Configuring robot accounts to run unattended automations

Unattended automation typically runs on robot accounts, the UiPath® equivalent of Windows service accounts. Robot accounts can be thought of as non-human identities that need to be authorized to access Orchestrator resources. Their association with roles allows for a certain level of access to resources in Orchestrator. Learn about access control in Orchestrator.

Robot accounts have their unattended capabilities enabled by default, administrators only have to configure several infrastructure related settings.

Enabling unattended automation on a robot account

To configure unattended execution settings under a certain robot account and on specific infrastructure, an administrator must do the following when referencing or editing the robot account in Orchestrator:

1. Click the Unattended setup tab to configure execution settings for the account.
2. In the Foreground automations settings section, select the infrastructure to be used for executing unattended foreground processes under that account:
   1. Select the Use the VMs preconfigured Windows user account (for runs on UiPath Automation Cloud robots only) option to delegate Automation Cloud robots for executing processes that require user interaction. The robots use a preconfigured Windows account when executing processes.
   2. Select the Use a specific Windows user account. Add credentials below option to execute processes on a specific Windows machine. You must specify correct credentials for that host machine, such that the robot can log into it successfully, and can run processes that require user interaction under that specific Windows account. Read through this article to find out how to retrieve your Windows credentials, or search the web for this information. Here's how to configure the credential settings when using specific Windows accounts:

      Field	Description
      Domain\Username	The account under which the robot runs. For domain-joined accounts, use the domain\username syntax. For example deskover\localUser1. For local Windows accounts, use the host_machine_name\username syntax, with the host machine's name instead of the domain. For example, LAPTOP1935\localUser2. For local Windows accounts residing on multiple host machines, which you want to use regardless of machine, use the .\username syntax with a dot instead of the host machine name. For example .\localUser3. For Azure AD joined machines, use the azuread\[e-mail] syntax.
      Credential store	The credential store to be used for your password. Click here for details about credential stores.
      Password	The password used to log on to the machine on which UiPath Robot is installed.
      Credential type	Specifies the type of password credential.

      Note: Unattended robots can run background jobs on any infrastructure. It is, however, recommended to specialize your host machines to execute particular types of processes in order to maximize efficiency and cut costs. Learn more about optimizing unattended infrastructure using machine templates.
3. Enable the Run only one job at a time option to restrict the account from simultaneously executing multiple jobs. This helps when automating applications that do not allow for a credential to be be used more than once at a time (e.g., SAP).
4. On the Robot settings tab, configure execution settings for the unattended robot. Learn about robot settings.
5. Click Add or Update. The robot account is created/updated.