Resource pools

Resource pools enable you to group multiple resources into a single entity for the purposes of scheduling and running processes. They also help to increase reliability and fault tolerance; if an individual resource is unavailable, a process scheduled against or assigned to a pool can still run on a different pool member until the resource becomes available again.

A typical use of resource pools is to group several machines into one pool, and run many foreground or exclusive processes on the pool allowing SS&C | Blue Prism Enterprise to automatically choose machines in the pool that are available to run the requested processes. The resource is selected based on availability, and the user’s permission to use the resource, governed by the access rights of the user role. For more information, see Multi-team environments. When a pool is used by a process, a single session is created against a resource in the pool; it does not create a session on every resource. If no resources in the pool are available, no session will be created.

Using resource pools can be particularly useful if you are not concerned which machine a process will run on, but want to guarantee that the process will be run, for example, when using command line scheduling options, or the built-in Process Scheduler.

When a resource is added to a pool, it can only be scheduled or used to execute processes through the resource pool, not individually. Any existing schedules which addressed the resource directly will fail. To correct this, recreate the schedule to use a different resource or to use the pool the resource is now a member of.

If you are using the Login Agent, it is recommended that you do not use resource pools with the Login Agent.

Create a pool

  1. In Blue Prism Enterprise, navigate to System > Resources > Resources - Pools and click New Pool at the bottom of the Resources – Pools screen.

    The pool is created with a default name, for example, MyNewPool.

  2. Enter your own name for the pool. The name you use must not contain spaces.

    It is important that you name the pool at this time, as you cannot rename pools later.

    Your pool is now ready for you to add resources to it.

Add resources to a pool

  1. If you do not already have the Resources – Pools screen open, navigate to System > Resources > Resources - Pools.

  2. Drag the resource you want to assign to the pool from the Available Resources panel and drop it onto the name of the required pool in the Resource Pools panel.

    A resource may only belong to one pool.

Remove resources from a pool

  1. If you do not already have the Resources – Pools screen open, navigate to System > Resources > Resources - Pools.

  2. Select the resource you want to remove from the pool and click Remove from Pool at the bottom of the Resources – Pools screen. Alternatively, you can right-click the resource and select Remove.

    This will remove the resource from the pool, and return it to the list of available resources.

    If you want to remove all the resources from a pool, right-click the pool itself and select Remove. This will remove all the resources and return them to the list of available resources.

Delete a pool

Deleting a pool does not remove the resources from the system, the resources will simply return to the list of available resources.

  1. If you do not already have the Resources – Pools screen open, navigate to System > Resources > Resources - Pools.
  2. Select the pool you want to remove and click Delete Pool at the bottom of the Resources – Pools screen. Alternatively, you can right-click the pool and select Delete.

Assign a process to a pool

In Control Room, pools appear just like any other resources and can be assigned processes in the same way as individual resources. The number of resources in a pool is indicated in the Members column.

If an entry in the Session Info column has an asterisk (*) prefix, this indicates that the resource is a pool controller, so the machine will be used to distribute processes to available runtime resources within the pool.

A user's ability to use (and even see) a resource and/or resource pool is governed by the access rights of the user's role. If you are unable to see or use a resource pool that you expect to have access to, contact your system administrator.

To assign a process:

  1. In Blue Prism Enterprise, navigate to Control > Session Management.
  2. In the Available Processes panel, drag the process you want to assign and drop it onto the pool name in the Available Resources panel. Make sure you do not drag the process onto a resource in the pool.

Assign a schedule to a pool

In Scheduler, pools appear just like any other resources and can be assigned schedules in the same way as individual resources. The number of resources in a pool is indicated in the Members column.

A user's ability to use (and even see) a resource and/or resource pool is governed by the access rights of the user's role. If you are unable to see or use a resource pool that you expect to have access to, contact your system administrator.

To assign a schedule:

  1. In Blue Prism Enterprise, navigate to Control > Scheduler > Schedules.
  2. Right-click the schedule you want to use and select New Task. Give the task an appropriate name and description.
  3. In the Available Processes panel for the task, drag the process you want to assign and drop it onto the pool name in the Available Resources panel. Make sure you do not drag the process onto a resource in the pool.