Schedule a bot

Schedule a bot to run at a specific time.

Prerequisites

Ensure you are logged in to the Control Room as the administrator or a user with the following permissions:

Schedule my bots to run
Schedule permission at folder level for specific bots and their dependencies
Access to run-as users (Bot Runners) that you can add to the schedule

Note: Automation will fail in the following cases:

If any of the bot dependencies are missing.
If you do not have folder privileges on the dependencies.
If you do not have the scheduling permissions.

Procedure

Navigate to Manage > Scheduled.
Click Run bot.
Click Schedule bot.

Add the scheduling details for the bot.

Note: The value of the Start date is always later than or equal to the current date. If the start date is the current date, the scheduled time cannot be less than the current time.

Option

Definition

Run once

To run the bot at a specified time, enter the:

Start date: Default value is the current day.
Start time: Default value is roundup to the next half-hour.
Time zone: User's system time zone

Run repeatedly

To schedule a bot to run at specific time on a given day, enter the:

Start date: Default value is the current day.
End date: The default value field is blank.
Start time: Default value is roundup to the next half-hour.

Time zone: User's system time zone

Note:

When the daylight saving is enabled and if the Start date is set for a schedule, the Start date is shown in the time zone to which it belongs to and not as per the user's current time zone. However, Next occurrence is shown in the time zone (user's system time zone) as per daylight saving time.

For example, for a schedule created on 15th March in GMT time zone, the Start date is shown as Mar-15th which belongs to GMT time zone. Later, when daylight saving is ON and if you edit or view this schedule in the month of August in BST time zone, next occurrence is shown as current August month date which belongs to BST time zone.

In the Missed schedule setting section, select Redeploy the schedule again to redeploy a schedule that was missed because of Control Room shut down.

Note: To ensure a successful deployment when using the Redeploy the schedule again option, you must start the compiler service before you restart the Control Room services.

When the Redeploy the schedule again option is selected, schedules missed because of Control Room shut down are automatically redeployed after the Control Room is restarted. An audit log entry is also added showing the Event type as Schedule misfired.
Select the bot to schedule.
- Latest version: Click Latest version tab to select the latest version of the bot.
- Labeled version: Click Production version tab to select the labeled version of the bot.
Available bots are displayed along with any Input values and dependencies. If the production label option is selected for the parent bot, the corresponding dependent bots with the production label are also automatically selected. If any of the dependent bots do not have the production label applied, the latest version of the bot is selected.
Select the Bot Runner user from the Available bot runners list.
Use the following options to define the number of Bot Runners to use:
- All bot runners: Select to use all the selected Bot Runners.
- Custom number of bot runners: Select to customize the number of Bot Runners to use from the list of selected Bot Runners. The Control Room will then automatically select the configured number of Bot Runners from the list of available Bot Runners.
Note: If a run-as user (Bot Runner) does not appear in the list, ensure the user scheduling the bots is assigned a role that provides access to the appropriate run-as users.
Click the right arrow (→) to add your selection.
Optional: Select Device Pools.
Select the pool from the list of available device pools. If any of the selected run-as users does not have the bot running device, a device pool is required. You can select up to 25 device pools per schedule.
Optional: Click the up or down arrow to set the selected device pools in preferred order.
When a bot is deployed, the Control Room selects the first available device based on the order in which you organized the device pools. If none of the devices are available at the time of deployment, the bot is queued.
Enter the Name.
Optional: Enter a description.
Select the Automation priority from the General tab.
Set the priority to high, medium, or low based on your requirements for resource optimization. The default permission is set to medium.
Click Schedule bot.

The Schedule bot option remains disabled until all the required items, such as bots, schedule details, and devices are selected.

The number of times a bot is deployed depends on the run-as users (Bot Runners) selected for the schedule. Consider the following scenarios:

The number of run-as users selected is two, and both the users have the bot running device: The bot is deployed twice on the two run-as users and their bot running devices.
The number of run-as users selected is three, and only one of the users has the bot running device. In this case, you must select the device pool. If the device pool has only two devices, the bot is deployed three times on both the devices in the device pool and also on the bot running device of the third user.
The number of run-as users selected is three, and none of the three users has the bot running device: In this case, you must select the device pool. If the device pool has only two devices, the bot is deployed twice on both the devices in the device pool, and the third request for bot deployment is queued. The bot is deployed only when a device becomes available in the device pool.
The number of run-as users selected is two, and none of the two users have the bot running device: In this case, you must select the device pool. If the device pool has four devices, the bot is deployed twice on any available two devices in the device pool.

Note: For schedules without a device pool, when one or more active run-as user devices are unavailable or disconnected, the bot deployment fails for all the run-as users in the schedule.

Automation 360

Schedule a bot