Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Peopletools patch 8.52.11 : a temp directory for process scheduler

Just installed the Peopletools patch 8.52.11 (released on October, the 16th 2012) on Oracle Linux 6.3.
When configuring the process scheduler, it raises a warning about a temporary directory…
----------------------------------------------
Quick-configure menu -- domain: hcmdemo1
----------------------------------------------
      Features                      Settings
     ==========                    ==========
  1) App Engine        : Yes    6) DBNAME     :[hcmdemo1]
  2) Master Scheduler  : Yes    7) DBTYPE     :[ORACLE]
                                8) PrcsServer :[PSUNX]
                                9) UserId     :[PS]
                               10) UserPswd   :[PS]
                               11) ConnectID  :[people]
                               12) ConnectPswd:[peop1e]
                               13) ServerName :[]
                               14) Log/Output Dir:[%PS_SERVDIR%/log_output]
                               15) SQRBIN     :[%PS_HOME%/bin/sqr/%PS_DB%/bin]
                               16) AddToPATH  :[]

      Actions
     =========
  3) Load config as shown
  4) Custom configuration
  5) Edit environment settings
  h) Help for this menu
  q) Return to previous menu

HINT: Enter 5 to edit DBNAME, then 3 to load

Enter selection (1-16, h, or q): 4

Warning:  no changes detected, some configuration files will not be updated.
Loading configuration...

==============WARNING!================
The domain does not appear to have a TMP directory set in the configuration.
Your environment will inherit the value of TMP from the parent environment
==============WARNING!================
Domain configuration complete.


This has never been there till this patch. According to the readme of the patch this is probably something related to a bug fix (thanks to Michel for pointing this out in the thread I created) :
14301709 : IDENTIFY A DIRECTORY TO WRITE INTERMEDIATE FILES INSTEAD WRITING INSECURE TMPDIR
Post Windows 2008 Server, Windows appends the session ID with the User Temp Path which is deleted once user logs off. This causes certain sub-process which relies on Windows Temp Path like Pagelet Wizard to crash. This resolution would add the possibility of other non-volatile Temporary Path Location like {LOGDIR}.


However it is also there on one of my Windows 2008 R2 SP1 server even though I tried to change my user temp variable outside my user default location:
----------------------------------------------
Quick-configure menu -- domain: hcmdemo1
----------------------------------------------
      Features                      Settings
     ==========                    ==========
  1) App Engine        : Yes    6) DBNAME     :[hcmdemo1]
  2) Master Scheduler  : Yes    7) DBTYPE     :[ORACLE]
                                8) PrcsServer :[PSNT]
                                9) UserId     :[PS]
                               10) UserPswd   :[PS]
                               11) ConnectID  :[people]
                               12) ConnectPswd:[peop1e]
                               13) ServerName :[]
                               14) Log/Output Dir:[E:\apps\ptools852\appserv\prcs\hcmdemo1\log_output]
                               15) SQRBIN     :[E:\apps\ptools852\bin\sqr\ORA\binw]
                               16) AddToPATH  :[C:\Windows;C:\Windows\SYSTEM32]
                               17) DBBIN      :[E:\apps\oracle\product\11.2.0\client_32bit\BIN]
                               18) Crystal Path:[.]

      Actions
     =========
  3) Load config as shown
  4) Custom configuration
  5) Edit environment settings
  h) Help for this menu
  q) Return to previous menu

HINT: Enter 5 to edit DBNAME, then 3 to load

Enter selection (1-18, h, or q): 3

Warning:  no changes detected, some configuration files will not be updated.
Loading configuration...

==============WARNING!================
The domain does not appear to have a TEMP directory set in the configuration.
Your environment will inherit the value of TEMP from the parent environment
==============WARNING!================
Domain configuration complete.

I’m still looking for a way to workaround the warning. I don’t like warning that I don’t know exactly where they come from and what they mean exactly.

All the ideas are welcome.

Nicolas.

Finally the answer is here :
E-AS: Windows 2008 TEMP Directory and the Use of XSL Transformation PeopleCode API [ID 1486978.1]
Special thanks to Yvonne Hogan who sent me an email about that.
To make it short, for the existing domains, add the following two lines containing temp reference in the .ubx file of your domain ($PS_CFG_HOME/appserv/prcs/<your_domain>/psprcsrv.ubx) :
*PS_ENVFILE
TEMP={LOGDIR}{FS}tmp
TMP={LOGDIR}{FS}tmp

And magically, warning just gone. It will create subdirectory like $PS_CFG_HOME/appserv/prcs/<your_domain>/{LOGDIR}/tmp, most of the time {LOGDIR} is named LOGS.
It works for Windows as well as for Linux.
If you want to make it working for the new domain, do it also in the file $PS_HOME/appserv/prcs/psprcsrv.ubx.

It seems it will be solve in Peopletools 8.53 and back ported in PT8.52.

Thanks again to Yvonne !

Nicolas.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

PT8.52 on OL6.3 : “strings: '/lib/libc.so.6': No such file” (bis)

One and an half year ago, I wrote a blog entry giving a workaround about such error when installing Peopletools 8.51 on Oracle Linux 6.0, it was not certified combination at that time though, so no support.

Right now, there’s Peopletools 8.52 for quite a while and Oracle Linux 6.3. According to the certification matrix on My Oracle Support, it is certified.
However, when running a simple install, we are still facing this issue (that’s why I’ve wrote “bis” in the title).
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ ./setup.sh
Setting temporary directory /tmp/IA.7738
Executing setup.linux   -DCOMP_NAME=orion6.phoenix.nga -DPS_UMASK=0002
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
strings: '/lib/libc.so.6': No such file

Launching installer...

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...
<...stopping Peopletools install...>

So, let’s have a try to apply the same workaround that I described in that other entry and see if it is still doing the trick.
[root@orion6 lib]# ln -s /usr/lib64/libc.so libc.so.6
[root@orion6 lib]# su - psoft

[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ ./setup.sh
Setting temporary directory /tmp/IA.14170
Executing setup.linux   -DCOMP_NAME=orion6.phoenix.nga -DPS_UMASK=0002
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...

Launching installer...

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...

<...install Peopletools 8.52 successfully...>

We get the Peopletools installed painlessly. But later on, we need to invoke psconfig.sh to set the Peopletools environment :
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ cd $PS_HOME
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$ . ./psconfig.sh
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$ ls
ls: error while loading shared libraries: /lib/libc.so.6: invalid ELF header
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$ vi psconfig.sh
vim: error while loading shared libraries: /lib/libc.so.6: invalid ELF header

Hmmm, not nice, is it ? So, let’s have a look what happens if we remove that file :
[root@orion6 lib]# ls -lrt
total 36
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 4096 Apr 16  2012 security
drwxr-xr-x.  6 root root 4096 Oct 23 09:27 terminfo
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root   14 Oct 23 09:28 cpp -> ../usr/bin/cpp
drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root 4096 Oct 23 09:29 alsa
drwxr-xr-x.  3 root root 4096 Oct 23 09:29 crda
drwxr-xr-x.  6 root root 4096 Oct 23 09:31 kbd
drwxr-xr-x.  2 root root 4096 Oct 23 09:31 lsb
dr-xr-xr-x.  6 root root 4096 Oct 23 10:05 modules
drwxr-xr-x. 45 root root 4096 Oct 23 10:05 firmware
drwxr-xr-x.  5 root root 4096 Oct 23 11:44 udev
lrwxrwxrwx.  1 root root   18 Oct 23 12:14 libc.so.6 -> /usr/lib64/libc.so
[root@orion6 lib]# rm -f libc.so.6
[root@orion6 lib]# su - psoft
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ . $PS_HOME/psconfig.sh
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ ls
bea  psft
[psoft@orion6 ~]$

It works much better. But then any further installation will fail again as explained earlier…
For the record, here’s the OS details (OL6.3) :
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$ more /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.3 (Santiago)
[psoft@orion6 ptools852]$
[root@orion6 ~]# uname -a
Linux orion6.phoenix.nga 2.6.39-200.34.1.el6uek.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Oct 18 17:00:17 PDT 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
[root@orion6 ~]#

Finally, there’s something looking much better. A link to an other library, a 64bit :
[root@orion6 lib]# ln -s /lib64/libc.so.6 /lib/libc.so.6
[root@orion6 lib]# su - psoft
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ . $PS_HOME/psconfig.sh
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ ls
bea  psft
[psoft@orion6 ~]$

You have a working environment, and the Peopletools installation is also working fine with this last symbolic link :
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ ./setup.sh
Setting temporary directory /tmp/IA.23315
Executing setup.linux   -DCOMP_NAME=orion6.phoenix.nga -DPS_UMASK=0002
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...

Launching installer...

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...

===============================================================================
PeopleTools                                      (created with InstallAnywhere)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<… continuing…>

So in first instance I was probably wrong last year, whereas it should be a symbolic link from /lib/libc.so.6 pointing to /lib64/libc.so.6.
----
But overall, we can also ask why this link is needed for the installation even though Peopletools claims to be a real 64bit…
It should be somewhere in the setup itself.
Just going a little bit further, having a look into ./Disk1/InstData/setup.linux, if you're searching for "libc", there's only one occurrence, and you'll see the libc.so.6 is hardcoded to be tested under /lib. Sic.
Here’s an extract:

nptl="`strings /lib/libc.so.6 | grep -i nptl`"
if [ "$nptl" ]; then
        debugOut "NPTL detected! checking for vulnerable JVM....";


Obviously, when running the strings command (the very first line from above), it aborts within the same error message that we get during the very first installation :
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ strings /lib/libc.so.6 | grep -i nptl
strings: '/lib/libc.so.6': No such file
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$

So, apart from creating a link as earlier in this article, you may prefer to modify the setup.linux. At least it affects only the installer, not the system itself, so most likely better.
Remove the link created above and replace the given line in setup.linux.
However, since it's an binary file, you cannot just edit the file, modify and save.
       nptl="`strings /lib/libc.so.6 | grep -i nptl`"
must be replaced by 
       nptl="`strings /lib64/libc.so.6|grep -i nptl`" 
Note that luckily enough, whether we need two more characters for “64”, and we can remove two extra spaces to keep the same amount of bytes in the binaries file. 
Using sed command, it’s doable (do not forget to save the source file first!):
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ cat setup.linux.bak|sed "s/\/lib\/libc.so.6 | grep -i nptl/\/lib64\/libc.so.6|grep -i nptl/">setup.linux.new

Now the script looks like :
# LD_ASSUME_KERNEL for Native POSIX Threading Library on some Linux distros
if [ `uname` = "Linux" -a -n "`which strings 2>/dev/null`" ]; then
        debugOut "checking for NPTL + JVM vulernability..."
        #check libc to see if it was compiled with NPTL
        nptl="`strings /lib64/libc.so.6|grep -i nptl`"
        if [ "$nptl" ]; then
                debugOut "NPTL detected! checking for vulnerable JVM....";


To be convinced this is working, here a run without the link :
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ cp setup.linux.bak setup.linux
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ cd ../
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ ./setup.sh
Setting temporary directory /tmp/IA.30517
Executing setup.linux   -DCOMP_NAME=orion6.phoenix.nga -DPS_UMASK=0002
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
strings: '/lib/libc.so.6': No such file

Launching installer...

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...

===============================================================================
PeopleTools                                      (created with InstallAnywhere)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

===============================================================================
Welcome
-------

InstallAnywhere will guide you through the installation of PeopleTools 8.52.

PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE: ^C
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$

Now going for the new file:
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ cp InstData/setup.linux.new InstData/setup.linux
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ ./setup.sh
Setting temporary directory /tmp/IA.30741
Executing setup.linux   -DCOMP_NAME=orion6.phoenix.nga -DPS_UMASK=0002
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...

Launching installer...

Preparing CONSOLE Mode Installation...

===============================================================================
PeopleTools                                      (created with InstallAnywhere)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

===============================================================================
Welcome
-------

InstallAnywhere will guide you through the installation of PeopleTools 8.52.

PRESS <ENTER> TO CONTINUE:
<…skipped…>
===============================================================================
Installation Complete
---------------------

Congratulations. PeopleTools has been successfully installed to:

   /apps/psoft/ptools852

PRESS <ENTER> TO EXIT THE INSTALLER:
[psoft@orion6 Disk1]$ exit
logout
[root@orion6 lib]# su – psoft
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ . $PS_HOME/psconfig.sh
[psoft@orion6 ~]$ cd $PS_HOME/appserv
[psoft@orion6 appserv]$ ./psadmin -v
Version 8.52
[psoft@orion6 appserv]$

Of course (sic), the same applies to all the Peopletools patches as well… for instance:
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ pwd
/nfs/software/PeopleSoftCD/PeopleTools/PT8.52/PeopleTools8.52.02/cd85202/Disk1/InstData
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$ grep libc setup.linux
        #check libc to see if it was compiled with NPTL
        nptl="`strings /lib/libc.so.6 | grep -i nptl`"
[psoft@orion6 InstData]$


In the end, whether this error can probably be ignored, it should be better to have this cleaned definitely from within the installer (or why it is missing from the OS level ?).

Nicolas.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Peoplesoft and virtualization templates

In a previous article of mine about Peopletools 8.53 RVP, I was asking about PSOVM continuity.
I think I overlooked an important document, I named the Prerelease notes (last update 6-OCT-2012).

Oracle's PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.53 Prerelease Notes [ID 1494929.1]

1) Out there, we can read an entire chapter dedicated to PSOVM. However, a surprising statement is also there.
page 15 : "PeopleSoft will release production class templates for use on Exalogic-based machines and non-Exalogic-x86 machines"
Production use ? Really ?
Whether I'm really a fan of PSOVM for learning, study, demo and maybe for small development and test environment like for upgrade, I'd be rather skeptical about implementing it for production use.
What about all the given parameters settings ? Is it well tuned ? We also can spend a lot of time by adjusting all of these.
What about the environment settings ? It could be rather annoying to be stucked on something we did not set on our side, especially for production use where shops may have their own constraints, secure environments, audit security and so forth.
What about the size of the database ? Not sure how big organization will fit in such environment.
What about reporting, application and process scheduler size ?
...
Well, there's also the sentence "Dynamic scaling is incorporated into the template design, where middletier components can be added or removed quickly in an environment to provide elasticity to the system", also not sure how far will the elasticity look like.

Many questions can be asked by this one small statement. Do Oracle people want to "impose" their normalization ?

2) Speaking about Peoplesoft templates, something else page 43 of the same document is about Update Manager : "Making it quick and easy to download a current PeopleSoft Update Image with the VirtualBox technology"
You know, that coming new tool to apply only some desired patches without the need to apply all the prerequisites.
It will work through Peoplesoft templates for VirtualBox. Not that VirtualBox is a bad tool, not at all – it works perfectly fine, but build a production solution on it ? Because, yes, it would be part of production solution. Indeed, it will be used for patching, and in the end, production patching. Not for a play game.
Having a production on OVM is a different story - bare-metal VM - rather strong solution, but on VirtualBox which has to be installed on top of an OS ?
So, first have to find a server to install VirtualBox on, robust enough to host most likely 2 Peoplesoft templates (1 database server, 1 app/pia/batch server) to have good response time and performance wise. This has not to be installed on a personal computer or a laptop, this should be a proper and strong solution. It means on a dedicated server as part of the production infrastructure.
And again, we, as customer, have to work within the given Oracle environment with their own standard, policies...

So, first PSOVMs on a dedicated server (because of being a bare-metal virtualization software), then templates for VirtualBox on dedicated server as well (do not being disturb by some other tool or utilities), it will really become a nightmare to manage version between all these delivered environments.
Well, we could imagine a solution to build a server hosting OVM for the PSOVMs, and have an additional virtual machine with its own OS hosting itself VirtualBox to deploy the templates for Update Manager.
Of course, it will require a big server (strong CPUs, lots of RAM and disk spaces), and also a 2 layers of virtualization. But since Oracle is already suggesting it in the other way around (please see here), then what's really wrong ? Even though we don't share that point of view...

Virtualization is good, but is too much virtualization necessarily good as well ?
I feel like Oracle wants to take more and more control of what happens and how customers should work. Why do not directly say : "give us your environment in our cloud, we'll do all for you".

Don't take me wrong, I'm not against the changes, but adding layers and layers of tools in Peoplesoft architecture won't make it clearer and easier to manage as well as to come in.

So far on a Peoplesoft project, we have a system administrator, a database administrator, a Peoplesoft administrator, a sometimes web administrator. Right now if it really goes that way, we certainly have the need of one more resource, a virtualization software administrator. Ok, most likely some tasks can be done by one administrator. But still, we have certainly some additional cost of infrastructure.

I’d be keen to know how many shops will implement these solutions.

Nicolas.

Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Pluggable database and Peoplesoft architecture

After the announcement during the OOW2012, we know a very little about 12c, enough to make assumption though.
It is not coming this year, rather late next year, but one of the most important change will certainly be on architecture level, called "pluggable database".

What does it mean ?
Well, not very detailed yet, basically one database (the container, containing the core of Oracle data dictionary) and multiple databases on top of it (the pluggable databases containing application's code). It saves a lot of spaces, and over all a lot of resources.
That's a huge difference compared to the existing Oracle database architecture, one-to-one.

For the Peoplesoft people, it can remind similarity with existing Peoplesoft architecture (based on tables PSDBOWNER, PSACCESSPRFL and on users accessid and symbolicid).
For decade, we are able to install multiple application (HCM and FSCM for instance) in one single database. It shares the database binaries, engine, tablespaces... In the end, you have two separate applications with its own metadata, all in one database.
Good enough, but all is managed by the application code.
However, since each application has its own constraints and usage (one will be more batches oriented, the other more transactional), it was rather painful to tune the database properly. Hey, all is based on one and only one database engine, using same init parameters (it seems it will be different)... So, whether it is still possible within the latest Peoplesoft version, it is strongly a not recommended way of work.

Seeing that Oracle takes the way of consolidation to have multiple databases in one will be a real improvement for the Peoplesoft shop hosting several applications. Having more than one applications in a database won't be managed by the application as it was by the past (as said above), but by the database. Much stronger design, most likely more efficient, more secure and certainly more "tunable".
Especially nice when databases are already “connected” within messaging mechanism, probably more understandable.

The parallelism we can do between the existing People architecture and the coming database architecture, one database (the container), multiple applications (the pluggable databases), make me say that Peoplesoft was in advance... just not on the same level.

It's promising, really looking forward into it.

Nicolas.

Tuesday, October 02, 2012

Did you say a VM in Oracle VM Server in VirtualBox ?

… or two layers of virtualization.

First of all, a quick reminder. VirtualBox must be installed on top of an OS whereas Oracle VM Server is a bare-metal and then it has to be installed instead of the OS, making the machine dedicated to the virtualization.
It’s well known that bare-metal virtualization software like Oracle VM or VMWare vSphere (or vSphere Hypervisor on free market) is much more robust and compliant for enterprise use.

As far as I understood from several Oracle people across forums or threads like as this one, it was not supported... not recommended... not stable... well, not advisable at all, do not say ridiculous way of thinking. Especially that way, having Oracle VM as a VM in VirtualBox…

However, on my side, I did it several years ago when Peoplesoft started to deliver templates.
Indeed, being in lack of free server, I integrated them in VMWare Server installation (software decommissioned since then, but the principle was the same as VirtualBox) : I made an Oracle VM Server in a VMWare virtual machine to be able to test the Peoplesoft templates. Have a look there, especially at the picture :
http://gasparotto.blogspot.nl/2009/11/oracle-vm-template-for-peoplesoft-in.html
Of course, there was absolutely no intend to use it for production or development, only for learning, training and demo purpose. I insist, I was and I’m not speaking on behalf of any company, just in my name, and that was only for learning purpose. Which is totally different than if I was speaking for Oracle.

Obviously, things are changing...

I'm probably very late on this, but I recently discovered that Oracle was providing an Oracle VM Server template for VirtualBox (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/vm/template-1482544.html).
Even though this is mentioned that’s only for demo with limited functionalities (no Windows guest), it really means you have now officially Oracle VM Server running in VirtualBox... What a surprise !
And the picture page 2 of the documentation is clear enough.

Well, you may argue the schema given by Oracle is nicer than mine, but they are very similar (or close to each other), aren't they ?

Ok, that's good for all, again training is important and many people were actually desperately trying to translate delivered Oracle VM templates in other virtual machine software than Oracle VM, a much lighter one and especially not on a dedicated machine such as laptop.
In the end, it was rather obvious, since VirtualBox is Oracle, why not do it themselves on their own products ?

What’s the real intend behind it ? Making Oracle VM Server known by more people ? Making it more popular ? I don’t know, but I'd say there's a dark side of this.
Since this is Oracle which gives that way of use, it will be more and more generalized. And having 2 layers of virtualization, a virtual machine (your template running on Oracle VM Server) in a virtual machine (your Oracle VM Server running on a VirtualBox) could make the entire system slow and overall (very) unstable.
Does it not sound like... Inception... a dream in a dream... ? Take care do not fall in Limbo...

Customers must stay on the proper usage of the way it should : learning purpose only.
Nothing is less sure though... as in the movie mentioned above, unplanned thing may always happen... and we never know if this is for the better... The spinning top is launched, let's see if it will stopped to spin.

Nicolas.

addendum : it was already discussed in this thread on OTN Peoplesoft OVM Forum more than 2 years ago, and as I said “I used those Peoplesoft OVM images in Oracle VM hosted by VMWare... Yes, I know, double virtualization level”… so, nothing really new… just coming from Oracle now.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Peopletools 8.53 RVP (new recut ?)

The first Peopletools 8.53 release value proposition has been write down in July, please have a look there :
https://blogs.oracle.com/peopletools/entry/oracle_peoplesoft_peopletools_8_53
However, if you go to the given note, it's now dated from September. I do not know how far it has been modified, but if it goes like this, here are few of the new features which may change the Peoplesoft guy's life :
=========================
1. Lifecycle Management :
=========================
1.1. Data Migration Workbench
As far as I understand, one source, multiple targets, that's a new tool between AppDesigner (copy project) and a database refresh (customer's script only). It will do much more than the first, and will be much secure than the latter.
1.2. Update Manager :
I can understand many of the Peoplesoft's customers apply the maintenance packs when they arrive, but I like very much the idea to be able to avoid it to apply one particular fix without the need to applied dozens of prerequisites if there is already big lag. To be used carefully anyway.
=========================
2. Server administration and Infrastructure
=========================
* Windows Xp (already out in PT8.52) and Vista are definitely gone.
* Many versions of components currently in use in Peopletools 8.52 are discontinued (Weblogic, Tuxedo, JRE...). It could raise some issue and headache when upgrading.
* The good is that AppServer/Batch server won't need that 32bit Oracle client libraries anymore on Windows. Much less confusing now.
* A new home PS_CUST_HOME to host customers code will come around, again a new home, I'm not sure though if it will do the all picture for the better. I was already not entirely convinced by PS_CFG_HOME and PS_APP_HOME... so, one more... what will be next ?
* A new plugin for OEM GC 12c
=========================
3. Secure by default
=========================
* A very nice initiative here, prompting passwords for each of the well known default users when during installation (not 100% sure what means "installation", I assume it is database creation... ?).
* Salt enabled password (SHA-1)
=========================
4. Integration technology
=========================
* Automated Network Status and Real-Time Notification of Errors. This point has greatly been improved over the years, and it's again the case. This enhancement is now for automatization of integration network supervision (by email, I assume that's an equivalent of OEM alert if something is going wrong).
* Gateway configuration is now upgrade persistent, so far an upgrade and web redeploy overwrites the file, it should not be the case anymore.
* The Network Bulk Change also simplifies the life by deploying the changes across all the systems instead of doing it manually one by one.
=========================
5. Peoplesoft Online documentation
=========================
I'd say finally, we'll get a proper and nice GUI for the Online Documentation. So far it was looking so bad and not very attractive. Hopefully the Peoplebooks will also be improved in terms of response time.
=========================
6. Others
=========================
* Unlike in the Peopletools .852 RVP, there's not a word about PSOMV... hopefully Peoplesoft won't discontinue it.
* Back to February 2012, the document PeopleSoft Long Term Investment Plan and Roadmap [ID 1320581.1] mentioned about Peoplesoft available on TimesTen (IMDB- InMemoryDataBase), please see page 63, but it seems it has been abandoned for now.
* And obviously there are other improvements /enhancements, probably more developer related.

To be seen soon, new Peopletools release is usually coming around the OOW which is itself around the corner (30-SEPT/04-OCT).

Nicolas.

Monday, September 17, 2012

PSOVM FSCM 9.1 Feature Pack 2 (Peopletools 8.52.03) / July-2012

Only three months after the previous availability of the ‘same’ template on FSCM, here is a new one. As I said in an earlier post, I don’t expect much thing, but bugs fixes.

1. The database server
After creating the virtual machine, start it up.
On the boot, it can take several minutes to complete, a check is forced (after 1364 days without checking!).
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_003
Then, as usual for the PSOVMs, choice for DHCP or not (however, how could it be otherwise) and all the networking properties prompts.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_004
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_005
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_010
And as usual, CSS fails to start, it does not matter anyway, database is created successfully.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_006 
Note that I specified a database name in lower case, I have had to update PSDBOWNER to make DBNAME in upper case.
English only is installed, default SYSADM’s password is SYSADM (upper case), and profile DEFAULT has all unlimited limits.
Despite I wanted the database to start on server boot, it does not.
Well, nothing unusual here, all works as expected.

2. The App/Batch/PIA server
Once the database server virtual machine as been deployed, we can go now for the App/Batch/PIA virtual machine.

Here, it does not prompt for DHCP or not (and that’s right, how a server could have a non-fixed IP address?), and you have to give all the networking properties. On this point, this is an improvement (or rather a bug fix) of the previous template as I explained here.
 
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_006
You are also asked for Demo/Decoupled questions, you must reply “y” to both of them.
And of course, we want an Application here. However, you may want to deploy only Batch or PIA, I did not tested yet how it works if I deploy only one of those.
Here below, specify all the requirements for the database and port connectivity.
 PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_007
Then, it starts relatively quickly the AppServer.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_009 
As well as the Batch server.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_010  
Do you ever want to test COBOLs as well onto your virtual machine ? Reply “y” to the Microfocus license agreement :
 PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_011
And if you want the PIA running onto the same VM, then reply “y” to the following question :
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_012
In the end, you are asked few question to create a link between the PIA and the AppServer (server name and port). And also if you want to have the report repository to be configured (if “y”, it will restart the Batch Server with proper value).
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_016 
Now, everything is configured and started, we can go to the front end.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_018
And happy to see the connection is working.
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_019
Let’s run few sample programs (SQR, AE and COBOL):
 PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_029 PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_030
And from the process monitor :
PSOVM_FSCMFP2_2_db_035
The COBOL fails to run.
After digging a lot, I found that for some reasons, the COBOLs have not been compiled at all, despite I replied “y” earlier during the VM deployment.
There are few reasons of this, I explain it in this thread on OTN Peoplesoft OVM forum, but here my solution to work around :
1. As root, start LMF (this has to be done only once)
cd /opt/oracle/psft/pt/cobol/microfocus
./mflmman
2. As psadm1, set proper env. variable and compile (setting env variable has to be done each time you want to compile COBOLs)
export COBDIR=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/cobol/svrexp-51_wp4-64bit
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$COBDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH=$COBDIR/bin:$PATH
cd $PS_HOME/setup
./pscbl.mak
./psrun.mak
3. As psadm2, set proper env. variable and reconfigure psprcs.cfg, restart, restart (setting env variable has to be done each time you want to start the process scheduler, so probably better to append these in the .bash_profile)
export COBDIR=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/cobol/svrexp-51_wp4-64bit
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$COBDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH=$COBDIR/bin:$PATH
cd $PS_HOME/appserv
./psadmin
4. Same as step 2, but with user psadm3.

3. Peopletools client binaries
As psadm2 user (App/Batch/PIA VM), under $PS_HOME, we can find the tools binaries for a Windows client to run AppDesigner/DMS.
As for the previous templates, there’s a toolsclient.zip (Peopletools based version), but, and this is new, there’s also the patch for the tools client installation corresponding to the Peoplesoft database version/patch level, the file is toolspatchvcd.zip (you should use “install client only”).
That’s a kind of surprise here, I did not expected this, but it is coming with the entire client software (version and patch level) ! So far, only the bare-minimum binaries was provided, the file was to be unzipped and that’s all. But here, it’s the right installer of Peopletools client with license code and so forth.
Note that’s the client installer, not the server one (so, no scripts).
I won’t repeat all the client installation steps right here, I already did it last year, you can refer to this blog’s entry. Should you want to connect directly to the database, install a database 32bit client software. Should you want to connect directly to the AppServer, configure the WSL port on Appserver domain side.

Nicolas.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

OEM Grid Control 12.1.0.2 released

Not less than 2 months after the availability of the Bundle Patch 1 for 12.1.0.1 for AIX (and about 6-8 months for Linux), there is now a new release.
The BP1 upgrade was really a pain, I spent quite a lot of time on it. And now have to upgrade to the release 2 ? Oh, well, whether it is announced, it does not mean I’ll do this upgrade right away !
But if we have some free time window, then why not have a look, starting by reading the Upgrade Guide.

Have fun,

Nicolas.

Saturday, September 08, 2012

PSOVMs Jul-2012

Just three months after the release of the PSOVM FSCM 9.1 FP2, a new version has been delivered on edelivery earlier in July.
That’s the shortest time as never before between two PSOVMs releases for the same application.
And since the Peopletools versions (8.52.03) are the same as well as all the components out there (same Feature Pack), I’m pretty sure that’s nothing but a bug fix release.
I did not tested yet, but there was (at least) one bug. I’ve reported it on the previous PSOVM FSCM delivered in Apr-2012 in an other blog entry.
At that time, I’ve created a thread in PSOVM OTN forum dedicated, there was a good given temporarily workaround by Peopletools OVM folks.
Hopefully this new release fix it.

In the meantime, a new PSOVM has also been released for HCM 9.1 FP2 running on Peopletools 8.52.06 (the previous one was HCM9.1FP1 from Dec-2010 on Peopletools 8.51.02).

All available on https://edelivery.oracle.com/linux

To be tested as soon as my server will be up again. I moved to a new house this summer, and now need to find a room that all the family won’t be disturb that much by this noisy server…
Of course, I also could follow the very nice Jim blog’ journal on how to convert the PSOVMs for VirtualBox. But, my server contains everything needed to run Oracle VM – so why not to use it, and my laptop is probably not strong enough to do it. But worth to read.

Nicolas.

Deploying OEM Agent 12c on Windows

After having upgraded the OEM 11g to 12c which was relatively easy and painless, then upgraded to 12c BP1 which is rather complicated to achieve successfully with all the patches to be installed. One of the most painful upgrade I’ve ever seen.
Now time to deploy the Agent 12c on a Windows machine. And again, this is painful and rather tricky. One of the very first pre-requisite we can read from the documentation is the need of Cygwin installation for a ssh tunnel between the OMS host and the remote client. That’s a kind of very restrictive requirement, why Cygwin is recommanded ? And even more than recommended, because it’s hardcoded in several configuration files of deployment ? I’m sure, many shops do not like having Cygwin. Moreover, it requires to connect onto each server to install it… not really nice if you have dozens.
Anyway, since it’s there in the documentation, here we go.
Note that :
1) Cygwin needs an Internet connection to be installed straightforward as mentioned in the documentation, again, I’m sure many server do not have that access.
2) The given installation directory is C:\Cygwin, rather odd to have that drive by default (hardcoded!!). Even though that can be changed, it should be changed in configuration file (please read the documentation for more information) .

Anyway, I tried to follow the documentation here but despite multiple tries, it did not work.

So, after quite some time and digging around on Internet for a while, I found a solution to make it work on an IBM wiki page. And since I don’t want to forget it I’ll put the steps here. It could also help some of you who have to do the same task.

1. Connect to a client machine with Internet access, go to http://www.cygwin.com and click on setup.exe
2. Do not install but download on local drive only (without installing)
3. Check zip and unzip under Archive folder, openssl and openssh from Net folder
4. Follow the instruction, accept to download the dependencies
5. Copy the files onto a temporary folder on your target server
6. Run the installer, and choose an installation from a local drive
7. Install it on C:\Cygwin, the easiest way to achieve a successful install
8. Again, be sure the zip and unzip under Archive folder, openssl and openssh from Net folder are all checked
9. Once installed, modify the file C:\cygwin\cygwin.bat as indicated in the documentation as follow (the 4th line has been added):
@echo off
C:
chdir C:\cygwin\bin
set CYGWIN=binmode ntsec
bash --login –i
11. Do not execute cygwin.bat now
12. Define which user it has to be used for ssh connection from OMS to the remote Agent
13. Here and below steps, I follow the instructions given here.
See, “Grant local permissions” for this one :
To allow SSH access to the gateway for domain accounts, the “CYGWIN sshd” service must be run as an administrative domain user, not as a local user. Regardless of domain or local installation, the account you choose must have the following local permissions defined on the gateway server: 
    => Adjust memory quotas for a process.
    => Create a token object.
    => Log on as a service.
    => Replace a process-level token.
The easiest way to set the permissions is to run the secpol.msc command or navigate to Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Local Security Policy.
14. Run C:\cygwin\cygwin.bat
15. From the opened window, run the following commands :
mkpasswd -l > /etc/passwd
mkpasswd -u Administrator -D MYDOMAIN -S '_' >> /etc/passwd
(replace Administrator by the name of your domain user name which has been set as administrator and defined properly within the previous step, replace MYDOMAIN by your own domain name)
16. From the Cygwin window opened on previous step, run the following :
mkgroup -l > /etc/group
mkgroup -D -S '_' >> /etc/group
17. Now run the following :
ssh-host-config
18. Answer yes to all the “yes/no” questions, the value of CYGWIN for the daemon is binmode ntsec (as given in the Oracle documentation), and the user will be something like MYDOMAIN_Administrator (you will be asked for the password as well).
19. The service has been created, you can start it manually by running cygrunsrv -S sshd or with the Windows menu.
20. You can validate the entire installation, connect to the OMS host, and run :
ssh MYDOMAIN_Administrator@your_agent_hostname
You’ll be prompted for the password, once connected, you’ll see the Cygwin content folder.
21. Now we are able to deploy the agent from the Grid Control (the connection user is MYDOMAIN_Administrator).

Of course, there can be some (strange) errors such as :
* For instance, I have had an error because the ORACLE_BASE folder I was installing the Agent in was marked as hidden…
INFO:Error Message found  Agent Configuration Failed SEVERE:OUI-10094:Problem in saving inventory. Installation cannot continue. C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inven
tory\ContentsXML\inventory.xml (Access is denied)SEVERE:File handle exception:C:\ADE\v\oracle\work\Shiphome\oracle\core\12.1.0.1.0\install\oragchomelist (The system cannot find the path specified)

* Then, wanted to install the agent in D:\appl\oracle\product\agent12c, I received the following error :
Error Message:checkdir warning: path too long; truncating core/12.1.0.1.0/.patch_storage[…]
I don’t think the given path was particularly too long, but changing the recipe to D:\appl\oracle\agent12c solves the issue, maybe not really happy.

* Sometimes, if deploying agent in ORACLE_BASE on a Windows remote host, you may receive the following error :
Execution of command C:/cygwin/bin/sh.exe -c 'export NEED_EXIT_CODE=1 && D:/appl/oracle/agent12c/agent_inst/bin/emctl.bat start agent' on host <your_hostname> Failed Error Message:The Oracleagent12c1Agent service could not be started. A service specific error occurred: 2. More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 3547.
Exit Code :2 Fix the cause of the error and retry the operation (or) manually run the following commands on the remote host
•C:/cygwin/bin/sh.exe -c 'export NEED_EXIT_CODE=1 && D:/appl/oracle/agent12c/agent_inst/bin/emctl.bat secure agent'
•C:/cygwin/bin/sh.exe -c 'export NEED_EXIT_CODE=1 && D:/appl/oracle/agent12c/agent_inst/bin/emctl.bat start agent'
•C:/cygwin/bin/sh.exe -c 'export NEED_EXIT_CODE=1 && D:/appl/oracle/agent12c/agent_inst/bin/emctl.bat config agent 
=> According to the note 1464991.1, in that case, the agent should be installed outside the ORACLE_BASE in a pre-created folder…

* Some other errors may also be solve by running the given command line manually directly onto the remote server.

Honestly, nothing straightforward in agent deployment on remote Windows host.

Hope this help,

Nicolas.

Ref. :
=>https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/tivoliaddm/Setting+up+a+Cygwin+OpenSSH+Server+for+Windows+Domains+on+a+TADDM+Gateway+Server
=>http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E24628_01/install.121/e22624/preinstall_req_cygwin_ssh.htm#CBHCDFCH

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

PSOVM FSCM 9.1 Feature Pack 2 (Peopletools 8.52.03) / Apr-2012

Exactly one year after the previous PSOVM template on FSCM9.1 FP1 (Peopletools 8.51.x), there’s a new one, based on FSCM 9.1 Features Pack 2 and Peopletools 8.52.03. So, it looks particularly an interesting step forward.
As usual, it’s downloadable on https://edelivery.oracle.com/oraclevm
The documentation about this new template can be found here : http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E29416_01/psft/html/docset.html

Whether there’s nothing much new in the database template (the database seems to be stucked on Oracle 11.1.0.7), there’re several things we should take care of before going on. The questions prompted on the first Apps template instantiation must be clearly understood to avoid further problem and mistake.
1) Demo environment [y|n] : choose ‘y’ if you want the AppServer connect to a FSCM template, ‘n’ otherwise.
2) Configure a Decoupled Appl Home [y|n] : choose ‘y’ if you want to work on an Application database (here FSCM), ‘n’ otherwise (Peopletools only database).
Depending of the answers you are given, there’re some other questions prompted which are not totally clear yet, at least not documented.

Last and not least, the Apps/Batch/PIA template deployment suffers of a bug, there’s nothing about network configuration (IP address, Netmask, Gateway, DNS). So, it’s using DHCP, period. That’s certainly not what we want from a server, especially on a PIA server which must be reachable from any client in the network.
There’s a workaround though.

For the two aspects mentioned above, getting more explanation about the prompted questions and the workaround to make the template deployment successful, I only can advise you to read the following thread I’ve created in OTN Forum dedicated to Peoplesoft OVM, there’re very answers from Sheshi : About the template FSCM9.1 FP2 Peopletools 8.52.03 (v3)

That’s a pity, the lack of documentation and the deployment bug on Apps/Batch/PIA may refrain people to use PSOVMs even though they’re still good for those who want to build quick (but not dirty) environment.

Awaiting a new recut, I hope this help people trying to make it work,

Nicolas.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

OEM12c : database page personalization corruption

Few weeks ago we upgraded our Enterprise Manager from 11g to 12c.
There’s still no Peoplesoft plugin for OEM12c, even though it is planned there’s no given date yet (#1370012.1).
As I said few months ago in a previous post, in my opinion, one of the main problem with OEM12c is the supported agent. Only agent 12c, that’s a big limitation.
Since few of our plateforms do not support agent 12c, we first have had to create a dedicated 11g OMS/repository for those and move the agents to this new OMS (and repository), you could follow the note #413228.1 for more details about moving agent between different OMSs and repository.
Then we upgraded the other agents, OMS and repository to OEM12c. And to my surprise, whether it took a lot of time, everything went smoothly. At least the upgrade was much better than previous upgrade from 10gR5 to 11g.
There’re a lot of steps against the agents prior the upgrade itself, but in the end we got it. I won’t go through all the steps though, it’s not the subject here (and if it sounds tricky in the beginning, it is rather well documented here).

OEM12c revamps all the menus across the GUI, it’s some times not very easy to find out what is where. As a DBA, you can choose to make your homepage the databases page :
OEM12c_dbpage_001
You might or might not like it. If you don’t, there’s an option to personalize the view of that page. Rather useful, personally I don’t like the default preview of databases page. So, here we go :
OEM12c_dbpage_002 There’s too much wasting space on the top of the page for nothing, unfortunately that cannot be changed.
You can choose to modify the layout. Moreover, there’s an option allow you to add content, let’s try it :
OEM12c_dbpage_003 Exactly what I would like, adding a summary on a part of the databases page :
OEM12c_dbpage_004
And now what ? Error “ADFC-10009: An exception occurred during invocation of 'getData' method.” is raised, followed by an internal error. Your user and databases page are corrupted… err… for ever.
OEM12c_dbpage_005
Close the content pagelet :
OEM12c_dbpage_006
From now, where ever you click, you’ll get an error :
OEM12c_dbpage_007    
No way, close the browser, reopen it, relogin, clear the caches, internal error is always triggered. Drop and recreate the user is surprisingly even not an option, error comes back again. And since the databases page has been choose has the homepage, there’s no way to connect anymore for my user : 
OEM12c_dbpage_009
OEM12c_dbpage_010
OEM12c_dbpage_011  
However, if I use a direct link to any of other pages of OEM, I can connect, looks like the databases page only is corrupted. But as a DBA this is the most of interest in OEM.

At this point of time, there was nothing much in My Oracle Support to help and suggest a workaround. Just a similar bug  #1408243.1, opened since Oct’11, but nothing suggested.
I asked the question in OTN Enterprise Manager forum, and a big thanks to Leslie who helps me a lot across my thread, as well as Sushil and Daniel. Find out more here : OEM12c : ADFC-10009 after homepage personalized
Finally, following this thread, the note #1399625.1 (Personalizing or Customizing a Database Target Page Gives Error: ADFC-10009: An exception occurred) has been created on My Oracle Support and we got a workaround to make this corrupted user able to logon again on OEM. That’s really good to see that Oracle team is listening customers. The note is not entirely true in the given example (actually the paths directories of the 2 given docs are wrong), so within the thread link above, you should be able to have the fix.
UPDATE 12-MAR-2012 : the note #1399625.1 has again been updated and everything from there should work fine now.

Honestly, before this error and all the Leslie’s suggestions, I had no idea about MDS, WLST and Metadata. A lot has been learnt on my side.

I hope this will help some of you who encountered this error which puzzled me for several days.

As a side note, if you are lucky enough to have your OMS 12c on Linux, this bug is solved in OEM12c patch 1 available from Feb-2012. Otherwise you may have to wait for the Q3-2012, read to the note #1395505.1.

Enjoy,

Nicolas.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Peoplesoft HCM 9.1 Feature Pack 2

It has been announced today, the HCM 9.1 feature pack 2 comes with Peopletools 8.52 and a lot more new features including “A new search-based, menu-free navigation capability allows users to easily locate and navigate to relevant information quickly and in context from any page”, find out the press release here.

It is not available for download yet on edelivery but that should be a matter of hours.
We could also expect the corresponding Peoplesoft OVM template to be release pretty soon, keep tracking edelivery/linux.

Nicolas.

GUID on Web domain

I was managing Peoplesoft Web domains in OEM Grid Control (11.1) within the Peoplesoft plugin. After cloning different environments some strange behavior came out.

First, the GUID must be unique across the all the Peoplesoft databases (table PSOPTIONS), otherwise databases are somehow pointing to each other. Before starting with the whole OEM configuration, it’s probably better to set it to blank and restart the Application Server. A new value will be given when Application Server will start.

Then I came to know that a Webserver configuration file also contains the GUID. If it is the wrong one, your Web domain will point to the wrong database… fix it by updating the file $PIA_HOME/webserv/…/domain/webprof/option.prop within the proper GUID value.

Nicolas.

DomainConnectionPwd parameter

A quick note after an issue I was facing to.
On Peopletools 8.51, I cloned an existing database, creating new application server domain and copied an existing web domain. Everything went fine, I could connect onto the front-end application and work… until I bounced the application server. On the Peoplesoft login page, an error was returned complaining that application server was down at that time… where it was obviously up and running.
Checking the application server log file reveals the following :
"ERROR: Jolt client (ip address <ip_address_is_given_here>) does not have proper application password"
After few minutes, solution came in the top of my head. A new parameter introduced in 8.50, DomainConnectionPwd, should match between configuration files of application server (psappsrv.cfg) and web server (configuration.properties).
Once fixed and bounced application server, it worked again. But I just wondering why and how it worked in a first place.

Nicolas.

Thursday, November 03, 2011

Peopletools 8.52 : the PS_APP_HOME variable

Up to Peopletools 8.51, the application installation (e.g. HRMS, FSCM…) must be done in the exact same folder where the Peopletools have been installed, known as PS_HOME directory. Otherwise you were not able to load any data in a newly created database (through the database setup of FataMover, no option was appearing). It was quite confusing, expecially for new comers in the Peoplesoft world.
As of Peopletools 8.52, it has been changed. You can install the application where ever you want, and say to the Peopletools where it is through a new variable PS_APP_HOME. That’s not an environment variable, but rather has to be set within the Configuration Manager.
Let’s have a look.
First you should create a profile for the database you want to load data in :
db_007
Then you will define it has a “database” (2tier connection) :
db_008 
Next window, a new field is there to define where is the application installed :
db_009 
Go till the end of the profile definition.
Now you should be able to see the application in Datamover, database setup :
db_010
And all the path directories are properly set for the INPUT datafiles in the created dms :
db_014 

Now we can discuss the exact use of having separate home for Peopletools and Application, it could really be a debate in the organization.

Nicolas.

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Peopletools 8.52 : managing PIA with psadmin

Peopletools 8.52 introduces new options in the psadmin menu, that’s rather interesting to see. Let’s see the PIA part, totally new here.
It can be managed within the command line
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin -help
Usage:

Miscellaneous options:
----------------------
  psadmin                              (Interactive utility)
  psadmin -h                           (Display this message)
  psadmin -v                           (Display version number)
  psadmin -env                         (Display environment as set by psadmin)
  psadmin -replicate -ch <PS_CFG_HOME>

Pure Internet Architecture (PIA) Options:
-----------------------------------
  psadmin -w command -d domain       (Perform command on PIA domain)
    where 'command' must be one of the following:
             start     (Start the domain)
             shutdown  (Shutdown this domain)
             shutdown! (Forced shutdown of this domain)
             status    (Show status for this domain)
             remove    (Delete the domain)

  psadmin -w configure -d domain -c c_set -p p_set
    where 'c_set' specifies domain settings, having the following format:
          minHeapSize/maxHeapSize/maxThreads/authTokenDomain
      and 'p_set' specifies port settings, having the following format:
          httpPort/httpsPort

  psadmin -w configure -d domain -s site -c c_set
    where 'c_set' specifies site settings, having the following format:
          appSrvConnString/webProfile/pooling/reportPath/webProfUser/webProfPword/appSrvConnPword
<…snipped…>

Or within the menu
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep PIA_HOME
PIA_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep CFG_HOME
PS_CFG_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin

PSADMIN -- Tools Release: 8.52.02
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

--------------------------------
PeopleSoft Server Administration
--------------------------------

  Config Home:  /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom

  1) Application Server
  2) Process Scheduler
  3) Search Server
  4) Web (PIA) Server
  5) Switch Config Home
  6) Replicate Config Home
  q) Quit

Command to execute (1-6, q): 4

-----------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration
-----------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1) Administer a domain
  2) Create a domain
  3) Delete a domain

  q) Quit

Command to execute:

=> Let’s create a new web domain for my new Peopletools 8.52 installation.
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin

PSADMIN -- Tools Release: 8.52.02
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

--------------------------------
PeopleSoft Server Administration
--------------------------------

  Config Home:  /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom

  1) Application Server
  2) Process Scheduler
  3) Search Server
  4) Web (PIA) Server
  5) Switch Config Home
  6) Replicate Config Home
  q) Quit

Command to execute (1-6, q): 4

-----------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration
-----------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1) Administer a domain
  2) Create a domain
  3) Delete a domain

  q) Quit

Command to execute: 2

---------------------------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration - Create Domain
---------------------------------------------

  PIA Home: /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1) Create a domain
  2) Replicate a domain

  q) Quit

Command to execute: 1

---------------------------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration - Create Domain
---------------------------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1)  Domain name                  :[peoplesoft]
  2)  Web server                   :[weblogic]
  3)  Web server root directory    :[/opt/oracle]
  4)  Web server login id          :[system]
  5)  Web server password          :[Passw0rd]
  6)  Website name                 :[ps]
  7)  Application server           :[orion5.phoenix.nga]
  8)  JSL Port                     :[9000]
  9)  HTTP Port                    :[80]
  10) HTTPS Port                   :[443]
  11) Authentication Token Domain  :[]
  12) Web profile                  :[PROD]
  13) Web profile user id          :[PTWEBSERVER]
  14) Web profile password         :[PTWEBSERVER]
  15) PeopleSoft reports directory :[/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web]

  c) Create the domain as shown
  q) Quit

Command to execute:

Note that some strange behavior, especially when changing the Web Profile, when enter 12 as command to execute, it switches to the next one instead of prompting, it means you have to enter “12” until reaching the expected web profile.
---------------------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration - Create Domain
---------------------------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1)  Domain name                  :[peoplesoft]
  2)  Web server                   :[weblogic]
  3)  Web server root directory    :[/appl/mdlware/weblogic]
  4)  Web server login id          :[system]
  5)  Web server password          :[Passw0rd]
  6)  Website name                 :[hcm91fp1]
  7)  Application server           :[orion5.phoenix.nga]
  8)  JSL Port                     :[9000]
  9)  HTTP Port                    :[8000]
  10) HTTPS Port                   :[8443]
  11) Authentication Token Domain  :[]
  12) Web profile                  :[DEV]
  13) Web profile user id          :[PTWEBSERVER]
  14) Web profile password         :[PTWEBSERVER]
  15) PeopleSoft reports directory :[/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web/reports/hcm91fp1]

  c) Create the domain as shown
  q) Quit

Command to execute: c

Creating the domain. This may take several minutes, please be patient.
..............................................................
The domain has been created

-----------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration
-----------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web

  1) Administer a domain
  2) Create a domain
  3) Delete a domain

  q) Quit

Command to execute: 1

------------------------------------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Domain Administration - Choose a Domain
------------------------------------------------------

  1) peoplesoft

  q) Quit

Command to execute: 1

------------------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Domain Administration
------------------------------------

  PIA Home:      /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web
  PIA Domain:    peoplesoft

  1) Boot this domain
  2) Shutdown this domain
  3) Get the status of this domain
  4) Configure this domain
  5) Edit configuration files
  6) View log files
  7) Administer a site
  8) Delete a site

  q) Quit

Command to execute: 1

Starting the domain.....
Server state changed to STARTING..............
Server state changed to STANDBY.
Server state changed to STARTING.............
Server state changed to ADMIN.
Server state changed to RESUMING.
Server state changed to RUNNING.
Verifying domain status......
The domain has started.


Now, I’m a bit struggled with the variable PIA_HOME, it appears not working afterwards until and unless I set PS_CFG_HOME=$PIA_HOME. Or maybe I did not understood very well that variable usage.
Anyway, with command line everything become much simpler than ever to start the entire street :
[ptools852@orion5 ~]$ cd $PS_HOME/appserv
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep PIA_HOME
PIA_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep PS_CFG_HOME
PS_CFG_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin -c boot -d hcm91fp1
Attempting to boot bulletin board...
tmadmin - Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Oracle.
Portions * Copyright 1986-1997 RSA Data Security, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Distributed under license by Oracle.
Tuxedo is a registered trademark.
No bulletin board exists. Entering boot mode.

> INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 071

Booting admin processes ...

exec BBL -A :
        process id=24244 ... Started.
1 process started.
Attaching to active bulletin board.

> Attempting to boot ...
INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 071

Booting server processes ...

exec PSWATCHSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 200223 -D hcm91fp1 -S PSWATCHSRV :
        process id=24248 ... Started.
exec PSAPPSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s@psappsrv.lst -- -D hcm91fp1 -S PSAPPSRV :
        process id=24249 ... Started.
<…snipped…>
exec JSL -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -n //orion5.phoenix.nga:9000 -m 9 -M 12 -I 5 -j ANY -x 40 -S 10 -c 1000000 -w JSH :
        process id=24374 ... Started.
exec JREPSVR -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -W -P /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom/appserv/hcm91fp1/jrepository :
        process id=24384 ... Started.
15 processes started.
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin -p start -d hcm91fp1
Attempting to boot bulletin board...
tmadmin - Copyright (c) 2007-2008 Oracle.
Portions * Copyright 1986-1997 RSA Data Security, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Distributed under license by Oracle.
Tuxedo is a registered trademark.
No bulletin board exists. Entering boot mode.

> INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 071

Booting admin processes ...

exec BBL -A :
        process id=24391 ... Started.
1 process started.
Attaching to active bulletin board.

> Attempting to boot ...
INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 071

Booting server processes ...

exec PSMSTPRC -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -CD hcm91fp1 -PS PSUNX -A start -S PSMSTPRC :
        process id=24410 ... Started.
exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD hcm91fp1 -S PSAESRV :
        process id=24419 ... Started.
<…snipped…>
exec PSMONITORSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 88726 -PS PSUNX -S PSMONITORSRV :
        process id=24473 ... Started.
8 processes started.
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin -w start -d peoplesoft
Domain Not Found: peoplesoft
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ export PS_CFG_HOME=$PIA_HOME
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin -w start -d peoplesoft

Starting the domain........
Server state changed to STARTING...........
Server state changed to STANDBY.
Server state changed to STARTING........
Server state changed to ADMIN.
Server state changed to RESUMING.
Server state changed to RUNNING.
Verifying domain status......
The domain has started.

[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$

Same behavior when using the interactive menu of psadmin, once the webserver is created as I showed above, it does not take it in account anymore :
[root@orion5 ~]# su - ptools852
[ptools852@orion5 ~]$ cd $PS_HOME/appserv
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep PIA_HOME
PIA_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_web
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ env|grep PS_CFG_HOME
PS_CFG_HOME=/appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom
[ptools852@orion5 appserv]$ ./psadmin

PSADMIN -- Tools Release: 8.52.02
Copyright (c) 1996, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

--------------------------------
PeopleSoft Server Administration
--------------------------------

  Config Home:  /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom

  1) Application Server
  2) Process Scheduler
  3) Search Server
  4) Web (PIA) Server
  5) Switch Config Home
  6) Replicate Config Home
  q) Quit

Command to execute (1-6, q): 4

-----------------------------
PeopleSoft PIA Administration
-----------------------------

  PIA Home:   /appl/psoft/hcm91fp1_dom <—here it is not my predefined $PIA_HOME

  1) Administer a domain
  2) Create a domain
  3) Delete a domain

  q) Quit

Command to execute:

Well, from the Peoplebooks, we can read “If you have the PIA_HOME environment variable set, this overrides the use of PS_CFG_HOME for PIA installations.”, that’s fine, it worked as I showed above for install, but does it mean it won’t override PS_CFG_HOME afterwards ? Or preferably, you change PS_CFG_HOME on-line, or before running psadmin to the desired PIA_HOME.

Nicolas.