# How cloud robots work with Orchestrator

> Division of responsibility between Orchestrator as the control plane and robots as the execution layer, covering job dispatch, runtime allocation, and what differs by robot type.

Orchestrator and the robot do different jobs. Orchestrator decides what runs, where it runs, and which folder resources the job can use. The robot provides the execution environment and runs the workload. Network connectivity to your own systems is configured outside both, at tenant level.

Every robot type connects to Orchestrator the same way and appears as a machine in the same folder structure, whether the host is self-managed, provided by UiPath, or scaled automatically in your own cloud account.

<!-- DIAGRAM NEEDED: How cloud robots work with Orchestrator
     Type: relationship graph. 8 nodes plus 2 zone containers.
     Nodes: Orchestrator control plane (machine templates, runtimes and slots, job dispatch,
     folder resources, monitoring, licensing); zone "Your estate" containing self-hosted robot,
     Elastic Robot Orchestration, Automation Suite robots; zone "UiPath-managed" containing
     Automation Cloud Robots VM and Automation Cloud Robots Serverless; one target node
     "Your systems and applications".
     Edges, all labelled: robot -> Orchestrator "connect, status, logs";
     Orchestrator -> robot "dispatch job"; your-estate zone -> targets "direct network reach";
     UiPath-managed zone -> targets "via VPN gateway, where configured".
     Only the customer-estate boundary carries a colour; host ownership is the claim the page turns on.
     Alt text: Orchestrator sits above two zones of robots. In your estate: self-hosted robots on
     your machines, Elastic Robot Orchestration in your cloud account, and Automation Suite robots
     in your cluster. UiPath-managed: Automation Cloud Robots VM and Serverless. Every robot
     connects to Orchestrator and receives dispatched jobs, reporting status and logs back. Robots
     in your estate reach your systems directly, while UiPath-managed robots can reach them through
     an optional VPN gateway. -->

## What each side owns

| Orchestrator — the control plane | The robot — the execution layer |
| --- | --- |
| The machine object and machine template, including runtime and slot allocation | The operating system, installed software, and local dependencies |
| Which process types and runtime types a job can use | The execution of the workload itself |
| Job dispatch, scheduling, and triggers | Reporting status, logs, and traces back to Orchestrator |
| Folder-scoped resources: assets, queues, storage buckets, connections | Reaching the systems the automation targets |
| Licensing and consumption accounting | Declaring which process types and runtimes it supports |

## How a job reaches a robot

1. A job starts from a trigger, a schedule, or a manual start, with a runtime type selected.
2. Orchestrator checks the machine templates assigned to the folder for available runtimes or slots of that type.
3. Connected robots report which process types and runtime types they support.
4. Orchestrator dispatches the job only to a robot that supports both.
5. The robot runs the workload and streams status and logs back to Orchestrator.
6. On completion, the runtime or slot returns to the pool.

:::note
A job stays in the **Pending** state while it is queued on a robot or while Orchestrator is trying to establish a connection to one. Whether Agent, Function, API, and RPA runtime types behave identically while pending, or whether some runtime types fail to start instead of waiting, is not confirmed in the current documentation set and should be verified with engineering before this distinction is published as fact.
:::

## What differs by robot type

| Robot type | Host provided by | Robot version managed by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Self-hosted robot | You | You |
| Automation Cloud Robots — VM | UiPath | UiPath, with an opt-out |
| Automation Cloud Robots — Serverless | UiPath | UiPath |
| Elastic Robot Orchestration | You, in your own cloud account | UiPath, with an opt-out |
| Automation Suite robots | You, in your cluster | Your Automation Suite version |

Availability differs by cloud platform. For details, refer to [Cloud robots feature availability](robot-feature-availability.md). Automation Suite robots are documented as their own Automation Suite delivery of this guide — select your Automation Suite version from the guide's version switcher, or refer to [About Automation Suite Robots](https://docs.uipath.com/robot/automation-suite/2024.10/user-guide/about-automation-suite-robots) for the current long-term support version.

## What is configured outside Orchestrator

Reaching systems inside your own network is a tenant-level setting, not an Orchestrator one. The gateway is created in **Admin**, under the selected tenant's **Gateway** tile, together with its address space, connections, and routing. For details, refer to [Configuring VPN for cloud robots](https://docs.uipath.com/automation-cloud/automation-cloud/latest/admin-guide/configuring-vpn-for-cloud-robots).

Orchestrator only consumes an existing gateway: a Cloud Robot - VM pool selects **Connect VPN Gateway** when it is created, and a Serverless machine template enables the same integration through [Managing VPN settings](managing-vpn-settings.md).

:::important
An existing Cloud Robot - VM pool cannot be connected to a VPN gateway afterwards — a pool that needs one is created with the option selected. Once a pool is disconnected through the **Enable VPN Integration** toggle, it cannot be reconnected. Serverless machine templates can toggle VPN integration on or off and edit the address space at any time; robots on that template reconnect automatically according to the new settings.
:::

## Where each topic is documented

Setup, requirements, capacity, and workload support for each robot type live in the Robot guides. The control-plane objects a robot depends on remain in the Orchestrator guide:

* [Machines](https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/automation-cloud/latest/user-guide/about-machines) and machine templates, including runtime and slot allocation
* [Jobs](https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/automation-cloud/latest/user-guide/about-jobs) and job states
* [Licensing](https://docs.uipath.com/orchestrator/automation-cloud/latest/user-guide/licensing) and consumption