PeopleSoft Installation : what required

In order to install a PeopleSoft application, we need to choose a database.
Oracle seems a good choice, even if the development was (still is ?) in most of case on SQL Server...
Then Tuxedo, and a webserver like Weblogic.
The choice of PeopleTools version, actually the last version is 8.48 (new from July), can be deciding what you can, and how many time your application can live without a big upgrade.

You can download all softwares (main version, not upgrade) on http://edelivery.oracle.com/ (unfortunately a http server, so download can be long) and patches on the ftp server ftp.peoplesoft.com (anonymous user).

I advise the reading of the white paper PeopleSoft Enterprise Architecture for more understanding.

Copybase and PSCA

The copy of a database is one of the tasks of a PS admin : to reinit a database from a reference database, to test bundle for example.
But some tasks mustn't be forget.

PSCA - PeopleSoft Change Assistant - is the new assistant to manage upgrade since 8.4x PeopleTools.
Before it was PSUA - PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant - which was more a informational guide rather than a real assistant.
Since 8.4x PeopleTools, this new tool is very nice to help in bundles/patches/fix installation, there is only few manual tasks.
PSCA work by PS_HOME and by database. He needs a unique identifier into database, this is GUID column from PSOPTIONS table.
This field, not nullable, is initialize on start of the application server only if he's blank value.
So, after a copy of database, DON'T forget to update this field, without what, PSCA will not see your database in your environment, and you will lose some of time to search why...
SQL> select guid from psoptions;

GUID
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
d96d2afa-1dd1-11b2-9e1f-dbeeda0b41ec

SQL> update psoptions set guid= ' ';

1 row updated.

SQL> commit;

Commit complete.

Here I restart the appserver, then :
SQL> select guid from psoptions;
GUID
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ae7099f4-1dd1-11b2-8d5a-fe9855e7faff

SQL>

We will see later that there are some of update after a copy of database, this one today, is only one of these tasks.