Considerations for running a bot

There are certain considerations you have to keep in mind when running a bot.

  • As a Bot Creator, you can deploy a bot on your device or you can run the bot on a remote machine through RDP connection.
  • If you are running bots on your local machine as a Bot Creator, enter only your username in the device login credentials; no password is required. The username is required to confirm that the same user who logged in to the local device is deploying the bot. If you are using the Google Chrome plug-in and running bots on your local machine, your username is required.
  • As a Bot Runner, you can either deploy the bot yourself or select a run-as user assigned by the administrator. You can run the bot either through your device or choose from the list of devices in a device pool. If you choose to override the default device, the bot will be executed on any available device in the device pool for each run-as user.
  • You can preload packages on your local device to shorten the bot runtime.

    The system supports running only one bot for each device at a given time. If a bot is already running on the device, you cannot deploy another bot on the device.

    While a bot is running on a device, if you try to deploy another bot on the same device, the second bot is queued according to its type. After the deployment of the currently running bot is complete, the queued bot is automatically deployed on the same device.

  • If you are running a bot from the Bot editor, closing the Control Room web browser will stop the bot run.
  • Run-as user: A set of unattended Bot Runner users that a scheduler can select from to run a bot on a device. The run-as user can select an available device from the device pool to run the bot.
  • When bots are queued for a Bot Runner user, bots with higher priority are deployed before bots with lower priority. However, if a bot with lower priority is already running, bots with higher priority are deployed after the bot with lower priority completes running.
  • When you create the bot deployment using the Run bot now option, the bot is queued for execution. If the bot is deleted while it is queued for execution or while it is active, an error is displayed for that bot in the In progress activity > View activity page.
  • Attended Bot Runner, Bot Creator, and Citizen Developer users can run the bots using either the Run bot now option in the Bot editor or the shortcut key F5. However, unattended Bot Runner users can run their bots only using the Run bot now option.

The following table explains the different scenarios where you should choose device pools against bot running devices for the run-as user.

Option Scenario Device pool Default device Result
Run bot now Information security compliance where the user cannot log in to any other device No Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user.
Specialized application access restricted to a user No Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user.
Schedule bot Override bot running device option is selected Yes Yes Bot deploys on the available device in the device pool.
Override bot running device option is not selected Yes Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user. If default device is not available, the bot deploys on the available device in the device pool.
Information security compliance where the user cannot log in to any other device No Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user.
Specialized application access restricted to a user No Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user.
WLM (Run bot with queue) Run on bot running devices option is selected Yes Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user.
Run on bot running devices option is not selected Yes Yes Bot deploys on the default device of the user. If default device is not available, the bot deploys on the available device in the device pool.
Automation Co-Pilot on the web Run-as user with device pool assigned Yes No Bot deploys on the available device in the device pool.
Note: The run-as user can log in to any device in the device pool using the windows credentials assigned to them.