (Delayed) hookpoint combines the response to the event with the delay required to take action.