Automation anywhere BOT not working correctly when virtual machine is disconnected

Question

I am facing a weird issue, we have developed a BOT which runs on BOT runner(virtual machine). the job of BOT is to download an xml from source system(website) and then populate data into target system(website) by reading downloaded XML. All goes well when we are connected to virtual machine and BOT is able to populate data in target system correctly however it doesn't work correctly when we lock or disconnect virtual machine. Mostly we have used object cloning and managed web control. When machine is locked or disconnected both object cloning and managed web control do not work correctly.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

Answer 1

This is because the last user to remote into the machine locks the desktop preventing the RPA tool from connecting. You can either persist by using the Run Bot Runner Session on Control Room (though this would require additional configuration changes and you will have to consult the online documentation per your AA version) or by using a batch file each time you log off the machine.

Creating a batch file such as the one shown below should assist you.

for /f "skip=1 tokens=3" %%s in ('query user %USERNAME%') do ( %windir%\System32\tscon.exe %%s /dest:console ) Rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation

Answer 2

This is a common issue for RPA tools, they do not like connecting to the remote/virtual machines by windows RDP (I presume you are using that).

See these questions for Blue Prism and RPA Express whether the problem seems familiar.

Your best bet would be using another RDP tool.

Answer 3

If you're using Automation Anywhere v10.5, download the latest patch for it. Last time I checked, it is v10.5.11. Auto-login now works on locked, disconnected, and logged-off virtual machines.

You'll just schedule the runs from the control room then disconnect or log off the machine.