Prerequisites to install the client

This section covers the requirements for hardware and system, network, product, and any other requirements that you must meet prior to installing IBM RPA on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform client.

In this topic

Detailed system requirements

To ensure a successful installation of IBM RPA, it is important to review and comply with the detailed system requirements report. This report provides information on the necessary operational systems, hardware, software, and any other requirements that are needed to install IBM RPA.

Complete the following steps to review the detailed system requirements:

  1. Go to Detailed system requirements for a specific product 🡥.
  2. On the Full or partial product name field, enter IBM Robotic Process Automation and click the magnifying glass.
  3. From the Search results list, choose the offering:
    1. If IBM RPA on premises, select IBM Robotic Process Automation.
    2. If IBM RPA on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform, select IBM Robotic Process Automation.
    3. If IBM RPA SaaS, select IBM Robotic Process Automation as a Service.
  4. From the Version list, select a version.
  5. Optional: You can customize the report by expanding the accordion items and selecting the items you want to see. By default, all options are selected.
  6. Click Submit.

Note about software prerequisites

Install software prerequisites manually if you want to install IBM RPA through the command line interface.

When you run the installer on a computer without meeting software prerequisites, the installer prompts you to install it, and restart the computer before you resume the IBM RPA installation.

User requirements

You must run the installer with administrator privileges.

Antivirus notice

Some antivirus software might block certain parts of the installation process, causing error messages to appear. In some cases, the installer ends successfully, but IBM RPA Studio or other components don't get the necessary permissions to operate.

In this scenario, add the following paths to the antivirus ignore list:

  • IBM executable files at C:\Program Files\IBM Robotic Process Automation\IBM Robotic Process Automation.
  • IBM executables files at C:\Program Files\IBM Robotic Process Automation\IBM Robotic Process Automation\Toolkit.
  • Executable files that are not part of the IBM RPA Studio, but are used to help automations.
  • These executable files are extracted at runtime in the %LOCALAPPDATA%\IBM Robotic Process Automation\packages folder in the current user session. For example,C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Local\IBM Robotic Process Automation\packages.

Optional: System restore point

You can configure your Windows™ environment to create restore points at regular intervals, or create it manually at any time. It can help you undo changes to a previous state by using the data from a restore point. For more information, see Use System Restore 🡥.

Network prerequisites

See the network prerequisites for the IBM RPA on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform client installation:

Internet connection

The IBM RPA on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform client installer doesn't require an internet connection. You can use a local network connection to connect to the IBM RPA server.

Web browser policy

Setting policies to the supported web browsers can block web automation capabilities. The following policies can block:

  • The DisableDevTools preference in Mozilla Firefox.
  • The "Set User Data Directory" policy in Google Chrome.

Also, don't change the default directory to the user profile data. For more information, see Web browser policies.

Ports and protocols

You must open the ports according to the services that IBM RPA uses. The following table shows the services and their ports and protocols that are required for IBM RPA client.

Service Protocol Ports Traffic
Debug schedule TCP 8095 Inbound and outbound
MSMQ TCP 1801 Outbound
Bot API TCP User defined¹ Inbound and outbound
API TCP User defined¹ Inbound and outbound
IBM RPA Control Center TCP User defined¹ Inbound and outbound
¹ Use the port that you defined in the IBM RPA server installation.

The following table shows optional ports that are used to trigger bots:

Service Protocol Ports Traffic
HTTP Handler TCP 8099 Inbound
Broker TCP 8096 Inbound

Make sure there is no firewall policy blocking IPC. The affected range is 49152-75535. For more information, see Web browser policies.

🛈 Remember: The bot uses only one port per runtime.

IBM RPA domains and subdomains

You need to ensure access to IBM RPA domains and subdomains in the client-side. Enable them according to what you have defined on the IBM RPA server installation and configuration.

The following table shows the IBM RPA domains that you must enable the access to:

Domain specification Protocol Port Domain example
IBM RPA Control Center HTTPS User defined 192.0.2.0:7780
Chatbot API server HTTPS User defined 192.0.2.0:20001
IBM RPA's API server endpoint HTTPS User defined 192.0.2.0:7790
IBM MQ¹ HTTPS User defined 192.0.2.0:1801
¹ IBM MQ is the IBM RPA platform's default workload queue endpoint. You need to open the IBM MQ ports on the firewall for outbound requests.

Product prerequisites

See the following prerequisites to install and to configure your IBM RPA client.

Installation key

Starting from version 23.0.2, you must have an installation key to install IBM Robotic Process Automation Client. This key enables the connection between the client and the server, registering your computer on the tenant where you got the installation key from.

IBM Robotic Process Automation supports a new licensing system that provides flexibility and security. With this update, you can install the IBM Robotic Process Automation Client on any computer, considering that you have an installation key from a tenant.

On the IBM RPA Control Center, tenant administrators can regenerate the tenant's installation key, rendering previous keys unusable on newer client installations. This protects your tenant if the installation key gets exposed.

To get your installation key, see Getting the installation key.

For tenant administrators, see how to change the installation key in Resetting the installation key.

Computer capacity

A computer's capacity value is the number of bot runtimes that a computer can run concurrently at the same time. Starting from version 23.0.2, you can modify each computer's capacity value according to the amount of bots you wish to run concurrently.

The installer sets this value to 1 by default. To change the default value, see Modifying computer's capacity.

About the installer

The following table displays the tools that IBM RPA on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform Client installs and that you need to run and develop your bots:

Tool Function
Bot Runtime Run IBM RPA bots. This tool is used by the other IBM RPA tools to run the bot.
IBM RPA Studio Develop IBM RPA bots. For more information, see IBM RPA Studio.
IBM RPA Launcher Start IBM RPA bots on demand. For more information, see Launching scripts.
IBM RPA Vault Store secrets and credentials. For more information, see IBM RPA Vault.

Understanding certificates

IBM RPA uses a certificate system to authenticate computers on the IBM RPA server. After you install IBM RPA Client, your computer is registered to a tenant that you configured with the installation key. The certificate ensures that your computer maintains a secure communication with the server.