Deploying to a virtualized or cloud environment

For some smaller implementations where there is less demand for scalability or where virtualization is not feasible, Blue Prism can be deployed to a wholly physical environment and can largely make use of existing desktops – albeit in a secured environment.

Virtualization however, is commonly the recommend approach as it more easily provides benefits which include physical security and scalability. Many virtualization technologies also simplify the roll-out of software updates and the implementation of disaster recover capabilities.

The core Blue Prism components can be deployed to persistent virtualized Windows devices and there are two main approaches:

Use of an existing virtualization technology

Where organizations already have access to virtualization technologies such as VMWare or Citrix XenDesktop, there may be the capability to utilize these to provide the virtual machines which will host the required Blue Prism components. Further details on virtualization patterns are provided within the Virtualization Guide (available on request).

Provision a dedicated virtualization host

Virtualization can be provided by provisioning a new dedicated server (or set of servers) on which new virtual machines are configured and used to host the required Blue Prism components. These typically use technologies such as Microsoft Hyper-V or Aware ESX although others are available.

When deploying to this type of host machine it is important to ensure that the specification of the host machine is sufficient to not only cater for the underlying operating system, but also provide the appropriate resources and performance for each of the virtual machines that will be configured.

Dedicated Virtual Host (example)

  • 10-15 Blue Prism runtime resources
  • Dual Socket Virtualization hosts:
  • Quad Intel Xeon Quad Core Processors
  • 32GB RAM (minimum)
  • 450GB available space after applying RAID to arrayed disks
  • 2 physical 1000Mbit NIC
  • Operating System appropriate to technology (e.g. Hyper-V, ESX)

Cloud-based deployment patterns

Blue Prism may be deployed on a cloud environment such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS. This may be appropriate if the organization has an existing cloud strategy. Further details may be found in:

  • Blue Prism Data Sheet – Cloud Deployments
  • Blue Prism Data Sheet – Azure Reference Architecture
  • Blue Prism Data Sheet – AWS Reference Architecture

Deployment Options

The following examples provide sample architectures based on the scale, or key features of the environment. Factors such as security, resilience, scalability and cloverleaf should also be considered. The example deployment options below include:

For deployments with up to 5 Blue Prism runtime resources, a configuration using physical machines can be used. The machines should be appropriately secured and can be used either with or without the Blue Prism Server component (depending on requirements for scheduling and encryption).

The Blue Prism server and database can be hosted on the same physical or virtual machine for pre-production scenarios

For deployments above 5 physical runtime resources, Blue Prism recommends installing on Windows desktops provided by a virtualized environment such as VMWare ESX or Citrix XenDesktop.

Blue Prism is installed on each virtual instance and becomes more easily secured and scaled up according to the size and capacity of the host server(s).

When deploying a number of environments such as for Dev, Test and Production purposes, each environment will require a dedicated database, however it is possible for some of the Blue Prism components to be shared. In the example below a single virtual server is used to host the Blue Prism Server service for the separate Dev and Test environments. Likewise a single interactive client can be configured to access any number of environments.

In larger or more complex scenarios it is possible to configure separate environments, such as for purposes of data or process segregation, whilst still sharing certain central features.

The example below demonstrates how three environments, each specifically purposed for supporting a defined business area can be configured. In this example, each business area has a series of dedicated runtime resources, and has a dedicated Blue Prism Server service, but the Server services are co-hosted on shared hardware.

For larger scale environments, the Blue Prism runtime resources are replicated and scaled, and each is paired with a dedicated application server for database communication. For cloverleaf and DR the hosts can be co-located at different physical sites. It is possible to deploy large numbers of runtime resources by following this approach.

In the above example, each application server can marshal the connectivity for up to 100 Blue Prism runtime resources.

Where there is a requirement to deploy across multiple sites, Blue Prism can accommodate either an Addictiveness or Abstractive scenario depending on considerations such as network performance and security.

Active/passive

Active/active