Actions

Actions is a tool for performing operations on the network nodes in your Storage right from the Network tree.

Actions can be accessed via the network node and group context menus:

If the action is inactive, it means that the node does not meet one of the Conditions or the Condition cannot be applied to this node of the network tree.

See Conditions.

By default, only the actions that are applicable to the selected nodes are visible in the menu. This can be changed from the Options.

Actions can also be executed from the context menus of network map nodes.

Standard actions

TNI comes with three standard actions:

Reboot;
Power off;
Wake-on-LAN.

These actions don’t need to be configured. To execute one of them, simply select it from the action list of the desired node or group of nodes.

Custom actions

Custom actions allow you to use any system routines or third-party utilities in order to accomplish a desired task involving a remote network device.

Custom actions are defined in the action text file using a simple syntax. To access the file, right-click any asset, choose Edit actions from the Actions sub-menu, and when the Options window opens, click the Edit commands in Notepad button in Options Actions

A convenient, brief summary of the action definition syntax, with examples and a complete list of keywords and templates, can be found in the Actions section of the Options window, with one-click copy capability included. The list is also available on this documentation page.

An example of custom actions for UltraVNC program:
{$IF WIN,ONLINE}UltraVNC conection=”C:\Program Files\UltraVNC\UltraVNC.exe” -c: -h: -x -a:1 -m:
{$IF ONLINE} Remote VNC=vncviewer.exe -connect host %HOST%

Creating a new action

To add a new action, add a line to the action text file:

Action name=command

Action name is the name that will appear in the Actions menu.

Command is the command for the operating system to execute.

Templates

Inside the command’s definition, certain string templates are used to pass the parameters of a targeted network node into the command. These are the supported templates:

An example of using a template in a command
Ping asset=ping.exe %HOST%

Conditions

Conditional directives may be added to the action’s definition, thus rendering the action inapplicable to certain assets. This is useful in a variety of cases, i.e. to prevent attempts to execute a command that are certain to fail.

A condition is specified when {$IF condition} is added before the action’s definition in this way:

{$IF condition}Action name=command

These are the supported conditions:

Command	Description
OPEN00	The specified port is open
OPENSSHPORT	The SSH port specified in the scanner settings is open
ONLINE	The device is online
WIN	It's a Windows device
LIN	It's a Linux device
MAC	It's a macOS device
SSH	The device was scanned via SSH (a Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, or an ESX/ESXi device)
SNMP	The device was scanned via SNMP
LAN	The device and the PC running TNI share the same subnet
EXISTS(filename.exe)	The specified executable exists on the paths specified in the PATH environment variable

Command	Description
%HOST%	FQDN, hostname or IP, depending on the Static IP address setting of the asset
%HOSTNAME%	Hostname of the asset
%ALIAS%	Alias of the asset
%IP%	IP-address of the asset
%MAC-%	Hyphen-separated MAC-address
%MAC:%	Colon-separated MAC-address
%MAC%	MAC-address without delimiters
%SSHPORT%	Custom SSH port as specified in the scanner options
%USERNAME%	Username from the login record used for asset scanning
%PASSWORD%	Password from the login record used for asset scanning
%DATE%	Current date (YYYYMMDD)
%TIME%	Current time (HHMM)
%TIMES%	Current time (HHMMSS)

Several conditions separated by commas result in a logical AND treatment.

Adding an “!” before a condition negates it (logical NOT).

An example of using a template in a command
{$IF LAN,!ONLINE}Wake-on-LAN=wol.exe %MAC:%

Actions for multiple nodes

By default, any action is considered inapplicable to several devices at once. Thus, it won’t appear in the action list when you select several devices or a group. To make it available in these cases, multiple targets have to be allowed explicitly by adding the {$MULTI} directive in front of the definition.

Example
{$MULTI}{$IF LAN,!ONLINE}Wake-on-LAN=wol.exe %MAC:%

When targeted at multiple devices, a condition is considered satisfied if any of the target nodes satisfies it. To make a condition mandatory for all targets, an “!” should be added after it.

Examples:

Command	Description
{$IF LAN}	If any of the target nodes share the local subnet
{$IF LAN!}	If all of the target nodes share the local subnet

Negation and mandatory-for-all modification can be combined:

{$IF !ONLINE!}

If all of the targeted nodes are offline

Grouping actions

The commands {$GROUP} and {$END GROUP} allow splitting the actions list into groups.

Example of usage
{$GROUP}Group name
{$F OPEN80}Browse web=http://%HOST%/
{$END GROUP}

Accidental run protection

If an action is “unsafe”, adding an {$?} directive to the definition will display a confirmation dialog before every execution.

{$?}Shutdown="C:\PSTools\psshutdown.exe" -k \\%HOST%

Sending keystrokes

Sometimes executing a command launches a user interface that requires further user input. In order to automate this task, TNI can send predefined keystrokes to the launched application.

To send keystrokes, append /sendkeys: to the action’s definition, followed by a string of keys to send. After the /sendkeys: command you may use:

Arbitrary text	sent as is
Templates	converted to text and sent as they are
{$WAIT X}	pauses the execution for X milliseconds (if this directive is omitted, the default pause before sending any keys is one second)
{key name}	simulate pressing a special key (the following keyboard keys can be used: F1..F10, LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN, ENTER, BACKSPACE, PGUP, PGDN, HOME, END, TAB)

Example of usage
Remote Desktop with login=mstsc.exe /v:%IP% /sendkeys:%PASSWORD%{ENTER}
When the action is executed, an authorization window will open up. TNI then sends the password to the input box and presses Enter to log in, automatically.