Tutorial: Migration to Automation 360 Cloud

  • 9 March 2022
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Automation 360 delivers a browser-based, intuitive experience for business users and developers to quickly automate tasks and build automations. Automation 360 provides both On-Premises and Cloud deployment options and is the first platform that provides RPA-as-a-Service as an automation solution. It enables users to automate applications across different infrastructures and industries such as banking, telecommunications, and business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations to name a few. There are several migration options for users coming from Automation Anywhere v10/v11 looking to move to Automation 360. One of those available options (and Micah's personal favorite) is to migrate from an on-prem v10/v11 Automation Anywhere Enterprise environment to an Automation 360 cloud implementation.

The tutorial above is designed to be a resource to help guide you along your journey of performing a successful migration to Automation 360 Cloud. If you're interested in migrating to an Automation 360 on-prem implementation, a similar tutorial is available to guide you through that migration process as well.

For the purposes of simplicity, the cloud migration process is broken down systematically below with references to documentation for additional details to help with each step. Additionally, note that this tutorial covers performing only a migration of the Control Room from Enterprise v10/v11 to Automation 360. There is a secondary video focused on using the Bot Migration Wizard from within the Automation 360 Control Room to migrate your bots from atmx files to Automation 360 compatible bots (as this bot-migration process is the same regardless of using Automation 360 on-prem or cloud).

So let's jump into the steps for performing a migration from Automation Anywhere Enterprise v10/v11 to Automation 360 Cloud!

Verify Migration Compatibility

In this step of the process, we need to do a sanity check to ensure that the version of Enterprise v10/v11 that you intend to migrate FROM is certified for migration to Automation 360. The referenced documentation is updated with each Automation 360 release, so be sure to check back regularly if you're waiting for support for a particular Control Room version. Alternatively, consider using the Automation Anywhere Product Downloads page to upgrade your v10/v11 Control Room to a version compatible with Automation 360 Migrations.

Installing and Running the Bot Scanner Utility

The Bot Scanner Utility is a lightweight application that is used to scan your bot repository in preparation for migration to Automation 360. As a result of the repository scan, the Bot Scanner Utility will generate an HTML file that contains an analysis of the scanned Automation Anywhere Enterprise v10/v11 bots - providing insights into which bots are eligible for migration, which have special notes around the migration process, and which bots may need modifications either before/after the migration to Automation 360. The recommended rule of thumb is that if your "bots ready for migration" percentage is > 90%, you may safely proceed with your migration - acknowledging that certain identified bots may need some work before/after migration.

If your % of "ready to migrate" bots is below 90%, take a look at the "Bots that can't be migrated now" tab to understand the specific reason that certain bots are ineligible to be auto-migrated. It could be something as simple as a dependency on an un-used Bot Store metabot, or something that could be easily adjusted to make the bots eligible for an auto-migration.

Requesting a Migration License and Installing the Cloud Migration Utility

Once you've verified that you're ready to start the migration process, request your cloud migration license to initiate the process of provisioning your Automation 360 Cloud environment. Migration is free, though you do need to request a license for the migration process.

After kicking off your migration request, head over to the Automation Anywhere Downloads Center and download the Cloud Migration Utility. The Automation Anywhere Cloud Migration Utility enables you to upload all of your Enterprise 10 or Enterprise 11 data to your newly provisioned Automation Anywhere Cloud environment with minimal effort required on your end. Users, Roles, Bots, Schedules, and even Credentials will all transfer over to your new Automation 360 Cloud Control Room after using this utility.

The installation of the Cloud Migration Utility is admittedly pretty boring if you've ever installed any software...ever. There are a couple of dependencies that may need to be installed, but besides that, it's mostly a Next> Next> Next> OK type of install.

Running the Cloud Migration Utility

It's likely that if you're going through this guide, you didn't also go through the Automation 360 On-Prem migration tutorial. If you did, you've clearly seen some differences in the process...if you didn't: Spoiler Alert - the cloud migration is significantly easier than a migration to Automation 360 On-Prem. How so? Because of this Cloud Migration Utility.

Now that the Cloud Migration Utility has been installed, it's time to actually run it. Launch the Cloud Migration Utility as an admin to start the process of running/migrating your environment. Assuming you've installed and are running this migration utility from your Control Room, the application will do its best to identify values like the installation path, repository path, hostname, etc. Verify all of these values to make sure that the data is correct. You can always go look in the Control Room interface if you need to triple-check how any of these values are set.

Additionally, you'll need to review/fill in the details related to how your Control Room connects to the Control Room Database, and the authentication method used. Again, if you need to check any of this, consider launching SQL Server Management Studio to validate you can access your Control Room DB with the credentials/approach provided.

With all of those details filled in, you'll be taken to a screen prompting for your migration code. The migration code is a GUID/token value sent to the Automation Anywhere account that was used for provisioning your new Automation 360 Cloud Control Room. It's a 686 character string, so it's hard to miss - and is valid for 30 days after the date it was sent.

Once your code has been validated in the Cloud Migration Utility, the utility will scan your Control Room Database and Control Room repository to determine the size of the migration. Once complete, you're ready to hit Next and let the Migration Utility do its work - migrating your Database, Dashboard Data, and Repository to your Automation 360 Cloud environment.

The total processing time obviously varies quite a bit based on the size of your Control Room bot repository and Database. Plan to run this utility when your Control Room is likely to have some downtime during an evening or weekend just to be safe. When completed, the Cloud Migration Utility will indicate that all data has successfully been migrated, and that you should expect an email with a link/login credentials once your new Automation 360 Control Room is ready.

Conclusion

Automation 360 is a fully browser-based RPA platform from Automation Anywhere... with features that extend well beyond the capabilities of Automation Anywhere Enterprise v10 or v11. Migration can admittedly be a stressful time no matter the product, platform, or architecture - but with a plan in place and the documentation needed, it's a much smoother and more enjoyable process. Plus - think of all the cool new Automation 360 packages you'll be able to use once you migrate!


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