Redirecting Robots Through a Proxy Server

If you have a Robot in a closed network, or in a different network than Orchestrator one, the communication between the two UiPath products is not possible. As a result, to facilitate this communication, you can use a proxy server with your Robot.

To redirect the Robot through a proxy server, you have to make some configurations on the Robot machine. They are split into the following steps:

• Configure your preferred web browser, to ensure that the Robot machine can access Orchestrator through the indicated proxy server.
• Edit the uipath.config file to ensure that the connection between the Robot and Orchestrator is routed through the provided proxy server and that the activities packages and the automation processes can be downloaded through the specified proxy server.
  Note:

  The user mode robot inherits the Proxy Settings from the Internet Options, while the service mode robot requires specific configuration to be made in the uipath.config file from the Studio installation folder.

  To apply proxy settings on User Mode robots, you need to restart the User Host Service. You can do this by signing out of the Windows user session and then signing back in.

  Important: The settings in the uipath.config file only apply to the robot service process when installed in service-mode. Proxy settings for user-level Windows processes, including the executor (for both user-mode and service-mode installations), are not configurable through uipath.config.

Configuring the Proxy Settings

Configurations for the Proxy Script or Proxy Address can be set from either the Connections section in Internet Options, or from the Proxy Settings menu in the Windows Settings.

Configuring the Web Browser

1. In Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options. The Internet Options window is displayed.
   
   

   

   
   
2. In the Connections tab, click LAN Settings. The Local Area Network (LAN) Settings window is displayed. Depending on your setup, you can configure a proxy configuration script or a proxy server.
   
   

   

   
   
3. Configure the Proxy Server or Automatic Configuration (for Proxy Script).
4. Click OK. Your settings are saved.
5. In the web browser, enter the Orchestrator URL to test the connection.

Configuring the Windows Proxy Settings

1. Open the start menu and search for Proxy Settings.
2. Configure the Automatic Proxy Setup (for Proxy Script) or Manual Proxy Setup (for Proxy Server).
3. Save the settings.
4. In the web browser, enter the Orchestrator URL to test the connection.
   
   

   

   
   
   Important:

   When setting up or editing the proxy address, do not add the http:// prefix to the proxy address. This enables the proxy only for HTTP calls, and since most calls are HTTPS, the proxy configuration fails.

   To resolve this, make sure to either remove the http:// prefix altogether, or specifically add the proxy address with both http:// and https:// prefixes.

   Example:

   • http=proxyaddress -> incorrect

   • http=proxyaddress;https=proxyaddress -> correct

   • http://proxyaddress;https://proxyaddress -> correct

Editing the uipath.config File

1. Navigate to the installation folder, %ProgramFiles%\UiPath\Studio.
2. Search for the uipath.config file and open it using a text editor, such as Notepad++.
3. Add the <webProxySettings> tag and set the values based on your proxy environment.

   1. To use a proxy script, provide the following key-value pair:

      <webProxySettings>
          <add key="ScriptAddress" value="http://localhost/proxy.pac" />
      </webProxySettings>

   2. To provide a proxy address, provide the following key-value pairs:

      <webProxySettings>
          <add key="ProxyAddress" value="http://1.1.1.1:1234/" />
          <add key="BypassLocalAddresses" value="True" />
          <add key="BypassList" value="server\.domain\.local$;www.google.com;192\.168\.\d{1,3}\.\d{1,3}" />
      </webProxySettings>

      Note: Starting with v2021.4 Robot, the bypass list should contain an array of regular expression strings that contain the URIs of the servers to bypass.
4. Save the uipath.config file and restart the robot service for changes to take effect.

Examples for bypass list

Below you can find some examples for the bypass list format.

www.myget.org -> ((www|WWW).){1}?(myget+(.org))
.vo.msecnd.net -> (([a-zA-Z0-9]).)+((vo+)+(.msecnd+)+(.net))
www.nuget.org -> ((www|WWW).){1}?(nuget+(.org))
gallery.uipath.com -> (([a-zA-Z0-9]).)*((gallery+)+(.uipath+)+(.com))

To test the formatting for complex configurations, you can use a regex validator/generator.

Note: Starting with v2021.4 Robot, the bypass list should contain an array of regular expression strings that contain the URIs of the servers to bypass.

Important:

Only one of ScriptAddress and ProxyAddress should be set. If both are set, ScriptAddress has precedence.

BypassList and BypassLocalAddresses should be set only when ProxyAddress is set.

Windows Credentials Proxy Authentication

Starting with v2021.4.4, the Robot can work with proxy configurations that use Authentication via Windows Credentials. To enable this functionality, add the UIPATH_PROXY_USE_DEFAULT_CREDENTIALS system environment variable on the machine.

example: UIPATH_PROXY_USE_DEFAULT_CREDENTIALS with value true

Configure Windows Credentials Proxy Authentication using PowerShell

1. Open PowerShell as administrator.
2. Run the command below:

   [Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("UIPATH_PROXY_USE_DEFAULT_CREDENTIALS", "true", "Machine")

3. Restart the Robot machine.

Validating the script

To confirm that the system environment variable has been set successfully, run the script below in PowerShell.

$Env:UIPATH_PROXY_USE_DEFAULT_CREDENTIALS

This returns the value of the system environment variable. If the value is true, the configuration is in place now.

Basic Authentication

Starting with v2021.10 release, the Robot service supports Proxy Servers using Basic Authentication protocols..

Service mode robot

To enable this functionality when the robot is installed in service mode, you need to edit the webProxySettings section from the uipath.config file and add the following information:

<webProxySettings>
<add key="ProxyAddress" value="http://my.proxy.net:8008" />
<add key="UserName" value="myUser" />
<add key="Password" value="myPassword" />
<add key="Domain" value="myDomain" />
</webProxySettings>

Important: The Robot Executor does not support proxy configurations using Basic Authentication methods. This means you can use Basic Authentication to connect to Orchestrator and download packages, but not for the actual workflow.

Checking the Proxy Server Connection

1. Connect the Robot to Orchestrator.
2. Deploy some packages to an environment which contains the previously configured Robot.
3. Navigate to the %userprofile%\.nuget\ folder and check if the corresponding process and activities packages have been downloaded.
4. Run the corresponding job to check if it runs successfully.
   Note: When updating from versions previous to v2021.4, proxy configurations are migrated from the proxy.config file to the uipath.config in order to match the new format.