Pending Actions

Pending Actions

When an action policy is in place for an operation, performing that operation doesn't happen immediately — it creates a pending action instead, which sits waiting for review until enough of the policy's authorized reviewers approve it.

How reviewapproval works

1. EveryInitiation. A user starts an operation covered by an action policy. StorONE doesn't run it. It records the operation as a pending action and sends an email to every authorized reviewer forof the policypolicy.

Review. Each authorized reviewer can approve or decline athe pending action. If the user who started the operation is also an authorized reviewer, their request counts as the first approval. Completion. When the number of approvals reaches the policy's minimum and no reviewer has declined, the operation runs automatically and the pending action disappears from the list. Decline. One decline is enough to hold the operation, even if it already has enough approvals. A reviewer's votereviewer can bechange changedtheir decision later — approving removes you from the decliners, and declining removes you from the approvers. Cancellation. The user who started the operation, or any Admin, can cancel a pending action at any time. Nothing is carriedapplied. out automatically

Pending actions have no expiry. They stay open until they're approved and run, or cancelled, so reviewers in different time zones have as soonmuch time as they need.

Decline and cancel compared

Decline Cancel Who can do it hasAn atauthorized leastreviewer as many approvals asof the policy'policy. The user who started the request, or any Admin. Effect Records the reviewer's minimumobjection. requiredThe reviewers, and nobody has declined it. If someone declines it after it already has enough approvals, itrequest stays blockedopen untiland thecan't run while any decline is withdrawnrecorded. (orWithdraws the pendingrequest. actionThe requested change is deleted).discarded. Only Reversible Yes. The reviewer can approve later, which replaces their decline. No. To perform the adminsoperation, submit it again. Objects in the request Remain locked (see below). Released for other changes.

A decline lets reviewers stop an operation while keeping the request available for further discussion. Once a declined request is no longer needed, cancel it to close it and release the objects it covers.

Built-in safeguards

Only Admins can review. Only Admin accounts can be named as authorized reviewers, and only authorized reviewers on the governing policy can approve or decline. ApprovingIndividual decisions. Each reviewer records only their own decision. You can't approve a pending action you've already approved, or decliningdecline requiresone you've already declined. Entity locking. While a pending action is open, the Admin roleobjects in yourthe organization.requested change are locked against further configuration changes, so reviewers approve exactly the operation that will run. For example, while the deletion of volume vol1 waits for approval, other configuration changes to vol1 are declined, and so is a second request involving vol1. The message points to Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions. The lock is released when the pending action completes or is cancelled. Non-adminPolicy consistency. If a change to an action policy is itself waiting for approval, new requests for operations under that policy are declined until the change is approved or cancelled. Every request is therefore reviewed under a settled, agreed policy. For example, while a change to the Volume Delete policy is waiting, a new volume deletion request is declined with a message pointing to Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions. Submit the request again once the policy change is resolved. Recycle bin. An approved volume deletion moves the volume to the recycle bin when the recycle bin is enabled, so it can be restored within the configured time limit. See Recycle Bin.

Who sees what

Admins see every pending action in the system, with the full list of reviewers and their decisions. Other users see only ever see the pending actions relevant to them (the ones they triggered),started, and can't see who else has approved or declined — a decline just shows as "Declined by Reviewer" rather than a username.

Admins

Audit trail

Every step is recorded in the system event log and raised as a notification in the Audit category, so you can route them to a target of your choice (see everyNotifications):

Event Recorded when PendingActionCreation A pending action,action includingis whocreated. approved anddeclinedPendingActionApproval it.A Thereviewer userapproves. who triggered PendingActionDecline A reviewer declines. PendingActionBlockedForCompletion Enough approvals are reached, but the governedaction is held by a decline. PendingActionCompletion The operation canruns. cancel it at any point by deleting their own pending action, without needing reviewer approval.

Listing pending actions

Using the web interface

OpenWhen an operation covered by an action policy is requested, the web interface shows a pending actions indicator in the top icon bar. The badge counts the open pending actions, and the pop-up summarizes each one: the policy, how many approvals it has out of the minimum required (for example Admins: 1/2), the requested command, and how long ago it was created.

To review them, click See All Pending Actions in the pop-up, or open Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions. Click Submit to list the pending actions. Use Waiting For My Review to show only the ones you can still decide on, or Only My Pending Actions to show the requests you started. You can also pick a specific action by Id.

Select a row to open its details:

Action Policy — the policy that covers the request, with the approvals so far out of the minimum required. Action Description — the exact operation that will run once it's approved. Approvers and Reviewable By — who has already approved, and which reviewers can still decide. Timestamp and Initiated By — when the request was created and by whom.

Admins see every pending action in the system;action; other users see only the ones they triggered.

Using the CLI

action_policies pending_actions list [<id>] [--onlyMyPendingActions] [--waitingForMyReview]

Option	Description
<id>	Filter pending actions by ID.
--onlyMyPendingActions	Show only pending actions relevant to you (always applied for non-admin users, regardless of this flag).
--waitingForMyReview	Show only pending actions that are still awaiting your review as an authorized reviewer.

Examples

List everything waiting on your review as an admin:

action_policies pending_actions list --waitingForMyReview

List only the pending actions you personally triggered:

action_policies pending_actions list --onlyMyPendingActions

Approving a pending action

Using the web interface

1. Open Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions.
2. Select the pending action (or select multipleseveral at once) and click Approve. You can also use the approve icon in the details header.

Once the number of approvals reaches the minimum and no reviewer has declined, the operation runs automatically.

Using the CLI

action_policies pending_actions approve <id>

Option	Description
<id>	The ID of the pending action to approve.

Example

action_policies pending_actions approve 142

Declining a pending action

Declining blocks the pending action from completing, even if it already has enough approvals — it stays blocked until the decline is withdrawn (by approving it) or the pending action is deleted.cancelled.

Using the web interface

1. Open Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions.
2. Select the pending action (or select multipleseveral at once) and click Decline.

Using the CLI

action_policies pending_actions decline <id>

Option	Description
<id>	The ID of the pending action to decline.

Example

action_policies pending_actions decline 142

DeletingCancelling a pending action

Deleting a pending action cancels the underlying request — it does not perform it, no matter how many approvals it had collected. Non-admin users may only delete pending actions they personally triggered; admins may delete any.

Using the web interface

1. Open Administration > Action Policies > Pending Actions.
2. Select the pending action and click Delete.

Using the CLI

action_policies pending_actions delete <id>

Option	Description
<id>	The ID of the pending action to delete.

Example

action_policies pending_actions delete 142

---

See also: Action Policies · Recycle Bin (where an approved volume deletion ends up, if a recycle bin is configured)