Online multi-node HA-ready production installation

This page explains how you can perform an online Automation Suite installation with a multi-node HA-ready production setup.

Overview

Important:

You must meet the hardware and software prerequisites before proceeding with the installation. See Hardware and software requirements.

You can use a dedicated script to validate the installation prerequisites and infrastructure readiness. See Validating the prerequisites.

For a smooth installation experience, make sure to follow our best practices. See .

These steps help you install the Automation Suite across multiple machines. Internet access is required for this installation mode.

The installation process has the following general steps:

Step	Description
Step 1: Download the installation packages	You need to perform this step from a machine with access to the internet where you plan to deploy Automation Suite. While the installation packages finish downloading, you can continue to some of the next steps. Step 1: Download the installation script and run interactive installer
Step 2: Configure the installation	Step 2.1: Run the interactive installer to configure the installation options The tool gathers inputs for most common options and generates a configuration file. Step 2.1: Default configuration Step 2.2: (Optional) Configure advanced installation options The default installation configuration includes a shared SQL server to be used by all products. To customize the installed products or have separate SQL servers used for specific products, edit the configuration file. Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced configuration
Step 3: Complete the installation	Step 3: You have completed the installation successfully and can move to post-installation steps. You can now access the newly created cluster and suite, update certificates, resize the PVC, and more. Step 3: Completing the installation

Important:

RHEL kernel version kernel-4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8 is affected by an issue that interrupts the installation or management of the Automation Suite cluster. Make sure that none of the Automation Suite nodes uses this kernel version either pre- or post-installation. You can update the kernel version by running the following command:

dnf install -y kernel kernel-tools kernel-tools-libsdnf install -y kernel kernel-tools kernel-tools-libs

Step 1: Downloading the installation script and running the interactive installer

You must perform this step from a machine with internet access where Automation Suite will be deployed. While these are finishing downloading, you can continue with the next steps.

Note: The Automation Suite installer is a wrapper of multiple packages that also installs some dependencies using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM). It provides an interactive experience that helps you configure external resources such as SQL and other installation options.

To copy the interactive installer to the target machine, take the following steps:

Connect to the first machine using SSH.
- If you set a password, the command is as follows:
```
ssh <user>@<dns_of_vm>ssh <user>@<dns_of_vm>
```
- If you used an SSH key, the command is as follows:
```
ssh -i <path/to/Key.pem> <user>@<dns_of_vm>ssh -i <path/to/Key.pem> <user>@<dns_of_vm>
```
Become root.
```
sudo su -sudo su -
```
Move to home directory:
```
cd ~cd ~
```
Download the installUiPathAS.sh installer. For instructions, see installUiPathAS.sh. Make sure to download the package suitable for your Automation Suite version.

Install unzip and jq.

yum install unzip jq -yyum install unzip jq -y

Step 2: Configuring the installation

Run the installer on the first server only.

chmod +x ~/installUiPathAS.sh
./installUiPathAS.shchmod +x ~/installUiPathAS.sh
./installUiPathAS.sh

Step 2.1: Default configuration

Run the interactive installer to configure the installation options. The tool gathers inputs for the most common installation options and generates a configuration file. High Availability is enabled by default, but you can disable it using the advanced configuration.

To install Automation Suite, take the following steps:

Start the interactive installer.
Accept the license agreement to continue the installation.
In Main Menu, select your deployment mode. Choose Multi-node deployment (recommended for production use) and confirm your selection.
In Deployment configuration, select your environment type. Choose Online.
Choose your product selection. Your options are:
- Complete (All products)
- Select products
For details on the product selection options, see Hardware and software requirements.
If you chose Select products in the previous step, indicate the products you want to install. Your options are:
- Action Center
- AI Center
- Apps
- Automation Hub
- Automation Ops
- Automation Suite Robots
- Data Service
- Document Understanding
- Insights
- Orchestrator
- Process Mining
- Task Mining
- Test Manager
Note:
Some Automation Suite products have additional dependencies on each other. When selecting the products you want to install, make sure you consider Cross-products dependencies. Trying to install a product without its dependencies would result in an error.

In addition to that, Task Mining and Automation Suite Robots require an additional agent node in a multi-node setup. An additional agent node with GPU support is also recommended for Document Understanding. For details, see:
To install AI Center, you must follow additional steps:
1. Specify whether AI Center requires an external Orchestrator.
  - If AI Center does not require an external Orchestrator, continue to Step 8.
  - If AI Center requires an external Orchestrator, continue to Step 7.b.
2. Copy the Orchestrator certificate to the virtual machine. For more information on this, check the Copy the Orchestrator certificate page.
3. Specify the Orchestrator URL for AI Center. Example: https://orchestrator.example.com.
4. Specify the Identity URL for AI Center. Example: https://orchestrator.example.com/identity.
5. Specify the path to the Orchestrator certificate file. Example: /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/UiPath_Installer/orch.cer.
6. Specify the path to Identity certificate file. Example: /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/UiPath_Installer/identity.cer.
7. Specify the metering API key.
  Note:
  - metering_api_key is the Document Understanding API key from the AI Center cloud account.
  - To complete the AI Center installation, follow the step from the Completing the installation section.
Confirm your product selection to determine the minimum hardware and software requirements.
Enter the Automation Suite FQDN.
Specify whether you would like to bring your own object store for the selected products. If you select No, you opt for the default object store. If you select Yes, choose one of the following options:
- Azure Storage Account – Indicate if you want to use managed identity-based with your Azure storage account, provide the following details corresponding to your choice, then specify if you want the containers to be automatically provisioned for all the selected products:
  - If Yes, provide the Azure storage account name and endpoint suffix, and your client ID;
  - If No, provide the Azure storage account name and endpoint suffix, and your Azure account key;
- AWS S3 – Provide the prefix and suffix for the bucket names, the AWS region where buckets are hosted, the access key and the secret key for the S3 account, and specify if you want the buckets to be automatically provisioned for all the selected products.
- Other S3 Compatible storage – Specify the prefix and suffix for the bucket names, the S3 server FQDN, the S3 port, the access key and the secret key for the S3 account, and specify if you want the buckets to be automatically provisioned for all the selected products.
Note:
Many S3 objectstores require the CORS set to all the traffic from the Automation Suite cluster. You must configure the CORS policy at the objectstore level to allow the FQDN of the cluster.
Specify whether you want to use Kerberos Authentication for SQL connections.
Enter the SQL Server FQDN. Follow the prompt to enter the connection port, username, and password.

Note:
If you install Process Mining, a second SQL Server is recommended. Make sure to provide the warehouse SQL Server URL, connection prompt, username, and password.

For details on the hardware requirements the second SQL Server must meet, see SQL requirements for Process Mining.
Specify whether you want the installer to automatically create the necessary databases.
Provide CA certificates for any external server software that requires a secure TLS communication, otherwise the installation will fail. If you did not enable the TLS communication, you can configure the certificates post-installation.

Note:
The installer accepts only Base64-encoded DER certificates in PEM format. If the external servers have different CAs, you can concatenate all the public certificates in a single file.
After defining the configuration parameters, the installer autogenerates the configuration. You can edit the configuration parameters directly in the terminal.
Note:
You can now directly edit thecluster_config.json for advanced configuration settings in the UiPathAutomationSuite folder. After you edit the configuration file, you need to re-run the interactive installer to complete the installation or complete it manually.

For a Disaster recovery - Active/Passive deployment, you must now take the following steps:
1. Install and configure the primary cluster. For details, see Advanced installation experience.
2. Install and configure the secondary cluster. For details, see Disaster recovery - Installing the secondary cluster.
3. Resume the installation by following the instructions on this page.
Wait for the process to complete. At this point, you should have the first node set up.
To continue with the multi-node HA-ready production installation, run the command provided by the interactive installer on all the nodes in the terminal in sequence, and specify the agent or server for each node being joined.
You can also add additional nodes post-installation. For details, see Adding a new node to the cluster.
Important:
When performing an interactive installation of Automation Suite 2023.4.0, the message asking you to run the next command on secondary nodes contains an empty token. To continue the installation, you must generate a new token by running kubectl create token default, and only then execute the command on the secondary nodes.
Once all the machines are joined, run the following command on the first server to complete the installation of the services:

Note: At the end of the installation process, you are prompted with a deployment summary that gives you access to the Cluster Administration portal, host portal, organization administration interface, Rancher, ArgoCD, and more.

Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced configuration

This step is optional.

You can configure the file for more advanced configurations. You can enable additional products, disable any of the default products, configure your SQL DBs and their respective connection strings, and certificates. For multi-node HA-ready production mode, we enable High Availability by default, but you can disable it if needed.

For advanced configuration, you can follow the following instructions: Advanced installation experience.

Note: If you exit the interactive installer and perform advanced configuration, you need to re-run the interactive installer to complete the process.

Step 3: Completing the installation

Note: You have completed the installation successfully, and you can now move to post-installation steps.

Updating certificates

The installation process generates self-signed certificates on your behalf. These certificates are compliant with FIPS 140-2. The Azure deployment template also gives you the option to provide a CA-issued server certificate at installation time instead of using an auto-generated self-signed certificate.

Self-signed certificates will expire in 90 days, and you must replace them with certificates signed by a trusted CA as soon as installation completes. If you do not update the certificates, the installation will stop working after 90 days.

If you installed Automation Suite on a FIPS 140-2-enabled host and want to update the certificates, make sure they are compatible with FIPS 140-2.

For instructions, see Managing certificates.