Deploy UiPath Robotic Process Automation
If your business systems are not integrated, you may have to manually copy email content into your system, enter order data in vendor websites, or update your records based on application input. Robotic process automation (RPA) can help you to automate these interactions by emulating user interactions.
Streamline user and application interactions using UiPath robotic process automation (RPA) deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. Common use-cases include:
| Enterprise resource planning (ERP) |
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| Customer experience (CX) |
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| Human capital management (HCM) |
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| Supply chain |
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Architecture
This architecture deploys UiPath robotic processes on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
The following diagram illustrates this reference architecture.
The architecture has the following components:
- Region
An Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region is a localized geographic area that contains one or more data centers, called availability domains. Regions are independent of other regions, and vast distances can separate them (across countries or even continents).
- UiPath Studio on User Machine
UiPath Studio is installed on a user machine outside of the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region.
- DNS
DNS is a required component and is used to resolve the FQDN of the Load Balancer and access the Orchestrators. If you require on-premises access only, you can use Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DNS service. If you require access from the internet, you must use an external domain registration service along with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure DNS.
- Availability domains
Availability domains are standalone, independent data centers within a region. The physical resources in each availability domain are isolated from the resources in the other availability domains, which provides fault tolerance. Availability domains don’t share infrastructure such as power or cooling, or the internal availability domain network. So, a failure at one availability domain is unlikely to affect the other availability domains in the region.
- Fault domains
A fault domain is a grouping of hardware and infrastructure within an availability domain. Each availability domain has three fault domains with independent power and hardware. When you distribute resources across multiple fault domains, your applications can tolerate physical server failure, system maintenance, and power failures inside a fault domain.
- Virtual cloud network (VCN) and subnets
A VCN is a customizable, software-defined network that you set up in an Oracle Cloud Infrastructure region. Like traditional data center networks, VCNs give you complete control over your network environment. A VCN can have multiple non-overlapping CIDR blocks that you can change after you create the VCN. You can segment a VCN into subnets, which can be scoped to a region or to an availability domain. Each subnet consists of a contiguous range of addresses that don't overlap with the other subnets in the VCN. You can change the size of a subnet after creation. A subnet can be public or private.
- Security list
For each subnet, you can create security rules that specify the source, destination, and type of traffic that must be allowed in and out of the subnet.
- Block volume
With block storage volumes, you can create, attach, connect, and move storage volumes, and change volume performance to meet your storage, performance, and application requirements. After you attach and connect a volume to an instance, you can use the volume like a regular hard drive. You can also disconnect a volume and attach it to another instance without losing data.
- Bot-access VM
These VMs are used as Bastion host and to establish RDP session to bots for troubleshooting and for accessing unattended robots.
- Orchestrator
Orchestrator is a web-based application that manages automation. Orchestrator lets you provision, deploy, trigger, monitor, measure, track, and ensure the security of every robot in your organization. You can manage all your robots from a web browser or mobile device. Orchestrator can manage attended, unattended, or non-production robots.
It is highly recommended to use a trusted certificate for Orchestrator in a production deployment.
- File storage
The Oracle Cloud Infrastructure File Storage service provides a durable, scalable, secure, enterprise-grade network file system. You can connect to a File Storage service file system from any bare metal, virtual machine, or container instance in a VCN. You can also access a file system from outside the VCN by using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect and IPSec VPN.
- Bots
UiPath Studio gives users the workspace to design robots. You design the automation project using UiPath Studio and send the task to the robot to execute. Robots are the workers that perform the tasks designed using UiPath Studio.
There are two types of robots;
Attended Robots : These robots require human supervision and are suited for smaller task. For example, a user who wants fill out an expense report is prompted to sign in and fill out fields with supporting documentation.
Unattended Robots : These robots do not require any human supervision, for example, the batch approval of expense reports submitted by users after matching defined rules.
- Work Place VM
These are VMs that can be used to deploy Oracle or third-party applications that are compatible with UiPath Orchestrator and bots (with appropriate adapters and other needed components).
- Integration instance
Oracle Integration provides the necessary adapters and capabilities that are required for applications such as Siebel, JD Edwards and others to interact with the bots.
Leverage Oracle Integration as your integration strategy and extend work flow automation across Oracle applications.
- SQL Server
SQL Server connects to Orchestrator and is required to store the configuration of robots, associated processes, and users and optionally stores the log messages.
Recommendations
Use the following recommendations as a starting point to deploy UiPath robotic processes in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
- VCN
When you create a VCN, determine the number of CIDR blocks required and the size of each block based on the number of resources that you plan to attach to subnets in the VCN. Use CIDR blocks that are within the standard private IP address space.
Select CIDR blocks that don't overlap with any other network (in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, your on-premises data center, or another cloud provider) to which you intend to set up private connections.
After you create a VCN, you can change, add, and remove its CIDR blocks.
When you design the subnets, consider your traffic flow and security requirements. Attach all the resources within a specific tier or role to the same subnet, which can serve as a security boundary.
- Security lists
Use security lists to define ingress and egress rules that apply to the entire subnet.
- Bot Access VM
Use VM.Standard1.2 for these instances are they will mainly be used as a Bastion host or for establishing RDP sessions to the robots.
- Orchestrator
Use Windows Server 2016 Standard or Windows Server 2019 Standard as the image and VM.Standard2.8, which meets the recommended CPU requirement for managing up to 400 robots. Additional options for managing higher or lesser number of robots are also available.
- Bots
Use Windows Server 2016 Standard or Windows Server 2019 Standard as the image and VM.Standard2.2. This provides 2 CPUs and 30GB of RAM which meets the recommended CPU requirement.
- Block Volume
Use a balanced performance block volume with a size of 50 GB.
- Work Place VM
The sizing of these should be chosen based on the application being deployed.
- Integration Instance
There is no need to choose any sizing for this instance because it's managed by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
- SQL Server
Use Windows Server 2016 Standard or Windows Server 2019 Standard as the image and VM.DenseIO2.8 for managing up to 400 robots. This provides faster access to logs stored on locally attached disk. The DenseIO shape provides locally attached storage and 8 CPUs, which meets the recommended CPU requirement. Additional options for managing higher or lesser number of robots are also available.
Considerations
When deploying UiPath robotic processes in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is available, consider the following:
- Performance
To get the best performance, choose the correct compute shape with appropriate bandwidth.
- Availability
Consider using a high-availability option based on your deployment requirements and region. Options include using multiple availability domains in a region and using fault domains.
- Cost
Evaluate your requirements to choose the appropriate compute shape.
- Monitoring and alerts
Set up monitoring and alerts for CPU and memory usage for your nodes so that you can scale the shape up or down as needed.
Deploy
The code stacks for deploying UiPath robotic processes in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure are available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace.
These stacks are available as bring-your-own-license (BYOL) listings. Deploy the stacks from an existing license or procure one through other channels and use existing Universal Credits to pay for the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure resource costs that you incur.
- In Oracle Cloud
Marketplace, go to the UiPath Orchestrator page:
- Click Get App.
- Follow the on-screen prompts.
- To deploy a UiPath Robot to one or more instances and connect to an existing Orchestrator, go to the UiPath Robot and Studio page:
- Click Get App.
- Follow the on-screen prompts.