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Operations Management

The scm CLI provides capabilities beyond managing individual configuration objects, including deployment, job monitoring, health checks, and audit logging. This guide covers operational workflows for managing your SCM environment.

Overview

This guide covers operational tasks you can perform with the CLI:

  • Deploy configuration changes by committing and pushing
  • Monitor asynchronous jobs and check their status
  • Inspect license status and system health
  • Review audit logs to track changes
  • Manage scheduled tasks for recurring operations
  • Troubleshoot issues with diagnostic tools

Prerequisites

Before performing operational tasks, ensure you have:

  • The scm CLI installed and authenticated (see Getting Started)
  • Appropriate permissions for deployment and operational commands
  • Configuration changes staged and ready to deploy (for commit/push operations)

Core Concepts

Deployment Workflow

After making changes to your configurations, you must commit and push those changes to make them active. The workflow is:

  1. Make configuration changes using set, delete, or load commands
  2. Commit the candidate configuration with a description
  3. Push the committed configuration to devices

Asynchronous Jobs

Many SCM operations run asynchronously and generate jobs. Use the job monitoring commands to track their progress and verify completion.

Examples

Configuration Deployment

Committing Changes

$ scm set deployment commit \
    --description "Updated address objects and security rules"
---> 100%
Commit initiated successfully

Pushing Configurations

$ scm set deployment push
---> 100%
Push initiated successfully

$ scm set deployment push \
    --device-groups "Branch-Firewalls,DataCenter"
---> 100%
Push initiated to device groups: Branch-Firewalls, DataCenter

Tip

After committing or pushing, check job status to confirm the operation completed successfully.

Job Monitoring

Checking Job Status

$ scm get operations job --job-id "12345"
---> 100%
Job: 12345
  Status: completed
  Type: commit
  Result: success

Listing Recent Jobs

$ scm get operations jobs --limit 10
---> 100%
Recent Jobs:
------------------------------------------------------------
Job ID: 12345
  Type: commit
  Status: completed
------------------------------------------------------------
Job ID: 12344
  Type: push
  Status: in_progress
------------------------------------------------------------

License Management

Checking License Status

$ scm get operations licenses
---> 100%
License Status:
  Type: Enterprise
  Status: Active
  Expiration: 2026-12-31

Health Monitoring

System Status

$ scm get operations status
---> 100%
System Status: Healthy
  API: Connected
  Services: All Running

Connectivity Tests

$ scm get operations connectivity-test --target firewalls
---> 100%
Connectivity Test Results:
  Target: firewalls
  Status: All reachable

User Management

Listing Users

$ scm get operations users
---> 100%
Users:
  admin (Administrator)
  readonly (Read-Only)

User Roles

$ scm get operations roles
---> 100%
Available Roles:
  Administrator
  Read-Only
  Security Admin

Audit Logs

Retrieving Audit Logs

$ scm get operations audit-logs --limit 20
---> 100%
Audit Logs (last 20 entries):
  2026-03-08 10:30:00 - admin - Created address: web-server
  2026-03-08 10:25:00 - admin - Updated security rule: Allow-Web

Filtering Audit Logs

$ scm get operations audit-logs --filter-user "admin"
---> 100%
Audit Logs (filtered by user: admin):
  2026-03-08 10:30:00 - Created address: web-server
  2026-03-08 10:25:00 - Updated security rule: Allow-Web

$ scm get operations audit-logs \
    --start-date "2026-03-01" \
    --end-date "2026-03-08"
---> 100%
Audit Logs (2026-03-01 to 2026-03-08):
  2026-03-08 10:30:00 - admin - Created address: web-server
  2026-03-05 14:00:00 - admin - Committed configuration

Scheduled Tasks

Listing Scheduled Tasks

$ scm get operations scheduled-tasks
---> 100%
Scheduled Tasks:
  Daily-Backup (0 0 * * *) - Active

Creating Backup Tasks

$ scm set operations scheduled-task \
    --type backup \
    --name "Daily-Backup" \
    --schedule "0 0 * * *"
---> 100%
Created scheduled task: Daily-Backup

Troubleshooting

Diagnostic Tools

$ scm get operations diagnostics
---> 100%
Diagnostics:
  API Connectivity: OK
  Authentication: Valid
  Configuration Sync: Up to date

Log Collection

$ scm get operations collect-logs --output-dir "./support-logs"
---> 100%
Logs collected to ./support-logs/

Best Practices

  1. Use descriptive commit messages: Document your changes clearly for audit trail purposes.
  2. Check job status after operations: Verify that commits and pushes complete successfully before proceeding.
  3. Review audit logs periodically: Track changes made through the CLI and other interfaces to maintain accountability.
  4. Set up scheduled tasks for backups: Automate recurring operations to ensure consistent configuration backups.
  5. Use verbose mode for troubleshooting: Add --verbose to commands when diagnosing operational issues.

Next Steps