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Buddies

Overview​

Two types of Buddies, Assistant and Smart, could execute your automation. Buddies always run in the context of a specific user identity. Hence, access to the Control Room's resources depends on access to the associated user identity. A user gets required access to perform certain operations through one or multiple roles. For more information, refer to Automation Roles.

Context Menu Options​

To manage your Buddies, you must have appropriate permissions for this entity to access and perform operations on the Buddies page.

Context Menu OptionDescription
ViewView all registered Assistant and Smart buddies
EditView and modify buddy details
DisableYou can disable the Buddy by clicking on this option
DeleteDelete a buddy
AuditYou can view the Audit Logs for each Buddy by clicking the Audit option on the Buddies page.

Assistant Buddies​

Assistant buddies impersonate real users, and they run under real user context. You can manage your Organization's assistant buddies from the Buddies > Assistant page.

Registering Assistant Buddy​

Assistant Buddy gets registered into the Control Room automatically on its first connection to the Control Room. Assistant Buddies are node-locked, and the machine key sent during the registration process will bind the Assistant Buddy to a specific user and the machine associated with that user.

note

The user should have the Assistant Buddy application license to register a buddy successfully. For more information on how to assign a license to the user, please refer: Assigning Licences

Deleting an Assistant Buddy​

On Buddies > Assistant page, click on Context-Menu > Delete to delete an assistant buddy.

Note: Deletion of an Assistant Buddy will release its license to the pool so that you can assign it to another user

Smart Buddies​

Smart buddies typically run under the virtual user's context. Virtual users are special user accounts dedicated to specific applications or Smart Stations.

You can manage your Organization's smart buddies from the Buddies > Smart page.

Registering Smart Buddy​

You can add or register a new Smart Buddy from Buddies > Smart page:

  • Click on Toolbar-Menu > Add button

  • Select the automation user to be associated with this Buddy

    Note: For more information on how to create an automation user, please refer: Adding Users Note: For more information on how to assign a license to the user, please refer: Assigning Licences

  • Type in a name for this Buddy

  • Assign a Smart Station to this buddy through Station Name field

  • Type in Domain Name to be used by this Buddy to login into the smart station

  • Type in Domain User to be used by this Buddy to log into the smart station

  • Type in Domain Password to be used by this Buddy to log into the smart station

    Note: Please refer to Setting User Credential for more information.

  • Provide a short description for this Buddy inside the Description field

  • Click on the Add button

Setting User Credentials for Smart Buddy​

Smart Buddy is associated with a specific user. This user might be a domain user or a local computer user. Smart Buddy utilizes the user session to run the automation. Hence, it is mandatory to provide the domain name and user name for our Smart Buddy to recognize the user session under which it has to run.

Password​

Smart Buddy will utilize the password only if the specified user session is unavailable. Smart Buddy will log in with the specified domain credentials and run the automation in this case.

If a password is not specified, Smart Buddy can run the automation only if the user session is already available.

Standalone Computer User​

In the case of a local computer user, you can get the domain name and the user name by following the steps below:

  1. Run Windows Powershell application in Administrator mode
  2. On the command prompt, type in the following command and press the \<Enter> key:

    Get-Process -Name Explorer -IncludeUserName

  1. Under the UserName column, copy the text before \ to the domain name field of Smart Buddy
  2. Under the UserName column, copy the text after \ to the user name field of Smart Buddy

Disabling a Smart Buddy​

Disabling a smart buddy will turn off all the schedules or triggers associated with this Buddy and will turn off job executions by this Buddy. You can disable a smart buddy by following the steps below:

  • On Smart Buddies page, select and click on Context-Menu > Disable option
  • Confirm your operation by clicking on the Yes button
note

You can enable a smart buddy by selecting the Buddy and clicking on Context-Menu > Enable option.

Deleting a Smart Buddy​

On Buddies > Smart page, click on Context-Menu > Delete to delete a smart buddy.

note

Deletion of a Smart Buddy will release its license to the pool so that you can assign it to another user.