Offline Single-node Evaluation Installation

This page explains how you can perform an offline Automation Suite installation with a single-node evaluation 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. If deploying an environment where the machines have internet access we recommend using the online installation steps which are optimized for that case.

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 install package Step 1.2: Getting all downloaded files on the machine
Step 2: Configure the installation	The interactive install wizard gathers inputs for most common install options and generate a configuration file that will be used during the installation. Step 2.1: Configuring the installation: basic configuration 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 2.2: (Optional) Configuring the installation: advanced configuration (optional)
Step 3: Run the installation	Run the installation.Once the installation is complete, you can start using the cluster. Step 3: Running the installation
Step 4: Complete the installation	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 4: 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 the files on the 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 – Mandatory. See sf.tar.gz for download instructions.
   • sf-infra.tar.gz - Optional. Only needed if you want to join additional nodes, including Task Mining and GPU. 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 du-ondemand.tar.gz for download instructions.
     Note:

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

Step 1.2: Getting all downloaded files on the 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 THE MAIN MACHINE OF THE CLUSTER

Create the installation folder by running the following command:

sudo su -
mkdir -p /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/
chmod -R 755 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
mkdir -p /uipath/tmp
chmod -R 777 /uipath/tmp

Note: 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 one of the nodes:

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 <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp 
   scp ~/sf.tar.gz <username>@<node dns>:/uipath/tmp/

   If you plan to join additional nodes, such as for Task Mining or GPU, run the following command instead:

   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 /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   cd /opt/UiPathAutomationSuite
   unzip ./sf-installer.zip -d .
   chmod +x ./bin/jq
   export PATH=${PATH}:/opt/UiPathAutomationSuite/bin

   If you plan to join additional nodes, such as for Task Mining or GPU, run the following command instead:

   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 single-node offline mode

Run the interactive install wizard to configure the installation options. The tool gathers inputs for most common installation options and generates a configuration file that you can use during the installation.

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

To install Automation Suite using the interactive wizard, take the following steps:

1. Select Install the UiPath Automation Suite.
   
2. Select the deployment mode: select the single-node option.
3. Select continue.
4. Select air-gapped installation.
5. Enter the DNS hostname.
6. Specify whether you want to use Kerberos Auth for SQL connections.
7. Enter the SQL Server URL. Follow the prompt to enter the connection port, username, and password.
8. Specify whether you want the installer to automatically create the necessary DBs (see the next step for details).
   
   

   

   
   
9. Once the configuration parameters are defined, the installer will autogenerate the configuration. You can edit the configuration parameters directly in the terminal.
   
   

   

   
   

   At this step, you can directly edit the cluster_config.json for advanced configuration settings in the UiPathAutomationSuite folder. After you edit the configuration file, you can rerun the wizard to complete the installation or complete manually.

   You can go to the following section here: Advanced configuration step for more details. After editing, you can re-run the wizard to continue with installation.

   If you are installing Task Mining, make sure that you enable both AI Center and Task Mining in the cluster_config.json.
10. At this point, you can proceed with the installation.
    
    

    

    
    
11. The process will complete and you will have the suite installed on a given machine.

Step 2.2: (Optional) Advanced configuration

This step is optional.

You can find the cluster_config.json file in the UiPathAutomationSuite folder. You can use this file to enable additional products, disable any of the default products, configure your SQL DBs and their respective connection strings, and certificates. You can also enable proxy settings if you use a proxy for internet connection.

For single-node evaluation installation, note that you cannot enable High Availability.

For advanced configuration, see Advanced installation experience.

Note:

You must to re-run the interactive installer to complete the installation.

Step 3: Running the installation

Make sure you copied the downloaded files on the main offline machine, where you performed the configuration, in the install folder created by the install wizard.

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.

Running the installation

Run the installation commands to execute the offline bundle (estimated duration: 2h30min - 3h30min):

./install-uipath.sh -i ./cluster_config.json -o ./output.json -a --offline-bundle /uipath/tmp/sf.tar.gz --offline-tmp-folder /uipath/tmp --install-offline-prereqs --accept-license-agreement

For help, you can run ./install-uipath.sh -h --accept-license-agreement.

Loading the optional bundles

To load the optional Document Understanding bundles, execute the following commands:

./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"

This document focuses on -a command argument as this caters to need of installing all the required components.

Installing Task Mining

If you install Task Mining in single-node evaluation mode, you need to run an additional set of steps. Follow the Task Mining installation guide to complete the steps for Task Mining.

Step 4: Completing the Installation

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

Updating Certificates

Attention:

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.