Question
Shawbrook Bank
IN
Last activity: 7 May 2021 13:53 EDT
Schedule a pega RPA without a Robot Manager
Hi All,
I am using Pega RPA 19.1. I have a requirement to schedule a web application. This is a pure unattended automation were I am not linking it with Pega Platform or any work assignments.
1) Once I deploy the automation, how can I schedule it
2) Do I require Pega Robot Manager for doing this
3) Also I have another Email Configuration Automation also running in the same VM. But this has nothing to do with the web app.
Looking forward to know best practice to do the above job.
Regards,
Gayathri
Pegasystems Inc.
IN
1. The first step is you need to create a .bat file to load the required project to Pega Robotics runtime.
2. Then you need to create a task in the windows task scheduler to run point1 .bat based on your requirement.
Ref link: https://www.windowscentral.com/how-create-automated-task-using-task-scheduler-windows-10
Note: At any point in time, only one runtime is allowed to run per machine and it loads only one package(project) at a time. The same rule holds even if you run the project using Robot Manager or any other way.
As per your point 3, We understand that Email Configuration Automation is also running in the same VM, please make sure that your web application automation project and Email Configuration Automation project do not run at the same time. Hence plan accordingly to run one project after the other by designing the windows task scheduler.
I hope this answered your query. Please let me know if you have any queries.
Shawbrook Bank
IN
Hi Aditya,
Thank you for the details you have provided.
I have some more queries:
1) Email Config automation runs every time a new event (new email) is received in the outlook inbox. Unlike scheduling web automation, this is trigger for this automation cannot be controlled.
2) Also there can be multiple web apps that needs to be run in different times during the day.
Considering these factors please advise if we can still have the email config and web app in same VM.
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
Hi,
I'd use RM to have a schedule with different WG. You can assign the Packages required for each of the automations to different WG and then create a schedule for the different web apps at the times required by your business requirements. Leave the otherwise to the email automation and the bot will be running that solution every time that it is not scheduled for a web application automation.
Note that if you are not pulling work from RM I'd recommend you to set the Work Polling interval setting in the WG to 0 so the Runtime don't try to pull work from RM.
Shawbrook Bank
IN
Hi Angel,
Thank you for your suggestion.
Kindly help me understand were does a work group come into picture if i am not using Pega PRPC for this Robotic Automation Solution.
In case you have any supporting community link that would also help.
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
Hi,
Work group is the equivalente to a team of robots for Unattended RPA. We use the WG to assign the Package so when the robot connects to RM using a particular WG. RM returns the assigned Package and version for the robot to download from the repository.
This is how the robot knows which Package needs to execute. The Package may contain one or multiple automations. In your scenario since I believe you need the bot to work on dedicated tasks at particular times, I'd use multiple WG and the schedule to drive which one is used when.
Does this make sense to you?
Shawbrook Bank
IN
Thank you for the response.
I found the below link which talks about how to create and manage work groups within Robot manager.
In this case I have a VM were I install Robot Runtime and Robot Manager. Create different work groups for each different bot and schedule them at different times in RM. Kindly correct me if my understanding is incorrect.
Regards,
Gayathri
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
Robot Manager is a Pega Platform application. It is designed to control your RPA workforce and packages assignments. It is meant to be install as a server where all your clients connect to. Technically you could install everything on the same machine but by doing this you'll be defeating some of its purpose and you won't be able to use the RPA service to control the Runtime's session.
If you cannot provision a server to host Robot Manager I'm afraid you are restricted to use Windows Task Scheduler or a similar software to control the Runtime sessions. You can pass the Package name as a parameter to start the Runtime.
Please, let me know how you'd like to proceed so I can pass you further details on how to do it.
Shawbrook Bank
IN
Hi Angel,
Yes the ideal option for us is to use Windows task scheduler. It would great if you can share the steps to do so.
Thanks
Gayathri
Pegasystems Inc.
GB
The steps to do so were already described by @Aditya Menda. You'll need to create as many schedules as different solutions you want to run and each of these will have a different .bat file with the required parameters to run the appropriate automations.
Pegasystems Inc.
US
@GayathriK9873 This is a lively discussion because it shows the flexibility of setting up Pega Robotics depending on configuration of your environment and the use case. Everything above is correct and you can use the old-school methods of scheduling w/o RM, if your use case(s) is low volume and easily contained within processing capability of a VM. So to get back to your original question, here's how it will work in general for your use case:
1) You will need to have a Robotic solution that includes automations both for your email config and web applications. This is because in the old-school set up (w/o RM orchestration) you can run one session of runtime with one solution at a time. As long as you can build both of those automations w/o conflicts within the same solution, then you can achieve what you are looking for.
2) You will need to schedule Pega Robotics runtime to be started with the solution parameter by Windows task scheduler prior to the earliest production time that you need for either of your automations.
@GayathriK9873 This is a lively discussion because it shows the flexibility of setting up Pega Robotics depending on configuration of your environment and the use case. Everything above is correct and you can use the old-school methods of scheduling w/o RM, if your use case(s) is low volume and easily contained within processing capability of a VM. So to get back to your original question, here's how it will work in general for your use case:
1) You will need to have a Robotic solution that includes automations both for your email config and web applications. This is because in the old-school set up (w/o RM orchestration) you can run one session of runtime with one solution at a time. As long as you can build both of those automations w/o conflicts within the same solution, then you can achieve what you are looking for.
2) You will need to schedule Pega Robotics runtime to be started with the solution parameter by Windows task scheduler prior to the earliest production time that you need for either of your automations.
3) You will need to build a custom configuration within your web application automation to know when it should run. The key concept here is that as long as your runtime is up and running with the solution, it can actually then execute individual automations on its own schedule that you build into the automation. It is a custom implementation work - i.e. work trigger/schedule is part of your automation. You can have automation check for schedule parameters in a custom config file, you can have it automatically determine schedule from the environment (e.g. system clock), or you can have it watch for triggers, like listening to the files or checking for work in an application.
4) At the end of production hours for all automations in the solution you should include the automation for the runtime to shut itself down. We recommend regular scheduled reboots of the VM (also through Windows OS) to ensure your applications and memory are refreshed regularly (you never know what kind of memory leaks legacy applications may have, especially when subject to high volume work by a robot for extended hours).