Close Instance timing out and File Explorer issues

[bridgetoneill]

Hi everyone,

We’ve been running into some issues with our Excel-based processes and could really use some help.

A few automations that have always worked fine are now timing out when closing instances. After the process has terminated, the File Explorer on the runtime resource freezes/lags - with rebooting being the only way to re-gain access. CPU usage is also at 100% during this.

We’ve already tried increasing the timeout settings and switching to the 'Exit' function, but unfortunately, the problem persists.

To add context, these processes are handling large, live Excel sheets that are actively used by multiple people while our bots are accessing them.

The only thing I can think of left to do is use 'kill' for Excel at the end of the flow, but this doesn’t feel like the correct solution and may produce other excel errors.

Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

[harish.mogulluri]

Hi @bridgetoneill ,

Below are some of the pointers I would suggest to verify and understand the root cause of the issue:
1) Identify any changes recently when you noticed the behavior as mentioned above( like software updates, running multiple process in the same VM, the  new logic implemented in terms of consuming data from MS excel VBO .....)
2) When you notice CPU 100% which task consuming more memory? ( Assuming MS excel  or Blue Prism , May be observe on which specific action in blue prism action it is consuming more memory)

3) Did you get chance to open excel and notice how much memory is consuming by opening the excel manually? ( Restart the VM and perform the action manually) And try to run the  process in debug mode and then try to  open the excel Manually and see  memory consumption


In terms of excel:
i would suggest couple of appraoches- Are you just trying to close instance or using combination of close work book and close instance
Closing all instances and Kill process( will potential give RPC server error to avoid that its ideal to properly close the excel instance)

It should be either Close work book + close instance(  close work book will only close the work book and instance still  be available.  close instance will close the instance of excel)  -  I used to perform both the actions though close instance will do the job

There is another alternative you can try : some thing like attaching the excel work book using App modeller and using Navigate stage terminate action or Closing the "X" icon in the excel or sending Global send keys(ALt + F4)


if the excel file has large data alternative approach is using OLEDB
and also its good to verify  how the data manipulation is happening? if the large data is manipulated after reading the data  from excel to  collection, Its good to manipulate the data in the excel itself.

[bridgetoneill]

Hi @harish.mogulluri

Thank you for responding! I'll run through the pointers below:

1) At the moment we only have 1 process running at a time on the VM. And there have been no software updates that would be causing this issue, the logic also remains the same as before the issue started persisting. One potential 'change' is the problem has started occurring when the excel sheet is at its 'busiest' in the month (days that have more data to process). We think blue prism is struggling to save and close this sheet correctly while uploading it to our synced areas correctly when changes have been made in the sheet.

2) Windows search indexer is the task consuming most memory (about 50/60% when a process is running)

3) Opening the file manually will spike the CPU in Excel temporarily but then drop back down. Opening and closing the excel through stepping into a process also has a spike in excel as well as the windows search indexer. The spikes in search indexer are highest when the file has been edited and need uploading/syncing with one drive.

Excel:

• we currently use close workbook and then close instance as standard in our processes (which has always been successful until these recent issues). Although we have been testing other actions like 'exit' and 'closeallinstaces' - they have a slightly higher success rate but still not near 100%. 
• We have also tested removing the close instances and using a 'kill' at the very end of the process which works well but I'm aware it is not best practise. My thoughts were if we put close instances in blocks with recoveries we could use 'kill' only if the close instance fails.
• GSK works but we still have the issue with close instance - would it be safe to remove the close instance if we used GSK?
• OLEDB is not an option we can deploy at the moment unfortunately.
• Data manipulation is largely happening within the excel sheet using action like 'set cell value'
• The process is successfully closing the instances of smaller excel sheets where updates have been made

Thanks

Bridget

[harish.mogulluri · Accepted solution]

Hi @bridgetoneill 
As per my understanding how the excel works, will be no impact if you are using GSK
May be you can do quick test some thing like open excel and  perform all the required steps once all the steps are completed, Do some thing like  Attach excel and Close using GSK and see whether any instances are present in the Task Manager, If there are no instance present in task manager it closed  properly and you can use this approach in the actual process 

Even if it is working 100%  I would probably use recovery and resume stage around GSK  if it fails I will try to do the same old code you highlighted Close work book + close Instance.

• We have also tested removing the close instances and using a 'kill' at the very end of the process which works well but I'm aware it is not best practise. My thoughts were if we put close instances in blocks with recoveries we could use 'kill' only if the close instance fails.
  
  
  
  If you use Kill process + close all instance I think it will clear all the Excel instance. you can try that as well.
  
  Yes you can certainly use close instance and Kill action if one fails you can try other option as a back up.

[bridgetoneill]

Hi,

Thank you for your help. We are now using close instance that if failed will flow to a kill excel and this is working well.