How do I add the newest version of the robot to vm image?

[Patrick Murtey]

I have downloaded the nimsoft-robot-x64.exe from the UIM web installer page. But even though the UIM server is running 7.9.3,  when I download the above executable and run it, it installs version 7.8.0. I need the 7.9.3 version to give to my VM people so they can incorporate it into their build. Any input would be appreciated.

 

 

TIA

[Christopher Duryea]

Why not use 7.8.0 then have a scheduled task that runs periodically and upgrades the robot once it comes online?

[Yu Ishitani]

hope this help.

 

Preparation

Import the latest robot_exe package, and deploy the package to the Primary HUB robot.

Make sure the following files are updated.

<UIM>\install\setup\nimsoft-robot.exe

<UIM>\install\setup\nimsoft-robot-x64.exe

 

3 different ways of automatic installation. (You choose)

 

Deploy Robot remotely via USM

https://docops.ca.com/ca-unified-infrastructure-management/8-5-1/en/installing-ca-uim/deploy-robots/deploy-robots-in-usm

 

Deploy Robot remotely via ADE (host-profiles.xml)

https://docops.ca.com/ca-unified-infrastructure-management/8-5-1/en/installing-ca-uim/deploy-robots/bulk-robot-deployment-with-an-xml-file

 

Note

You need to develop host-profiles.xml

 

Deploy Robot locally (or remotely) via native installer (nms-robot-vars.cfg)

https://docops.ca.com/ca-unified-infrastructure-management/8-5-1/en/installing-ca-uim/deploy-robots/deploy-robots-in-bulk-with-a-third-party-tool-and-native-installers

 

Note

Native installer can be obtained from <UIM>/install/setup or http://<PrimaryHUB>/uimhome/

You need to develop nms-robot-vars.cfg (response file for the native installer)

[Patrick Murtey]

So Am I to understand that only 7.8.0 can be used for an image, and I have to always upgrade manually to 7.9.3?  We can just add 7.9.3 to the vm build image from a single file?

[Christopher Duryea]

Deploy a scheduled job from within the IM client. Also if you add a custom tag to the vm image such as 'new' or something of your choosing you can add that as a parameter to the upgrade job so that you are only upgrading robots that = 7.8.0 AND user tag 1 = "new". Then there is no risk of upgrading a robot that does not meet both those requirements. 

[RowanCollis]

Perhaps you could build the robot with the native silent installer which is version 7.8 and then add the request.cfg file in the Nimsoft root directory which on first startup will download and install the current robot_update in the archive, which could be version 7.93.

Once processed, the request.cfg is deleted but the robot will be at the latest version. Also the package doesn't contain the version so it will always pick up the latest version in your archive, so all good for future versions.

This KB will help as well..

https://comm.support.ca.com/kb/how-do-i-use-the-requestcfg-file-for-automatic-installation-of-probe-packages/kb000034728

 

[Patrick Murtey]

Hi Rowan, I read the doc you sent the link to, but how is a specific robot_update specified in the request.cfg.  In our archive we have six different robot_update files, from 7.80 to 7.9.3. What would the command look like?

[RowanCollis]

It will look like this:

 

<distribution request>

packages = robot_update

</distribution request>

 

There is no version specified because it will always pick up the most recent version.

You can put in an extra line to use a specific distsrv if you want more control, like this, after the packages command

distsrv = /<your domain>/<your primary hub>/<your prim hub robotname>/distsrv

[Patrick Murtey]

That’s what I need to know. Thank you very much.

[James Christensen]

The only thoughts I would add to this are cautionary:

Install the robot as a cloud install to ensure that the delayed robot startup configuration is in place so that the correct hostname and IP address are bound to by the robot when an image is instantiated.

Make sure that the niscache folder/directory has been deleted from the image to prevent duplication of dev_ids and USM confusion.