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What is the best option for decommissioning or archiving workflows in Automation Cloud?  In the on-premises environment, we could export the workflow before deleting it which allowed us to easily recreate the same workflow if a similar workflow was needed in the future.  The current export functionality only allows you to move to a new environment within 3 days which is not optimal. It looks like the only other option is to make a copy and keep in draft format which makes it difficult to manage when you have hundreds of workflows.  Is there a future feature that is coming to allow archiving or similar functionality?

I raised a similar post a while back, regarding documentation of processes, backing up processes and such and, while I can’t recall the exact response, I think that there isn’t any other option at the time.


Hi @clrowe1124,

At the present time there is no way to backup a workflow in Automation Cloud.

Non-expiring keys is a feature that has been considered by our development team and may one day be available on tenants, but not at the moment.


Hi Simon,

 

While it isn’t present at the moment can you offer an suggestions on what we can do now?

We are not long in using Nintex but the backup recovery options in Automation Cloud are a concern if we can’t export a key and then recover if its more than 3 days later.

 

Regards,

Paul


Hi @PScyner68 ,

 

The only option at the present time is to publish as development so that users cannot run the workflow.


It’s too bad this simple feature is not available.  As indicated, I’ll change them to development and add tags to indicate which are actually archives rather than development workflows in hope of a future solution to this issue.


Hi @clrowe1124,

 

I have run into this before, for me I found the best method would be to do the following:

 

Create a group in NAC for archived, this can then use used to permission workflows specifically to archived permissions removing others to prevent anyone making changes to the workflow unless they are a admin, You can then publish as development however I find pausing the workflow is better as this retains the production status but still prevents new workflow instances. 

 

Paused workflows still appear in the list but are greyed out where as development workflows still remain usable.

 

 

Editing and changing the workflow is allowed but they will remain paused until undone.

You will also find the start links are removed 

 

And if you directly link you get this error:

 


I had already paused the workflow as mentioned to avoid it being run and changed the permissions. The problem with retaining the “Production” status if the workflow is truly archived is that it continues to count against the number of workflows you are licensed for if it is more than 5 actions (which this particular one is).  I do not think pausing it removes it from being tracked as “production”, but changing it to “development” does. 


Hi @clrowe1124

 

In that case a paused development workflow should achieve the outcome you need. Although it might not appear to be archived it will in a sense be as such.

 

depending on your licensing model we handle production/development workflows differently, it might be work reaching out to your account manager and clarify directly with them. 


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