Question about runtimes

Help Orchestrator
1

In the UiPath Academy quiz in the Orchestrator topic, there is this question:

Which of the following sets of jobs can be run simultaneously using a pool of 4 machines connected using the same machine template having 2 runtimes?

and the two correct answers are:

  • 5 jobs created using a background process.

  • 3 jobs created using a foreground process and 5 jobs created using a background process.

Now, I thought the word runtime meant how many foreground processes can run simultaneously. If there are TWO runtime licenses, doesn’t that mean that only 2 foreground processes can run at the same time? Or did I miss something?

Also, just for clarity, is it correct that a background process does NOT count against a runtime license? So, you could theoretically have unlimited background processes running simultaneously?

2

In a scenario where you have a pool of 4 machines each with 2 runtimes:

Foreground processes: You can run 2 foreground processes per machine, totaling up to 8 foreground processes across the 4 machines.

Background processes: Each runtime can handle up to 5 background processes, so with 2 runtimes per machine, you could theoretically run up to 10 background processes per machine, totaling up to 40 background processes across the 4 machines.
To answer the questions directly:

Yes, with 2 runtime licenses, only 2 foreground processes can run simultaneously on a machine.

A background process does not count against a runtime license in the same way. While there is a limit to the total number of background processes per runtime, this limit is generally higher than that for foreground processes, allowing for multiple background processes to run concurrently. Also number of the background process run depends on the machine hardware.

3

Great reply Ashok sir, I have a further but basic question, correct me if I am wrong

Even though we are running 5 background process it should have licenses right?

If we run multiple bots on the single machine then they will run sequentially (one after the other , and putting the next job in queue).

4

@Anirudh_Tugawe,

No, background process jobs will not be queued they will execute simultaneously.

5

it means we must run them from Robot and then Orchestrator right?

6

You can run background processes simultaneously from both UiPath Assistant and Orchestrator.

Multiple background processes can run in parallel on the same machine. This is possible even if there is already one foreground process running.

However, to run background processes simultaneously, the same machine will be utilized, and they will run together unless there’s a specific restriction on the unattended robots used

7

Has someone tested this recently?

I used to think unattended robots could run a foreground and background process at the same time, but it turns out thats only attended robots and possibly something that has changed over the years.
Now at least I am pretty certain if a foreground process is running no background processes can run on that runtime.

I am not confident any more information about the background processes is accurate and think its worth one of us perhaps validating this assumption?

I’ll try doing it later if I have time.