Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

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 Starting IBM RPA development with the free license while waiting for CP4BA environment activation

Luis Rafael Vicent Echeverria's profile image
Luis Rafael Vicent Echeverria posted Mon October 06, 2025 04:35 PM

Hi everyone,

We are about to start a new automation development project using IBM RPA, but we’re currently facing some issues with the activation of our licenses under IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation (CP4BA).

To avoid project delays, we would like to ask if it is possible to start development using the IBM RPA Free Trial license, building the bot locally as a .wal file, and then later migrate or deploy the bot to the licensed CP4BA environment once it becomes available.

Specifically, we’d like to confirm:

  1. Is it possible to develop bots using the free version and later import or deploy them into a licensed CP4BA environment without compatibility issues?

  2. Are there any known limitations or considerations when moving a .wal file from the free edition to a licensed environment?

  3. Any technical recommendations to ensure a smooth transition (e.g., handling dependencies, credentials, or scripts)?

Thank you in advance for your guidance — we want to plan our development timeline efficiently while the licensing issue is being resolved.

Best regards,

Antonio Garcia de Campos Junior's profile image
Antonio Garcia de Campos Junior posted Tue October 07, 2025 07:56 AM

Hello, Rafael!

First of all, thank you for using IBM RPA!

If you have access to an IBM RPA environment, even if it's a Trial environment, you can start building your Bots normally. You are right, when you create a new automation, you can store it in your local machine as a .wal file. This file can be open in any RPA Studio application. Few things to keep in mind:

  1. Different versions of the Studio application may have differences in capabilities, like new commands or bug fixes. We suggest you always use the latest release.
  2. Usually, if you create your .wal file in a Studio version equals to the target one, you shouldn't see any issue. Depending on an edge case, if a .wal file is created using a lower version, possible differences are usually highlighted to you as soon as the file is open in the newer Studio version, then you can make smaller adjustments if needed.
  3. In this scenario, only the .wal file is moved from one environment to the other. Everything that is "hard coded" in it is carried along. But keep in mind that resources stored in the server and configured in the Control Center (web) are not moved. In this case, shared credentials, parameters, Bots, and schedules should be created in the official environment. As well as you need to publish your scripts to the new environment.

In general lines, you can make good progress in the .wal file. Even configurations in the Control Center can be easily created in the new environment when it's available.

Have fun!

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