Follow these best practices when using the Pega Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Robot Simulator to manage robots. 

Starting robots through a new Pega RPA Service

To manage and work with robots within the RPA Robot Simulator, you must first start a Pega RPA Service. When planning to use the simulator across different instances of a Pega Robot Manager portal in an organization, you might need to create a new RPA Service and save the new settings to a new simulation profile. For example, you can use a new RPA Service to include variations in settings for specific testing scenarios.

The number of RPA Services that your Pega Robot Manager needs depends on the type of testing and configurations for registering and provisioning the robots.

Create an RPA Service by completing the following steps. 

1. In the RPA Simulator Main window, from the Select an RPA Service list, select an option.

2. Click Start.

3. In the RPA Simulator Configure RPA Service window, complete the following fields:
    

   Field	Value
   RPA Service operator prefix	Enter a unique text value that represents the purpose of this RPA Service. Use a convention that helps you distinguish this RPA Service from others that you create.
   Robot name prefix	Enter a unique text value to distinguish different service robots, for example, PRE.
   Robot count field	Enter the number of robots needed to perform the tests. The simulator creates the robots by appending numbers to the end of the prefix, starting with 00.
   Use default credentials	Clear this check box if the credentials needed to start the RPA Service and register the robots are different from those on the Login window.
   Username and password	Enter the user name and password needed to start the RPA Service and register the robots if these credentials are different from those on the Login window.
   Min and max processing time	Enter the default minimum and maximum processing times for a specific testing scenario. If necessary, you can overwrite these default values later in the Create Cases window for the specific case.
   Min and max percentage of cases to fail	Enter the default minimum and maximum percentage of cases to fail. If necessary, you can overwrite these default values later in the Create Cases window for the specific case.

    

4. Click Start RPA Services to close the RPA Simulator Configure RPA Service window. 

The RPA Simulator Main window shows the status of the service. You can review the Activity Log for more detailed information on the service. After you configure all the RPA Services, choose File > Save to save the configurations for a specific Pega Robot Manager instance or testing scenario.

Automatically load cases

Testing can require cases to be continuously created and added to the assignment type. The RPA Robot Simulator allows the RPA Service to keep a level of cases in the assignment type. 

Complete the following steps to automatically load cases. 

1. Log in to the RPA Robot Simulator by using the credentials for starting robots and creating cases.
2. From the Select a casetype list, select the case type to create, and then click Create.
3. In the RPA Simulator Case Creation window, select the Maintain case load automatically check box.
4. From the Work queue list, select the work queue to create the cases.
5. In the Minimum case count and Maximum case count fields, enter the values for the range of cases to maintain in the assignment type.
6. If necessary, adjust other settings that are related to the processing time and failing percentage for this specific assignment type.
7. Click Start Case Creation.

RPA Simulator login credentials

The RPA Simulator requires two operator ID credentials: one operator ID with Robot Registration access and one with Runtime User access. Follow these guidelines to determine if you need to create separate operator IDs for the two access types:

• If you are testing in a confined application space where changes to the application and Pega Robot Manager do not affect other operators and functionality, create one operator ID that can handle both access groups and functions.
• If you are using Pega Robot Manager and its applications in a testing or quality assurance environment, create separate operator IDs, which is the recommended practice for unattended robots.

Saving simulation profiles

You can use the RPA Robot Simulator for any Pega Robot Manager application. Save simulations to separate profile files and open the necessary simulations when needed to simplify the configuration for the URL and the RPA Services for each application and preserve separate testing scenario simulations.

1. Log in to the RPA Robot Simulator by using the credentials for starting robots and creating cases.
2. In the RPA Simulator Main window, configure the RPA Services and Case Type configurations as necessary.
3. In the RPA Simulator Main window, click File > Save as to open the Save as window.
4. In the Save as window, enter a file name, and then click Save.
5. To access the profile file, in the RPA Simulator Main window, click File > Load simulation template. The Open window is displayed.
6. Locate the simulator file, and then click Open. The current URL access is removed, and you must reauthenticate by using the correct start robot and create case credentials for the new simulation.

Troubleshooting

Review these common trouble areas and best practices.

Incorrect unattended RPA robot provisioning

Because the provisioning logic (registering a robot and setting the base work group) occurs only on the robot's initial registration to an application, the configured application might assign robots to the wrong work group. This issue can occur because of decision table configurations, Runtime configuration file errors, or changes to the DSS WorkGroupSpecifiedInPayloadTakesPrecedence value.

Pega Robot Manager provisions a robot’s base workgroup at initial registration, so you must delete the robot operator ID to allow the initial provision process to run again to test any new edits to the configurations:

1. Access the operator IDs for the Pega Robot Manager application.
2. Delete the robot operator IDs that were generated by the RPA Robot Simulator.

Login credentials

All login credentials follow the same logic. If you have problems logging in, make sure you are meeting the following criteria:

• User name is not case sensitive.
• Password is case sensitive.

Pega Server URL

If the Pega Server URL is not working, ensure you entered it correctly. On the Login window of the RPA Robot Simulator, do not include a closing forward slash after prweb in the URL.

For example, https://[IP Address: Port]/prweb

Activity log

While the RPA Robot Simulator provides basic error messages to the user, you might need more specific information to gain a deeper understanding of any conflict. You can access the Activity log to find specific information. 

1. On the RPA Simulator Main window, click File > Activity log to open the Activity Log window.
2. From the Activity log, you can complete any of these tasks:

• Enable and disable specific types of messages
• Clear the current messages to provide a clean log for review 
• Copy the error messages to the clipboard to share with support