PeopleTools 8.56.01 is now available

PeopleTools 8.56.01 is now available to download. One can find the DPKs for the PeopleTools 8.56.01 in the PeopleTools Patches Home Page DOC id 2062712.2. Note that DPK Contains the 01 Patch.

Two main enhancements in PeopleTools patches for PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.56 are :

• Patch application for PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.56 uses an automated Change Assistant process to apply database changes for each PeopleTools Patch (PTP) via a cumulative PTP package.
• In prior releases, PeopleSoft PeopleTools patches included only the cumulative changes made for the patches. All PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.56 patches include the full code line delivered at the PeopleTools major release general availability date, plus any changes for each succeeding patch.

Patchset Number for

AIX is 25983547

LINUX is 25983545

MS Windows is 25983546

Solaris is 25983550

For PeopleTools 8.55 and 8.56, users can take the benefit of  Elasticsearch 2.3.2 search engine with PeopleSoft Search Framework.

Note that Elasticsearch implementation is supported for PeopleSoft 9.2 applications on PeopleTools 8.55.11 and higher, and PeopleTools 8.56.01 and higher. Elasticsearch is provided as a deployment package (DPK) for supported Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.

Manifest file for software versions in PeopleTools 8.55.14 DPK

Manifest file for software versions in PeopleTools 8.55.14 DPK is stored in the second zip file (*_2of4.zip) of Tools 8.55.14 DPK.

Software versions bundled with Tools 8.55.14 DPK are as below

type=tools
platform=Windows
version=8.55.14
oracleclient_version=12.1.0.2
jdk_version=1.7.0_101
weblogic_version=12.1.3

tuxedo_version=12.1.3.0.0

PeopleSoft ElasticSearch 2.3.2

Oracle PeopleSoft have released Elastic Search which can be configured with PeopleSoft Search Framework with PeopleTools 8.55.11 and higher patch levels.

For ElasticSearch to deploy in your environment, You need to be on PeopleTools 8.55.11 or higher patch level. The Elasticsearch integration is supported for PeopleSoft 9.2 applications on PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.55.11 or higher patch level ONLY.

PeopleTools 8.55.11 supports search engine Elasticsearch 2.3.2 with full integration with the PeopleSoft Search Framework.

With the release of ElasticSearch, Oracle Secure Enterprise Search will be supported for eighteen months, until April 30, 2018.

Elastic Search DPKs is available on e-delivery cloud and from the MOS under specific patchset number defined below

Patch No 24924150 ElasticSearch 2.3.2 DPK for Windows

Patch No 24924136 ElasticSearch 2.3.2 DPK for Linux.

I am working on collating more details on Elastic Search and will keep posting all details on the blog.

Watch this space.

  

Deploying PeopleTools Client on local desktop from the PeopleSoft Update Image installed on Windows VM

PeopleSoft latest image installed on the Virtual machine includes a client installer for setting up PeopleTools client tools such as Change Assistant, Configuration Manager, and Application Designer and an Oracle database client.

You can use the PeopleTools client( from tools_client folder) on the Virtual machine to install the standalone client on your local desktop on the network.

For standalone Tools Client installation on the local desktop, I assume that:

1. You have all required PeopleSoft DPKs in the DPK_INSTALL on the microsoft windows computer where you have install PeopleSoft Update Image.

2. You completed the setup of the PeopleSoft Image on the Virtual Machine and that has created the PI Home and Other required folders.

Once we get the confirmation on the above points,
Map you static IP which you have assigned to your image from your local desktop. For example if you static ip is \\116.121.23.41 then this IP should be accessible on the network and from your local desktop.
Once mapped the static ip, open windows power shell with administrater previliges and change the drive to the mapped drive. In my case it is as given below.

Navigate to tools_client and look for SetupPTClient.bat.

Execute SetupPTClient.bat with the option as below. SetupPTClient.bat is the interactive script that installs the PeopleSoft PeopleTools components including Oracle Client and Application Designer.

Once installed copy the tnsnames.ora from tools_client and copy it to C:\oracle\product\12.1.0\client_1\network\admin

PS V:\> .\SetupPTClient.bat -l

****** SetupPTClient started at 11:38:44.94 ******

This script will guide you through the deployment of PeopleTools Client components for your environment.

Is this deployment for a Update Manager Environment?
(A 'Y' will prompt you to setup a Target PeopleTools client deployment in
addition to the Source PeopleTools client.)
[Y/N]: N

Starting Tools Client Deployment!

Validating compatible Oracle DB Client for Source PeopleTools 8.55.07

Deploying Oracle DB Client for PTools Version - 8.55.07
Deploying Source PeopleTools 8.55.07 Client in C:\PT8.55.07_Client_ORA
Installing Change Assistant for PeopleTools 8.55.07 Client in C:\Program Files\PeopleSoft\Change Assistant The system cannot find the file specified.
'/s' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.
Deployment of PeopleTools Client and installation of Change Assistant Complete.
Tools Client Deployment Ended.
"****** SetupPTClient ended at 11:53:39.72 ******"

Open pscfg.exe and configure the connect ID.
Open application designer from C:\PT8.55.07_Client_ORA\bin\client\winx86(from your local desktop) and login with your login credentials.

Process Scheduler starting Slow on Windows 2012 R2

We recently have upgraded to PeopleTools 8.55.05 and along with this we have upgraded our infrastructure also. For windows batch server, we have upgraded our infrastructure from windows 2008 R2 to Windows 2012 R2.

After installing new Tools version (PeopleTools 8.55.05) on windows 2012 R2 , we noticed performance issue while booting up the batch server. On windos 2012, each server process is taking approx 50-60 seconds to boot up and in turn the complete batch server is booting up in approximately 10 minutes. Before upgrade, we were on Tools 8.53 with windows 2008 and batch server boot up process was quite fast and as per the expectation.

As a part of our analysis we did a packet capture(using wireshark) and noticed a lot of NB (NetBios name resolution) and LLMNR (Link-Local Multicast Name Resolution) packets, which appeared to be slowing things down for the process scheduler processes.

For the box where the scheduler is booting up slow, we have noticed that prior to LDAP query there are series of DNS, NB and LLMNR queries to resolve the database name. However, on windows 2008 R2 , it just gets straight into the LDAP Query.

To force the scheduler process to directly go into the LDAP query, we have made the following changes:

  - Disabled "Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver" interface

  - Disabled "Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder" interface

  - Disabled "Internet Protocol Version 6" interface

  - Disabled NetBIOS over TCP/IP

  - Disabled LLMNR by setting Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Network -> DNS Client -> Turn Off Multicast Name Resolution = Enabled

This has worked for us and we are able to boot up batch server fast on windows 2012 R2, however, having said this, we are still trying to understand why the process scheduler of Tools 8.55 is querying DNS, NB and LLMNR before LDAP query.

We are not sure if there is any change in the way process scheduler is going to communicate with underlying Operating System with PeopleTools 8.55.

If any of you have any idea on this, please let me know. I will happy to listen and discuss on the issue with you.

Clean Up DPK Deployed PeopleSoft environment

To remove the DPK deployed PeopleSoft environment follow the steps below

For Windows server we need to execute the command as below:

./psft-dpk-setup.ps1 -cleanup

For Linux based server or any other flavour of unix the command is:

./psft-dpk-setup.sh --cleanup


I have seen in my scenario where the above given Manual method of cleanup was failing and not clearing all the files on the server. This was happening due to the space in the folder or having some folders with large name.In one of the case, I have seen re-installation was failing because one folder was not cleared in the cleanup process and that folder was having a large directory name.In case if the automated method of cleaning is failing then an alternate way to 'cleanup' is to manually remove the existing installation:

- Locate the default.yaml file in /etc/Puppet/data on Linux platforms and in

C:\ProgramData\PuppetLabs\Puppet\etc\data on Microsoft Windows platforms.

- Change the ensure value in default.yaml from 'present' to 'absent'

- Change directory to this location /etc/puppet/manifests on Linux platforms and

C:\programdata\puppetlabs\puppet\etc\manifests on Microsoft Windows platform

And finally execute the command below

- Run puppet apply site.pp --debug –trace

This will remove the existing installation from the server.

Leave your comment on the topic.

PeopleSoft Customization yaml file

After deployment of DPK, I was trying to execute the psft_customizations.yaml using the non-root user i.e, the specific user which we normally use for installing the PeopleSoft Stack components. I was using user_name and group_name twice in the psft_customizations.yaml which was causing it to fail. That is for oracle_group and psft_group, I was using the same group profile and similarly for psft_user and oracle_user, I was using the same userid. Puppet don't allow you to give same group name(profile) and same user_name twice in the customization file. As a workaround for this issue, I have removed the user section from psft_customizations.yaml and ran it with default users i.e, psadm1, psadm2, psadm3 and Oracle. You can then give the permission to these users to execute as per your setup requirement or alternatively you can change the ownership of the installation done by these default users. You can only get these default users created on your system, if you have the super user access to the box where you are attempting to install DPK and PeopleSoft components.
As a solution to this,if you are intending to use one user name and user group for both PeopleSoft and Oracle installation then you can give that username and group name once at the top of the file psft_customizations.yaml and that should not be repeated for PeopleSoft and Oracle separately in the file.
For example: The section below should be in the top of the file with other content

psft_user_name: hr92ut

psft_group_name: psadmin_prd

Hope this will help you to resolve the user profile issue in psft_customizations.yaml file where you are intending to use the signle user to use for the entire installation using DPK, however if you face any issue, pls leave a comment or email me and I will respond at the earliest possible.