Top Threats Affecting Automation Anywhere Bots

Top Considerations for Security of the Bot and Network it is being deployed into


The assets we want to protect, People and Actors Interacting with the Bot and Environment in which the Bot is Deployed


The assets we want to protect

-> Unauthorized access to customer data.



People and Actors Interacting with the Bot

-> User credentials and API keys.



Environment in which the Bot is Deployed

-> Malicious code embedded into bots.

-> Server or Computer running the bot.

-> Remote or Connections or Services.


Top Threats to Bots as Identified by Automation Anywhere

Maliciously embedded DLL Files.

References to external or local system DLLS.

Plain text communication.

Credential Management.

Use of insecure dependencies.

Threat : Malicious or Vulnerable Embedded DLL Files

-> Dependencies and more specifically chained dependencies.

-> Vulnerable DLL could make bots and data Vulnerable to exploitation.

-> Malware containing bots could be used to exploit bot user systems.

-> Include only dependencies that are:

$ Necessary

$ Reputable

$ Have been thoroughly vetted for security

$ Don't contain any known vulnerabilities


Threat : References to external or local system DLLS

-> DLLS referenced by bots must be packaged within the bot package.

-> Not doing so results in DLL Injection.


Threat : Plain Text Communication

-> Plain text transmission of data results in data leakage and information disclosure.

-> Credential, Session information, Bot data, and other information is commonly transmitted insecurely.

-> Connections to external resources must use TLS1.2 OR Greater, SSH, SFTP.

-> Secure transmission protocols should use a secure cryptographic protocols.


Threat: Insecure Credential Management.

-> Bot should protect:

* Bot user credentials.

* Session tokens.

* API Keys.

* Credentials for external resources.

-> The Credential Vault should always be used to protect sensitive data.

Threat: Use of Insecure Dependencies

-> A Patch or Update may or may not be issued.

-> Packages or Bots that rely on insecure dependencies can be exploited by attackers.

-> Ensure that all bot dependencies are from reputed sources that are actively maintained.

-> Always use the latest secure version of a dependency.

-> Perform security checks and static analysis on all dependencies.

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Introduction to Secure Bot Design in Automation Anywhere

1) Top Threats Affecting Automation Anywhere Bots

-> Maliciously embedded DLL Files.

-> References to external or local system DLLS

-> Plain text communication.

-> Credential Management.

-> Use of insecure independencies.


2) Deriving Security Requirements Through Threat Modelling

-> Threat Modelling bots.

-> Deriving Security Requirements Through models.

-> Essential Security Requirements for bots.


3) Principles of Secure Bot Archirtecture

-> Principles of Secure design.

-> Defense in depth principle.

-> Secure defaults.

-> Failing Securely.

4) Choosing Dependencies

-> Choosing Dependencies.

-> Vulnerability databases.

-> Preventing Vulnerable dependencies.

Each Topic will be explained briefly in the next Pages

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Knowledge Check of Web Control Room


1) Rao is working on Bots and wants to move Bots from one automation room to another. Which option should she use?

Ans: Import Bots


2) What are the benefits of workload management?

Ans: Assists in management of work items, Adds queues manually and automatically and Enhances the control of queues.

3) Which of the following actions are allowed by the Action bar?

Ans: Refresh the table contents to view the latest audit logs, Export data based on month, filters or selection and Show or hide specific columns in the audit table.

4) Which of the following details are displayed on the Home dashboard?

Ans: Active users, Registered clients and Failed tasks

5) What does the HDD utilization widget display?

Ans: Number of devices that crossed the threshold for HDD usage.

6) The _________________provides a centralized location for securely creating and storing sensitive information included in automation task.

Ans: Credentials

7) What are the different options provided to the user in the Dashboard?

Ans: Audit Dashboard, Workload Dashboard and Insights Dashboard.

8) Which of the following components is not a part of the Activity page?

Ans: Workload Activity

9) Rohit wants to access a Bot from the laptop while travelling. Which interface will help him to complete his task?

Ans: Control Room Interface

10) Nitya is a Control Room Administrator and wants to know the permissions granted to him as an admin. Which of the following features provides this information in the Control Room application?

Ans: Administration

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Web Control Room Assessment

1) Arun wants to view certain information about an activity on the Schedule Activity page. Which options can he view.

Ans: Type of Schedule, Name of the Activity and Name of the Bot.


2) Which option in the Administration panel allows the user to view a list of purchased products?

Ans: License

3) Which option allows a user to manage roles by modifying roles and users?

Ans: Administration

4) Diya wants to transfer data from a previous Control Room Version 10.x to the current version. Which option will she use?

Ans: Migration

5) Karan is a new automation anywhere user. He wants to know what will the Bots option help him with?

Ans: Graphically summarized view of Bots

6) Which option schedules a Bot to be executed at a specific point in time

Ans: Schedule Bots

7) Which of the following is not a component of the Dashboard?

Ans: Failure Log

8) What is the function of a Roles option in Administration?

Ans: To manage or assign roles

9) In My Device tab, what are the three status that a device can be in?

Ans: Connected, Disconnected and Offline

10) What are device pools?

Ans: Collection of Bot runners

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Knowledge Check of Web Control Room 11.0

1. What are device pools?

Answer: Collection of bot runners.


2. What is the function of the Audit Log?

Answer: Enforces internal compliance regulations


3. Which option allows a user to manage roles by modifying roles and users?

Answer: Administration

4. What is the function of a Roles option in Administration?

Answer: To manage or assign roles


5. Which of the following options defines number of work items and number of devices required to process?

Answer: SLA Calculator


6. In My Device tab, what are the three status that a device can be in?

Answer: Connected,Disconnected and Offline .


7. Which option in the Administration panel allows the user to view a list of purchased products?

Answer: License .


8. Which dashboard helps consumers to analyse task data and enhance widgets?

Answer: Insights Dashboard .


9. The _________________provides a centralized location for securely creating and storing sensitive information included in automation task.

Answer: Credentials .


10. What are the benefits of workload management?


Answer: Assists in management of work items,Adds queues manually and automatically and

Enhances the control of queues .

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Knowledge Check of Web Control Room 11.0

1. Which option schedules a Bot to be executed at a specific point in time.

Explanation: Schedule Bots are used to execute bots at a specific point in time among Import bots,

Run Bot Now,Export bots.

Answer: Schedule Bots.


2. Akshit wants to view certain information about an activity on the Schedule Activity page.

Which options can he view.

Explanation: Type of Schedule,Name of the Activity,Name of the Bot are used to

view certain information about an activity on the Schedule Activity page.

Answer: Type of Schedule,Name of the Activity,Name of the Bot.


3. Which of the following components is not a part of the Activity page?


Explanation: Historical Activity,Scheduled Activity,In-progress Activity are part

of the Activity Page.

Answer: Workload Activity.


4. Cyrus needs to monitor certain events like the highest percentage of a particular activity

being performed based on either user name or host machine type.

Which of the following components will help him achieve this task?


Answer: Audit component



5. What actions can you perform via the Audit Log page?


Explanation: Status of the action,Type of action performed,Date and time of the action are the actions

can be performed via the Audit Log Page.

Answer: Status of the action,Type of action performed,Date and time of the action.

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Knowledge Check of Web Control Room 11.0

1. Prathik is viewing details of an action to ensure that he can track all the changes that are being made in Control Room.

Which of the following option will not appear in update settings?

Explanation: Action details,Action attribute,Action values will appear in update settings.

Answer: Action upload will not appear in update settings.



2. Sohab wants to use a component that will manage the work items and estimate Service Level Assessment or SLA.

Which of the following component will help him achieve the task?


Explanation: Workload is the component that will manage the work items and estimate Service Level Assessment or SLA

among HomeBotsDevice components.

Answer: Workload.


3. Rohit wants to access a Bot from the laptop while travelling. Which interface will help him to complete his task?


Explanation: Control Room Interface is the interface used to access a bot from the laptop while travelling among

Audit Interface,Workload Interface,Device Interface.

Answer: Control Room Interface.


4. Which of the following is not a component of the Dashboard?


Explanation: Failure Log is not a component of the Dashboard.

Home,Bots,Workload,Devices,Audit,Insights are the components of Dashboard.

Answer: Failure Log

5. Roshni is working on Bots and wants to move Bots from one automation room to another.

Which option should she use?


Explanation: Import Bots are used to move bots from one automation room to another among

Run Bot with Queue,Export Bots,Schedule Bots.

Answer: Import Bots

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Task


A Control Room Administrator has been given the task of running a Bot with queue.

In order to perform this, he needs to create a role with required permission to run such a Bot and then,

assign this role to the required user.


Solution


Use Control Room's Workload Management features to perform this task.


Process Step Flow

Create a new role with necessary permissions ➨ Create a new user ➨ Assign the new role to user ⤸

Login to Control Room with new credentials ➨ Create New Queue ➨ Create New device pool ⤸

Assign bot runner to new device pool ➨ Run the bot with queue.


Benefits of using this command

Workload management allows you to manage your work items by dividing them into small yet logical modules and processing

those simultaneously to ensure your time-based SLAs are met and resource utilization is optimized.


Note: You can see only those queues for which you are either the Owner / Participant / Consumer.

However, the Queue Admin can see all the queues in the system.

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Explanation of Web Control Room Components of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0 - Administration

Administration


One of the key tasks of Control Room admin is to manage roles and users, change the general settings of Control Room and install

and assign licenses.

In order to manage and perform these activities, Automation Anywhere provides the Administration module.

As an admin, you can use the administration module of the Control Room to perform the certain actions such as:

* Manage roles by creating, editing, deleting and viewing existing roles and users.

You can also change the general settings of the Control Room and install a new license.

The migration tab allows you to migrate information from an old version to a new version of the Control Room.


Administration module consists of five sub - components. These include Settings, Users, Roles, Licenses,

and Migration.

As a Control Room admin, you can use the Control Room Settings to:

-> Editing General Settings and Control Room database.

-> Enable or Disable Version Control in Bots.

-> Enable or Disable secure recording set product help URL's, and Configure Device health checks in Client applications.

-> Configure the connection mode to the Credential Vault in Credentials, and

-> Enable or Disable the email settings.


Users page of the Control Room gives detailed information about the existing users.

As a Control Room Admin with user management privileges, you can view ,create, edit, delete and enable

or disable a user.

You can also perform other actions, such as delete multiple users, export the list of users in CSV format,

refresh the list in the users table, and show or hide columns in the users table depending on your preferences.

Besides the above tasks, you can also create a user and assign a role to it.


Roles page provides information of the role defined for each user such as Administrators, Clients and non-clients.

This role-based accessibility model or RBAC ensures each user views information or data that is relevant to the role

assigned to them.

You can use this page to create roles, edit and delete roles for various features and operations in the Control Room.

However,only an admin or Control Admin user with roles permission can assign roles to users.

There are two types of roles, System-created and User Created roles.

The System - created roles are pre - configured during the Control Room installation whereas

the user-created roles are created by the user themselves and can be customized accordingly.

The Control Room License Page provides detailed information about the current license installed.

It also allows Admin's to monitor license details and usage statistics.

Therefore, as an Admin, you can view product license details any time and avail information about the list of purchased

products, along with license version and product license status as used, not used, or not applicable.



Migration.

You can use this page to migrate data from a previous Control Room version ten ex to the current version,

that is Eleven LTS.

You should be a Control Room Administrator with view and manage migration permissions to be able to use the

migration wizard tool.

You can use the tool to migrate data either on the basis of Roles or Users in phases depending on your business

requirements.

Dependent data such as licenses, credentials, bots, and schedules are also migrated automatically,

when you migrate roles or users.

You can use the Migration page to view the status of the saved migration, Name of the migration, Time and

date when the migration process began, Time and date when the migration process ended and time it took for the migration

to run, Name of the user who initiated the migration, that is, name of the Control Room Administrator, Number of entities

that were migrated successfully, the number of entities that failed to migrate, and the Total number of entities that

were attempted for migration.

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Explanation of Web Control Room Components of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0 - Audit Log

Audit Log


At the top of the page is the search bar that allows you to search for actions by Status, Action type Item name and

Action taken by.

Below the search bar is the action bar that allows you to:

-> Refresh the table contents so that you can view the latest audit logs,

-> Export data based on Month, Filters or Selection, and

-> Show or Hide specific columns in the Audit table. By default, all columns are displayed.

Next, the Audit table lists all the actions performed. This table shows the:

-> Status of the action, whether successful or unsuccessful.

-> Date and Time of the action performed

-> Type of action performed such as Connect Credential Vault, Create, Edit, or Delete role or User and

and user or Client Login or Logout.

-> Entity on which action was performed.

For Example: User name, Automation Name or Role name etc.

-> User that performed the action.

-> Device or Machine name or IP that was used to perform the action

-> Component - Control Room, Client or API from where the action was originated or performed.

If you wish to view to track the changes that are being made in Control Room as well as Client,

in the Audit Log page:

* Place the cursor over the action icon in the audit entry and click the binocular icon.

The Audit Log details page is displayed.

This page is divided in two sections.

Action details and

Action type that comprises attribute and values of the action performed.

Action details section shows all details that are displayed on the Audit Log landing page.

* Note that for an unsuccessful action, the error is also shown in this section.

Action type details shows the details of the type of action performed.

-> You can see what changed in the New value from Old Value.

-> You can see only those fields that were updated and stored in the Credential Vault,

Which is Encrypted.


Note:

Only a Control Room admin or a user with Audit Log Privileges can select an activity from the Audit

Logs to view its details.

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Web Control Room Component of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0 - Workload

Note that every day, enormous number of records or work items are executed.

If is not feasible to do a complete execution of all records on one bot runner in the given time frame.

Therefore, it becomes very important to strategically and logically distribute the work items across multiple bot

runners to improve efficiency as well as prevent tampering of the process through automation.

In the earlier version, as a control room admin, you were required to manually distribute the work items across

multiple bot runners.

Not anymore. In Automation Anywhere Enterprise eleven,this distribution of work items across bot runners is taken

care off by the workload management.

Workload management is the process of strategically distributing work to improve efficiency through automation.

It allows you to manage your work items by dividing them into small yet logical modules and processing them

simultaneously to ensure your time-based SLA's are met and resource utilization is optimized.

You can use the workload management feature in the following ways.

✦ Manage work items using queues.

✦ Create, Update and control the way work items are included in queues.

✦ Modify the work items distributed to bot runners that are assigned to Device Pools, and

✦ Estimate a SLA.

The Following are the benefits of Workload Management feature.

✦ Centralized definition and management of work items is made easy.

✦ A row of data in a queue can be processed on a collection of devices in a device pool

as well.

✦ Queues can be added manually as well as automatically using control room or using the

Insert Work Item command in the workbench.

✦ Specific roles and permission element in the workload further enhances the control

over the queue system.

The Workload management feature introduces two components:

-> Queues and

-> Service Level Agreement or SLA's calculator.

Queues are a collection of work items that allow you to manage the work items in your control room.

You can create, update and control the way work items are included in Queues and distributed to bot runners

that are part of a device pool.

Note that only a Control room admin with create Queues privilege can create a new queue.

Queues can be defined by manually setting up columns or using excel worksheet as its base.

Note: User can see only those queues for which you are either the owner or Participant or Consumer.

A Service Level Agreement or SLAs calculator allows you to assess how long would it take to process

work items based on device pool size or how many devices are required to meet your target SLA.

A Control Admin with SLA Calculator permission can use this feature.

Till now you have learnt about Queues and SLA's and let's learn about its features in detail.

Queues panel is one of the key elements in workload.

It lists all queues with owner, participant or consumer permissions.

At the top of the page is search bar. You can search for a queue by its status, My Access and Queue name.

Below the search bar is the Action Bar that allows you to:

-> Refresh the table contents so that you can view the latest queue status.

-> Delete all or multiple queues.

-> Show or hide specific columns in the table. By default, all columns are displayed.

These actions are performed on all devices listed in the Queues table, and not on individual queues.

Next, below the action bar is the Queue table.

The Queue table provides the:

-> Status of the Queue.

-> Name of the Queue.

-> Currently logged on user's access status of the queue.

-> Name of the Automation, and

-> Status of the Automation created for this queue.

Based on whether a queue is used to run a bot or not, the status column consists of three parameters:

* In use, Draft , and Not In Use.

In Use is assigned when the Queue is created, saved and used to run a bot with queue.

Draft is assigned when the Queue is created but saved as a draft.

This option is generally selected by the Queue admin when some information needs to be updated

or when the queue is not meant for running automation's yet.

Not In Use is assigned when the queue is created and saved but not used to run a bot with queue.

If you want to perform actions on individual queue, select the required queue in the queue table.

The View and Edit actions appear in the action bar.

As a Control Room Admin Or a user with SLA calculator privilege, you can access the SLA calculator page.

This page consists of two tabs: Automation and Calculation.

The Automation tab allows you to select an active automation for SLA calculation.

The Calculation tab populates the number of work items processed and average processing time

of a work item for the selected automation.

Note:

If the queue is not being used or is in draft state, the Automation Name and Automation Status column

will show not applicable and shows the automation name if in use.

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Explanation of Web Control Room Components of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0 - Devices

Devices


As a Control Room user, some of the key activities are listed below.

-> Monitoring the list of Bot creators registered and connected to the current instance of the Control Room.

-> Creating and Monitoring a list of Bot Runners available from the current instance of the Control Room.

-> Running Bots immediately on selected Bot Runners, and

-> Scheduling Bots to run on selected Bot Runners.

Automation Anywhere Enterprises Eleven Web Control Room allows you to perform all these activities under one tab,

i.e; Devices tab


A device is categorized as a bot runner or a bot creator.

Note that devices are not created within the web control room.

It is created when a licensed user first logs into a control room from the Automation Anywhere Client.

A licensed user is one who is created in the Control Room and assigned a Bot Runner or Bot creator license.

Once a device is created, it remains configured in the environment until the user account is deleted.

Note:

Only an admin user,has access to see all the devices( Bot creators and Bot Runners) in the Control Room.

A non-admin user will not have access to view Bot creators.

When devices are not assigned to a role,they are available to the allocated to a device pool.

Device pools are a collection of Bot Runners provisioned to run bots with queues as part

of the Workload Management feature.

Remember that once a device is assigned to a device pool, it is unavailable to be assigned to roles,and

are not available to another device pool.

Note:

The system role Automation Anywhere Enterprise Pool admin must be assigned for a user to administer all devices pools

and by default the Automation Anywhere Enterprise Admin role will only see device pools where they are assigned as a device

pool owner.


Let us now look at the features of the Device page.

The device page displays all the devices registered and connected to the current instance of the control room

in the My Device tab, and displays a list of device pool available from the current instance of the Control Room

in the My device pools tab.

Additionally, you can use the device page to run and schedule bots on the selected bot runners.

The My device and my device pool tabs provides details about the devices.

This include status of the device, which is the combined status of the user and the device used by that user.

In the My device tab, the status of the device can either be:

✦ Connected - When the user is logged on to the control room.

✦ Disconnected - When the user is not logged on to the control room, or

✦ Offline - When the device user has been unregistered or disabled by the control room admin.

However,in the my device pools tab, the status of the device pool can either be:

Connected if the bot runners assigned to the device pool are logged into the control room, or

Disconnected if the assigned bot runners are not logged into the control room.

Apart from the status, the tabs also provide:

-> The machine's fully qualified server name.

-> Name of the user connected with the device.

-> Name of the device pool that the device is part of, if any, and

-> Type of license that is assigned by the control room admin to the device.

In the my device tab, you can perform actions such as:

-> Refreshing the table.

-> Running a bot with checked devices.

-> Scheduling bots to run on checked devices.

-> Exporting checked devices to a CSV file, and

-> Showing or Hiding columns in the devices list.



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Explanation of Web Control Room Components of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0 - Bots

Bots


For every user who uses the Automation Anywhere Enterprise Application, It's critical to know where all the components

related to a process automation are being stored and can be accessed.

For this purpose,Automation Anywhere provides you with features panel, bots.

This is centralized location where all the bots, workflows, reports and documents are located.

Bots panel also allows you to create and store sensitive information which are included in automation tasks in the

form of credentials.

As an admin, you can use the bots module of the control room to perform certain actions such as:

-> Managing the automation or bot files repository.

-> Scheduling or Running tasks.

-> Managing credentials and lockers.

The Bot module consists of two components. These include My Bots and Credentials.

My bot page lists down all the bot files and folders uploaded from automation anywhere enterprise client

on the control room.

Whereas, the credentials page consists of list of credentials created by a user.

My Bot page is divided into the two areas, Folders, Files and Folders.

When you click a folder from the Folders area in the My bots page, the contents of the folder

are displayed in the files and folders area based on Roles and Permissions you have.

The content displayed include:


-> The type of file.

-> The name of the folder or file.

-> The size of the file.

-> The date on which the file was last modified on the Bot Creator machine before it was uploaded to the

Control Room.

-> The date and time when the file was last updated.

-> Name of the user who last modified the file or folder.

As a Control Room Admin you can perform tasks such as


-> Moving bots and dependent files from one automation environment to another to manage organization's Bot Life cycle

Management(BLM).

-> Executing the selected bot on a selected Bot Runner. Ensure the selected Bot Runner is opened.

-> Executing a Task Bot with the work items present in queues,which will be collectively processed across

all the Bot Runners present in one or more device pools.

-> Scheduling a bot to run at a later point in time (future) or when you want the bot to run

on a periodic basis or at a specific point in time.

Credentials Page

It provides a centralized location for securely creating and storing sensitive information that is included

in automation tasks in the form of credentials.

This page consists of three tabs: My Credentials, My Lockers, and Credential Request.

-> My Credential tab lists the credentials created by a user. All users have permission to see their credentials.

-> My Lockers it displays the list of user created lockers.

Allows user with locker_Admin/Manage My locker permission to create locker.

It also allows users to view lockers created by them or the lockers they are members of.

It allows users to give permission to use credentials in the locker.


-> Credential Request

It displays the list of user-provided credential requests sent to a locker Admin and Locker owner.

Sends credential request to fill in the credential value for credential created with user-provided attribute.


Note:

All Control Room users can create credentials :

Users with:

-> Manage my lockers permission can create lockers

-> Administer all lockers can manage all the lockers in the vault.

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Explanation of Activity Component in the Web Control Room Components of Automation Anywhere Version 11.0

Activity

Numerous Bots are created everyday that needs to be executed smoothly. As a control room admin,you need to ensure

there is seamless bot execution across all devices.

For this reason,The Automation Anywhere Web Control Room provides the Activity module that shows the history,

tasks in progress and the tasks activities carried out in control room to aid in scheduling bot execution on the right devices.


Activity module consists of three components --- In-Progress, Scheduled and Historical.

In progress Tab displays a live status of all the on-going activities for the control room.

The information displayed on this page(progress tab) includes following.

-> Status of the activity.

-> Progress of the activity.

-> Time at which the activity was started.

-> Name of the bot and

-> Device on which the activity is running.
Apart from displaying the information about each activity, it allows you to perform certain actions

on the individual activity such as:

-> Viewing the details of the activity.

-> Pausing the activity.

-> Resuming the activity that was paused.

-> Stopping the activity.

Depending on your privileges,you can also perform certain actions for a set of multiple activities.
These include Following.

-> Refreshing the activities listed in the table.

-> Pausing any activity being performed on the bot.

-> Resuming any paused activity being performed on the bot.

-> Stopping all activities of the bot regardless of the stage it is in .

-> Exporting the list of items in the activity table in CSV format.

-> And moving the selected activity to history.

Note: If you have View my in-progress activity permission, you can also manage and monitor all the ongoing

automation's on the bots where you have either upload, download or delete permission.

Scheduled Tab

It displays a list of activities that have been scheduled for a later time in an activity table and

The information displayed on this page includes:

-> Type of schedule. For example, One time or recurring.

-> Next time the scheduled bot will run.

-> Name of the activity.

-> Name of the bot.

-> Description of when the activity will run.

-> Devices on which the bot will run at the scheduled time

-> Status of the scheduled activity. For example, active or inactive.

-> If you have View my scheduled bots and View my bots privileges, you can perform tasks on individual activity,

such as view,edit,activate and deactivate and delete the schedule.

This page allows you to perform tasks on a set of multiple activities such as:

-> Refresh the Scheduled page.

-> Activate or Deactivate the schedules.

-> Delete the schedules.

-> And export the selected schedules in CSV format.

Historical Tab

This tab lists the all the activities, which have finished running- successfully or unsuccessfully completed.

For example,there may be scenarios where an activity failed to run. In such cases, you can use this page to track the status

and reason for failure.

This page provides information about all the executed bots, such as:

-> Status of the activity, This may be unknown, Completed, Failed, Stopped , Or Time Out.

-> Name of the Bot Runner machine on which automation was running.

-> Name of the automation and name of the bot.

-> Name of the user under whose account that particular activity or automation was running on the device.

-> Date and time on which the activity was started and was completed.

This page allows you to perform certain task on individual items, such as:

-> View details of the activity and

-> Run the selected bot.

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Explanation of Web Control Room Components

Let's now learn about each component or module of the control room features panel in detail.

1. Dashboard

★ The primary purpose of the dashboard is to help you make business decisions and
corrective actions to fix any errors instead of going to each module and
page of the control room.

★ Note that dashboard is the first level of navigation in the features panel.

★ It provides a bird's eye view of the entire automation to the control room administrator
with an exclusive graphical insight.

★ It represents the R-P-A infrastructure in the form of meaningful visuals and charts.
This leads to informed decisions and corrective actions.

★ As a control room user with dashboard view privileges, you can view data
presented in the form of widgets.

★ These widgets can be customized to display the data in a more readable format using the
various options provided by the dashboard feature.

★ These options include filtering, sorting, applying visually appealing colors to charts,
and setting the time bar for each widget on the dashboard.

★ It consists of six components that include Home, Bots, Devices, Audit, Workload and Insight.

Home:

★ The home component of the dashboard provides information such as:

-> Number of active users.
-> Number of registered clients.
-> Number of failed tasks.
-> Number of existing bots.
-> Number of upcoming bots that have been scheduled.
-> Number of queues available.

★ The home field displays the information of total active users,status of the executed bots,
total number of bots scheduled and total number of queues and bot velocity.

★ Total Active users displays the total number of users in the control room.

★ Bot Run Status displays the status of the bots that is completed,
Failed,stopped or aborted, timed, etc., for deployed bot on registered bot runners
from the control room.

★ Total Bot Schedules displays the total number of task execution failures
for the last 2 days.

★ Total Queue displays the total number of bots.

★ CPU utilization displays the total number of bots that
have been scheduled in the control room for the next 7 days.

Bots:

★ As a user with appropriate permissions, the bots page of the dashboards module
provides you with a graphically summarized view of all the deployed bots in the
Control room.

★ This dashboard gives you the answer to the questions such as:

-> Which of my bots use the most system resources?
-> Which bots are scheduled to run?
-> Which of these bots are failed to run?
-> What percentage of bots are in progress, paused, unknown,failed and completed?

★ Bots page consists of widgets to calculate the failure score,
number of times the bot was processed, error encountered by the bot etc.

-> The Bot Heart Beat Widget provides a statistical representation
of the relationship between the failure score of a bot and respective bot.

-> A failure score is calculation of the resources utilized by the CPU memory,
and the hard disk(HDD) when you run a bot.

-> Once the failure score is calculated, it is plotted against the respective
bot and is displayed in the heart beat widget.

-> The Most Valuable Process or MVP Bots Widget displays bots based on their
maximum processing time and number of times they are run.

-> The Bot Status Widget tracks the task progression based on the status as deploy
failed, stopped, started and completed.

-> The Top Failure Reasons Widget categorizes the errors that your bots may encounter
into various groups and shows the count of each group.

-> The Upcoming Schedules Widget shows all bots that are scheduled to run, which are sorted
by the number with which they are run.

Devices:

★ Dashboard's Device page allows you to view and analyze the bot
runner machine's relevant data when bots are deployed on those devices.

★ The Device data is presented in the form of widgets which provides information
such as:

-> Failed to execute.
-> Threshold for CPU.
-> Memory and HDD utilization.
-> Device status and
-> Scheduled Automation.

-> The Failure analysis widget displays the top number of devices with most
failures for a given time period.

-> The CPU utilization widget displays the number of devices that crossed the threshold
for CPU usage for a given time period.

-> The Memory Utilization widget displays the number of devices that crossed the threshold
for memory usage for a given time range.

-> The HDD utilization widget displays the number of devices that crossed the threshold
for HDD usage for a given time range.

-> The Overall Device Status widget displays the number of devices that are connected
Or Disconnected for a given time range.

-> Finally, the Upcoming Device utilization widget displays the number of devices
on which automations are scheduled to run offline devices and MVP devices for a given time range.

Audit:

It displays various events such as the visual representation of the log.

★ The audit page of the dashboard feature allows you to view snapshot of audit information
of activities performed in the control room and client.

-> The Events distribution by activity type widget provides a chart-based
view of activities filtered on the action type column in the audit log page
for a specific time period.

-> The Activity Audit trail by host machine type widget provides a chart-based
view of activities filtered on the source column in the audit log page
for a specific time period.

-> The Activity Audit trail by Username widget provides a chart-based
view of activities filtered on the Action taken by column in the audit log page
for a specific time period.

-> The Failed Activity Log by Username widget provides a chart-based
view of activities filtered on the Action taken by, Action type, and
source column in the audit log page for a specific time period.

Workload:

-> In the Dashboard's work load page you can view the status of the device.

It displays the workload status of device pools, queues and work items in the workload Executive Dashboard and or
Operation manager's dashboard.

The Executive Dashboard allows you to monitor the progress of the queues for which you are the owner or the consumer.

-> Device Pools by Backlog widget allows you to view the device pools by backlog.

It also allows you to adjust device pool size or reorder the automation's if required.

Device Pool backlog is measured in the number of hours it takes to complete the existing work items
from all automation's in that pool.


->Queue's by time to complete widget, you can view the list of queues ordered by time to complete.

This allows you to pause or change the priorities of the automation's if required.

Time to complete is measured in the number of hours it takes to complete the existing work items.

->Queue Status widget, you can view the list of queues that were processed in the last n days.

This allows you to monitor the status or progress of the workload items.

This statuses displayed for work items of each queue are active. successful, unsuccessful, Ready to run,

on hold and data error.



->Queue's with average processing time widget you can view the list of queues

that were processed in the last n days with average processing time.

This allows you to understand if there is any issue with the processing of these work items.

The list of queues are shown on the basis of the average processing time for a work item

with a daily average.


The Operation Manager's Dashboard allows you to monitor the queues for which you are the owner,

consumer or participant.

-> Device Pools by FTE widget, you can view the pools in the descending order of full time equivalent.

It allows you to measure the value of each pool in terms of the equivalent manual effort required

to process the same work item.

-> Pools by decreasing error rate widget, you can view the list of pools ordered by the decreasing error rate.

This error rate is measured by the number of work items failed divided by the number of work items

processed from that pool. It gives a quick view of the pools that require attention.


-> Device Pools by Backlog widget allows you to view the device pools by backlog.

It also allows you to adjust device pool size or reorder the automation's if required.

Device Pool backlog is measured in the number of hours it takes to complete the existing work items
from all automation's in that pool.

-> Device Pools by Average Time Widget, you can view the list of queues that were processed

in the last n days with average wait time. The wait time is calculated by subtracting processing start time

automation start or resume time. This allows you to decide whether to increase priority or pool size to meet

business needs as required.

Note:- I will be updating this blog frequently.✍

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Introduction to Automation Anywhere Enterprise v 11.0 Web Control Room

* Automation Anywhere Enterprise v 11.0 Web Control Room is the brains of the entire operation.

* The heart beat of Automation Anywhere Enterprise RPA architecture is the Control Room.

The Control room enables you to carry out multiple tasks with ease.

You Can:

→ View task relevant activities using the Dashboard.

→ View the History,tasks in progress and tasks and
activities carried out in control room using the Activity page.

-> Manage the automation(bot) files repository and schedule or run tasks
using the Bots page.

-> View and manage the statuses of devices using Device page.

-> Manage various work items using Workload management page.

-> View recent activities of users and administrators using the Audit Log page.

-> Create new and manage existing roles and users (client and administrator)
using the Administrator page.

** The interface of control room gives you several options to manage and monitor the
different components of your R-P-A infrastructure.

☞ These include the Control Room left navigation pane which holds the components
or modules of Control Room.
The components that can be viewed differ from user to user depending upon
the assigned roles, permissions and rights.

☞ Next, details pane is the second level of navigation, which displays a detailed
list of sub-commands of the page you are on.

☞ For example, the detail list of dashboard include home,bot,devices,audit, work load
and insights.

☞ Finally your profile pane allows you to make changes to your profile.
This include changing of your password and editing your personal details
such as first name,last name and email address.

** The seven components of Control Room provide loads of benefits.
Some of them include:

☞ Simplified and improved monitoring and administration of large,multi-site
complex,automation infrastructure, done using the web-based control room.

☞ Access and Manage tasks,clients and users from anywhere, anytime.

☞ Monitor task progress and status to enforce internal compliance regulations, as well
as prevent tampering with mission critical processes.

☞ Facilitate an environment for increased collaboration to optimize productivity.

☞ Accommodate scaling of multiple users and client environments or Machines.

☞ Enable an environment to enforce controlled edits using S-V-N.

☞ Facilitate uploading and downloading of meta bots and meta bot enabled tasks.

☞ Facilitate uploading and downloading of IQ bots with vision skills.

☞ Provide Role based access to credentials, and

☞ Provide responsive web design to run the application in multiple devices.

The detailed explanation of components will be displayed in next page.


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Knowledge Check of Bot Insight

1.Bot Insight enables the operations organization to discover which two of the following?

Ans: Operational Insights and Business Insights.

2. Ravi is using Bot Insight and wants to analyze the data in it. Which role should she use?

Ans: Analytics Consumers

3. Ajay wants to know the basic use of Bot Insight. Which of these options does the Bot Insight product deliver?

Ans: Operational Intelligence

4. Which role allows the user to create copies of the dashboard in the Bot Insight environment?

Ans: Analytics Expert

5. When Analytics is enabled for a Task bot, the values of variables marked as "Tagged for Analytics" can be viewed
by clicking on the Analyze tab in the Workbench to view __ ?

Ans: Auto-generated Dashboards

6. Ravi is using Bot Insight and wants to confirm the data types
in the Data Profile tab. Which role should she be assigned?

Ans: Analytics Expert

7. To enable a Task bot to generate an operational dashboard,
the following steps should be completed in order within a Bot Creator client:

Ans: Enable Analytics->Tag Variables->Run Bot->Analyze the Default Dashboard

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Introduction to Operational Analytics in Automation Anywhere

It could be great if you can get insights to:

→ Which of your bots use the most system resources, which bots are scheduled to run,
which of these bots are failed to run, and what percentage of bots are in progress,
paused,unknown and completed?

→ Automation Anywhere brings to you real-time operational analytics to help operational managers and
practitioners to constantly monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of their digital workforce, and
easily quantify processes operational performance on demand.

In Automation Anywhere Enterprise 11 the operational analytics is integrated within the web control room
and made free for the users.

The operational related information about the bot can be accessed from the Bots and Audit pages
of the dashboard module.

The Bots page provides a graphically summarized view of all the deployed bots in the control room.

It Consists of widgets such as:

→ Bot Heartbeat widget that provides a statistical representation of the relationship
between the failure score of a bot and respective bot.

→ MVP Bots widget that displays bots based on their maximum processing time and
the number of times they are run.

→ Bot Status widget that tracks the task progression based on the status:
Deployed failed,Stopped, Started, Failed, Completed.

→ Top Failure Reasons widget that categorizes the errors that your bots
may encounter into various groups and shows the count of each group.

The Audit page allows a control room user with view dashboards permission
to view a snapshot of audit information as processed in the control room.

→ It allows you to monitor various events such as a highest percentage of a
particular activity being performed based on either username or host machine type,
and a visual representation of a failure log.


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Example of Business Analytics

First Example

A Sales manager needs to analysis the sale and storage cost of their products across many countries.
Based on the analysis, they need to plan a new strategy to improve the sales and
revenue in countries where the sale is low.

Solution

Business Analytics of Bot Insight can be used create cohesive reports
about the sales of various product and its storage cost in various country.


Process Step Flow

Create a Bot to read data from the Reconciliation CSV file
↓
Tag the data variables of interest in Bot
↓
Log the data for the tagged variables
↓
Auto-build dashboards to help analyse Bot business data
↓
Customize the dashboard to make the report readily consumable


Benefits of using this command

With Business Analytics, you can:

☞ Quantify business value added by Bots,
☞ Identify new opportunities from business insights,
☞ Quickly prototype, measure and showcase new RPA candidates (that is Bots), and
☞ Scale up automations and improve business process efficiency.

Note:

☞ Before generating the analytics dashboard for the data processed by the Bot,
it is mandatory to perform the following steps. If any one step is not performed,
the “Unable to generate Dashboard” message is displayed when Bot Insight is launched.

☞ Tag the variables of interest, Log the task to enable the data for analytics and
Execute the Bot.

☞ In order to customize the system generated dashboard, you must login as Business Analytics Expert user.

I will be posting more examples as soon as possible.

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Business Analytics in Automation Anywhere

Introduction to Business Analytics

☞ How Powerful would it be if you could instantly alert your CFO to the total daily, weekly,
monthly and quarterly cost savings delivered by your digital members in an end-to-end order-to-cash process?

☞ Automation Anywhere brings to you hands-free business analytics at the click of the mouse.
Simply tag the variables of interest and watch the analytics expert do the rest.

☞ It's Complete turnkey RPA analytics solution that requires no integration and
everything is built-in(native) and ready right out of the box.

☞ Business Analytics can be performed by Automation Anywhere's Bot Insight product,
which is a web based application.

☞ Transnational Analytics enables you to quantify business value added by bots and identify
new opportunities from business insights.
This analysis is used by operational business executives.

Now take a look how business analytics works

☞ First you need to tag the data variables and then log the data for these variables.

☞ After tagging and logging the data and click on the analyze tab. This will auto-build
the task dashboard template in bot insight site's configure tab.

☞ Once the dashboard is generated,you need to save and publish the dashboard
in order to see the cumulative data.

☞ Then, upload the bot to the control room for execution.

☞ After publishing the dashboard uploading task to the control room,
execute the bot on bot runner device in the control room.

☞ The data will be analyzed if execution happens locally in the bot-runner client
or from control room.


Bot Insight has the feature to provide access based on roles assigned.
These roles include Analytics Expert,Analytics Consumer,Control Room Admin.

Analytics Expert

☞ This role allows the user to tag the variables of the bots on client machine
and customize, create copies of the dashboard in the bot insight environment.

Analytics Consumer

☞ This role allows the user to have access only to published dashboard and
to analyze the data in the bot insight.

Control Room Admin

☞ This role allows the user to assign the other two roles to a new user.

Based on the roles assigned,the interface of Bot Insight differs.

☞ A user with Analytics expert role can view two tabs in the bot insight tool.


1. Dashboard

It provides the customizable reports that can be published to be viewed by analytics consumers.
The data filter slider at the bottom can be used to interactively analyze the data over a chosen
time frame for the entire dashboard.

2. Data Profile

It allows you to inspect the data profile against each variable that was marked for analytics
within the task. It provides compete description of the tagged variable along with the statistical information.

An Analytics Expert can use the various options provided by the tool to customize the chart widget.
The options include:

☞ Filters that allows you to sift the data plotted on the chart.

☞ Sort & Limit that allows you to sort and restrict data displayed.

☞ Color Settings that allows you to change the color palette of the chart.

☞ Export that allows you to export the information displayed on the chart
to different formats.

☞ Chart Style that allows you to change the chart type,
if it is not appealing enough and needs to be changed.

☞ Time Bar that allows you to change the time line attribute against which the
information is displayed.

Analytics Expert can also do the following things

☞ Share the generated dashboard or reports via email.

☞ Bookmark the customized dashboard.

☞ Save the modified system generated dashboard.

☞ Publish system generated and customized dashboards, and

☞ Compare customized dashboards in the configure section.

A user with Analytics consumer role can only view the <>Dashboard tab that displays the reports
that are published by an analytics expert

A user with Analytics consumer role can only view the <>Dashboard tab
that provides a customizable reports that are published by analytics experts

A user with Analytics Consumer role can do the following

☞ Share reports via email.

☞ Bookmark the dashboards, and

☞ Compare dashboards.

Note:- I will be updating this blog frequently.✍

Thank you for visiting this blog☕️

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