- Release notes
March 2021
Starting today, it becomes possible to share assets, queues, storage buckets, and action catalogs between folders directly from Orchestrator. Sharing resources between folders enables launching jobs in multiple folders when the underlying processes are targeting the same resources without having to redesign your workflows in Studio.
FolderPath property; however, this can quickly become a nuisance upon organization tree changes; any change altering folder paths requires
workflow reconstruction.
Today, we bring this to an end by decoupling workflow design from execution time. Sharing resources among multiple folders increases resource utilization in the tenant and allows you to move the resources to where they are needed without reconfiguring your workflows.
Linking Multiple Resources to the Current Folder
When creating resources in a folder, you are now presented with a new option to add an existing resource residing in a different folder.
Linking a Specific Resource to Multiple Folders
The same can be achieved by editing the resource wherever it may be present and making it available to multiple folders. A feed of the changes is displayed to help you keep track of the folders the resource has been added in or removed from.
User-machine mappings address infrastructure challenges where specific sets of users can only log in on specific machines. This is accomplished by enabling you to tie unattended usage under particular users to specific machine templates. The feature gives granular control over the execution target of your automations while also reflecting the same user profile-machine mappings you are used to when configuring Windows profiles.
Tenant Mappings
You can configure tenant user-machine mappings on the Machines page in Orchestrator. The operation involves linking users who usually log in on specific host machines to the associated machine templates. The resulting user-machine mappings become the only available pairs for execution. Reverting to the default state (i.e., no mappings in place) is as easy as editing the machine template and allowing any user to use it.
Folder Mappings
For an added layer of granularity, user-machine mappings can be configured on a per-folder basis, meaning that, in a particular folder, on a machine template, you can limit the execution to specific users only. Folder mappings act as subsets of tenant mappings and allow you to achieve the utmost level of granularity possible. Not providing folder-level mappings leaves tenant-level mappings in place as the defaults. The resulting user-machine mappings become the only available pairs for execution in that folder.
You can configure folder user-machine mappings in multiple places in the UI.
- At the folder level, on the Settings page.
- At the tenant level, on the Folders page.
Enabling User-Machine Mappings
- At the tenant level, navigate to Settings > General.
-
In the Modern Folders section, enable/disable the corresponding toggle.
Launching jobs from Orchestrator has been overhauled to showcase the new capabilities provided by the user-machine mappings feature.
Jobs Page
-
Debugging just got better; you can now see which machines are available when choosing to run a job using a certain machine template.
Triggers Page
-
A new User-Machine Mappings strategy that allows you to schedule execution on multiple user-machine mappings is available for time triggers. Orchestrator launches one job for each user-machine pair you selected as the execution target. According to the availability of the resources, the jobs can either begin executing or remain pending.
-
The Dynamic Allocation job allocation strategy has been enhanced for both time triggers and queue triggers and you can now choose the machine on which jobs get executed. Unlike the User-Machine Mappings option, Dynamic Allocation only allows specifying one user-machine pair.
Asset per User-Machine Pair
Not long ago we delivered assets per user, the modern counterpart of classic per-robot assets. Aimed at creating a mapping between the user and the credential, assets per user had a big downside: users logging in to multiple machines had no easy way of controlling who gets assigned what job.
Fortunately, the asset story has come full circle as we've added machines to the equation. That creates a precise mapping between the user, machines, and the credential used during execution.
Multiple Sessions Per Robot
If you made it this far down, here's a big one: to tackle the gap between classic and modern we're allowing multiple sessions per attended robot with a single license. You are allowed 3 simultaneous sessions with one license so you can connect your robot to all machines that provide your automations with the required resources. Happy automating!
Main.xaml. To this end, a new Entry Point field is added in Orchestrator which enables you to specify a particular entry point for your workflow as long as multiple
have been defined in Studio.
Migrating from classic folders to modern folders has never been easier. Today, we're giving the possibility to create and associate standard machines to modern folders so that upon migrating, you do not need to change the machine key.
Because a standard machine cannot work in both classic and modern folders simultaneously, the classic model takes precedence. A standard machine works in the classic folder as long as there are active robots defined. Disabling all robots that are using it in the classic context will render it usable in modern folders.
To accommodate this change the Machine Template window has been renamed to Machines and has been repurposed to show both standard machines and machine templates.
Mixing tenant and folder permissions within the same role is not recommended, you already knew that. Besides making it difficult to keep track of what rights a role grants and the risk of access not functioning as intended across folder and tenant context, the user interface did not make it easy to stay organized. Until now!
Role Types
There are now three types of roles:
- Tenant roles include only tenant-level permissions, which grant rights in relation to your tenant resources.
- Folder roles include only folder permissions for working within a folder.
-
Mixed roles include a combination of both tenant and folder permissions.
Note: You can no longer create new Mixed roles, but you can still use the ones you already have.
Role types are now indicated in the relevant pages, for example:
Moving Away from Mixed Roles
Although you can still use your existing Mixed roles, we recommend that you replace them with separate roles for the tenant and folder permissions they include and assign the new roles appropriately.
A warning is displayed when editing a Mixed role. Expand it for guidance on transitioning to the Tenant and Folder role types:
Creating Roles
When creating a role, you now choose the type of role you want to create: Tenant or Folder.
Each role type allows you to add permissions for the selected context only. It is no longer possible to create roles that contain both tenant and folder permissions, namely Mixed roles. If you have users who need both, you must assign them a Tenant role and a Folder role.
Assigning Roles
The way in which you assign roles has also changed, depending on the type of role and on whether or not you still use classic folders.
-
If Activate Classic Folders is cleared under Tenant > Settings > General:
You assign Tenant roles and Mixed roles from the Users page or from the Roles page.
You assign Folder roles and Mixed roles from the Folders page or from the folder's Settings page.
-
If Activate Classic Folders is selected under Tenant > Settings > General:
You assign any of the three types of roles from the Users page or from the Roles page.
You assign Folder roles and Mixed roles from the Folders page or from the folder's Settings page.
You can now also use Amazon Web Services (AWS) as your cloud services provider for Elastic Robot Orchestration.
As March begins, we have dropped the Actionsmanagement feature and UI from Orchestrator cloud services. The functionality is now strictly available in Action Center services in Automation Cloud, namely on the Actions tab.
Several parts of Action Center are still managed in Orchestrator services:
- Actions audit logs
- Folder permissions for Actions,Action Catalogs, and Action Assignment
- Action Catalogs
Read more about managing Actions in the Action Center.
- 31 March 2021
- Sharing Resources Between Folders
- Bug Fixes
- 29 March 2021
- User-Machine Mappings
- Multiple Entry Points in RPA Processes
- Standard Machines in Modern Folders
- Improvements
- 24 March 2021
- Cleaner Role Management
- 16 March 2021
- AWS for Elastic Robot Orchestration
- 10 March 2021
- Bug Fixes
- 1 March 2021
- What's New
