Configuring Workplace Assistant

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25.0.1.0
Install and configure the Workplace Assistant in a traditional Business Automation Workflow environment.

Before you begin

Before you can install and configure Workplace Assistant, make sure that you have:

Docker installed on your server.
Access to Passport Advantage® to download the container image.
Business Automation Workflow on-premises environment.
Access to watsonx.ai™ or Cloud Pak for Data with LLM capabilities (Llama-3.3-70B-Instruct installed).

About this task

Use the following procedure to configure Workplace Assistant in a Business Automation Workflow traditional environment.

For usage information, see Using Workplace Assistant.

Procedure

Log in to Passport Advantage, then download and extract the workflow-assistant-server.tar file.
Configure the SSL certificates before starting the container. If your Business Automation Workflow environment already uses certificates signed by your organization's internal or external CA, reuse the same certificates for the agent server. The certificate reuse ensures that browsers and the Workplace UI already trust both servers and eliminates the need to accept certificates manually.
1. Obtain the trusted certificates: request the following information from your WebSphere® or IT security administrator:
  
  File Description
  
  server.crt Your organization's trusted public certificate.
  
  server.key The corresponding private key.
  
  ca.crt The root or intermediate CA chain.
2. Create the certs directory and place the certificates:
  Important: Place your certificates in the certs directory before starting the container. If the container starts and finds no certificates, it will automatically generate self-signed certificates. Certificates in the certs directory will not be overwritten.
  Create a certs directory in your installation directory and place the certificates there:
```
# Create the certs directory
mkdir -p <install_dir>/certs

# Copy your certificates to the certs directory
# Example:
cp /path/to/your/server.crt <install_dir>/certs/
cp /path/to/your/server.key <install_dir>/certs/
cp /path/to/your/ca.crt <install_dir>/certs/
```
  The final structure should be:
```
<install_dir>/
├── certs/
│   ├── server.crt
│   ├── server.key
│   └── ca.crt
├── start-docker.sh
└── ...
```

File	Description
`server.crt`	Your organization's trusted public certificate.
`server.key`	The corresponding private key.
`ca.crt`	The root or intermediate CA chain.

Create an .env file in your installation directory. Then, configure the following environment variables in .env file.

# WatsonX API credentials
WATSONX_URL=<your watsonx.ai URL or CP4D URL>
WATSONX_API_KEY=<your API key>
WATSONX_PROJECT_ID=<your project id>

# For Cloud Pak for Data (if applicable)
# WATSONX_USERNAME=<your CP4D username>
# WATSONX_PASSWORD=<your CP4D password>
# WATSONX_TOKEN=<your CP4D token>
# WATSONX_INSTANCE_ID=<your CP4D instance id>
# WATSONX_VERSION=<your CP4D version>

# BAW Server URL
BPM_SERVER=https://<your-baw-server>:<port>

# Enable required agents
RUN_WORKPLACE_AGENT=true
RUN_AUTHORING_AGENT=true

# CORS settings for frontend integration
CORS_ORIGINS=https://<your-baw-server>:<port>

# Enable HTTPS
USE_HTTPS=true

# SSL certificate and key files
# If using Option 1 (organization certificates), uncomment and update filenames if needed:
# CERT_FILE=./certs/server.crt
# KEY_FILE=./certs/server.key
# CA_CERT_FILE=./certs/ca.crt

# BAW_HOSTNAME=<your-baw-server> # Uncomment and set this when agent server and BAW server are on different machines
AGENT_HOSTNAME=<your-agent-server>

# Optional: For federated environments
# FDR_ENABLED=true
# PFS_SERVER=https://<your-pfs-server>:<port>

# Optional: For case features
# CASE_ENABLED=true

Start the docker container.
- On Linux®:
  1. Inside the extracted folder, run the following commands to add the executed permissions:
```
chmod +x start-docker.sh
chmod +x stop-docker.sh
```
  2. Run the provided start-docker.sh script.
  3. Verify that the container is running:
```
docker ps | grep workflow-assistant
```
- On Windows:
  1. Inside the extracted folder, run the following command:
```
# Run the script
start-docker.bat
```
  2. Verify that the container is running:
```
docker ps | findstr "workflow-assistant"
```
Check the container logs by using
```
docker logs -f workflow-assistant-container
```
Configure Workplace Assistant:
1. Access the Websphere Admin Server Console: https://<BAW_SERVER>:9043/ibm/console
2. Under Resources > Resource environment > Resource Environment > Resource Environment Providers > Mashup ConfigService > Custom properties, add the following properties.
  - To enable the agent chat UI feature:
```
   com.ibm.bpm.workplace.agent.enable
     value  →  true
     type → boolean
```
    Tip: To disable the assistant, change the com.ibm.bpm.workplace.agent.enable parameter value to False. For more information, see Configuring mashup properties for non-PostgreSQL environments.
  - To configure the agent endpoint URL:
```
   com.ibm.bpm.workplace.agent.endpoint
   value: https://<your-agent-server>:8000/runtimeChat
```
3. (Required only when the agent server and the Business Automation Workflow server are on different systems) Configure the single-sign on (SSO): under Security > Global security > Web and SIP security > Single sign-on (SSO), change Domain name to your organization’s domain name (for example, mycompany.com, ibm.com®), then save the configuration and restart the server.
Open wsadmin CLI, in \BUILT\deploy2\AppServer\bin and configure the Content Security Policy (CSP), then restart the server.
Verify that Workplace Assistant is installed by logging in to Workplace, going to a task, and checking that the assistant chat icon is visible in the interface. Click the chat icon to interact with the assistant.

Results

Now that Workplace Assistant is configured, you can start using it in your work. See Using Workplace Assistant.