RoboServers
This section enables you to manage clusters and RoboServers known to the Management Console. By default, the list contains one cluster containing one RoboServer, namely the one that also runs the Management Console functionality. In larger setups with multiple RoboServers and clusters, we recommend that the Management Console be deployed on a standalone web container (if license permits), or on a RoboServer that is not used for running robots. See the Kofax RPA Administrator's Guide for additional information about configuring the Management Console.
The following information is displayed for each server. Note that for RoboServers version earlier than 9.4, some of the information is not available.
Column |
Description |
---|---|
Cluster/Server |
|
Version |
The version of the software on the running RoboServer. |
CRE/KCU |
The column name to be shown depends on the license type used. For more information on the CRE and KCU licensing, see the sections "Concurrent Robot Execution License" and "Kofax RPA Compute Units" in the Kofax RPA Installation Guide.
|
Running Robots |
The number of robots currently running on the RoboServer. |
Queued Robots |
The number of queued robots on the RoboServer. |
Max Robots |
The maximum number of concurrent robots on the RoboServer. Can be configured in the Clusters settings. |
Uptime |
The uptime of the RoboServer. Allows you to see when the server was started or restarted. |
Command line (hidden) |
The command line the RoboServer was started with. |
CPU count (hidden) |
Number of CPUs assigned to the RoboServer process, for example if CPU affinity has been assigned. |
Memory Limit |
The maximum amount of memory assigned to the JVM the RoboServer runs in. |
Above Limit |
Shows whether the server is operating above its memory threshold (80% default). If this limit is reached, the RoboServer will queue the robot instead of starting it. |
Duration (Accum.) |
Shows the total time the RoboServer has been in the Above Limit state. |
Max Queue (hidden) |
The maximum number of robots that can be queued on the RoboServer. Can be set in the Clusters settings. |
License Type |
The license type of the RoboServer: Production or Non-Production. |
Cluster Mode/Server Status |
For clusters, shows the Cluster Mode. For RoboServers, shows if the server is Online or Offline. |
Temp Profiling |
Indicates whether profiling has been temporarily enabled for a given server. The setting will be cleared upon server restart. |
Last Updated |
Shows the time when Management Console received last status update from RoboServers. |
Settings |
Click to modify cluster settings in the Cluster Settings dialog box. |
Delete |
Click Delete to delete the cluster/server from the Management Console. |
The Robot Runtime view contains detailed information about running robots. The top bar of the Robot Runtime view contains the following:
- Robot on: - Shows which cluster or server the view currently displays robots for.
- Filter by - Helps you to filter the list by Robot, Project, or Execution Id, or to disable the filter by selecting the blank line. Filter matching is case sensitive and the filter will select those robots that contain the entered text as a substring in either the Robot, Project, or Execution Id field.
- Robots per page - Limits the maximum number of robots displayed on a page.
- Refresh Every - Sets the refresh rate of the view (default is one second).
Click the column header to sort any column in ascending or descending order. The default sorting is by Start Time Client.
Double-click a row in the table to open the Robot's information in a window. The window shows the same information available in the Robot Runtime view that it is a snapshot of the information at the time you open the window. The information is not updated even if the robot stops executing.
Click Refresh to refresh the information in the table.
The following information is displayed for each running or recently completed robot. The table shows Robots either from one RoboServer or from all RoboServers if a Cluster is selected.
Column |
Description |
---|---|
Robot |
Name of the robot |
Server |
Name of the server that runs the robot |
Project |
Name of the project that the Robot belongs to. View the list of projects on the tab. |
Robot URL |
A URL that the Robot is identified by. When you build the execute request for a RoboServer, you can either specify a file://URL or a Library:/, which specifies whether the robot should be loaded from the file system or the library.
The execute request for a Robot may look like this:
|
Robot Library |
A type of Robot library. The following types exist:
See the Kofax RPA Developer's Guide for more information. Also see Robot Libraries in the Reference section of this help system. |
Start Time Client |
The time when the Robot was started. The time is displayed in time zone of the browser running the Management Console. |
Execution ID |
Robot execution ID. |
Current Step |
The step the Robot is currently executing. |
Execution Path |
The sequence of steps the Robot has performed. |
Location Code |
A code assigned to a step that you can view in Design Studio. |
Step Execution Time |
Current step execution time in seconds. |
Executed Steps Limit |
Shows the maximum number of steps the robot is allowed to execute. If the limit is reached, the robot is stopped. |
Status |
Robot's current status.
Robots with Completed status are removed from the table after one minute from completion. |
KCU Point Cost |
KCU points spent for running the Robot. KCU Point Cost is equal to KCU-Point Usage from Design Studio. |
KCU Wait |
Amount of time the Robot has been unable to execute because the KCU Points (for this second) had already been spent. |
Loaded Bytes |
Bytes loaded during a Robot execution. |
Extracted Values Limit |
An upper limit on the number of object extractions. If the robot extracts more objects than indicated by this property, then an error message is generated or the robot is stopped. |
Execution Time Limit |
An upper limit on the total robot execution time. If the robot does not complete within this time limit, then an error message is generated and the robot is stopped. The property value is specified in seconds. |
Last Output Time |
The time when the last extraction was performed. |
Emails Sent |
The number of emails sent by the robot. |
Stopping |
Whether the robot is in the process of shutting down. |
Output Count |
The number of objects that the robot has generated. |
Executed Steps |
The number of steps the robot has executed. |
Stop If Connection Lost |
When this flag is set, the robot will stop if it loses the connection to the Management Console. |
Stop On API Exception |
When this flag is set, the robot will stop if it generates an API exception. |
Log |
Click to open the Log tab. |
Stop |
Click to stop robot execution. |
Schedule |
Click to open the Edit Schedule dialog box. |
- Create a Cluster
-
When you create a cluster, specify the name of the cluster and the cluster type. If you create a non-production cluster, you can assign KCU from the non-production license, and similarly if you create a production cluster, you can assign KCU from the production license. If you select the SSL option, all RoboServers in the cluster must use the SSL RQL service.
Use a Hybrid cluster type to have RoboServers of different versions running in the same cluster and to gradually update the robots.
To create a hybrid cluster, select Hybrid in the Add Cluster dialog.
When a robot runs on a hybrid cluster, it is routed to a RoboServer of the same version. For example, a 10.3.0 robot is routed to a 10.3.0 RoboServer and a 10.3.2 robot is routed to a 10.3.2 RoboServer. When a RoboServer matching the version of the robot is not running, the execution is either rejected for REST / SOAP calls and robots, running directly from the API, or queued in the task queue for scheduled runs.
After creating a cluster, you can add RoboServers to the cluster.
- Context Menu
-
The grid contains a context menu, which has rarely used functionality that is not available from the bottom menu. The following are context menu items:
- Cluster Settings
-
Brings up the Cluster Setting dialog box.
- Stop RoboServer
-
Brings up a dialog box that allows you to stop/reboot the selected RoboServer.
- Dump Threads
-
Sends a request to the selected RoboServer to perform a full thread dump, which opens in a separate window. It is also possible to get a thread dump of the Management Console. For details see "Tomcat Management Console" in the Kofax RPA Administrator's Guide.
- Load Distribution and Failover
-
When a cluster needs to execute a robot, it finds the RoboServer with the highest number of available slots. Available slots are calculated based on how many robots are already running on the RoboServer and how many robots it can run concurrently (the maximum concurrent robots in the Clusters Settings.)
If a RoboServer in a cluster goes offline, the KCU is automatically distributed evenly among the remaining RoboServers.