topic RE: Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure in Product Forum

Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure

MichelleBest — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 14:06:00 GMT

I've spent so long working out how to use Azure to setup the Enterprise environment for Blue Prism that only now am I thinking that I don't actually understand what some of the elements are for. I'm sure I understood this at the beginning...

I understand the purpose and need for the SQL database (data tier)
I understand the purpose and need for the appserver (app tier)
It's the client tier that I've got a mental block on.

The architecture guide refers to Runtime Resources and Development Clients, but not really Interactive Clients:

And when I came to the installation of Blue Prism on the VMs, it refers to the Runtime Resources and the Interactive Client, which threw me a bit.

My question is, assuming I have the smallest possible network setup, which is the VM that will be doing the actual work i.e. which one will the automation be whizzing around doing processes on with no human interaction? Is it the runtime resource?

Is the Interactive Client just for externally 'spying' on the runtime resource to see how it's getting on?

And then the dev client is for creating new processes effectively offline?

I think I'm confused because the intention is that there would be a big team of people all of whom have different responsibilities and tasks to perform, but I'm just a one-man band at the moment. 🙂

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Michelle
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RE: Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure

ewilson — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:17:00 GMT

Hi @MichelleBest,

The Interactive Client is the same thing as the Development Client aka Process Studio and Object Studio. It's also the same client that includes Control Room which is the standard interface for controlling how processes are distributed across runtime resources, provides a view of your work queues, etc.

Runtime Resources are the VM's that perform the actual work. They execute the processes. However (this is the kicker), the actual program, from the Blue Prism folder, that provides the Interactive Client and Runtime Resource is called Automate.exe. If you run Automate.exe with /resourcepc flag it will run as a runtime resource. If you run it w/o that flag it will start up as the Interactive Client. Make sense? 😊

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure

MichelleBest — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:14:00 GMT

Thanks Eric! And what is the difference between if it starts up as a runtime resource or if it starts up as an interactive client?

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Michelle
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RE: Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure

ewilson — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 13:36:00 GMT

@MichelleBest,

Starting up as a Runtime Resource means a few things:

First, and foremost, you're effectively starting as a Digital Worker/bot waiting to be told what process to execute.
Runtime Resources generally are configured to start minimized to the Task Tray, although there is a minimal UI that can be displayed which is essentially just a live stream of events of what the RR is doing. Sort of like watching console output.

Below is a picture of the minimal UI of a Runtime Resource.

Starting as the Interactive Client is what a human user would do in order to perform various tasks such as:

Access Process or Object Studio to develop a new process/object.
Access Control Room (ex. an administrator) to check the status or work queues, runtime resources, schedules, etc.
Access the built-in reports to see how well the automations are running.
Etc

Below is a picture of the Interactive Client.

So, Runtime Resources are the digital workers in your Blue Prism environment. Interactive Client instances are the tools human users leverage to build new processes/objects, to manage the overall Blue Prism environment, and to collect reporting data on the results and health of the environment.

Does that make sense?

Cheers,

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Eric Wilson
Director, Integrations and Enablement
Blue Prism Digital Exchange
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RE: Very basic question about the elements of the infrastructure

MichelleBest — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 17:24:00 GMT

Absolutely. Thank you so much for your patience 🙂

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Michelle
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