Looking for options to capture RPA in CMDB / CSDM framework.

[Saurabh851]

Looking for options to capture RPA in CMDB / CSDM framework.

I know OOTB no class is available to capture the RPA CIs. In our environment, these RPAs are subjected to compliance regulatory where trigger approval from the associated Information Objects.

Thanks in advance.

[Daniel Carvalho]

Hello @Saurabh851 

Hope all good with you!

So, id did some pondering around that as well. Here is where did I arrived at:

Within my wonderings, I hoped to start from what is known. That said, RPA kind of seems like a "fashionist version" of a batch job to me.

It is a repeatable (scripted) procedure of something someone could be manually doing, but, in favor of cost and accuracy, it is better served as an algorithm.

Even though there is a cmdb_ci_batch_job as a OOB table, reusing that for RPA felt not ok due two reasons:

• The way I understood, this table was not really meant to be used in a "instantiated" way (therefore, several records versions for each environment: DEV / QA /PROD etc.).
• And it would mix very different tech stacks (aka.: simple contrab shell script jobs and RPAs "robots" within RPA Platforms).

Next I wondered on "cloning" cmdb_ci_batch_job into a brand new u_cmdb_ci_rpa_robot. That would be meant to represent automated RPA routines. Not RPA platforms, not "RPA licenses" (in the sense that 1 robot license represents 24 hours of an automated end-user screen session, which could run several different automated routines).

But from a different perspective, I ended up realizing that, in the end, that all is "code". Big code is application (aka. cmdb_ci_business_app instantiated into "Application Services") , smaller and more modern code (aka. microservice) is also recommended (SN SRE approach) to be dealt as Biz_App (therefore also cmdb_ci_business_app & "Application Services").

So, why not understanding RPA automated routines as "cmdb_ci_business_app instantiated into Application Services". And that is where I landed.

Big Applications, Smaller applications, different flavored applications, but, in the end, all are (business software)  applications.

I only did 2 extra steps:

• 01 new field "U_ nature of application" separating traditional biz_apps from rpa from microservices, so to enforce field mandatory rules & etc.
• Usage of architecture type, to implement parent/tree structure to represent "families" of software’s solutions. And that could represent "Family SAP" as one simpler CI, with children as "SAP - CO" and "SAP - FI" as actual applications. But also for organizational families of "RPA" and "Microservices" (or "MSVC" as I prefer").

Hope it helped. Bottom line, in the end they are all Applications.

Cordial

Daniel

[Saurabh851]

Thanks Daniel for the response. Yeah, till now been approaching them as applications but at times, feels awkward to capture really small codes as business application.

Plan is to carry out clean up to ensure to keep the contained under managed CIs with limited business exposure.

[SteveMacWWT · Accepted solution]

Since ServiceNow has its own RPA tool, I went to see what they did for their objects. 

I found the page "" at https://docs.servicenow.com/bundle/xanadu-integrate-applications/page/product/rpa-core/reference/rpa...

I'm not sure if they've made these tables available outside of the RPA tool, but it may be worth looking at the "CMDB CI Class Models" available in the store. 

If they are not available outside their app, the link above shows how ServiceNow models these. 

What I found there was interesting: The RPA process table is extended from the Automation CI table (not surprising) which extends the Business Process table (that is the one that surprised me). 

Looking at the Robot table I was again surprised. That is extended from the Application table (cmdb_ci_appl). 

Now, I shouldn't have been surprised, it makes sense. I guess I've just been spending too much time in CSDM-land to have thought about it at that level and not tried to make it fit into App Service. 

I am one of today's 10,000! 

[Saurabh851]

Thanks Steve for sharing. Parent base - cmdb_ci_base_rpa_robot & cmdb_ci_base_rpa_process both are available outside the RPA Hub, with former being more closer as small code application under tech stack.