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Lag to run flow on VM

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Posted on 22 Nov 2021 15:01:42 by jmct12345

I built a very simple Power App (1 input field) that then triggers a web flow. That web flow triggers a Desktop flow that runs on a VM.

All the flow does is pass a search term from power apps, launches google on the VM and searches for the term. Obviously not the production case in mind, just a POC to make sure all my connections are working.

The problem I have is when I run, it takes almost 1 minute to run. The VM is up and waiting (I am in attended mode).

If I just run the desktop flow it takes about 5 seconds.

Is there any way to reduce the lag of those steps? Eventually I want the production case to run in unattended mode. Would the performance between Attended and Unattended be similar?

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rbovensi 2 on 21 Feb 2022 at 01:15:59

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Re: Lag to run flow on VM

Hitting the same problem, need to run desktop flows,but getting 1-2 minute delay. I have seen delays up to 10 minutes so far all running the same flow on the same desktop. Seems very inefficient based that this was built on Winautomation. And am transferring back to that for the speed. Plus has less bugs running websites the Power Automate.
Community Power Pla... on 07 Dec 2021 at 02:53:49

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Re: Lag to run flow on VM

I feel your pain. I set up a flow to open my gmail on Chrome and send myself an email. Works fine on my laptop. Took 4 to 5 times as long to run it in attended and unattended mode on the Azure vm. Useless!
jmct12345 22 on 23 Nov 2021 at 13:52:39

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Re: Lag to run flow on VM

Thank you both. I currently have the VM hosted in US East (I am in NY), so I think its close. Its a bit underpowered (didn't want high cost during POC), I may try a more powerful VM to see if it responds faster.

Otherwise, that may be what it is which will not work for my needs. I hope MS can reduce that lag, its really a killer for many use cases.
PetrosF-MSFT on 23 Nov 2021 at 09:54:14

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Re: Lag to run flow on VM

Hi @jmct12345,
Try to create your flows in an environment that's in the region closest to your VM location. An environment is bound to a geographic location, and when the datacenters that host your environment are closer to the machine that's accessing the information, you're likely to see better performance.
Henrik_M 2,006 Super User 2024 Season 1 on 23 Nov 2021 at 08:54:13

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Re: Lag to run flow on VM

That's just how long it takes for the command to reach the machine, log on, execute the desktop flow, log off, and send outputs to the cloud flow.

I think the only way to reduce the lag is to wait patiently and hope Microsoft does something about it. Right now, the long delay is OK for long desktop flow, but insanely inefficient for small queue-based flows. I would love to hear @Stephen's thoughts on the matter.