Upgrading to Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1
Upgrade to Pega Robot Manager™ 8.3.1 to take advantage of managing Runtime configuration files and to remain compatible with Pega 8.3. For a list of new features, see Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1.
- Prerequisites
- Upgrade procedure
- Adding Pega Robot Manager to an existing application that uses a UIKit version earlier than 14.01
- Changes to decision tables
- Changes to agents
- Changes to pyCompleteAutomation flow action
- Configuring email notifications
- What to do next
Prerequisites
- Back up your application files and Pega Platform in case you need to restore your system.
- Ensure that you are using Pega version 19.1.7 or later of Pega Robotic Automation™.
- Install the latest available release of Pega Platform 8.3, and then verify your installation as described in the Platform Installation Guide for your environment, available on the Deployment guides page.
- If you previously customized dynamic system settings related to Pega Robot Manager, note them down so that you can restore them after upgrading. To view the current dynamic system settings, perform the following actions:
- Ensure that you are logged in as the application administrator.
- In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Records.
- Expand the SysAdmin category, and then click Dynamic System Settings.
- Filter by Owning Ruleset Pega-Robotic-AutomationPackageManagement.
- Delete all of your agent schedule instances for Pega-Robotic-AutomationPackageManagement:
- Ensure that you are logged in as the application administrator.
- In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Records.
- Navigate to SysAdmin > Agent Schedule
- Search for the instance with the Pega-Robotic-AutomationPackageManagement ruleset name.
- Open the instance. If you previously customized any settings, note them down so that you can restore them after upgrading.
- Delete the instance.
Upgrade procedure
To upgrade to Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1, perform the following steps:
- Download Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1 from the Pega Robot Manager Marketplace page.
- Extract the files from the PegaRobotManager_v8.3.1.zip file.
- Import the Pega Robot Manager application bundle:
- Log in to Pega Platform by using the Pega Platform administrator ID.
The default Pega Platform address is
https://<hostname>:<port>/prweb
- Open the Import Wizard. In the header of Dev Studio, click Configure > Application > Distribution > Import.
- Browse to the location where you extracted the PegaRobotManager_v8.3.1.zip file, open the Rules\PegaRobotManager_v8.3.1.jar file, and then click .
- Select Enable advanced mode to provide more granular control over the import process, and then click .
- To preserve existing operators, do not select the Enable new operators and overwrite existing operators on import check box.
- Click and finish the upgrade process.
- Log in to Pega Platform by using the Pega Platform administrator ID.
- If you are upgrading Pega Robot Manager from releases earlier than version 5, run the pxMigrateRobotLogEntriesToV5 activity to upgrade rendering of the following pages and widgets:
- Robots > Work groups and Robots > Robots pages (Previously located under Work groups and Users > Robots)
- The page that displays when you click a robot
- The page that displays when you click an assignment type
- The Robot status and Automation alerts over time widgets on the dashboard
- In Dev Studio, search for pxMigrateRobotLogEntriesToV5.
- In the search results, click the pxMigrateRobotLogEntriesToV5 activity to open it.
- Click Actions > Run.
Depending on the volume of historical robotic process automation audit data in your database, this activity might take some time to complete.
- Run the pxUpdateRobotManagerAppStacks utility to update the application stack for all applications that you built on Pega Robot Manager.
Perform the following actions:
- In Dev Studio, search for pxUpdateRobotManagerAppStacks.
- In the search results, click the pxUpdateRobotManagerAppStacks activity to open it.
- Click Actions > Run.
Adding Pega Robot Manager to an existing application that uses a UIKit version earlier than 14.01
If you have an existing Pega Platform application that uses a version of the UIKit earlier than 14.01 , you can add Pega Robot Manager to your application by completing the following steps:
- Log in to Dev Studio as an administrator of your existing application.
- Open your application record:
- In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Records.
- Expand the Application Definition category, and then click Application.
- Click your application.
- In the Edit Application form, in the Built on application(s) section, add UIKit 14.01 to the application stack:
- Click Add application.
- In the Name field, press the Down Arrow key and select UIKit.
- In the Version field, press the Down Arrow key and select 14.01.
- Add your PegaRobotManager to your application stack:
- In the same Edit Application form, in the Built on application(s) section, click Add Application.
- In the Name field, press the Down Arrow key and select PegaRobotManager.
- In the Version field, press the Down Arrow key and select 8.
- Click .
- Create an access group that points to the PegaRobotManager application:
- Click .
- Enter a name and description, and then click Create and Open.
- In the Application section, in the field, enter PegaRobotManager.
- In the Version field, enter 8.
- In the Available portals section of the access group, add pyRobotManager to the list of portals.
- On the Advanced tab of the access group, add the default work pool of your existing built-on application.
- Click in the Edit Access Group form.
- Assign the new access group to your users. For more information, see Profile tab on the Operator ID form.
- If you had any customized dynamic system settings or schedules, restore them by entering them manually.
Changes to dynamic system settings
The following dynamic system settings were added in Pega Robot Manager 6:
- AllowedWaitTimeForRobotRegistration - specifies the maximum expected time that the RPA Service should take to start up the robot runtime system. It includes the time to unlock the remote machine and start the runtime process. Default value: 120 seconds.
- MaxStartsIssuedPerScheduleAction - prevents Pega Robot Manager from continuously attempting to restart a robot that has failed to start during one Scheduled action or Otherwise event. Pega Robot Manager checks this value before attempting to start a robot. If the number of start attempts is less than the number provided, the start is issued. Default value: 4
- ServiceOperatorHeartbeatInterval - defines how often the RPA Service should send a heartbeat signal to Pega Robot Manager. When the RPA Service does not send a heartbeat within this interval, it is assumed to be not running. When the RPA Service is not running, UI options (such as Start a robot and Terminate a robot) are not available from Pega Robot Manager. Default value: 45 seconds.
- TimeoutIntervalForRobotCommandToBeCompleted - determines the time-out interval for the start command issued to robots in conjunction with the RPA Service heartbeat interval. Default value: 30 seconds.
Changes to decision tables
The following decision tables were added in Pega Robot Manager 6:
- pyGetWorkGroupbyRobotID - allows robots to register to their base work groups based on robot ID.
- pyGetCandidateWorkGroupListByDispatchOperator - maps the ID of the administrative operator to a comma-separated list of work groups. All robots registered by a specific operator can be moved between the specified candidate work groups. The move command can be issued by a user or by a schedule.
- pyGetThresholdByNotificationType - allows users of Pega Robot Manager 6 and later versions to change the default conditions for triggering a notification. For more information, see Configuring notifications.
Changes to agents
The following Agents were added in Pega Robot Manager 6:
- MonitorRobotCommandAndHeartbeat - checks the status of robots and the RPA Service if the RPA Service and robot send a heartbeat signal regularly, and if robots react appropriately when they are issued commands such as start or stop. The status of robots displayed in Pega Robot Manager is updated based on the actions of this agent. By default, the check is performed every 30 seconds; this is the recommended value, because a longer interval delays notifying the user about issues such as a time-out.
- ProcessRobotScheduleActions - checks for the schedule that is set on a robot and executes the defined schedule. The check is performed every 300 seconds, which is the recommended value.
- NotifyRobotSchedulingAgentTermination - checks the status of the ProcessRobotScheduleActions agent and notifies the user if it is down. The check is performed every 1800 seconds, which is the recommended value.
Changes to pyCompleteAutomation flow action
In previous versions of Pega Robot Manager, the pyCompleteAutomation flow action had no default behavior defined and was not marked as an Extension. In Pega Robot Manager 6 and later, this flow action is marked as an Extension, and its default behavior is to consider the automation status as "Complete" and move the flow to the next stage of the case life cycle.
Configuring email notifications
Pega Robot Manager 6 and later supports notifying users by email in case of unexpected behavior or errors. To use this feature, perform the following steps:
- Configure an email account to use to send the notifications. For more information, see Creating an email account.
- Set the Public Link URL to the following format:
http://<host>/prweb/PRServlet
. For more information, see System Settings – Resource URLs tab.
What to do next
For further technical details about Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1, see Configuring Pega Robot Manager 8.3.1.
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