Automation Intermediate
AIOps automation goes beyond simple alert-triggered scripts. It uses AI to determine the right response, execute intelligent diagnostics, and learn from outcomes to improve future responses.
Automation Tiers
| Tier | Type | Example | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diagnostic | Auto-collect show commands, ping tests, traceroutes | Read-only, no risk |
| 2 | Notification | Enrich alerts with context, suggest remediation | Informational only |
| 3 | Remediation (approved) | Execute fix after human approval | Controlled by approval |
| 4 | Remediation (auto) | Execute fix automatically for known scenarios | Managed by guardrails |
Intelligent Diagnostics
When an incident is detected, AIOps can automatically run diagnostic procedures based on the incident type:
- Connectivity issues — Ping, traceroute, ARP table check, interface status
- Performance degradation — CPU/memory check, queue statistics, error counters, flow analysis
- Routing problems — BGP neighbor status, route table comparison, path analysis
- Security events — ACL hit counts, flow records, user session logs
Post-Incident Analysis
After every incident (automated or manual resolution), AIOps captures:
- Timeline of events and actions taken
- Root cause classification for trend analysis
- Effectiveness of automated response (did it work?)
- Opportunities for new automation or improved detection
Start with Diagnostics: Begin with Tier 1 (diagnostic automation) for all incident types. This is risk-free and immediately valuable — operators get context faster, and you build the data needed for higher-tier automation.
Next Step
Explore AIOps platforms like Datadog, Splunk, and PagerDuty for implementing these capabilities.
Next: Platforms →