How do I configure Robotic Automation for Pega Platform applications?
To run robotic automations from your Pega Platform application, there are several installation and configuration options that you need to specify. You can choose from the following installation options:
- Run-time only installation – The Run-time only installation installs Pega Robot Runtime.
- Studio installation – The Studio installation installs Pega Robot Studio and Pega Robot Runtime.
Pega Robot Runtime installation
The Pega Robot Runtime installation wizard automatically configures many of the typical settings needed to run automations from your Pega Platform application. During the installation process, you are prompted to enable robotic desktop automation (RDA). To invoke automations from your Pega Platform application, you must select the Enable RDA integration check box.
Enabling RDA in the installation wizard will:
- Activate and configure a locally-hosted REST service that is responsible for responding to automation requests from your Pega Platform application.
- Automatically install the localruntime.pega.com SSL security certificate to your Local Computer, Personal Certificates store, and bind the certificate to the port specified during installation. The default port is 9443.
- Add a new certificate each year and include it in the latest Pega Robot Runtime release to ensure that the installed certificate never expires on a customer computer. Pega updates the certificate periodically to ensure that the installed certificate does not expire on a customer machine. The latest certificate is included in each build. For example, the certificate in the initial 19.1 build expires on March 12, 2021. The certificate in build 8.0 SP1 2030 expires on April 30, 2020.
The Enable RDA integration option in the installation wizard
Your Pega Platform application is already configured to invoke automations through localruntimepega.com:9443. If you change port 9443 to another port, you can make the corresponding adjustment in your Pega Platform application by modifying the pegarobotics/runtime/DesktopRoboticsURL Dynamic System Setting:
In addition to configuring the port number, you must enter the domain name of your Pega Platform server in the Pega Robot Runtime list of allowed origins. Only requests from the approved domains in the list are serviced. Requests from other domains are rejected. Also, all remote requests are rejected. You can make an entry for your particular Pega domain by doing either of the following actions:
- Using a command line parameter during a silent installation.
- Directly editing the
allowedOriginssetting inside the<Robotics>block of the RuntimeConfig.xml file.
You also configure Robotic Processing Automation (RPA) in the RuntimeConfig.xml file. Specify the URL of the Pega Platform server that robotic virtual machines (VMs) use to communicate with a user's Pega Platform application, for example, PegaServer baseUrl=“http://<MYPEGASERVER>:<PORT>/prweb/api/v1/” />.
For more information about the RuntimeConfig.xml file, see Runtime configuration settings.
Sample configuration
<Robotics>
<!-- PegaServer tag is specific to RPA. -->
<!-- baseurl: Base address for Runtime to use for calls to request work items.-->
<PegaServer baseUrl="" />
<!-- LocalApiService tag is specific to RDA. -->
<!-- enabled: If true, Runtime will self-host a REST service to accept requests from Pega 7 applications. -->
<!-- SSL: If true, the service uses SSL and must be accessed through https. -->
<!-- port: The port the service will listen on. -->
<!-- allowedOrigins: A comma-delimited list of domains from which the service will accept requests. -->
<!-- A specific domain can be given, such as acme.pega.com, or wild carded, such as *.pega.com. -->
<!-- Requests from any domain not in this list will be rejected. -->
<LocalApiService enabled="true" SSL="true" port="9443" allowedOrigins="*.pega.com" />
</Robotics>Pega Robot Studio installation
Pega Robot Studio communicates with your Pega Platform development environment to retrieve the properties defined in your application. After these properties are imported, an automation developer can use those properties in the design-time authoring. The exact set of properties pulled into Pega Robot Studio is controlled by the set of relevant records defined for each Pega class or case type. You can manage relevant records from the Relevant Records landing page in Designer Studio. In addition to the port information, the Pega Robot Studio installation wizard prompts you to enter the connection URL to your Pega Platform development environment and a valid user name and password through which to connect to that environment.
Installation wizard for Pega Robot Studio
Properties from your development environment are retrieved through the Pega API. Ensure that the Pega operator that you specify belongs to an access group with the PegaRULES:PegaAPI access role.
Configuration of the PegaRULES:PegaAPI access role
You can update your installation configuration by modifying the <Robotics> block in the StudioConfig.xml file:
<Robotics>
<!-- baseUrl: Address of Pega API endpoint -->
<PegaServer baseUrl="https://<YOUR_PEGA_SERVER>/prweb/api/v1/" />
<!-- The following credentials let Studio authenticate with the Pega server. -->
<!-- This user has read-only access to Pega classes and field names. -->
<!-- No other permissions are required by or granted to this user. -->
<!-- userName: The name used to authenticate with the Pega server. -->
<!-- password: The password used to authenticate with the Pega server. -->
<RDA_Credentials userName="" password="" />
</Robotics>Changing the Pega Robot Runtime port after installation
If a port change is required after installation, you must change the port number in the following places:
- The port setting in the Robotics section of the RuntimeConfig.XML file.
- The DesktopRoboticsURL Dynamic System Setting in your Pega application.
- The certificate used to SSL-enable the Pega Robotic Automation Runtime REST service that is bound to the port at installation. You can update the certificate by using the following commands in PowerShell:
To unbind the certificate from the previous port, run the following commands:
netsh http delete urlacl url=https://+:<oldPort> netsh http delete sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:<oldPort>
To bind the certificate to the new port, run the following commands:
netsh add http sslcert ipport=0.0.0.0:<newPort> certhash=77fb73781fa1d6989eae02f6c1eb8f7e06b4331e appid={A4D00AA5-E03B-4692-A5B4-33CA8D1F2E2C} netsh http add urlacl url=https://+:<newPort>/ user=Everyone
Command line installation
You can install Pega Robot Studio and Pega Robot Runtime through the command line. You can also use the /q or q/+ switch to perform a command line or silent installation.
You can use the following command line parameters with both Pega Robot Studio and Pega Robot Runtime with or without the silent installation switches:
Checkbox = RDA_INT Port = RDA_PORT URL = PEGA_BASE_URL AllowedOrigins = ALLOWED_ORIGINS User name = RDA_USERNAME Password = RDA_PASSWD
For more information about installing from the command line, see the installation guides,
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