RPA Disaster Recovery With Context Replication and Zero Downtime
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current disaster recovery solutions for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) require human intervention and result in inconsistencies and downtime, as they typically restart processes from scratch, which is inefficient and may lead to system unavailability during critical events.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that uses a shared storage, heartbeat module, and restore module to replicate the RPA environment and recreate the context of a robotic agent, allowing for automated disaster recovery without human intervention, creating a second robotic agent to continue process execution, and maintaining continuous access to external systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional disaster recovery solutions restart processes from scratch, then system simplicity is maintained, but downtime occurs and process consistency is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously monitoring the RPA environment and pre-replicating the RPA environment to a secondary location before a disaster event occurs. This includes continuously copying data from the primary RPA environment to the secondary environment, so that when a disaster strikes, the recovery can immediately begin from the pre-prepared replicated environment without downtime or loss of process consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates an exact copy of the primary RPA environment including the RPA bot, its context, and all data in a secondary location. This copy is maintained in real-time through continuous replication, allowing the system to switch to the copied environment instantly upon disaster detection, thereby eliminating downtime and preserving process consistency without requiring complex backup procedures.
2Productivity
If automated disaster recovery is implemented, then productivity is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system introduces an intermediary disaster recovery module that acts as a mediator between the primary RPA environment and the secondary replicated environment. This module automatically detects disasters, triggers the replication process, and manages the transition between environments, thereby automating the complex recovery procedures without requiring complex manual intervention systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The disaster recovery system is designed to be self-service, automatically monitoring the RPA environment for disasters, self-triggering the replication process to the secondary location, and autonomously managing the failover without human intervention. This automation achieves high productivity while the complexity is encapsulated within the self-managing recovery module rather than the entire system architecture.
3Reliability
If continuous replication is performed, then reliability is improved, but computational resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial replication by selectively copying only the essential components of the RPA environment that are necessary for recovery, rather than replicating every single file and process state. This includes replicating the RPA bot executable, critical configuration files, and data, while optimizing the replication process to consume minimal computational resources while maintaining sufficient reliability for disaster recovery.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method and system for performing a disaster recovery for robotic process automation (RPA) include a shared storage storing data of process steps of a workload executed by a first robotic agent in a first environment. A heartbeat module monitors the workload of the first robotic agent until a disaster event occurs during the workload. A restore module replicates the shared storage as a replicated shared storage in a second environment. The restore module recreates a context of the first robotic agent based on an execution of the workload by the first robotic agent at a time of the disaster event.