Offline Multi-node HA-ready Production Installation

This page explains how you can perform an offline Automation Suite installation with a multi-node HA-ready production setup.

Overview

Important:

You must meet the hardware and software prerequisites before proceeding with the installation. See Hardware and software requirements.

You can use a dedicated script to validate the installation prerequisites and infrastructure readiness. See Validating the prerequisites.

For a smooth installation experience, make sure to follow our best practices. See .

Use the offline installation steps in this document when deploying UiPath Automation suite in a airgapped environment with no access to the internet.

The installation process has the following general steps:

Step	Description
Step 1: Download the installation packages	This step needs to be performed from a machine with access to internet and to the air-gapped machines where Automation Suite will be deployed. While these are finishing downloading, you can continue to some of the next steps. This can be done from a Linux or windows machine. Step 1.1: Downloading the installation package Step 1.2: Getting all downloaded files on the first machine
Step 2: Configure the installation	Run the interactive install wizard to configure the installation options The tool will gather inputs for most common install options and generate a configuration file that will be used during the installation. Configure advanced install options (Optional) The default install configuration includes the products used in core automation and a shared SQL server to be used by all products. To customize the products installed or have separate SQL servers used for specific products you can do so by editing the configuration file. Step 2.1: Basic configuration Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced configuration
Step 3: Copy the installation files on all the machines	On the first machine, copy the downloaded files in the installation folder created by the installation wizard at step 2. On the other cluster machines, copy the entire installation folder from the first machine to the same folder path on each machine. Step 3: Copy the installation files on all the machines
Step 4: Run the installation	Create the cluster and join all machinesFrom the first machine install the rest of the suite. Step 4: Running the installation
Step 5: Complete the installation	Step 5: You have completed the installation successfully and can move to post-installation steps. You can now access the newly created cluster and suite, update certificates, resize the PVC, and more. Step 5: Completing the installation

Important:

RHEL kernel version kernel-4.18.0-477.10.1.el8_8 is affected by an issue that interrupts the installation or management of the Automation Suite cluster. Make sure that none of the Automation Suite nodes uses this kernel version either pre- or post-installation. You can update the kernel version by running the following command:

dnf install -y kernel kernel-tools kernel-tools-libs

Step 1: Downloading the installation packages and getting all the files on the first machine

Step 1.1: Downloading the installation packages

You must perform this step on a machine with access to the internet and to the machine in the offline environment where Automation Suite will be installed.

Note:

This machine can be Linux or Windows. The commands in this guide are for RHEL-based OS. For Windows or other OSes, adjust for equivalent commands specific to those environments.

The Automation Suite installer is a wrapper of multiple packages that also installs some dependencies using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM). It provides an interactive experience that helps you configure external resources such as SQL and other installation options.

ON THE SEPARATE MACHINE WITH INTERNET ACCESS

This section explains how to get the required files to start the installation process.

1. Connect to a machine with internet access and run the following command to get the interactive wizard file:

   ssh <user>@<dns_of_vm>

2. If you used an SSH key, run the following command:

   ssh -i <path/to/Key.pem> <user>@<dns_of_vm>

3. Download the following packages:
   • installUiPathAS.sh – Mandatory. See installUiPathAS.sh for download instructions.
   • sf-installer.zip – Mandatory. See sf-installer.zip for download instructions.
   • sf.tar.gz – Optional. Required only on server node when using internal Docker registry. See sf.tar.gz for download instructions.
   • sf-infra.tar.gz - Mandatory. See sf-infra.tar.gz for download instructions.
   • du-ondemand.tar.gz – Optional. Needed only for Document Understanding. See du-ondemand.tar.gz for download instructions.
     Note:

     Not following this optional step limits the functionality of the Document Understanding services.

   • cv-ondemand.tar.gz – Optional. Needed only for Computer Vision. See cv-ondemand.tar.gz for download instructions.
     Note:

     Not following this optional step prevents access to the Computer Vision services.

   Make sure to download the package suitable for your Automation Suite version and your operating system.

Step 1.2: Getting all downloaded files on the first machine

Make sure to take the following steps:

• Check that all files finished downloaded on the machine with internet access;
• Create the target folder on the machine;
• Copy the files from the online machine to the target machine.

ON ALL MACHINES IN THE CLUSTER

Create the installation folders by running the following command:

sudo su -
mkdir -p /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/
chmod -R 777 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
mkdir -p /uipath/tmp
chmod -R 777 /uipath/tmp

Important: Running mkdir -p /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/ is not required if you use the configureUiPathDisks.sh script.

ON THE SEPARATE MACHINE WITH INTERNET ACCESS

Copy the files to the first node by taking the following steps:

1. From the machine with internet access, copy the files to the installation folder on the target machine, and the offline bundle(s) to the /uipath/tmp folder:

   scp ~/installUiPathAS.sh ~/sf-installer.zip ~/sf-infra.tar.gz <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp
   scp ~/sf.tar.gz <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp/

2. (Optional) To use Document Understanding, copy the following bundle to the /uipath/tmp folder:

   scp ~/du-ondemand.tar.gz <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp/

   Warning: Not following this optional step prevents access to the Document Understanding services.
3. (Optional) To use Computer Vision, copy the following bundle to the /uipath/tmp folder:

   scp ~/cv-ondemand.tar.gz <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp/

   Warning: Not following this optional step prevents access to the Computer Vision services.

Step 2: Configuring the Installation

Step 2.1: Basic configuration

ON THE MAIN MACHINE OF THE CLUSTER

1. Add the prerequisites folder to the current PATH.
   The interactive installer requires jq, and the Automation Suite offline bundles already include it. Run the following commands to add it to PATH, and make sure you are still root:

   mv /uipath/tmp/installUiPathAS.sh /uipath/tmp/sf-installer.zip /uipath/tmp/sf-infra.tar.gz  /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   unzip ./sf-installer.zip -d .
   chmod +x ./bin/jq
   export PATH=${PATH}:/opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/bin

2. Provide permissions to the installer folder.
   It is required to give adequate permissions to the /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite folder where the install scripts are placed and will be executed. The installer will also create some files (output.json) after the execution of each stage. To provide the required permissions, run the following command:

   chmod -R 755 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite

3. Run the interactive installer to configure the installation options.
   If sf-installer.zip is not present in /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/, the installer tries to download it and fails because this is an offline installation.

   The interactive installer will guide you through the configuration steps and generate the configuration that you can then customize and use through the remaining installation steps.

4. To start the interactive installer, run the following script:
   Run the following command

   chmod +x ./installUiPathAS.sh
   ./installUiPathAS.sh

Running the interactive wizard in multi-node offline mode

1. Enter the option for the multi-node HA-ready production mode.
   
2. Enter option for air-gapped:
   
3. Specify the URL for the cluster (DNS hostname/load balancer URL in multi-node HA-ready production mode) and the SQL Server information as shown below:
   
4. Config will be generated with a folder as shown in the following image.
   

As soon as you generate the configuration file and the folder, you can exit the wizard and proceed with the remaining steps below to complete installation.

Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced configuration

This step is optional.

By running the installation using the default configuration, you are opting to run our basic product selection. You will install our core platform, Orchestrator, Insights, Action Center, Test Manager, Automation Ops, Automation Hub, and Data Service.

You can configure the file for more advanced configurations. You can enable additional products, disable any of the default products, configure your SQL DBs and their respective connection strings, and certificates. For multi-node HA-ready production mode, we enable High Availability by default, but you can disable it if needed.

For advanced configuration, you can follow the following instructions: Advanced installation experience.

Note: If you exit the interactive installer and perform advanced configuration, you need to re-run the interactive installer for the installation to be complete.

Step 3: Copying the installation files on all the other cluster machines

From the first machine in the cluster, where the configuration was performed, copy the installer, certificates, and cluster_config.json to all the other machines.

ON THE FIRST MACHINE IN THE CLUSTER

1. Copy the /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite folder to all other nodes by running the following command:

   scp -r /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite <username>@<node dns>:/opt

   Important: Since you are in an air-gapped environment, you might need to use the private IP of the target node.
2. Add -i <cert.pem> if you are using a certificate to login. If you copy the .pem contents to a local file, the new file will need to have correct permissions. You can do chmod 400 <cert.pem> for granting them.

The step above ensures the same configuration is replicated on all machines along with all the downloaded packages for the install bundle.

Step 4: Running the Installation

There are two types of machines: server and agent.

• Server - Machines on which the Kubernetes infrastructure (i.e. apiserver, etcd) runs on. These components manage the entire cluster.
• Agent - vanilla version of machine that is used to run workloads

The multi-node HA-ready production mode requires a minimum of 3 server machines. Installing Task Mining requires adding an additional machine used as an agent.

Note:

• For a multi-node HA-ready production installation, you need a load balancer. Please make sure one was created and traffic is distributed between nodes. The domain name of the load balancer needs to be used in the cluster_config.json file.
• You need to have at least a server node and for HA you need at least three server nodes. An odd number of server nodes is required.

Step 4.1: Accepting the license agreement

Before running the installation, make sure to read the License Agreement.

To accept the license agreement, choose one of the following methods:

• Option 1 (Environment Variable) - Set the LICENSE_AGREEMENT environment variable to accept by executing the following command: export LICENSE_AGREEMENT=accept
• Option 2 (Inline parameter) - Alternatively, append --accept-license-agreement to every execution of install-uipath.sh.

Step 4.2: Creating and joining all machines to the cluster

1. Set up the first machine.
   Execute the following commands on the first server:

   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   ./install-uipath.sh -i ./cluster_config.json -o ./output.json -k --offline-bundle ./sf-infra.tar.gz --offline-tmp-folder /uipath/tmp --install-offline-prereqs --accept-license-agreement

2. Join the rest of the servers to the cluster.
   Execute the following commands on the rest of the server nodes in sequence:

   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   sudo ./install-uipath.sh -i ./cluster_config.json -o ./output.json -k -j server --offline-bundle ./sf-infra.tar.gz --offline-tmp-folder /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/tmp --install-offline-prereqs --accept-license-agreement

3. Join the rest of the agents to the cluster.
   Execute the following commands on the rest of the agent nodes in sequence:

   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   sudo ./install-uipath.sh -i ./cluster_config.json -o ./output.json -k -j agent --offline-bundle ./sf-infra.tar.gz --offline-tmp-folder /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/tmp --install-offline-prereqs --accept-license-agreement

Step 4.3: Finishing installing the suite

Finishing the installation on the first node

Once all nodes are joined, switch to the first server to finish the Automation Suite installation:

1. Check if the nodes were properly added by running the following command:

   sudo su
   export KUBECONFIG=/etc/rancher/rke2/rke2.yaml PATH=$PATH:/var/lib/rancher/rke2/bin
   kubectl get nodes

2. You should see more than one node in the list if all was well.

3. Finish the installation by executing the following command:

   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   ./install-uipath.sh -i ./cluster_config.json -o ./output.json -f -s --offline-bundle /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/sf.tar.gz --offline-tmp-folder /uipath/tmp --accept-license-agreement

Warning:

This is the most time consuming operation. Expect it to take approximately 2h.

Loading the optional bundles

• To load the optional Document Understanding bundle, execute the following command:

  ./configureUiPathAS.sh registry upload --optional-offline-bundle "/uipath/tmp/du-ondemand.tar.gz" --offline-tmp-folder "/uipath/tmp"

• To load the optional Computer Vision bundle, execute the following command:

  ./configureUiPathAS.sh registry upload --optional-offline-bundle "/uipath/tmp/cv-ondemand.tar.gz" --offline-tmp-folder "/uipath/tmp"

Step 5: Completing the installation

Note: You have completed the installation successfully, and you can now move to post-installation steps.

Updating Certificates

Important:

The installation process generates self-signed certificates on your behalf. However, the Azure deployment template also gives you the option to provide a CA-issued server certificate at installation time instead of using an auto-generated self-signed certificate.

Self-signed certificates will expire in 90 days, and you must replace them with certificates signed by a trusted CA as soon as installation completes. If you do not update the certificates, the installation will stop working after 90 days.

For instructions, see Managing certificates.

Accessing Automation Suite

To access the newly created cluster and suite, see Accessing Automation Suite.

Resizing PVC

To resize the PVC, see Resizing PVC.

If you installed AI Center, we recommend resizing the PVC to 200 immediately after the installation to avoid downtimes. For more information on this, check Resizing PVC for AI Center.

Adding Rancher/pause:3.5

If you installed AI CenterTM, you need to import and export the Rancher image. For more information on this, check Adding rancher/pause:3.5 to offline registry.