About Peoplesoft Feature Pack

Last month, in December 2010 has been release the first Feature Pack of HCM9.1. What does it mean ? What are the changes ? HCM9.1 has been delivered based on Peopletools 8.50 in Sept. 2009, much before the Peopletools 8.51. With this Feature Pack, HCM9.1 has been rebuilt and is now based on Peopletools 8.51. Available on edelivery, this HCM9.1 Feature Pack Dec 2010 replace the previous software installer. It means : 1. When working on Peopletools 8.51, you do not have to manage a Peopletools upgrade anymore for new installation. 2. It cannot work within Peopletools 8.50 as before. 3. If you’re working on HCM9.1 and Peopletools 8.50 (previously installed that Feature Pack), you must keep a copy of the software, HCM9.1 based on Peopltools 8.50 is not available anymore.

It is well explained in the Supplemental Installation Guide of HCM (also available on edelivery) : “ To run PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Resources Management System 9.1 Feature Pack December 2010 (HRMS 9.1 Feature Pack 2010), you must be using PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.51.02 or higher.” The Peopletools 8.51 Installation Guide I was always referring to does not know the Feature Pack and has not been updated yet. So it is mentioning that HCM9.1 needs an upgrade to Peopletools 8.51… you must take care, that is became wrong.

So far, Feature Pack exists only for HCM and it seems only FSCM will follow that rule. Lastly, Feature Pack are planned to be yearly delivered. Find out more in the My Oracle Support note : Master Solution - PeopleSoft Enterprise HRMS Version 9.1 Feature Packs [ID 1268076.1]

DB Wizard for Oracle on Windows 2008R2 64-bit

A year ago, I was testing the DB Wizard 8.50 for Oracle on Linux. It was painful, and really has not been successful as I would expect. Right now, I’d like to see how the DB Wizard is working on Windows 2008R2 64-bit within the latest Peopletools version, 8.51. As I said in the linked article above, DB Wizard is not my cup of tea, it is configuring all by default which you do not necessarily want for a production system and it requires the Peopletools installation on your DB server which again you do not necessarily want for a production system. But over the years, I noticed a lot of people are trying to use it because they are not DBA and just want to get a working Peoplesoft application to be able to learn Peoplecode, and/or functional features (without taking care of all the admin settings). So, I think a nice proper tool to build a DEMO database would be very nice in such cases.

Unfortunately, it is not ready yet. First of all, Peopletools 8.5x are certified only on 64-bit OS, however on Windows it needs the 32-bit Oracle librairies, and we’ll see that cause some troubles for the DB Wizard. A full 64-bit application would be much much more easier to manage.

If you did not installed the 32-bit client, you’ll most likely receive the following error (the well known “missing or invalid version of SQL library PSORA”) :

So, I installed Oracle 11.2.0.2 64-bit database software in one Oracle home, then 11.2.0.2 32-bit client software in an other one.

Created the init.ora file with the minimum required :

  And password file as well :

Start the listener :

Update the tnsnames.ora in both Oracle home (server/client) :

Then start the DBWizard utility (%PS_HOME%\setup\PsMpDbInstall\setup.bat), and it looks very handy and straightforward :

On the screen below, I was wondering if I should put the 32-bit client for sqlplus, but no, it won’t work (I tested it), same for the Oracle home, it should be the 64-bit database software installation path directory.

 

And now start the process :

Before going further, you can check if the service is created as well as the database’s datafiles (such as SYSTEM, SYSAUX, UNDO, TEMP…).     

Everything works fine, service is created, database is created, datafiles are there. Even the xxddl.sql script is executed properly and all the Peoplesoft tablespaces are created.

But it failed down on the last step, the call of psdmtx to load the database !

The logfile is not very useful, is it ?

However, when I run it from DOS command prompt, dbsetup.dms call is working fine :

      I was out of luck to make it working through DB Wizard. Well, the dbsetup.dms creates the proper dms to load the database manually, but I’d be happy if it did it by itself. You can run it from DOS command prompt, or through DataMover GUI :

And do not worry if it stated “not responded”, that’s perfectly normal…

Well, once more, disappointing tool. Unless someone has suggestion how to make it working ?

Peoplesoft OVM FSCM9.1

Earlier in September the Peoplesoft OVM FSCM9.1 template has been released, announced here. It’s now time to see how it is working after the HCM9.1, PS9.1 and CRM9.1 templates.

It is available on http://edelivery.oracle.com/linux – check for the templates 64bits, : Peoplesoft VM Templates for FSCM 9.1 Release Media Pack v1 for x86 (64 bit). There are two templates, one for the database, one for the app/batch/PIA.

I’ll skip all the steps regarding Oracle VM Manager, Oracle VM Server configuration, uncompress and import of the template since this is the same exercise I did last year for HCM9.1, please if you want to know more, have a look to the tutorial on the top-right of the main blog page. I’ll start the description below from the starting of the new VM.

1. The database server

Select the VM and click on “Power On” 

  Then on console (be fast otherwise it will be configured as DHCP that you certainly don’t want).

Give all what it needs, IP address and so on :

Here below, (as usual on Peoplesoft template, I do not know if that’s the same for all Oracle template containing database software), we got the CSS error (this step takes quite a while). Whether it fails that is not an issue for the next steps  :

It continues, give the database name, it will create new controlfiles.

   It is finished for the database server. Few notes : 1.1 I choose the database to start on server boot, but it won’t (same for all previous templates). [root@psovmfscmdb ~]# more /etc/oratab orcl:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1:N

1.2 Note, the service is your_db_name.us.oracle.com : [oracle@psovmfscmdb ~]$ lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on 25-NOV-2010 03:37:23

Copyright (c) 1991, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=psovmfscmdb)(PORT=1521))) STATUS of the LISTENER ------------------------ Alias                     LISTENER Version                   TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production Start Date                25-NOV-2010 03:09:30 Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 27 min. 53 sec Trace Level               off Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication SNMP                      OFF Listener Parameter File   /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora Listener Log File         /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/log/diag/tnslsnr/psovmfscmdb/listener/alert/log.xml Listening Endpoints Summary...   (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=psovmfscmdb)(PORT=1521)))   (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521))) Services Summary... Service "F91TMPLT.us.oracle.com" has 1 instance(s).   Instance "F91TMPLT", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... Service "F91TMPLT_XPT.us.oracle.com" has 1 instance(s).   Instance "F91TMPLT", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... Service "XDB.us.oracle.com" has 1 instance(s).   Instance "F91TMPLT", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... The command completed successfully

1.3 SYSADM’s password is in upper case : [oracle@psovmfscmdb ~]$ export ORACLE_SID=F91TMPLT [oracle@psovmfscmdb ~]$ sqlplus sysadm/sysadm

SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Thu Nov 25 03:37:52 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

ERROR: ORA-01017: invalid username/password; logon denied

Enter user-name: [oracle@psovmfscmdb ~]$ sqlplus sysadm/SYSADM

SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Thu Nov 25 03:37:59 2010

Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.7.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options

SQL>

1.4 Language installed is only English : SQL> select language_cd from pslanguages where installed=1;

LANGUAGE_CD ------------ ENG

1.5 The default profile of SYSADM and PEOPLE users expires password the 08-JAN-2011, uou should change it to avoid future issues :   SQL> select username,account_status,expiry_date,profile from   dba_users where username in ('PEOPLE','SYSADM') ;   2    3 USERNAME                       ACCOUNT_STATUS ------------------------------ -------------------------------- EXPIRY_DATE        PROFILE ------------------ ------------------------------ PEOPLE                         OPEN 08-JAN-11          DEFAULT

SYSADM                         OPEN 08-JAN-11          DEFAULT

SQL> alter profile default limit failed_login_attempts unlimited password_life_time unlimited password_lock_time unlimited password_grace_time unlimited; 

Profile altered.

SQL> select username,account_status,expiry_date,profile from   dba_users where username in ('PEOPLE','SYSADM') ;  2    3

USERNAME                       ACCOUNT_STATUS ------------------------------ -------------------------------- EXPIRY_DATE        PROFILE ------------------ ------------------------------ PEOPLE                         OPEN                    DEFAULT

SYSADM                         OPEN                    DEFAULT

SQL>

2. The App/Batch/PIA server :

Select the VM and click on “Power On”

  Then on console (be fast otherwise it will be configured as DHCP that you certainly don’t want). 

Give all what it needs, IP address and so on :

Here, we can see an OS audit message with access denied. Despite that message, everything will be done successfully.

After AppServer and Batch server started, it is now time for MicroFocus (optional - 30-days trial license). It is quite new in template for that option during deployment. Thanks to Peoplesoft team for that, that safe a lot of time and pain (see how I did for HCM when it was not available here) 

Once it is done, PIA deployment :

And you also can configure posting reports repository :

Done. It has again been greatly improved compared to the first template released earlier in 2009 (HCM). Looks like many of the remarks have been taken in account. Thanks to the team for that.

Now, connect to the front end application :

Since I’m not using any DNS server, but instead working on IP address, I change the reports repository (if you do so, bounce the Batch server) :

   Report are now posting properly :

And test programs COBOL run successfully :

Note : you’ll get some OS audit warning like for CRM, you can read the footnote here how you can get rid of them.

We have now a complete working Peoplesoft  solution relatively easy to install. Probably a good idea to go further within messaging between all those templates now. Maybe something to do for next year !