Machines always having to be watch

[EwanFoster]

Hi,

So we've got everything working, schedulers, login agent etc. However, we have a snag.

The bot machines themselves will not run any scheduled task unless the machine itself is actively being "watched" by someone. The machines themselves are hosted in vsphere and the documentation said that it can be used to get around the issue of disconnecitng sessions that occurs when using RDP.
I suppose my question is how best to use VSphere to ensure that the machines can run scheduled tasks without someone actively watching the machines?

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Ewan Foster
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[DaveMorris]

What kind of errors do you get? Is it that it runs the task/process/session just fine until it has to use the user interface of an app?

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Dave Morris
3Ci @ Southern Company
Atlanta, GA
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[AmiBarrett]

When you disconnect from an RDP session, the local system will remain on the lock screen, and the bot won't be able to identify a screen to work. Below is a link to a .txt file that you should rename to be a .bat file. When run, it will use tsdiscon to unlock the screen on the remote system.

You can set up a scheduled task with a trigger for RDP disconnects, but this script may require elevated privileges in order to function properly.

https://higherlogicdownload.s3-external-1.amazonaws.com/BLUEPRISM/unlockMe1.txt?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAVRDO7IEREB57R7MT&Expires=1581607944&Signature=X2Et0TMAOWGCJXpw31cFSrFLUaU%3D

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Ami Barrett
Sr Product Consultant
Blue Prism
Plano, TX
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[EwanFoster]

So we're getting

ERROR: Internal : Failed to perform step 1 in Navigate Stage 'Activate application' on page 'Attach' - Could not identify process owning the current foreground window

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Ewan Foster
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[DaveMorris]

Yeah that sounds like the screen is getting locked as Ami describes happens when you disconnect from an RDP session.

That shouldn't happen if you're remoting in and out through vSphere though. What happens if you have it login with Login Agent while no one is watching the screen and then try running the automation?

Also something to note is that while vSphere is used to manage VMs, it really isn't required at all to run automations. You might need vSphere to set certain settings or increase the video memory and stuff like that. But typically what you should be able to do is RDP into the machine, do whatever you need, then logout rather than disconnect. Then you run a Schedule from Blue Prism Control Room on your machine that has at least 3 Tasks in it that are configured to Run Login (with 120 second post completion delay) then an Automation Process then Logout.

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Dave Morris
3Ci @ Southern Company
Atlanta, GA
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[AmiBarrett]

I'm not sure if this was fixed in newer builds, but I know RDP has been known to prevent Login Agent from functioning properly.

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Ami Barrett
Sr Product Consultant
Blue Prism
Plano, TX
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[DaveMorris]

Nah, it hasn't been fixed at least in 6.5.1. RDP still causes Login Agent to have problems. I can't remember if BP 5.x worked like this or not, but I'm able to RDP into a VM, logout of the VM, and then run an automation on it (it has to be logged back in first). Specifically, I have to log out of the machine after I have RDP'd in. I cannot simply disconnect. I click Log Out in the Windows Start Menu.

If I disconnect from the RDP session mid-run, it will give that 'cannot identify process owning the foreground' error. Same thing if I disconnect and then immediately try to run a session on that RR without first having it log out and back in. Now that I think about, I guess I haven't tried the Unlock Screen action in this kind of testing.

Another issue still is that the action 'Is Logged In' from the Login Agent VBO returns False if you run that action in a process on an RR where someone is RDP'd in.

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Dave Morris
3Ci @ Southern Company
Atlanta, GA
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[AmiBarrett]

Right. If you fully log out, it changes the state of the lock screen session to where the rest can work.That's more of a Windows thing than a BP/Login Agent thing.

Yeah... I wish I had kept a copy of this, but I wound up writing a batch file to leverage query user to check if someone was actually logged in or not.

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Ami Barrett
Sr Product Consultant
Blue Prism
Plano, TX
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