Agents
An Agent is a software that works on behalf of the AutomationEdge Engine and executes workflows or acts as an Agent Controller. Agents provide scalability to AutomationEdge as they can be deployed on multiple machines and harness the processing power of several machines. However, each physical or virtual machine can have one Agent. In the case of Windows Server OS, each user can have one Agent.
The types of Agent are:
The Agents and Assisted Agents tabs are available, by default. The Controller Agent tab is available only if you configure the following property as true in the ae.properties file: ae.feature.use-agent-controller.enabled=true
About Agents
Agents can be downloaded and run by an Admin or Agent Administrator. Agents can run any workflows assigned to them. If you assign a workflow to multiple Agents, AutomationEdge randomly assigns the workflows to Agents for execution. Hence, it cannot predict which Agent and which machine/VM the workflow runs. Many times, Agents run on VMs not attended actively. Typically, the Workflows run without any manual intervention, so it does not matter which Agent/machine the workflow runs and hence Agents suffice the need.
For workflows that need manual intervention, such as ‘captcha/OTP/Enter some run-time values’, workflows should run on the machine whose user can fulfil the intervention request. For this to happen, an Agent should also run on the said user machine, and the workflows should be assigned to that one Agent only that runs on that user machine.
For details about downloading and starting an Agent, see Download and start an agent.
You can also run Agents as a Windows service. For details, see Run Agents as a Windows service.
For details about how to use the Agents, see Work with Agent List: Agents.
About Assisted Agents
Assisted Agents provide built-in support for running workflows on user-specific Agents. Assisted Agents are owned by users and run Assisted Workflows for which the owner has requisite (Read/Write/Execute) permissions. An Assisted Agent can run all Assisted Workflows for which the owner of the Assisted Agent has permission.
User, Workflow Administrator, and the Admin can download Assisted Agent from the AutomationEdge server. The Assisted Agent has the following additional traits:
- The owner of an Assisted Agent is the User who downloads it.
- Assisted agents can execute only assisted workflows.
- Any user can register only up to one Assisted Agent with the server.
- Assisted Agents can run only sequential workflows.
- It is not required to assign assisted workflow to any Agent as and they are assigned automatically by the server. Users need to get the execute permissions on the assisted workflow to run.
- Along with other workflows, assisted workflows will also appear on the User’s catalogue page if the User has execution permissions and has at least one assisted Agent registered.
- Assisted workflow can run only if the User’s Agent has the Running status; otherwise, the User will get an appropriate error message.
- Assisted workflows cannot run as a schedule.
For details about how to use the Assisted Agents, see Work with Agent List: Assisted Agents.
About Controller Agents
To view the Controller Agents tab on AE UI, set ae.feature.use-agent-controller.enabled=true in aehome\conf\ae.properties file.
Many of the AE workflows involving UI automation running on MS Windows machines encounter the following operational issues:
- Controller Agents cannot run as service: You need to start the agent manually. Though you can run Agents as a Windows service, we do not recommend installing Agent Controller as a service. For details, see Run Agents as a Windows service.
- Windows console cannot be locked: Some UI workflows do not run with a locked Windows console.
- RDP should always be connected: If you log on to Windows using RDP, the RDP should always be connected while running the workflow. UI workflows do not work in case the RDP is disconnected.
- Always start the Agents manually after logging on to the machine, and the login session should not be locked.
Managing many Agents is a difficult task. The Controller allows you to control Agent’s uptime from the AE portal.
Agent Controller
Select and assign at least one Agent as Agent Controller through the AE portal.
The Agent Controller:
- does not run any workflow.
- receives instructions from the server to start Agents on user demand.
- which takes control first starts the Agent.
- cannot start automatically and you must start it manually.
- can run on Windows machines only, and it can control Agents on Windows machines only.
Controlled Agents: Except for Controller Agents, all Agents are controlled Agents. Start controlled Agents from the AE UI. As you need to start the Windows session using RDP, provide the Windows login password of the corresponding Windows user. The Agent captures other details like hostname, IP address, username where it is running. Provide the password in the AE UI.
The option to download controller and view controllers is available to Admin and Agent Administrator.
Is RDP enabled workflows: Is RDP enabled is a configuration checkbox available when you are configuring the workflow details (create or update).
The Controller could be a single risk point with many RDP sessions to agent’s machines open and unlocked. The Controller risk is mitigated by acquiring the RDP session only for workflow execution and agent start-up duration. You can achieve it by marking the workflows as Is RDP enabled as true. For more details, see Is RDP Enabled.
For details about Controller Agents, see Work with Agent List: Agent Controllers.
Agents: Features/Permissions for users
| Feature/Role | Admin | Workflow Administrator | User Administrator | Agent Administrator | User | Activity Monitor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Agent | ✔ | - | - | ✔ | - | ✔ |
| Download Agent | ✔ | - | - | ✔ | - | - |
| Workflow Assignment | ✔ | - | - | - | - | - |
| Agent Import | ✔ | - | - | - | - | - |
| Assisted Agent | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Controller | ✔ | - | - | ✔ | - | - |