Einleitung

Similar to extracting data and preparing a dataset for use in a on-premises Discovery Accelerator, you must extract data from the source system and create a dataset for use in Process Mining. This page describes how you can extract data from your source system for use in Process Mining using DataBridgeAgent.

Downloading DataBridgeAgent

Use the following link to download DataBridgeAgent: https://download.uipath.com/ProcessMining/versions/22.4.1/DataBridgeAgent/DataBridgeAgent-22.4.1.zip.

DataBridgeAgent is a standalone tool. It is recommended to create a separate folder on the server to use DataBridgeAgent.

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Wichtig

Do not install DataBridgeAgent in the in the Process Mining installation folder (PLATFORMDIR).

DataBridgeAgent

DataBridgeAgent is a standalone package that can be used to extract data from your source system to SnowFlake for use in Process Mining. It contains the UiPath Process Mining build and the on-premises connector used to prepare the dataset. Currently, the following on-premises connectors are included in DataBridgeAgent:

• SAP Connector for Purchase-to-Pay Discovery Accelerator; See Using DataBridgeAgent with SAP Connector for Purchase-to-Pay Discovery Accelerator.
• SAP Connector for Order-to-Cash Discovery Accelerator; See Using DataBridgeAgent with SAP Connector for Order-to-Cash Discovery Accelerator.

If you want to use your own custom connector, you can add it to DataBridgeAgent. In this case, you need to configure DataBrigdeAgent for use with your connector. See Adding a custom connector to DataBridgeAgent.
See Connector Development Guide for more information on how to develop a connector.

Difference from an on-premise installation

DataBridgeAgent is different from an on-premise installation since it:

• is a command-line tool, and therefore does not have a user interface;
• does not require a separate license;
• does not require IIS.

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Hinweis

The DataBridgeAgent already includes the connectors. You do not need to download and deploy the connector itself.

Voraussetzungen

See also System requirements.

Shared Access Signature (SAS) uri

To be able to upload the data to Automation Cloud^TM you need to have the SAS uri of the Azure blob storage to which the extracted data needs to be uploaded.

The SAS is a url that includes all the information in its query parameters needed to authenticate access to the Azure blob storage location See the illustration below for an example.

Obtaining the SAS uri for a new app

Follow these steps to obtain the SAS uri for a new app.

Obtaining the SAS url for an existing app.

Follow these steps to obtain the SAS url for an existing app.

Extracting data from an SAP source system

If you want to use data directly from your SAP system in Automation Cloud you must set up the SAP extraction before you can use DataBridgeAgent. See Set up Native SAP Extraction for a detailed description.

Extracting data via loading .csv files

If you want to use data loaded from .csv files always make sure that:

• a separate .csv file is available for each table.
• the file names of the .csv files are the same as the names of the input tables of the connector.
• all the fields used in Process Mining are present in the .csvfile.
• the fields in the .csv files have the same names as the field names used in Process Mining column.

The CSV settings can be defined in the CSV parameters of the DataBridgeAgent.

Extracting data via an ODBC connection

If you want to use data from an external data source via an ODBC connection, make sure that the required ODBC driver is installed on the server.

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Wichtig

All databases that have a 64-bit version can be accessed using an ODBC connection. The required 64-bit ODBC driver must be installed on the UiPath Process Mining server, and the server must be able to access that specific system.

Using a credential store

A Credential store allows you to use passwords without showing the actual password. See Set up a Credential Store for a detailed description.

By default, an encrypted credential store is used. See Setting up an encrypted file-based credential store for more information.

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Hinweis

To change the Server Settings you edit the <EXTRACTORDIR>\databases\ServerSettings.json file.

Configuring the DataBridgeAgent

Follow these steps to configure DataBridgeAgent.

Generic parameters

Below is an overview of the generic parameters for DataBridgeAgent.

SAP parameters

Below is an overview of the parameters that can be used for SAP datasources.

CSV parameters

Below is an overview of the parameters that can be used for CSV datasources.

ODBC parameters

Below is an overview of the parameters that can be used for ODBC datasources.

Creating the dataset and upload it for use in Automation Cloud

To load the data and upload it to Azure for use in Automation Cloud you must run the EXTRACTORDIR\datarun.bat file.

The time taken for this task will depend highly on the data volumes loaded.
The output is uploaded to the blob storage which triggers processing in Snowflake.

Starting the file manually

Follow this step to start the data run.

Schedule a task for the data run

Instead of running the file manually, you can use Windows Task Scheduler to schedule a task that runs the batch script for automated data refreshes.

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Hinweis

It is recommended to select the local SYSTEM user account for running the task and to select the Run with highest priority option in the Create Task window when creating the task in Windows Scheduler.

The output is uploaded to the blob storage which triggers processing in Snowflake.

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Wichtig

If you add an interval for which there is no data available, the dashboards will show an error message.

Fehlersuche und ‑behebung

The data run also creates a log file that can help in case of unexpected results or if the data upload with DataBridgeAgent fails. The file <EXTRACTORDIR>\datarun.txt contains the logs of the last data run.