Does thelogin agent work on a server?

[ZiadMetheni]

Hello everyone, My client has provided several servers running under Windows Server 2012 R12 OS instead of VDI to perform our dev tasks. Excel, BluePrim and all the client applications are also installed. We have also installed on one of the severs the login agent (version 2.0.0). Despite following precisely the login agent documentation guide, it couldn't work. The resources are displayed Offline in the control room. Should it be possible that the issue come from the IT architecture? Can the login agent work on a server? Thank you for your help. Best,

[John__Carter]

Login Agent is not intended to work on the server. If the server is not logged in then the service that connects all resources and clients to the database is not running and the whole system is down. Login Agent is only for use on resource PC machines.

[John__Carter]

OK, that's my misunderstanding. I thought you were trying to make Login Agent work on the application server machine. It's difficult for me to comment on your architecture from here, but Login Agent is valid for Windows Server 2008 and 2012 according to the Guide. So it should work, and my guess is there is something wrong in the Login Agent config (see the ProgramData folder). The event viewer might reveal something and it's worth checking that the Login Agent service is running. Failing all that, the Support team may be able to help. Note that if you do use a server OS for the resource PC, what you should not do is have more than one session logged in to the machine. Even though a server OS will support concurrent sessions, BP is not designed to work in this way; it works for very low numbers, but you will run into problems if you scale up. For architecture advice I recommend you reach out to your RPA Lead and the Technical Architect of your delivery Partner. Or your BP representative - your Delivery Enablement Manager or your Account Manager.

[ZiadMetheni]

Hello John, Thank you for your reply. Actually, our resources PC machines are servers and not VDI. The SQL instance and the first Blue Prism Component ( Blue prism application) are installed on separate servers that are always logged in. The Login agent is installed on one of the servers used as a resource PC machine. Does this IT architecture compliant with Blue Prism login agent installation?

[ZiadMetheni]

We have performed several tests and have identified one scenario where the login agent works. It does work when the following is performed: 1) start the server A (our resource PC) on which the login agent is installed from the tool Terminals 2) monitor the server start and visualize the login page without opening a session using the tool Terminals 3) from another server B (another resource PC) run the Login process in the control room to open a session on the server A If we do not perform step 2 and visualize the login page, the Login process failed and return the message Name pipe invalid. Do you still advice to reach the support team to help on this matter?

[John__Carter]

I'm not sure what 'the tool Terminals' means, but the problem sounds like you are using RDP. This is something we specifically do not recommend because of the problems it brings. RDP is not a passive viewing tool. https://portal.blueprism.com/system/files/product/productpublic/5.0/Blu…

[SteveBoomer]

Hi Ziad, In the scenario above are you opening the Blue Prism application on Server A and connecting to the Application Server? If you do, does it show as available? This is a big assumption but it sounds to me like you may not have configured the batch file in the Startup folder correctly because when you are opening the Blue Prism application it is starting the machine as a resource. One way to test this would be to open the application, go to system/settings and take the tick box out of 'Start the process engine on this machine when users sign in' then close and re-open Blue Prism. If the machine no longer appears as an available resource in the control room then your startup config is incorrect. An example ""C:\Program Files\Blue Prism Limited\Blue Prism Automate\Automate.exe"" /public /resourcepc /port 8181 /dbconname ""Production"" (If you are launching the application manually it will already have the port and DBconname set and it might already be setup to be a resource PC - as per below)

[ZiadMetheni]

Hello everyone, Thank you for all your inputs. Actually, we use a ‘console’ style access software named ‘Terminals’ to observe the remote machine which is not using DCP. After starting the remote machine A using a startup console command, we open the ‘console’ style access software to observe the remote machine A. At this stage, we only observe the login screen of the remote machine A. From a remote machine B, from the control room, when we drag and drop the Login process in the remote machine A, we observe from our ‘console’ style access software that the Login Agent succeed to open a session. At this stage, we observe the desktop environment. If we do not use this software to observe the remote machine, the machine is identified as not connected from the control room. Thus, we assume that starting the remote machine using a startup command is not sufficient as we need to observe the remote machine. Do you confirm? Also, when we run the Logout process, we observe from the ‘console’ style access software that the Login Agent succeed to logout the session. At this stage, we cannot observe the remote machine anymore, the login screen is not observable. When we want to run again the Login process, we receive the error message ""Named pipe handle is invalid"". It is as if the Login Agent did not succeed to login because we do not observe the login screen. Thus, after logging out, we cannot logging in without restarting the remote machine and observing it using a ‘console’ style access software which is a bit restrictive. Any idea why we encounter this problem? Thank you very much for your help.

[SteveBoomer]

Hi, Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense to me. Are you able to confirm that the Login Agent is running before you drop the login process onto the resource in the control room? Once you've logged in , do you have a CMD window appear with the path to the exe and the connection name? Do you have a Blue Prism Window saying Resource PC (port 8181)? Steve

[ZiadMetheni]

Hello Steve, Thank you for your time helping me. Yes, we have checked that the login agent is running before dropping the login process onto the resource in the control room. Once we have logged in, we do observe the CMD window appear with the path and the connextion name and we do have a blue prism window saying . This works only when we observe the remote machine using the software 'Terminals' (https://github.com/terminals-Origin/Terminals).