Chapter 1. About Red Hat Process Automation Manager

Red Hat Process Automation Manager is the Red Hat middleware platform for creating business automation applications and microservices. It enables enterprise business and IT users to document, simulate, manage, automate, and monitor business processes and policies. It is designed to empower business and IT users to collaborate more effectively, so business applications can be changed easily and quickly.

Red Hat JBoss Web Server is an enterprise ready web server designed for medium and large applications, based on Tomcat. Red Hat JBoss Web Server provides organizations with a single deployment platform for Java Server Pages (JSP) and Java Servlet technologies, PHP, and CGI.

On a Red Hat JBoss Web Server installation, you can install KIE Server and the headless Process Automation Manager controller. Alternatively, you can run the standalone Business Central JAR file.

The instructions in this document explain how to install Red Hat Process Automation Manager in a Red Hat JBoss Web Server instance.

For instructions on how to install Red Hat Process Automation Manager in other environments, see the following documents:

For information about supported components, see the following documents:

1.1. Red Hat Process Automation Manager components

Red Hat Process Automation Manager is made up of Business Central and KIE Server.

  • Business Central is the graphical user interface where you create and manage business rules. You can install Business Central in a Red Hat JBoss EAP instance or on the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OpenShift).

    Business Central is also available as a standalone JAR file. You can use the Business Central standalone JAR file to run Business Central without needing to deploy it to an application server.

  • KIE Server is the server where rules and other artifacts are executed. It is used to instantiate and execute rules and solve planning problems. You can install KIE Server in a Red Hat JBoss EAP instance, on OpenShift, in an Oracle WebLogic server instance, in an IBM WebSphere Application Server instance, or as a part of Spring Boot application.

    You can configure KIE Server to run in managed or unmanaged mode. If KIE Server is unmanaged, you must manually create and maintain KIE containers (deployment units). A KIE container is a specific version of a project. If KIE Server is managed, the Process Automation Manager controller manages the KIE Server configuration and you interact with the Process Automation Manager controller to create and maintain KIE containers.

    On a Red Hat JBoss Web Server installation, you can install KIE Server and the headless Process Automation Manager controller. Alternatively, you can run the standalone Business Central JAR file.

1.2. Red Hat Process Automation Manager roles and users

To access Business Central or KIE Server, you must create users and assign them appropriate roles before the servers are started.

The Business Central and KIE Server use Java Authentication and Authorization Service (JAAS) login module to authenticate the users. If both Business Central and KIE Server are running on a single instance, then they share the same JAAS subject and security domain. Therefore, a user, who is authenticated for Business Central can also access KIE Server.

However, if Business Central and KIE Server are running on different instances, then the JAAS login module is triggered for both individually. Therefore, a user, who is authenticated for Business Central, needs to be authenticated separately to access the KIE Server (for example, to view or manage process definitions in Business Central). In case, the user is not authenticated on the KIE Server, then 401 error is logged in the log file, displaying Invalid credentials to load data from remote server. Contact your system administrator. message in Business Central.

This section describes available Red Hat Process Automation Manager user roles.

Note

The admin, analyst, developer, manager, process-admin, user, and rest-all roles are reserved for Business Central. The kie-server role is reserved for KIE Server. For this reason, the available roles can differ depending on whether Business Central, KIE Server, or both are installed.

  • admin: Users with the admin role are the Business Central administrators. They can manage users and create, clone, and manage the repositories. They have full access to make required changes in the application. Users with the admin role have access to all areas within Red Hat Process Automation Manager.
  • analyst: Users with the analyst role have access to all high-level features. They can model and execute their projects. However, these users cannot add contributors to spaces or delete spaces in the Design → Projects view. Access to the Deploy → Execution Servers view, which is intended for administrators, is not available to users with the analyst role. However, the Deploy button is available to these users when they access the Library perspective.
  • developer: Users with the developer role have access to almost all features and can manage rules, models, process flows, forms, and dashboards. They can manage the asset repository, they can create, build, and deploy projects, and they can use Red Hat CodeReady Studio to view processes. Only certain administrative functions such as creating and cloning a new repository are hidden from users with the developer role.
  • manager: Users with the manager role can view reports. These users are usually interested in statistics about the business processes and their performance, business indicators, and other business-related reporting. A user with this role has access only to process and task reports.
  • process-admin: Users with the process-admin role are business process administrators. They have full access to business processes, business tasks, and execution errors. These users can also view business reports and have access to the Task Inbox list.
  • user: Users with the user role can work on the Task Inbox list, which contains business tasks that are part of currently running processes. Users with this role can view process and task reports and manage processes.
  • rest-all: Users with the rest-all role can access Business Central REST capabilities.
  • kie-server: Users with the kie-server role can access KIE Server (KIE Server) REST capabilities. This role is mandatory for users to have access to Manage and Track views in Business Central.