Pega RPA Upgrade 22 Questions

General
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1

We are trying to upgrade from Pega Robotic Automation 19.1 to the new version 22.1.

In our current version of Robot Manager 8.7.2, we are using Package Server, and it is Live.

We did the following so far:

  1. Installed v22.1.21 of Robot Studio
  2. Took the Automation Solution which was developed in the v19 of Robot Studio, and
  3. Upgraded/Migrated the v19 solution to v22.
  4. We are now looking to deploy the upgraded solution to Robot Manager of DEV.

q1)

What are the settings changes we need to do in the StudioConfig.xml of the Robot Studio?

q2)
Do we need to upgrade the Robot Runtime version as well for the DEV Robots to v22 ? or do we need to upgrade the platform ? currently we are in 8.7.4 with RM version at 8.8.

Can the current version of runtime be used to support both 19.1 and 22.1 packages at the same time?

How do we get the package that is currently in our package server, to be deployed to the new pega cloud repository?

2

@HarikrishnanV9629

  1. In the StudioConfig.xml (this is only for 19.1), you need to change the PackageServer line to set UserRobotManagerPckageServer to true as follows; .
    • It does not matter what you have in the baseUrl setting if the former setting is true.
  2. Yes. Any packages you are deploying in 22.1 will only be able to be loaded by 22.1 Runtime.
  3. Pega 8.7 does support the repository, so it is the minimum version required to support 22.1. We do suggest upgrading however as new features are available when using the latest version of the Pega Platform and Robot Manager.
  4. No. Runtime must match the version of Studio used to deploy the package.
  5. You cannot simply move the files. We suggest you deploy your packages into the repository.

Excellent questions. Please let me know if you have any follow ups.

3

@ThomasSasnett Thank you for all the answers…

Some follow-up questions if you could please help throw some light on:

Do we always have to keep matching the runtime version with that of the latest Studio version?

If I have packages deployed using the latest version Studio 22.1.22, then, would it NOT work if I have the runtime as one version lower at 22.1.21?

With the 19 version, the Studio only needed to be upgraded, and the runtime could be kept as it is, because it would create these new folders inside the *C:\Program Files (x86)\Pegasystems\Pega Robot Runtime\cache* directory that carries the files of the latest versions as and when Studio keeps getting upgraded.

How do we deploy the old packages that are in the Package server (IIS) into the new Pega cloud repository? We are plannig to make use of the existing pegcloudcustomeroot repository and configure it under Dev studio > App Settings.. Is there a utility to be used to deploy the packages from IIS to this pega cloud repository?

thanks,

Hari

4

@HarikrishnanV9629

  1. It does seem like you are using the Synch Server with some of the details you’ve mentioned in your sub-questions. If you are, this will continue to work in 22, although you will need a new base install as Synch server cannot upgrade a 19.1 machine to 22.1 as I understand it. It can synch your runtime, however. If you are using Studio 22.1.22 and Runtime is currently at 22.1.21, when a new package gets deployed, Runtime will update to 22.1.22 to load the package. If I misunderstood and you are not using Synch server, then you are incorrect about 19.1. Runtime must always match the version of Studio the package was created in.
  2. You cannot really move the packages from the synch server to the repo. We suggest you re-deploy them from Studio. You might consider making this change as you upgrade each package to 22.1, so as to have a clean starting point.
5

@ThomasSasnett

The Pega Synch Server is only installed in our Automation Server VM (which is also our Package server)

Following versions are installed there:

Pega Sync Server 3.1.9
Pega Pkg Srvr 3.1.3

In all of our Runtime VMs, we have only these installed:

Pega Robot Runtime 19.1.34
Pega Synchronization Engine 3.1.9
Pega RPA Service 3.1.10
Pega Native Foundation 10.1.7.1909
Pega Browser Extension (PBE) 3.1.18

So, once we upgrade the runtime suite to that of v22, are we not totally moving away from using the on-premise package server again?

Are you suggesting that we would still need to keep the Automation Server, for the old version installs to synch to all the runtime VMs?

And, to avoid that, what base installs you think would we need to have? Can the 19.1 and 22.1 runtimes co-exist though?

thanks,

Hari

6

@HarikrishnanV9629

  1. 22.1 does not support the on-premise package server. You must use a repository within Pega Robot Manager.
  2. If you wish to keep using 19.1 Runtime, it is best to keep your old infrastructure available until it can be decommissioned when you have upgraded to 22.1. You may wish to have an Automation server to run your Synchronization Server and STS (if you are using it for SSO), but you no longer need the Package Server.
  3. Runtime 19.1 and 22.1 should not be installed on the same machine. You can have both versions of Studio however to facilitate the upgrade process. If you are using Synch Server, you need to set its base versions to that of 22.1 once you have switched. On your Runtime machines, you will need to remove 19.1 and perform an install of 22.1. After that, the Synch Server can keep your machines on 22.1 in synch with whatever version of Runtime the package they are loading requires.
7

@ThomasSasnett Hi Thomas, the Synch Server version we have is 3.1.9.

Do you think it needs to be updated as well, in order for it to support Runtime 22.1? The issue we are looking at is that it is the same Synch Server for all dev, tst, prd envs.

We updated the base install in DEV runtime to v22, and is now going to deploy the upgraded package from the v22 studio to DEV.

8

@HarikrishnanV9629 You should use the latest server component from the 22.1 installation media. Those support 19.1 as well as 22.1. The older component do not support 22.1.

Here are all the relevant links you might need that give much better details.

Running Runtime 19.1 and 22.1 in the same implementation

https://docs.pega.com/bundle/robotic-automation-221/page/robotic-automation/installation/migrate-solutions.html

https://docs.pega.com/bundle/robotic-automation-221/page/robotic-automation/installation/pega-rpa-run-191-and-221.html

9

@ThomasSasnett thank you, Thomas.