ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0 includes changes that we will take a closer look at in our new "News&Changes" series.  

Our mission is to continuously develop ScriptRunner for our customers to meet their ever-changing needs. With the introduction of the new software version ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0, our customers now and in the future will receive a wide range of features aimed at increasing the level of automation in IT, improving interaction in end-to-end automation and maximizing scalability and availability.

In this article, we will take a closer look at some of the changes to the system architecture that ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0 brings.

New CQRS & event sourcing architecture

One of the most important innovations of the new platform is the introduction of CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation) and event sourcing. These innovative architectural patterns change the way data is processed and distributed in ScriptRunner. CQRS enables broad scalability and significantly improved performance. Resources are used more efficiently and application logic can be better structured.

Event sourcing complements CQRS by capturing changes to data as events. Each change is stored as an event, providing a complete log of all actions. This not only provides better traceability of data changes, but also facilitates troubleshooting and auditing.

In addition to the technologies mentioned above, a new scheduler technology is now used, which offers significantly more options for time-dependent processing of actions.

CQRS, event sourcing, and the new scheduler technology enable the creation of a distributed, multi-node automation environment that was not previously possible.

A new technology is now also used in licensing. Both the initial deployment and the extension and modification of licenses have been simplified. The handling of used licenses has been changed, and accounts that have not been used for a long time are now automatically removed. This reduces the administrative burden of assigning user licenses. A positive side effect of the new technology: ScriptRunner can now run on Windows Server Core without additional resource packs.

The base technology is now .NET 8 and PowerShell 7.4 (LTS). Since version U6 ScriptRunner uses its own web service. Other technology innovations include Azure Key Vault, which can be used as an alternative to the Windows Credential Store for shared secrets. SignalR expands our portfolio for the ScriptRunner portal and for working with load balancers.

Unified data storage

ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0 now uses a unified database. Whether it's configuration data, PowerShell reports, or processing data, the old platform used a variety of technologies: a circular logging database, a SQL Compact database for reports, XML files for configuration, and so on.

The default single-node version now uses SQLite, but Microsoft SQL or Mongo DB can be used as alternatives. Both MS-SQL and Mongo-DB versions can be used both on-premises and as hosted versions.

In multi-node mode, Microsoft SQL and Mongo DB can be used, depending on your preference. Database switching is supported through PowerShell cmdlets, which also move the database contents to the new database.

Git integration

The direct integration of Git in ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0 is another milestone in supporting script developers and the killer feature in ScriptRunner Enterprise 7.0. The products that can be natively integrated into ScriptRunner are diverse, including GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and many other Git providers.  

The direct integration into ScriptRunner offers a variety of advantages. Both the purely internal use of Git in ScriptRunner and the use of an external Git repository as a local Git repository with access via the portal or Visual Studio Code allow developers and administrators to design a development process for scripts of their choice without losing traceability and control in script development.

Developers can track their work in ScriptRunner and in the external Git repository regardless of where they make changes to the script. Likewise, development of scripts can be forced to occur exclusively in the external Git repository. See the "Script sources" article in our documentation for more information on this topic. 

Another advantage of integrated Git is the easy integration and synchronization between ScriptRunner and an external Git repository. The connection to the external Git repository is configured in the portal. A filter can also be used to influence the selection of scripts.

Monitoring server nodes

In multi-node environments, it is important to have an overview of all nodes at all times, whether it be resource status, events or health status.

With the new node monitoring, which is also available in single-node mode, this is now signaled directly in the portal and its dashboard.

In addition to node status, you can drill down to the detailed levels of connections, resources and events.

You can see the health of individual accounts, what version is running, and whether the license service is working. Error messages and warnings can be tracked in detail in the separate Events tab. This makes it easier to find and fix errors.

Update of the ScriptRunner Settings module

The introduction of the new platform, new interfaces and new features required a new ScriptRunner Settings PowerShell module.

As a result, the names of the cmdlets and much of the command structure have changed. The ASR prefix has been dropped and replaced with the SRX prefix.

This means that you can now use the Get-SrxLicense cmdlet to get license information instead of the Get-AsrLicense cmdlet. 

Discontinuation of connectors

With Enterprise Version 7.0, the SQL connector and the inbound email connector have been retired because the new version offers alternatives and integrations that better meet the needs of modern IT infrastructures.

Conclusion

With the new platform, our customers can rest assured that they are using a modern, future-proof architecture and technology, while benefiting from improved performance, significantly enhanced functionality, and a high level of usability.

Related links

• Blogartikel zu ScriptRunner Enterprise Version 7.0 
• Link to Microsoft | Learn, CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
• Documentation, our article on Script sources 
• ScriptRunner: Try it out! Our software trial is for free, download the Trial Version and get a demo