Manual: Advanced Installation Experience

This page explains how to use Automation Suite's cluster_config.json configuration file.

The cluster_config.json file defines the parameters, settings, and preferences applied to the UiPath products deployed via Automation Suite. You need to update this file if you want to change defaults and use any advanced configuration for your cluster.

To edit cluster_config.json, you can use either:

• a Linux text editor, such as vi or GNU nano, directly on the Linux machine via SSH (e.g., command: vi cluster_config.json);
• your favorite text editor and then copy paste the file on the machine.

The cluster_config.json file allows you to configure the UiPath products you want to deploy. There are two types of UiPath products:

• mandatory products: these are installed by default and do not have the enabled flag available on them;
• optional products: these are not required to complete the install. However, be aware that products may have dependencies. Please see Product dependencies for more details on this.

To enable or disable a product via the cluster_config.json file, use true or false for the enabled flag.

Cluster_config.json Sample

{
  "fqdn": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "fixed_rke_address": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "multinode": "false",
  "admin_username": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "admin_password": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "profile": "ha",
  "telemetry_optout": "true",
  "rke_token": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "server_certificate": {
    "ca_cert_file": "/absolute/path/to/rootCA.crt",
    "tls_cert_file": "/absolute/path/to/server.crt",
    "tls_key_file": "/absolute/path/to/server.key"
  },
  "infra": {
    "docker_registry": {
      "username": "PLACEHOLDER",
      "password": "PLACEHOLDER"
    },
    "custom_dns_resolver": "/path/to/custom-resolv.conf"
  },
  "identity_certificate": {
    "token_signing_cert_file": "/absolute/path/to/identity.pfx",
    "token_signing_cert_pass": ""
  },
  "sql": {
    "server_url": "PLACEHOLDER",
    "username": "PLACEHOLDER",
    "password": "PLACEHOLDER",
    "port": "PLACEHOLDER",
    "create_db": "PLACEHOLDER"
  },
  "sql_connection_string_template": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "sql_connection_string_template_jdbc": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "sql_connection_string_template_odbc": "PLACEHOLDER",
  "orchestrator": {
    "testautomation": {
      "enabled": true
    },
    "updateserver": {
      "enabled": true
    }
  },
  "aicenter": {
    "enabled": true,
    "sql_connection_str": "PLACEHOLDER"
  },
  "documentunderstanding": {
    "enabled": true,
    "datamanager": {
      "sql_connection_str": "PLACEHOLDER"
    },
    "handwriting": {
      "enabled": true,
      "max_cpu_per_pod": 2
    }
  },
  "insights": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "test_manager": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "automation_ops": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "automation_hub": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "apps": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "action_center": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "task_mining": {
    "enabled": true
  },
  "dataservice": {
    "enabled": true
  }
}

General configuration

Mandatory parameters	Description
fqdn	The load balancer (multi-node HA-ready production mode) or machine (single-node evaluation mode) domain name.
fixed_rke_address	Fixed address used to load balance node registration and kube API requests. This should be fqdn if load balancer is configured as recommended. Otherwise FQDN of 1st Server Node. Refer to Configuring the load balancer. Can be the IP/FQDN of the first rke2 server in your setup.
multinode	Set to true when choosing a multi-node HA-ready production profile. The value of this flag is set automatically by the interactive install wizard. It is used for internal purposes only and should not be modified manually.
admin_username	The username that you would like to set as admin (such as: admin ) for the host organization.
admin_password	The host admin password to be set.
rke_token	Use a newly generated GUID here. This is a pre-shared, cluster-specific secret. It is needed for all the nodes joining the cluster.
profile	Sets the profile of the installation. The available profiles are: default: single-node evaluation profile. ha: multi-node HA-ready production profile. The value of this flag is set automatically by the interactive install wizard. It is used for internal purposes only and should not be modified manually.
infra.docker_registry.username	The username that you would like to set for the docker registry installation.
infra.docker_registry.password	The password that you would like to set for the docker registry installation.

Optional parameters	Description
telemetry_optout	true or false - used to opt-out of sending telemetry back to UiPath®. It is set to false by default. If you wish to opt out, then set to true.

Certificate configuration

Please refer to the prerequisite documents to obtain certificate:

• Single-node evaluation mode: Configuring the certificates
• Multi-node HA-ready production: Configuring the certificates

If no certificate is provided at the time of installation, the installer creates a self-issued certificate and configures it in the cluster. The validity of the certificate is 90 days.

Note:

Make sure to specify the absolute path for the certificate files. Run pwd to get the path of the directory where files are placed and append the certificate file name to the cluster_config.json.

In multi-node HA-ready production installations, a certificate is required only on the first node.

Parameter	Description
server_certificate.ca_cert_file	Absolute path to the Certificate Authority (CA) certificate. This CA is the authority that signs the TLS certificate. A CA bundle should contain only the chain certificates used to sign the TLS certificate. The chain limit is up to nine certificates. If you are using a self-signed certificate, you need to specify the path to the rootCA.crt, which you previously created. Leave blank if you want the installer to generate.
server_certificate.tls_cert_file	Absolute path to TLS certificate (server.crt for self-signed created in earlier steps). Leave blank if you want the installer to generate.
server_certificate.tls_key_file	Absolute path to certificate key (server.key for self-signed created in earlier steps). Leave blank if you want the installer to generate.
identity_certificate.token_signing_cert_file	Absolute path to the Identity Service certificate used to sign tokens (identity.pfx for self-signed created in earlier steps). Leave blank if you want the installer to generate an identity certificate using the server certificate.
identity_certificate.token_signing_cert_pass	Plain text password set when it was exported.
additional_ca_certs	Absolute path to the file containing additional CA certificates that you want to be trusted by all the products running as part of Automation Suite. All certificates in the file should be valid PEM format. For example, you need to provide the file containing the SQL server CA certificate if the certificate is not issued by a public certificate authority.

Database configuration

Automatically Create the Necessary Databases

If you want the installer to create the databases, fill in the following fields:

Parameter	Description
sql.create_db	Set to true.
sql.server_url	FQDN of the SQL server, where you want the installer to configure database.
sql.port	Port number on which a database instance should be hosted in the SQ: server.
sql.username	Username / userid to connect to the SQL server.
sql.password	Password of the username provided earlier to connect to the SQL server.

Note:

Ensure the user has the dbcreator role. This grants them permission to create the database in SQL Server. Otherwise the installation fails.

ODBC connection does not support usernames that contain special characters. For database usernames for AI Center and Document Understanding, use only uppercase and lowercase letters.

Bring Your Own Database

If you choose to bring your own databases for a new Automation Suite installation, we strongly recommend setting up new databases rather than using existing ones. This precaution is necessary to prevent any conflicts with the operation of Automation Suite that might occur due to leftover metadata from old databases.

If you bring your own database, you must provide the SQL connection strings for every database. Automation Suite supports the following SQL connection string formats:

Parameter	Description	Products
sql_connection_string_template	Full ADO.NET connection string where Catalog name is set to DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER. The installer will replace this placeholder with the default database names for the installed suite services.	Platform, Orchestrator, Test Manager, Automation Hub, Automation Ops, Insights, Task Mining, Data Service, Document Understanding
sql_connection_string_template_jdbc	Full JDBC connection string where database name is set to DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER. The installer will replace this placeholder with the default database names for the installed suite services.	AI Center
sql_connection_string_template_odbc	Full ODBC connection string where database name is set to DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER. The installer will replace this placeholder with the default database names for the installed suite services.	Document Understanding

Important:

Make sure the SQL account specified in the connection strings is granted the db_securityadmin and db_owner roles for all Automation Suite databases. If security restrictions do not allow the use of db_owner, then the SQL account should have the following roles and permissions on all databases:

• db_ddladmin
• db_datawriter
• db_datareader
• EXECUTE permission on dbo schema

Important:

If you manually set the connection strings in the configuration file, you can escape SQL, JDBC, or ODBC passwords as follows:

• for SQL: add ' at the beginning and end of the password, and double any other '.
• for JDBC/ODBC: add { at the beginning of the password and } at the end, and double any other }.

Note:

By default, TrustServerCertificate is set to False, and you must provide an additional CA certificate for the SQL Server. This is required if the SQL Server certificate is self-signed or signed by an internal CA.

See Certificate configuration for more details.

sql_connection_string_template example

Server=tcp:sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net:1433;Initial Catalog=DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER;Persist Security Info=False;User Id=[e-mail];Password=***;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;Connection Timeout=30;Max Pool Size=100;

sql_connection_string_template_jdbc example

jdbc:sqlserver://sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net:1433;database=DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER;user=testadmin;password=***;encrypt=true;trustServerCertificate=false;Connection Timeout=30;hostNameInCertificate=sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net"

sql_connection_string_template_odbc example

SERVER=sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net,1433;DATABASE=DB_NAME_PLACEHOLDER;DRIVER={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};UID=testadmin;PWD=***;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=YES;TrustServerCertificate=NO;Connection Timeout=30;"

Default and optional DB names for Automation Suite services

{
  "orchestrator": "AutomationSuite_Orchestrator",
  "orchestrator_ta": "AutomationSuite_Orchestrator",
  "orchestrator_upd": "AutomationSuite_Platform",
  "platform": "AutomationSuite_Platform",
  "test_manager": "AutomationSuite_Test_Manager",
  "automation_ops": "AutomationSuite_Platform",
  "automation_hub": "AutomationSuite_Automation_Hub",
  "insights": "AutomationSuite_Insights",
  "task_mining": "AutomationSuite_Task_Mining",
  "dataservice": "AutomationSuite_DataService", 
  "aicenter": "AutomationSuite_AICenter",
  "documentunderstanding": "AutomationSuite_DU_Datamanager",
}

Note:

If you you want to override the connection string for any of the services above, set the sql_connection_str for that specific service.

You still have to manually create these databases before running the installer.

Overriding the default connection string for Orchestrator and the platform

{
  "orchestrator": {
    "sql_connection_str": "Server=tcp:sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net,1433;Initial Catalog=CustomOrchDB;Persist Security Info=False;User Id=[e-mail];Password=***;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;Connection Timeout=30;Max Pool Size=100;"
  },
  "platform": {
    "sql_connection_str": "Server=tcp:sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net,1433;Initial Catalog=CustomIDDB;Persist Security Info=False;User Id=[e-mail];Password=***;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;Connection Timeout=30;Max Pool Size=100;"
  }
}

To override the database connection strings for other products, set the sql_connection_str in the corresponding product blocks. The connection string should have a format supported by the respective product.

Example for setting database connection string for AI Center

Parameter	Description
aicenter.sql_connection_str	AICenter JDBC connection string (Refer below for the JDBC format)

Note: Please check the JDBC connection string has the format in the sample below.

"aicenter": {
    "enabled": true,
    "sql_connection_str": "jdbc:sqlserver://sfdev1804627-c83f074b-sql.database.windows.net;database=aicenter;user=[e-mail];password=TFgID_9GsE7_P@srCQp0WemXX_euHQZJ"
}

Sample Document Understanding connection string

"documentUnderstanding": {
  "datamanager": {
    "sql_connection_str": "SERVER=sql-server.database.windows.net;DATABASE=datamanager;DRIVER={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server};UID=testadmin;PWD=myPassword"
  },
  "sql_connection_str": "Server=tcp:database.example.com,1433;Initial Catalog=db;Persist Security Info=False;User Id=[e-mail];Password=***;MultipleActiveResultSets=False;Encrypt=True;TrustServerCertificate=False;Connection Timeout=30;Max Pool Size=100;",
  "cjkOcr": 
  {
    "enabled": true
  }
}

Note: The data manager SQL connection string is optional only if you want to overwrite the default with your own.

Handwriting is always enabled for online installation.

The default value for max_cpu_per-pod is 2, but you can adjust it according to your needs. For more information, check the Document Understanding configuration file.

Orchestrator-specific Configuration

Orchestrator can save robot logs to an Elasticsearch server. You can configure this functionality in the orchestrator.orchestrator_robot_logs_elastic section. If not provided, robot logs are saved to Orchestrator's database.

The following table lists out the orchestrator.orchestrator_robot_logs_elastic fields:

Parameter	Description
elastic_uri	The address of the Elasticsearch instance that should be used. It should be provided in the form of a URI. If provided, then username and password are also required.
elastic_auth_username	The Elasticsearch username, used for authentication.
elastic_auth_password	The Elasticsearch password, used for authentication.

Example:

"orchestrator": {
    "orchestrator_robot_logs_elastic": {
        "elastic_uri": "https://elastic.example.com:9200",
        "elastic_auth_username": "elastic-user",
        "elastic_auth_password": "elastic-password"
    }
}

Insights-specific Configuration

If enabling Insights, users can include SMTP server configuration that will be used to send scheduled emails/alert emails. If not provided, scheduled emails and alert emails will not function.

The insights.smtp_configuration fields details:

Parameter	Description
tls_version	Valid values are TLSv1_2, TLSv1_1, SSLv23. Omit key altogether if not using TLS.
from_email	Address that alert/scheduled emails will be sent from.
host	Hostname of the SMTP server.
port	Port of the SMTP server.
username	Username for SMTP server authentication.
password	Password for SMTP server authentication.

Example:

"insights": {
    "enabled": true,
    "smtp_configuration": {
      "tls_version": "TLSv1_2",
      "from_email": "[e-mail]",
      "host": "smtp.sendgrid.com",
      "port": 587,
      "username": "login",
      "password": "password123"
    }
  }

Monitoring Configuration

To provision enough resources for monitoring (see Using the monitoring stack), you should consider the number of vCPUs in the cluster and the amount of desired metric retention. See below for how to set the following monitoring resource configurations.

The following table describes the monitoring field details:

Parameter	Description
prometheus_retention	In days. This is the amount of days that metrics will be retained for the purpose of visualization in Grafana and manual querying via the Prometheus console. Default value is 7.
prometheus_storage_size	In GiB. Amount of storage space to reserve per Prometheus replica. A good rule of thumb is to set this value to: 0.65 * vCPU cores * (prometheus_retention / 7) Example: If you set prometheus_retention to 14 days, and your cluster has 80 cores spread across 5 machines, this becomes: 0.65 * 80 * (14 / 7) 52 * (2) 104 Default value is 45 and should not be set lower. If Prometheus starts to run out of storage space, an alert will be triggered with specific remediation instructions. See here.
prometheus_memory_limit	In MiB. Amount of memory to limit each Prometheus replica to. A good rule of thumb is to set this value to: 100 * vCPU cores * (prometheus_retention / 7) Example: If you've set prometheus_retention to 14 days, and your cluster has 80 cores spread across 5 machines, this becomes: 100 * 80 * (14 / 7) 8000 * (2) 16000 Default value is 3200 for the single-node evaluation mode, and 6000 for the multi-node HA-ready production mode, and should not be set lower. If Prometheus starts to run out of memory, an alert will be triggered with specific remediation instructions. See here.

Example:

"monitoring": {
  "prometheus_retention": 14,
  "prometheus_memory_limit": 16000,
  "prometheus_storage_size": 104
}

Optional: Configuring the proxy server

Note:

Make sure you meet the proxy server requirements before configuring the proxy server during installation.

For details, see Step 2: Adding proxy configuration to each node.

While running the interactive installer wizard, you need to exit it and update the cluster_config.json during the advanced configuration step.

You need to add the following to the configuration file using vim or your favorite editor to the configuration file:

"proxy": {
  "enabled": "true",
  "http_proxy": "http://<PROXY-SERVER-IP>:<PROXY-PORT>",
  "https_proxy": "http://<PROXY-SERVER-IP>:<PROXY-PORT>",
  "no_proxy": "alm.<fqdn>,<fixed_rke_address>:9345,<fixed_rke_address>:6443,<named server address>,<metadata server address>,<k8s address range>,<private_subnet_ip>,<sql server host>,<Comma separated list of ips that should not go through proxy server>"
}

Mandatory parameters	Description
enabled	Use true or false to enable or disable proxy settings.
http_proxy	Used to route HTTP outbound requests from the cluster. This should be the proxy server FQDN and port.
https_proxy	Used to route HTTPS outbound requests from the cluster. This should be the proxy server FQDN and port.
no_proxy	Comma-separated list of hosts, IP addresses, or IP ranges in CIDR format that you do not want to route via the proxy server. This should be a private subnet range, sql server host, named server address, metadata server address: *.<fqdn>,<fixed_rke_address>:9345,<fixed_rke2_address>:6443. fqdn - the cluster FQDN defined in cluster_config.json fixed_rke_address - the fixed_rke_address defined in cluster_config.json named server address - the IP address from /etc/resolv.conf private_subnet_ip - the cluster VNet sql server host - sql server host metadata server address - the IP address 169.254.169.254 used to fetch machine metadata by cloud services such as Azure and AWS k8s address range - the IP address ranges used by the Kubernetes nodes, i.e. 10.0.0.0/8

Optional: Enabling resilience to zonal failures in a multi-node HA-ready production cluster

To enable resilience to zonal failures in a multi-node cluster, take the following steps:

1. Make sure nodes are spread evenly across three availability zones. For a bare-metal server or VM provided by any vendor except for AWS, Azure, or GCP, zone metadata has to be provided via the configuration file at /etc/default/k8s-node-labels on every machine in following format.

   NODE_REGION_LABEL=<REGION_NAME>
   NODE_ZONE_LABEL=<ZONE_NAME>
   cat > /etc/default/k8s-node-labels <<EOF
   EXTRA_K8S_NODE_LABELS="topology.kubernetes.io/region=$NODE_REGION_LABEL,topology.kubernetes.io/zone=${NODE_ZONE_LABEL}"
   EOF

2. Update the cluster_config.json file during the advanced configuration step.

To update the cluster_config.json using the interactive installation wizard, exit at advanced configuration step and add the following to the configuration file using vim or your favorite editor:

"zone_resilience": true

Mandatory parameters	Description
zone_resilience	Use true or false to enable or disable resilience to zonal failure.

Important:

If you enable resilience to zonal failure, passing the --zone and --region arguments is:

• recommended if you provision your machines on AWS, Azure, or GCP, and metadata services are enabled as the installer populates the zone and region details.
• mandatory if you provision your machines on AWS, Azure, or GCP, and metadata services are disabled, or if you opt for a different cloud provider.

Optional: Passing custom resolv.conf

The Kubernetes cluster that Automation Suite deploys uses the name servers configured in /etc/resolv.conf. Kubernetes does not work with local DNS resolvers (127.0.0.1 or 127.0.0.0/8), so if you have such name servers configured in /etc/resolv.conf file, you need to pass a file reference with the correct nameserver entries accessible from anywhere on the VM in the .infra.custom_dns_resolver parameter in cluster_config.json.

For details on a known limitation, see Kubernetes documentation.

Optional Parameters	Description
.infra.custom_dns_resolver	Path to the file with correct name server entries that can be accessed from anywhere on the VM. These name server entries must not be from 127.0.0.0/8.