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Im working at a company where we are currently implementing RPA as a part of a pilotproject.

We are looking into purchasing the correct licenses from a consultancy, but there are one thing we can't seem to get solid information on.

We need to schedule unattended robots, and from what I can see, that is possible through Windows Task Scheduler. However, the consultancy thinks that 'workaround' has been shut down by UIPath, so it is now only possible to schedule through the Orchestrator.

But from our perspective, we only have few processes that will take up about 10% of a robots capacity, making it a bit overkill to get the Orchestrator right away. We would like to wait until we have 'filled up' the robot some more, as the Orchestrator license is very expensive.

The question is: Is it still possible to schedule UIPath processes through Windows Task Scheduler, using the newest version of UIPath? Or is it neccesarry for us to also purchase the Orchastrator along with the Studio and Unattended robot licence?

Hope the question is clear enough

Thank you in advance. Oliver

AlbaTroels
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  • Could you use the community edition of Orchestrator until you are ready to stand up your own Orchestrator instance? – Conor Dec 18 '19 at 12:51

8 Answers8

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It's possible, but hasn't been officially supported by UiPath for some time. You can use the following command in a batch file and then schedule that batch file through the Windows Task Scheduler.

UiRobot.exe -file C:\<name of nupkg package>

Here is a link to the UiForum post where UiPath explains how to go about doing this.

Daniel Mitchell
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If you only have a few robots you may consider connecting them to the new UiPath Cloud Orchestrator platform, this saves you the hassle of having your own or paying for it. Unless you do that Unattended robots without Orchestrator are not really a thing and new (19.10) Attended robots have a scheduler built-in with the new Agent

Ilya Kochetov
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You are correct that information is lacking. Even the UiPath rep who sold us our platform insinuated a copy of Orchestrator was required. It's not. Assuming you have robot license(s), you can publish your process to robot machine(s) and run by calling uirobot.exe with windows task scheduler and specifying your process's project.json file.

See the "important" box here. https://docs.uipath.com/studio/docs/about-the-projectjson-file

tmays
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Currently I'm using UiPath Studio Community Edition Version 19.10.2.
Please try the steps below.
1. Get UiRobot.exe path.
enter image description here

2. Create Batch file.

"UiRobot.exe path from step 1 above" - file "Workflow path"

For example:

"C:\Users\AkkapolK\AppData\Local\UiPath\app-19.10.2\UiRobot.exe" -file "C:\~Akkapolki\Project\Robotic Process Automation\UiPath\Test\WindowsTaskScheduler00001\Main.xaml"
  1. Create Task on Windows Task Scheduler.
    Action: Start a program
    Program/script: The Batch file path from step 2 above.
    enter image description here

Code project: Robotic-Process-Automation-UiPath-Test-WindowsTaskScheduler00001

akkapolk
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You could also try using an older version of UiPath Studio where the Windows Task Scheduler is again working with.

You can download those here: enter image description here

kwoxer
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About policy:

In terms of sales policy, UiPath does not sell unattended robot licenses without Orchestrator

About small scale deployments:

As mentioned by Ilya, you probably want to have a look at the Cloud Platform, which should be a much more affordable option to use Orchestrator for a few unattended robots.

Note that the value of Orchestrator is much more than just scheduling processes, you gain access to assets, queues, logging, and more.

About running processes from the Robot command:

2 ways to do this

  1. is the one mentioned by many others in this thread, which is the legacy (-f or --file ) to run a file
  2. is the more modern approach (-p or --process ) that targets a process name (any of these you can see in your Robot Agent or UiPath Assistant)

Both are documented here:

https://docs.uipath.com/robot/docs/arguments-description#section-the-execute-command

But please bear in mind that you want to be careful about how you leverage these options: Beyond what is technically possible, there are also legal obligations that come with each license types.

Since using commands to start processes opens the door to starting unattended processes, this assumes that you are using an unattended license. Using commands to start processes on a robot activated with an attended license may or may not breach the EULA.

2 concrete examples:

  • starting a process via command on an attended robot upon login is OK: the process is triggered by the action of the user logging in and for whom the robot is licensed
  • starting a process via command in a time trigger of the Windows Task Scheduler on an attended robot is NOT OK: the trigger is not a direct action of the user, therefore an unattended license is needed

Community users have a lot more flexibility in this regard, but EULA breach is no joke for companies.

Support is yet another topic, but this answer is already long enough.

Quentin
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UiRobot.exe execute --file C:<name of nupkg package> version 2022.4.5

user19357684
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  • Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please [edit] to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer). – Community Oct 17 '22 at 01:19
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Ilya, new attended robot agent has a build in scheduler, but this doesn't mean that processes will be triggered automatically. This scheduler will be just a reminder and user will still have to run robot by himself. Attended robots are run by the human, this is the only difference between attended and unatended uipath robots.

Arkadiusz Soika
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