How to Pass Command Output Between Workflow Steps in ControlUp Using Data Index as a Workaround

In a recent discussion among ControlUp community members, the capability of passing output from the “Run System Command” node directly into the next step of a workflow was explored. The specific use case involved reading a device’s Organizational Unit (OU) from Active Directory (AD) and using that information to dynamically assign tags through the “Update Tags” node in a workflow. The question centered on whether the result of a command or script executed by the “Run System Command” node could be piped directly to the subsequent node for immediate processing.

The response clarified that currently, ControlUp’s “Run System Command” or script execution nodes do not support the direct output transfer or piping of command results into subsequent workflow steps. This limitation means that you cannot directly feed command or script output into another node like “Update Tags” within the same workflow step sequence.

A recommended workaround involves using a data index alongside a script. The script, executed by the “Run System Command” node, can write the needed output (such as device OU information) to a ControlUp data index. The “Update Tags” node or any subsequent workflow step can then query and apply data from this index, thereby indirectly passing the information through the workflow with a slight delay compared to direct piping. Another mentioned option involves invoking a new flow via a REST API call from the script once execution completes, which offers a programmatic way to chain operations but also introduces additional complexity.

While there is no current timeline for enabling direct output passing from the “Run System Command” node, the ControlUp team acknowledged the usefulness of this feature and indicated plans to add it in the future to streamline workflows by eliminating the need for external data storage steps or additional scripts.

For further guidance on automating tags based on device attributes, workflows, and data indexing in ControlUp, users may refer to the official ControlUp documentation at https://docs.controlup.com and the ControlUp Academy at https://cuacademy.controlup.com, where detailed instructions and best practices for workflow automation and integrating Active Directory data can be found.

Read the entire ‘How to Pass Command Output Between Workflow Steps in ControlUp Using Data Index as a Workaround’ thread below:

Hi all, is there a way to run a command via the “Run System Command” node and then pipe this into the next step of the flow?
Use case is: Reading from AD to see the device’s OU and then add tags based on that, I need to pass the tags through to the “Update Tags” Node.
I know I could use a data index for it by making a script and then running the script to populate the index, and just have it overwrite existing records.

Hi
No, for now we don’t have results of execution command via Run Command/Script. We are going to add this, but don’t have any time estimations.

As you mention, you can read index or run a flow via REST API call in the end of a script execution.

Alright thank you, I personally would benefit from that being a feature (removes an extra step of work to make the script & data index, etc)

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