Automation 360 Cloud updates

Automation 360 Cloud is a multitenant cloud service that leverages the latest best practices in delivering web-scale SaaS to rolling out incremental updates globally using a continuous deployment pipeline.

Automation 360 Cloud provides updates to the Bot Agent instances running on your infrastructure. The Bot Agent is a lightweight, Java-based, modular application that handles particular bots and their packages when they are scheduled to run.

Bot Agent updates are transparent to active Bot Creator users. For operations, the Bot Agent updates are carried out automatically, by default, without requiring administrative privileges (much like browser updates).
Note: This is regardless of whether the Bot Agent was installed as a system user or local user.

With each update, products such as Automation Workspace, Control Room, IQ Bot, Bot Insight, Discovery Bot, and Automation Co-Pilot have improved security and enhanced features. Application command packages can also be enhanced and made available for inclusion into bots on your release cycle.

Updates are rolled out over a 3-hour maintenance window per geographical region. These maintenance windows are posted on the Automation 360 Cloud Service Status site. Although the actual downtime during the update varies, completion is typically within 10-15 minutes. If IQ Bot is in use, completion time is typically 20 - 30 minutes. In general, bots run to completion during updates, with the following scenarios being exceptions:
  • The bot tags data for Bot Insight.
  • Bots that run WLM.
  • Credentials directly entered as command input are pulled from the Control Room at execution time. Instead, use credential type variables.
  • Child bots: Parent/child bots run to completion because the child bots are downloaded when the parent bot starts its run.
    Exceptions:
    • If a child bot is referenced using a variable parameter because the child bot requires the Control Room to be available when the parent bot runs.
    • If a child bot does not use the same global variables as the parent bot.
    • If a child bot is using credential type variables.

After the Bot Agent has reconnected to the Control Room, the bot status is updated in the bot run activity logs.

Automated Bot Agent update takes place after an agent completes any current bot run and the Bot Agent reconnects to the Control Room.

During this short downtime, any bots scheduled to run will not be run. It is therefore recommended that bots are not scheduled to start to run during the planned maintenance window.

The following table provides a list of regions and the day and time of their maintenance windows. The upgrade occurs sequentially over a three week period:
  • Week 1 - First rollout will begins in the AP-AUS and AP-Sing regions
  • Week 2 - Second rollout begins in the EU-West1, EU-West4, LATAM, ME, S, Africa, US-East, US-Central, and India regions
  • Week 3 - Third and final rollout begins in the US-West, Canada, and Japan
Important:

Times mentioned below are in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). To convert to your local time, refer to a universally recognized online resource such as https://www.worldtimezone.com/.

Region Day and time in UTC
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Australia Wednesday, 12:00 to 15:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Singapore Wednesday, 16:00 to 19:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Europe Tuesday, 20:00 to 23:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Brazil Thursday, 02:00 to 05:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room – Bahrain Thursday, 20:00 to 23:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room – South Africa Thursday, 20:00 to 23:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - US East Friday, 02:00 to 05:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - US Central Friday, 02:00 to 05:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - India Friday, 20:00 to 23:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - US West Monday, 02:00 to 05:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Canada Monday, 02:00 to 05:00
Automation 360 Cloud : Control Room - Japan Monday, 16:00 to 19:00
Note: A small interim update might be planned to address urgent, priority updates mid-cycle between the primary quarterly updates. These will occur on the same day of the week and time as the schedule mentioned previously.

Regular updates

Regular updates are planned approximately every 3 months and are scheduled to occur during non-business hours and not close to the beginning or end of a month. Notifications are posted to the Service Status site 2 weeks in advance of the update. A notification message is also pushed to administrators in the Control Room in advance.

You can review changes in the release notes that are made available 3 weeks before each update.

Note: As a customer, you can use a sandbox Control Room environment to try out the next update at least 3 weeks before the main Dev/UAT/Prod environments are updated.
Command packages might be updated and made the default for creating new bots. Existing bots continue to use their existing package versions. New bots use the new default package version. However, as a user, you can also choose to revert to the previous version.

Cloud infrastructure updates

Cloud infrastructure updates are carried out typically once every 3-month period. These updates do not involve interruptions to the services, so no maintenance window is published, and no action is required on the customer side.

Critical patch updates

Patch updates might be required for either critical security updates or where serious issues with an update affect the majority of Cloud customers.

Most patches will not require a maintenance window and they typically do not require a Bot Agent update.
Note: Some patch updates (for example, when a database schema change is required) might continue to require a maintenance window and a notice will be provided in advance on the Service Status site.

Planned maintenance windows

Automation Anywhere offers planned update maintenance windows to enable customer operations to support Bot Lifecycle Management. Outside of planned maintenance windows for the updates mentioned previously, the Automation 360 Cloud availability SLA is 99.9 percent per month.
Note: For more information, see Cloud Automation Agreement.

The following table provides information such as frequency, time expectation, and client action for different types of updates:

Type of update Frequency Time expectation Client action
Regular Automation 360 Control Room and Bot Agent 3 - 4 months

3-hour window

Around 10 minutes of downtime

 Bots can run to completion. Do not schedule bots to start during this 3-hour window.
Sandbox At least 3 weeks prior to regular Cloud updates Try new features out after the window. Sanity-test production bots.
Cloud infrastructure As needed Not Applicable No interruptions to services and no action required on customer side.
Critical patch As needed Notice provided in advance No interruptions to services and no action required on customer side.