Run scripts on multiple hosts from Fleet UI

[ddribeiro]

• customer-cisneros: Slack thread: https://fleetdm.slack.com/archives/C072L58U878/p1732543416921619
• customer-deebradel: Gong snippet: https://us-65885.app.gong.io/call?id=66600026135807720&highlights=%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22SHARE%22%2C%22from%22%3A2627%2C%22to%22%3A2824%7D%5D
• @noahtalerman: User will expect to execute a script across a group of devices by first creating the group, then assigning the devices to that group, and finally scoping the script to run on that group.
  • @allenhouchins: In other MDMs you can choose whether this script will run once per device or on a schedule (once per day, hour, etc.).
  • @noahtalerman: In the interim Fleet users can go to each host's Host details page to trigger the script run. They can create a manual label in Fleet and assign the hosts to that label. Then, in a third-party automation tool, iterate over the hosts in that label and hit the Fleet API to run the script.
  • @noahtalerman: Soon Fleet users will be able to run a script based on failing policy. This means they can write a policy that fails when a host is non-compliant.
  • @noahtalerman: This covers the vast majority of the use cases in which scripts would be run on a schedule.

  • @noahtalerman: Eventually Fleet users might be able to scope a script run to a label once or on a schedule.

[noahtalerman]

Moved the original issue description here for safekeeping:

Summary

• Have a mechanism in the Fleet UI to select group of hosts to run on a script on, rather than having to trigger the script on each host individually.

Gong snippet: https://us-65885.app.gong.io/call?id=66600026135807720&highlights=%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22SHARE%22%2C%22from%22%3A2627%2C%22to%22%3A2824%7D%5D

Problem

As a Fleet admin, I want to run ad-hoc scripts on a group of hosts using the Fleet UI. Currently, to run an ad-hoc script in the Fleet UI, I have to go into each host details page to run the script.

What have you tried?

I searched the Fleet UI for a way to execute a script on multiple hosts at once, but did not find a way to do that. I was only able to run my script on each host individually.

Potential solutions

17129 might be a solution for some workflows where the execution of a script on multiple hosts can be determined

For workflows where the execution of the script is run on demand and is not automated, there should be a way in the Fleet UI to select multiple hosts to run a script on. I think a UI similar to host selection for Live Queries would work well.

What is the expected workflow as a result of your proposal?

As a Fleet admin who uses scripts to perform remote actions on my host (i.e. promote local users to admin or vice versa), I would select a script in the Fleet UI. I would then select hosts to run that script on (either individual hosts, platform, or label). The script would queue up to run on those selected hosts and execute when they come online.