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Cloud and desktop flow monitoring tips

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Posted on by razec18

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Guys, good morning! Currently in my company we have several power automation, cloud and desktop flows. We also have several machines (VMs). I would like to know if you do some type of monitoring, create some type of dashboard (trello, teams, I don't know) to clearly visualize how the flows are going.

Currently I open each tab for each flow and check the error, but this is not at all effective considering that we have more than 50 flows and 50 machines.

It is difficult to identify and deal with the various errors that occur in our environment.

Thanks!

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AndreasN 318 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Hello,

Do you have any real-time notification systems in place, to notify you when an error occurs? (Other than the default Microsoft e-mail, which they send once a week).

I personally store all flow runs on a SharePoint list, this can then be visualized through a canvas app or Power BI if I want to. I have a notification system, that sends me an e-mail and a teams notification if an error occurs in real-time. If I forget to correct the error, I have another flow that goes through my SharePoint flow log, and notifies me if any error hasn't been fixed within 24 hours.

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razec18 123 on at

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Hey, thanks for the reply!
Actually no... I do not have this real-time notifications 😞
How do you store all of your FlowRuns into your sharepoint?
Can you share it with me?

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AndreasN 318 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Hello Razec,

Sure let me try to explain, I use the standard try / catch / finally setup with scopes.

First you need to initialize an empty string variable, you can call it whatever.

Create these 3 scopes.

Within your "Try" scope, you place all of the functionality of your flow, meaning all those actions you currently have for a working flow goes within the try scope.

Here's a snippet of my try scope, when I open it up. As you can see, I have placed all my actions inside.

At the end of your try scope, you place a "set variable". Set the variable you have initialized to whatever indicates a success, I have set my string as "success".

Then you have to set up your "catch" scope.

You can fully copy how mine is setup:

In the catch scope, I set my initialized variable string to "error", again you can set it to anything that indicates an error has occurred.

I collect the URL and the name of the flowrun, meaning if an error occurs I will have a direct URL link to that exact flowrun, as well as the name of the flow.

Here's the expressions:
FlowURL -

concat('https://make.powerautomate.com/environments/', workflow()?['tags']?['environmentName'], '/flows/', workflow()?['name'], '/runs/', workflow()?['run']?['name'])

FlowName -

workflow()?['tags']?['flowDisplayName']

Then I send the following e-mail to myself:

You can further customize this, to also include the error message you receive for the flow error. I find this redundant, as I have to access the flow anyways to correct the error, and it will tell me the reason why the error has occurred there.

In the finally scope, I have created a SharePoint list and then I store my variable and the flowname and flowURL.

Now your scopes are all setup, except we need to configure the "run after" settings. So you always want your try scope to run, this is the bread and butter of your flow and where all the magic happens. If your try scope is successful it loads that into the string variable, and you can save the successful flow run in your SharePoint list.

If your try scope encounters an error, we want the catch scope to run, you do that by setting the "configure run after" settings for the catch scope up like this:

So if your try scope fails or times out, the catch scope will run where you set the string variable to "error", you collect the flowname and URL and send an e-mail to whomever is in charge of the flow. Again, the finally scope will run, and the error status is noted into your SharePoint list.

From there, you can create any type of flow that scans your SharePoint list for all the error flows, and notify you if they haven't been fixed. I have set it as default, that when an item is created in my SharePoint list, it gets an "Unsolved" property in a choice column, and once I solve the error I have to manually access the SharePoint list and change the value to "Solved". My flow scans for all "Unsolved" properties, and notifies me if any of them is 24 hours or more old everyday, just to keep myself on my toes.

Hope it makes sense,

best regards - AndreasN

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AndreasN 318 Super User 2024 Season 1 on at

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Hello Razec,

Sure let me try to explain, I use the standard try / catch / finally setup with scopes.

First you need to initialize an empty string variable, you can call it whatever.

Create these 3 scopes.

Within your "Try" scope, you place all of the functionality of your flow, meaning all those actions you currently have for a working flow goes within the try scope.

Here's a snippet of my try scope, when I open it up. As you can see, I have placed all my actions inside.

At the end of your try scope, you place a "set variable". Set the variable you have initialized to whatever indicates a success, I have set my string as "success".

Then you have to set up your "catch" scope.

You can fully copy how mine is setup:

In the catch scope, I set my initialized variable string to "error", again you can set it to anything that indicates an error has occurred.

I collect the URL and the name of the flowrun, meaning if an error occurs I will have a direct URL link to that exact flowrun, as well as the name of the flow.

Here's the expressions:
FlowURL -

concat('https://make.powerautomate.com/environments/', workflow()?['tags']?['environmentName'], '/flows/', workflow()?['name'], '/runs/', workflow()?['run']?['name'])

FlowName -

workflow()?['tags']?['flowDisplayName']

Then I send the following e-mail to myself:

You can further customize this, to also include the error message you receive for the flow error. I find this redundant, as I have to access the flow anyways to correct the error, and it will tell me the reason why the error has occurred there.

In the finally scope, I have created a SharePoint list and then I store my variable and the flowname and flowURL.

Now your scopes are all setup, except we need to configure the "run after" settings. So you always want your try scope to run, this is the bread and butter of your flow and where all the magic happens. If your try scope is successful it loads that into the string variable, and you can save the successful flow run in your SharePoint list.

If your try scope encounters an error, we want the catch scope to run, you do that by setting the "configure run after" settings for the catch scope up like this:

So if your try scope fails or times out, the catch scope will run where you set the string variable to "error", you collect the flowname and URL and send an e-mail to whomever is in charge of the flow. Again, the finally scope will run, and the error status is noted into your SharePoint list.

From there, you can create any type of flow that scans your SharePoint list for all the error flows, and notify you if they haven't been fixed. I have set it as default, that when an item is created in my SharePoint list, it gets an "Unsolved" property in a choice column, and once I solve the error I have to manually access the SharePoint list and change the value to "Solved". My flow scans for all "Unsolved" properties, and notifies me if any of them is 24 hours or more old everyday, just to keep myself on my toes.

Hope it makes sense,

best regards - AndreasN

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