Environment requirements for installation

Orchestrator requirements

1. Orchestrator must be configured and running on your local network, and its network accessibility for workstations must be ensured. Check the URL of the Orchestrator with your system administrator.
2. Version 2.5.0
   
3. Availability of a CA-validated certificate included in the trusted certificates on workstations. Self-signed certificates can only be used for test runs and do not guarantee reliable operation

Workstation requirements

1. RAM not less than 4Gb, free disk space from 5 Gb
2. Astra Linux 1.7.2/ 64, with basic security profile settings (no Windows domain entry)

3. Account with administrator rights (sudo).

   Attention!

   Direct installation in the root session (when the root@<host> prompt is displayed in the terminal) can lead to unpredictable consequences and is therefore unacceptable. Do the installation in the session of a user who has access to sudo commands.

4. Stable connection to official Astra Linux repositories (access to the Internet or to local mirrors of Astra Linux package repositories)
5. To work with browser automation - it is necessary to make sure that one of the browsers is available, if necessary - install one of the supported in the current release:

• Yandex-Browser 22.9

• Yandex-Browser 22.5

• Yandex-Browser 22.7

• Yandex-Browser 23.3

• Chromium 94

• Chromium 101

• Firefox 31

• Firefox 30

Installation process

Required materials and information:

1. Archive with distribution packages in *.tar.gz format.
2. The Agent configuration file with settings is Robin.Agent.cfg (optional, but it will simplify settings after installation, you can check with the Robin Orchestrator administrator).
3. The value of the ClientSecret key for connection to the Orchestrator if it differs from the value in Robin.Agent.cfg or this file is not provided (this data is optional, but it will simplify the settings after installation, you can check with the Robin Orchestrator administrator).
4. The host address of the Robin Orchestrator installed on your corporate network (available from your Robin Orchestrator administrator). The host address must be in full format with the scheme (http/https) and port if different from the standard values for the scheme (http - 80, https - 443). Example of a valid value:
   https://orc.robin.corp:9443

Extract the archive with the distribution files to a new directory inside your home directory (e.g. ~/dist). To do this, open the directory with the archive in File Manager, launch Terminal from it and execute the commands.

mkdir -p ~/dist

tar -xvzf <имя архива> -C ~/dist

Go inside the directory with the extracted archive.

cd ~/dist

It is recommended that you use the automatic installation and configuration script.

Installation

The following files must be present in the directory, along with the installation packages:

rpa-robin-install-deb-std.sh

rpa-robin-check-user-group.sh

To install, run the command:

sudo ./rpa-robin-install-deb-ent.sh ./Robin.Agent.cfg <адрес хоста> 

If you were provided only the host address or only the configuration file, specify them as an argument when calling the deployment script (the parameter type is automatically recognized).

Watch the messages on the screen. The installation process may take a few minutes.

During the installation you will be asked for the ClientSecret key. Enter its value if you know it, or press the Enter key immediately to continue the installation without a new key.

Getting ClientSecret for Robin.Agent authentication via Keycloak:

а. Go to the admin panel in Keycloak (at https://serverhost:8443/, specify your address instead of serverhost)
Default login/password: admin/Qwerty123

b. Select the realm Robin from the dropdown menu.

c. Get Secret for the agent

Select Clients → Robin.Agent → Credentials → Client secret

Example of a received text: BDsArvgg7R9lKXJHe6fSKU4dRB8xBlY4

Adding the current user to the rpa-robin group

Once the installation is complete, check to see if the current user is in the rpa-robin group to work with robots. You can use the attached utility to do this:

./rpa-robin-check-user-group.sh

If the user is not present in the group - you can do this with the command:

sudo usermod -aG rpa-robin $USER

Without participation in the rpa-robin group, the user will not be able to execute robots.

Execute the command for initial configuration of drivers for web browsers (executed once for the user):

cli-robin webdrivers-bootstrap

If a configuration file already exists in the system, a confirmation will be displayed to overwrite the file. It is recommended to overwrite the file after installing the platform.

To get started, run the command in the terminal:

rpa-connector

Minimize the terminal window without closing the process

Setting up a workstation on Orchestrator

Open the Orchestrator Web interface.

If your account is not registered on Orchestrator, register it. The account name on Orchestrator must be the same as the account name on Astra Linux. When registering, specify (at least) the following roles: Task Performer, Robin Player User.

Adding a workstation is possible after installing and running Robin Robot on the workstation.

Check if the host is in the Orchestrator list:

If the host name is not in the list - add it, while selecting your current host account from the account dropdown list.

You can check the connection between the host and the orchestrator by clicking on the clickable host name, a form with information will open, and the status indicator under the host name should be green (Online):

For more information about using Orchestrator, please check the documentation about Orchestrator.

Launching robots

Local launch of robots (robot file on the host)

The versions of the actions used in the robot must be present in the installed platform for the robot to execute successfully.

The robot can be launched in 2 ways:

1. From the file manager - by right-clicking - the item Open in Robin Player at the top of the context menu; or by double-clicking the file icon with the mouse

2. In terminal: robinplayer <path to file or file name if in current directory>

When launching the robot, a terminal window with progress messages will open. After successful execution the window will close automatically, in case of a critical robot error it will remain open for viewing, it can be closed using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C

Remote robot launch (robot file on Orchestrator)

Refer to the Orchestrator documentation.

Working in a multi-user environment

If several different users are running on the system and launching the same robots, there may be conflicts at the level of temporary files in the shared /tmp directory.

To avoid conflicts, on computers with multiple users, it is recommended to clear the temporary files in the /tmp directory of which after finishing work and before logging out.

The cleanup command:

rm -f /tmp/*.robin*

Changing ClientSecret key

If you need to update the key during operation, you can do so in the terminal by typing the command:

cli-robin setup-secret

Value entry is masked, the key value will not be displayed on the screen

Changing RabbitMQ password

If during operation you need to change the password to connect to RabbitMQ, you can do so in the terminal by typing the command:

sudo /usr/local/bin cli-robin config-update Agent Admin -k RabbitPassword -v  <значение пароля>

Updating browser drivers

If it is required to update the browser drivers, it is possible to download the necessary driver version (from the driver or browser developer's resource). The structure of directories with drivers inside the installed Robin platform inside the directory

/opt/RobinPlatform/2.0.0/drivers/browser

has the following structure (the directory with the browser name, then the directory with the driver name and version, inside which the driver itself is located):

1. Create the directory  /opt/RobinPlatform/2.0.0/Utils/WebDrivers and the pack.properties file in it.
2. Download the driver, unzip if it is archived, place it in a directory named in the format name-version
3. Make sure it is a usable file for everyone:
   chmod +x yandexdriver
4. Сopy the directory with the driver to the desired path, for example:
   sudo  cp -a yandexdriver-23.3.1.755  /opt/RobinPlatform/2.0.0/drivers/browser/yandex/
5. Add an entry to the configuration file ~/.robin/env/cfg similar to the existing entries in the file (note that for the Yandex version only three digits without a dot are specified on the left side of the lines - e.g. 229 instead of 22.9.1.1110):

Robot log view console

A tool for viewing logs has been added. On the tool bar at the top of the window, you can switch to the tabs for Agent logs, Java actions, and Python actions. Up to 1000 recent log entries are displayed in a table. After starting the robot, you can click the Update button to download new entries.

Launch the tool from the command line in a normal user session:

gui-robin

Window with color inversion (black background):

gui-robin --dark

Uninstallation

If you need to uninstall the Robin Platform, you can use the standard operating system commands (apt)

Uninstall:

sudo apt remove -y rpa-robin-core