Runners and clusters

Runners are the machines that run the automations, with Proton Runner installed. In the portal, Runners > Manage shows each runner live, and Runners > Cluster groups runners to share the runs.

To install the Runner on a machine and connect it to Proton, see Environment Setup. This page covers what you see and do in the portal.

The runner center

Runners > Manage, Runners tab, is the live center: it refreshes on its own every few seconds (the Live badge sits in the corner) and counts the time of the runs in progress.

Indicators

Indicator	What it counts
Running	Busy runners.
Free	Runners that are connected and not running anything.
Offline	Disconnected runners.
In progress	Runs that are running or being prepared right now.
In queue	Runs waiting for a runner.
Outdated	Runners on a version older than the latest release.

Running, Free and Offline are also filters: click to turn them on and off. The bar also has the Search runner box (by alias, owner, machine or operating system) and, for those who can view clusters, the cluster filter.

The runner card

Cards are sorted as running, free and offline. Each one shows:

• the name: the alias or, without one, the owner of the connection, with the Robot badge (robot account) or Cloud badge (Cloud Runner);
• the owner, the machine and the operating system;
• the Runner version, in orange with "update" when there's a new version (the Runner updates itself when it restarts);
• the current run: the automation, the elapsed time, the dataset and the progress ("Step X of Y", with the component), or "Free, waiting for a run", "Offline" or "Preparing the run";
• the queue: how many runs are waiting for this runner;
• the machine's current CPU and Memory usage (not shown when it's offline).

The runner drawer

Clicking the card opens the drawer, with the center still visible next to it:

• the current run and the Queue, with the dataset, the automation, who started it and the status of each run;
• the Machine: name, operating system, cores, memory, version, whether the runner is Private or Public and whether status notification is on;
• the Clusters the runner belongs to;
• Today: the day's runs, how many passed, failed and were stopped, and how long the runner was busy.

Alias

The pencil in the drawer gives the runner an alias (up to 60 characters), which then appears instead of the owner's name on every screen, such as "Billing robot" or "SAP machine 2". Without an alias, the owner's name is used. Requires permission to edit runners.

Private and Public

Private Mode is turned on in the Runner itself, on the machine, by whoever connected it (see Proton Runner). In the portal, a private runner is shown only to its owner.

To reserve runners or clusters for an automation, use Select Agents in the Automations list: that automation's run window then shows only the ones you chose.

When the runner goes offline

• An immediate run for a disconnected runner is refused and goes to the exception queue, with the Operation module.
• A scheduled run waits up to 1 hour for the runner to come back. After that, it's marked as "Did not run".
• A run in progress on a runner that went down and didn't come back is marked as failed after 15 minutes without progress.

Cloud Runners

The Cloud Runners tab, in Runners > Manage, starts and stops cloud machines that work as runners. The machine is billed by the hour while it's on: shut it down when you no longer need it.

• Add opens the window: choose the Configuration (each one shows the price per hour, the vCPUs and the memory) and the machine Model, and save.
• The machine starts as Pending and becomes Active when it's ready. Then it shows up in the center with the Cloud badge.
• The shutdown button terminates the machine (Shutting Down and then Terminated). Its runner leaves the center.
• The card shows the machine code, the status, the public IP, who created it and the dates. List Terminated also shows the machines already shut down, and the list refreshes every 30 seconds.

The available configurations and machine models are prepared by Atomic: contact Atomic to use them. Viewing, creating and terminating Cloud Runners require their own permissions.

Clusters

A cluster groups several runners to share the runs among them. When you run or schedule, choose the cluster instead of a runner: Proton sends each run to a runner in the cluster.

The list

In Runners > Cluster, each cluster shows its runners, how many are running, free and offline right now, and whether it's Active. Search also finds a cluster by the name of one of its runners.

Build the cluster

Add (or the pencil, to edit) opens the builder:

1. Give the cluster a Name.
2. On the left, choose the runners. Search and the status filters (Free, Running, Offline) and type filters (People, Robots, Cloud) help you find them. Each card shows whether the runner is already in another cluster.
3. On the right is what's in the cluster, with how many runners are running at the same time right now, how many are free, and warnings for offline or outdated runners. The X removes a runner from the cluster.
4. Create cluster (or Save).

When editing, the Active switch turns the cluster on and off. When it's off, it doesn't show up when choosing where to run.

How the cluster shares the runs

• An offline runner never gets a run.
• The runs started together go to the free runners, one per runner, in rotation.
• With no free runner, the runs go to the queue of the cluster's busy runners.

Permissions and mobile

• Runners, clusters and Cloud Runners have their own permissions (view, create, edit and delete) in the profile. Viewing clusters also unlocks the cluster filter and the Clusters section of the drawer.
• The center, Cloud Runners and clusters are designed for desktop. On mobile, the center still opens, with the drawer in full screen.

The Proton Runner page

In Help > Proton Runner you'll find the Runner download for Windows and Linux, the release notes for each version and the previous versions. The menu shows how many versions came out since your last visit. See Proton Runner.