RPA Hub architecture

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated August 1, 2024
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of RPA Hub Architecture

    The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub architecture enables ServiceNow customers to integrate and manage robotic automation efficiently within their environments. This architecture includes various components that ensure seamless communication between the ServiceNow instance and customer environments.

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    Key Features

    • RPA Desktop Design Studio: The development environment where automation is designed and tested before publication.
    • Unattended Robot: Operates independently on Windows machines or Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs) to execute automation without human intervention.
    • Attended Robot: Works alongside users on desktops to enhance process efficiency.
    • Unattended Robot Login Agent: A tool that facilitates self-login to the robot machine when unattended processes are triggered.
    • RPA Hub Application: A scoped application in ServiceNow for managing robots, packages, and bot processes.
    • Plugin Framework: Plugins are essential for building automation and are delivered via the Content Delivery Network (CDN).
    • Queues: Structured data storage for managing task distribution to robots.

    Key Outcomes

    By leveraging the RPA Hub architecture, ServiceNow customers can expect to automate processes effectively, enhance operational efficiency, and ensure controlled task distribution among robots. The RPA Hub serves as a centralized control center, allowing for streamlined management of automation tasks while maintaining security through access control lists (ACLs).

    Learn about the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub architecture.

    The following diagram shows how the ServiceNow instance communicates with the customer environment.

    Figure 1. High-level architecture of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub application
    High-level architecture of the Robotic Process Automation Hub application.
    Various components make up the architecture of the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub application:
    • RPA Desktop Design Studio, Unattended Robot, and Attended Robot are the three applications that you install to form the customer environment.
    • The Unattended Robot Login Agent is a software agent that you install on a Windows machine with Unattended Robot. You can use this application to unlock or to perform a self-login to the robot machine when an unattended bot process is triggered.
    • Unattended robots work independently without any human intervention. They are installed on Windows machines or Virtual Desktop Infrastructures (VDIs). For example, to create an unattended robot, you need to mention the machine name on which the robot is installed on. The automation is executed from here.
    • Attended robots work along with humans to improve the efficiency of a bot process. They are installed on user desktops.
    • After the automation is built in the RPA Desktop Design Studio, a developer tests it locally and then publishes it to the ServiceNow® RPA Hub instance for further orchestration.
    • RPA Hub is a scoped application in the ServiceNow instance. It is the command and control center for managing the robots, packages, and bot processes. For more information about these terms, see Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Hub glossary.
    • The automation that is uploaded from the RPA Desktop Design Studio resides under the packages section, which also acts as a build repository.
    • You can install the RPA Hub application and the plugins from the ServiceNow Store. The ServiceNow Store checks the Content Delivery Network (CDN) for updates. RPA plugins form the building blocks that are used to create an automation. The plugin files are delivered via the CDN application to RPA Desktop Design Studio, Unattended Robot, and Attended Robot. The plugin inventory is maintained inside the RPA plugin.
    • In a bot process record, you define the sequence of actions that a robot follows to accomplish a specific task, along with the schedule. This information is passed to the robots. When the automation is triggered, the automation executes.
    • In the RPA Hub application, additional capabilities, like the queue. A queue is a structured data storage mechanism, used for managing and controlling the distribution of tasks, work items, or cases to different robots for processing.
    • The entire scoped application is safeguarded with access control lists (ACLs).