Configure machine/VM for unattended robot

Help Robot
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Hi,
A client has a process that uses a number of different applications to collate end of month information. The plan is to schedule this via an unattended robot on a separate VM. I just wanted to check that on the separate VM I will need the Robot Service so I can connect it to Orchestrator.
Also, the client will need to install the relevant applications on the VM that are used as part of the workflow like Excel, etc.
Thanks in advance.

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Hey @sbell79

I am trying to understand the whole scenario

How are they currently doing the process?
when collecting data from different applications, how are they accessing those applications, are they web based applications?
and also why do you need a separate VM for the bot.

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Hey @SenzoD,

I don’t want to go into all the process but it uses a number of excel files sometimes 5 or more for each department/cost center. It will access various tabs on these excel files during the workflow to gather figures for end of month calculation and forecasting. They are not web based applications.
Maybe a separate VM is hasty as I guess this could be ran on the user’s machine out of hours, is that what you mean?
Happy for your thoughts on how to deploy such a workflow in unattended fashion.
Thanks.

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@sbell79 alright cool, i dont know the reasons for a VM but it really sounds like extra work. the nice thing about excel is the entire automation process can happen in the background. Back to your question about installing windows apps eg excel on a VM, i would say yes, i think you would need to install excel or windows office pack.

I am not an expert in excel but there are excel activities in UiPath that works in the background and will work even if you do not have excel installed, i can share you a link to that if you need it. Again since the bot is unattended and can work after hours i would say let it work on a users machine, the bot can work on a locked machine or a computer on sleep mode, just as long as it will have its folders where it saves the files and the user should not be using that folder unless if they are checking the files or something.

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@SenzoD, thanks for your quick replies - really appreciated.

Yes please share the link to the excel activities.

Thanks again for your help!

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@sbell79

The activities grouped under the System chapter can be executed even if Microsoft Excel is not installed on the machine, whereas the ones under the App Integration chapter require the app on the machine on which they run.

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