This is the last post of this series unless I find anything additional earth shattering to report on.  The system is up and running well enough that I can restart my personal development and education work.  That is the point of this whole exercise – to hone and expand my skills.

After chapter 11, I compiled the Cobol and setup the process scheduler.  Both completed without too much work around.  I did have to break out an old dos trick for the Cobol compiler root path environment variable by enclosing it in quotes (“”).  The default install path contained spaces in the directory names, which the batch files can’t properly interpret given two additional parameters.

I have chosen not to install Change Assistant or Crystal Reports at this time.  That may come later.  What I am going to do is upgrade the tools to the latest 8.51 patch and then add the four maintenance packs available to the HRDMO implementation.  That will set me up with the latest build.

Just a note of a few problems that I have or still am experiencing:

• I was never able to get the Oracle Console working for the additional databases.  I’m not going to worry about this one much.  This is probably an area where I would do more damage than good given the access.  Most DB administration issues I seem to be able to fix from the command line or SQL Plus.  Google seems to be the best manual for describing and fixing problems
• My web server doesn’t seem to want to recognize the App Server process unless I log into PeopleTools via the Application Server (3-tier) before bringing up the web server.  This may be coincidental, but I’m just dealing with it at the moment.
• I had a setback with the login screen for a few days.  Somehow I picked up the ../signon command to login to PeopleSoft through the web.  The actual command is …/?cmd=login.  I was getting an error from the web server stating that the system could not find the registry entries for “signon”.  Of course it can’t because it’s “?cmd=login”.  Here is a full example: http://machine_name/psp/HRDMO/?cmd=login&languageCd=ENG

My best advice to anyone following in my footsteps behind me is to be persistent.   The instructions are really written for people who already know what they are doing.   Processes work better the second time around after you already figured the process out.  Creating my HRDMO database took more than 3 days of work.  Creating the HRSYS database behind it was about a morning’s worth of work.

Remember all your old DOS, Windows, TCP/IP and system tricks.  Sometimes the best answer is walking away from the process for a few hours or more and having a beer.  Coming back to the process with a lower frustration level later can reveal some new ways around the obstacles.

As far as the PeopleSoft folks at Oracle not creating the most user friendly documentation and install process for the system, I’m not too upset over that.  Yes, it would be nice to have one of those installers like years ago where you could click one button and a working PS  Demo environment would be up and running on your machine in four hours.  However, these instructions are supposed to be reference manuals for people who already know how to install a PS System, not your everyday hack.  This is why using PeopleSoft skills pays more than flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Have fun with your new lightsaber!  Just watch which way you point that thing.

By the end of this chapter, I will have a PeopleSoft HCM Demo database working within a web page provided everything goes right.

The install program was located is the PS_HOME\setup directory as expected.  Running it creates the Web Servers and the connections to have PeopleSoft working online.  The setup was pretty much strait forward: Run the program, fill in the prompts and pretty much take most of the defaults if possible.

It creates a new webserver directory within the PS_HOME for your new web domain.  In there are the executables to create, start and stop the web server as a Windows service.  These all worked pretty much as expected.

The problem came when I attempted to login to the PIA as directed to test the framework.  The login page popped up, but there was a bright red error stating that some part of my Application Server that I had never heard of failed.

I shut everything down and cleared the cache on my App Server.  Then rebooted the system.

With the system back up and the App Server restarted, I again attempted to login to the PIA and got the same message.  For all those who are on seat’s edge wondering what error I encountered, here it is: “bea.jolt.ApplicationException: TPESVCFAIL – application level service failure”

Being hardheaded, I decided to press on past the error and see if things would work anyway.  I signed in with the PS/PS and logged onto the PeopleSoft HCM Home Screen.  I think I can hear angels in the background singing the Hallelujah Chorus.  Handel must have been a PSoft coder as a hobby.

The last part of the chapter was some house cleaning and testing.  Everything is still working.  I’m happy.

This is one of those “Make You or Break You” chapters.  If it makes you feel better, this one broke me several times.  You have to have persistence and a decent amount of diagnostic ability.  It also brings into play the saying “What doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger”.  If you can get through this chapter, you’ll have a pretty good idea of the inner workings of the PeopleSoft architecture and no fear of manipulating it.

If all obstacles are overcome, by the end of the chapter I will have a PeopleSoft database that I can log into through the PeopleTools IDE.

Before really starting into this chapter, there are some things I needed to do.

First: Turn off all the power management settings on the PC.  I’m running Windows 7 64-Bit Home edition.  Go to the power management settings and make sure this PC will NEVER sleep or turn itself off or any reason other than someone pulling out the power cord and/or the battery drains completely.  Some of these processes run for hours, I didn’t want the PC to go into hibernation mode in the middle of loading the database.

Second:  Hide all the guns and sharp knives.  This step took me several days and several attempts.  I just had to get my head in the right place from the start knowing that this wasn’t going to work on the first time around.

Third: Plan for plenty of time.  See step one above.  If this step went perfect the first time around, it would still take multiple hours.

House Cleaning.  I ended up installing the fuller versions of the 32 & 64 bit Oracle client on my machine due to some of the problems I was having.  Looking back, I may have not needed them, but they are there and things are working.  They are staying.

My Oracle Database that I created from the seed didn’t want to pick up the system the first time.  I ended up dropping that database and creating a new custom database using Oracle’s Database Configuration Manager.  This custom version seems to work better.  Just be advised that it too takes several hours to create through this utility.

Set some Oracle settings to save you later.  These will help you in the short term and long term.  A prior version of my system had the ‘SYSADM’ password expire on me.  This was a pain for my R&D Learning system.  Oracle 11GR2 automatically sets all passwords to expire.  Here is how to change that:

 ALTER SYSTEM SET SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON = FALSE;

Commit;

 Password Case sensitivity.  I set my sysadm password to lower case, however, the scripts uppercased the password before placed it in the PSACCESSPRFL table.   This took a few hours to figure out.  Either change the password in Oracle, PeopleSoft or tell oracle that passwords are not case sensitive.  Here is how to do that:

 ALTER PROFILE DEFAULT LIMIT FAILED_LOGIN_ATTEMPTS UNLIMITED PASSWORD_LIFE_TIME UNLIMITED;

COMMIT;

 Another note: become familiar with the Task Manager and Resource Monitor.  Many of these processes will run for hours without providing any update on the screen for progress.  If things are looking like they are sitting there stalled, then they are probably working.  Windows will put that “(Not Responding)” tag on the title bars.  Look at the Resource Monitor and the Process Monitor applications and you can see that these processes are using CPU, Memory and Disk.  Let them go, they are not frozen.

A quick summary of the process and thoughts

Create a database with the included scripts.  This script and process hasn’t worked in several versions.  Just create the custom database using the Oracle DB Configuration Manager.  I followed the instructions exactly and it still didn’t work – got errors about attempting to mount a database that was already mounted.  How could that be if the Script was there to create it in the first place?

Editing the DB scripts.  Look carefully at these and this is where you will live or die in this process.  The logs have to be set to absolute file references or that will generate an error.  There are several connect commands through the process to create different DB objects under different users.  Be real careful about these.  The instructions are vague about which user is supposed to login at which time to create what.  Make sure your SYS is logging in as SYSDBA, your other logins are not and you are always declaring the DB in your connect command such as “connect sys/sysadm@hrdmo as sysdba”.   The scripts got me in trouble several times.

The PeopleTools IDE environment, including DataMover are 32-bit executables.  Make sure you have the configuration manager pointed to the 32-bit Oracle client drivers or all kinds of fun, yet non-descriptive errors will ensue.

As a note to repeat, some of the scripts take hours to run.  Don’t think this chapter is finished in 30 minutes.

Creating the DataMover Scripts.  If this step goes correctly, it takes several hours.  My process crashed a few times needing remediation.  The notes in the book mention that this may happen.  Fix the problem, truncate the script and rerun the process until it is complete.

I then ran into a problem logging into PeopleTools using the PS/PS.  This is where I found out about the password case issue that I mention correcting above.

Once logged into the system, I needed to load the PPLTS84CUR project.  This has all the PeopleTools definitions from records to PeopleCode, you name it.  Just selecting this project took about 30 minutes on the machine.  Once I clicked on the copy, it took several more hours to import all the definitions.

As a note of another issue, my grants to the three tables the access id of people needs access got dropped somewhere.  This took a little doing, but after rerunning the grants, I was able to log into the database again.

After complete, I went through it and did it one more time to create a tools database, HRSYS.  This is an empty PeopleTools database that I will use later when applying the maintenance packs to the HRMS environment.

So I’m on the other side of this little hell.  It took days to complete, but I think I have a pretty good base to go forward.  I have my HRDMO and HRSYS databases up, running and communicating with PeopleTools.

On to the next chapter.

This, as was chapter 5, a very brief chapter for a single user PeopleSoft installation.

It started out by bringing up the Configuration Manager and going through some of the default values in pages.  Most were already set to good values.  The profile script temp directory was incorrect.  I also put in the PeopleSoft default username and password along with the login username and password that we will find out about later.

I clicked the link to install the workstation as directed.  However, the workstation software was installed on this machine in Chapter 4 as mentioned above.  Do it anyway just in case there is something else in there that happens that is needed, but not mentioned.

The last step was to install the Crystal Reports ODBC driver.  There is an executable provided in the PS_HOME/Bin directory.  This ran to partial success.  Since the Crystal executables are not yet installed, it errored on the search for them.

I’m not sure I am going to be installing the Crystal reports on this machine.  PeopleSoft is slowly changing all the crystal reports to XML Publisher reports.  I believe SAP bought out the owner of Crystal reports- Oracle is not going to pay a license to SAP or provide a reason for their clients to even think about anything SAP in anyway.

This step is skipped in the single user version.  This is a repeat of Chapter 4 for the Windows File Server rather than the workstation.  In the single user version, one machine contains all the servers, so there is no need to install to network devices.

Chapter 8 is another challenging chapter.  Get this one wrong and all you have is a two-tier tools environment where you can code, but not run anything outside of App Engines and SQRs.  Not the most useful situation.

I already had installed the needed pieces in prior chapters.  Tuxedo is setup and running as a service on Windows.  The Workstation build created by PS Directories also put the PSADMIN program on the computer to control and configure the App Server.

I followed the directions and, as you can imagine, immediately failed.  The App Server would not boot.  Looking at the logs, I was getting the PSORA error, which means that Tuxedo can’t find the 32-bit Oracle client files.  It’s a good point to repeat this, though 8.50 Tools is a 64-Bit architecture, several pieces, including the Tuxedo App Server are still 32-Bit code.   The App Server needs the 32-Bit Client for the 64-Bit 11GR2 database you installed.

I have to admit: I reinstalled the 32-bit Oracle Instant client into a separate directory on my machine.   After several exasperated tries where I was still getting the ORADATA error, I reinstalled the 32-bit drivers again.  This may have not been necessary after working through the Path issues below.  But in the end the App server is running and I’m happy.

The Tuxedo configuration page does have a place to put in the path to the 32-bit client.  It’s one of the old “Add to Path” variables instead of pointing directly to where you want it to pick up the code.  I changed this to the correct path, but it still didn’t work.

Looking at my path variable pretty much summed up why it wouldn’t work.  After several attempts, the path was littered with several references to both the 32-bit and 64-bit Oracle Client directories.  The only way to save this is to clear out the path and set it right.

First I had to set the path so it would setup up correctly on the next boot.  That is in the Environment Variables on your system page.  I cleaned out the garbage and reorganized it as it should be.

The next problem is machine’s current path in memory is still that old garbage.  I went to the DOS prompt using administrator authority and cleared the path:

Path ;

Then I copied and pasted the path from the environment variable I just finished cleaning up into the DOS path

Path C:\Oralce\client32;C:\Oralce\product\11.2.0\dbhome_1\bin; %SystemRoot%\system32; %SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem; %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\; C:\Oralce\product\Tuxedo\tuxedo10gR3_VS2008\bin; C:\Oralce\product\Tuxedo\tuxedo10gR3_VS2008\jre\bin\server; C:\Oralce\product\Tuxedo\tuxedo10gR3_VS2008\jre\bin

After getting the path strait and the 32-bit clients reinstalled, the App Server finally booted successfully.  There are some settings to change on the configuration page.  The login ID and Password for the user is ‘PS’, not the delivered QEDEMO that is supplied.  Also, turn on the Pub/Sub servers (option 1) if you are planning on doing any messaging or SOA.   I did not go through the RES server configuration.  I figure I’ll leave that to later once I start working with that technology.

As a test, I completed logging into HRDMO with PeopleTools through the application server as directed.  It worked and I was able to load some components into the IDE.

So, all the world is good at this point:

• I have the database installed and working.
•  The HRDMO & HRSYS instances loaded and responding.
• I can use PeopleTools and…
• My App Server is up and running.

Now onto the Web Server…

This is the chapter where the PS_HOME directory is created.   Preparation is pretty much strait forward: unzip the Disk1, Disk2 & Disk3 directories and launch the installer through the SETUP.bat.

My installer would never work through the SETUP.BAT program.  A quick edit on the file showed that it was testing for some JAVA environment variables, and then launching SETUP.EXE from the \InstData directory.  I went directly to this directory and ran the program as the Administrator.

The license code for PeopleTools is in the first file you download off the site in the PeopleTools group – Supplemental Installation Information.  The pain is that you have to hand key the entire license code instead of using copy and paste.

Watch the system as it is installing.  At least one Java security message pops up asking permission to run while the install proceeds.  The problem is that the rest of the installer does not wait for it since it is spawned off.  Not answering immediately and letting it run causes some lockup issues with the system.

Verity Integration kit was strait forward and no problems.

The next step is installing the Application Files.  Again the issues with the SETUP.BAT and the license codes, but handled the same as before.  A tricky point here is that the application wants to setup in its own application directory.  Be sure to steer it to the new PS_HOME directory you installed with the first step.

I have four maintenance packs that I downloaded.  It doesn’t appear from any documentation that I should look into installing them now.  I have noticed that they have cobols attached to them too since there are Tax Updates involved.   If I’m going to use these, I have to get them in within the next 29 days since my MicroFocus compiler has started it’s demo window thanks to the last step in that process that activated it.

The next step is to setup the Windows File Server.  The layers are starting to pile onto my little, underpowered Fujitsu, I think I can faintly hear it starting to scream

Chapter 3 of the installation manual has me installing the Tuxedo Application Server and the MicroFocus Cobol compiler.  Let’s just say things go real smooth until they don’t anymore.

I installed the Tuxedo software as directed.  I have chosen to group as many of the different items within the Oracle/products directory as possible for good housekeeping sake.  They will all get their own subdirectory within products.

Part of the installation instructions for Tuxedo is to download the latest patch from Oracle Support.  Finding the patch was strait forward just following the directions in the guide… or so I thought.  I downloaded the latest patch presented and onto the installation of Tuxedo.

The base install of Tuxedo completed without any problems.  There are few options from installation and follow the screen prints from the guide.

Then I attempted to apply the patch.  The instructions have me stopping two new Window’s Services created for Tuxedo before applying the patch.  No problem: Done.  However, the patch would not install with an error messages stating that my services were still running (Slisten.exe & tuxipc.exe).  Through multiple attempts, I could not get the install software to acknowledge that these process were not running (yes, I checked Windows Task Manager Processes too).

• Disabling the services after stopping them
• Rebooting with the services disabled
• Booting into safe mode with the services stopped
• Booting into save mode command prompt with the services stopped.
• Downloading and attempting to run earlier versions of the patch.

It wasn’t until Monday morning after the weekend that I broke the code.  Oracle delivers the 32-bit Tuxedo V10R2 image with the PeopleSoft install set – not the 64-bit version with most other pieces.  I had been downloading and attempting the install the 64-Bit patches to the 32-Bit server installation.

After realizing I was running the 32-Bit Tuxedo version, I went back to Oracle and downloaded the latest 32-Bit patch.  R43 installed without issue.  That only took about 3 days to figure out.  I was seriously considering running my Tuxedo unpatched and hopping it would work.

After that fun, installing the MicroFocus Cobol complier was relatively easy and strait forward.  I was directed out to Oracle e-delivery to download the installs.  It’s important to follow the instructions here for a good install – don’t run ahead.  I had to install the 5.1 Wrap 1 version first, and then install the 5.1 Wrap 4 on top of that for the latest patch.  Follow the screen prints closely because the instructions have you turning OFF most of the install options for the compiler.  Turn off as much as you can because your poor target machine is going to be running enough processes without loading more useless Cobol DB interface servers too.

So Step 3: Additional Software is completed.  It only took me short of a week, a lot of headaches and a full blown cold to get to this point.  Chapter 4 is next and we start installing actual PeopleSoft Stuff.

Chapter 2 finally gets into some meat of installation.  We are installing the Oracle Weblogic Server software (formally, BEA WebLogic).

The instructions start out a little convoluted.  We need to install the WebLogic files, but it won’t let us until we do step 2 and install the JRocket Software.

So I installed JRocket to my computer.  It dutifully went to the c:\Program Files\ directory, creating a top directory in there called \JAVA\.  Installation was pretty simple, double click on the file and it installed.  Accept the defaults.  Of course, just to be confusing, it installed two directories under the \JAVA\ directory without any real mention about which one I should care about.

After JRocket is installed, the .jar file containing the Weblogic files suddenly comes to life when I clicked on it.  The installation guide has a pretty strait forward process of installing Weblogic complete with screen prints for every screen along installation.

Next in the chapter are several sub-chapters that I just passed over.  These are about installing weblogic on UNIX systems using multiple different methods.  There are also some instructions about installing IBMs WebSphere server and a section about uninstalling Weblogic.  Since this is a total commitment, the only real way that weblogic will be uninstalled from this machine is through a reimage process.

The last step was to download and run a Java patch installer for daylight savings time.  This downloaded and ran pretty well.  The instructions said there would be instructions within the package how and where to install.  There were none, but it pointed itself to the same c:\Program Files\JAVA directory that the JRocket install used.  After it was complete, there were an additional two more directories under by JAVA directory.  To put it another way, I now have a 25% chance of selecting the correct java directory when asked.  I think my chances are better in Las Vegas… and I don’t gamble.

So I’m done chapter 2, my machine is still running and theoretically I have Weblogic installed.  Next up is the heart wrenching chapter titled “Installing Additional Components”.

One of the hardest parts of implementing an environment is figuring out where to start.  I’ve gone to the Oracle Download web site and got a copy of all the files needed for a PeopleSoft HCM implementation.  There are a lot of files listed.  It would help if they had a big green arrow somewhere with a “START HERE” blinking graphic up the middle.

After meandering around for a while, it appears the best place to start is in the PeopleTools file grouping.  One of the files there has the installation instructions for all the different supported databases.  I extracted the “PeopleTools_8.51_Installation_Oracle” and started reading with Chapter 1.

Chapter 1 tells us to think about the architecture of our implementation.  We are going to need a workstation, fileserver, app server, web server, database server and report server at the minimum.  Of course my screaming Fujitsu is going to be all of these simultaneously.  I think if there were laws against system abuse, this would be in the illegal category.  Let’s just say that the gerbils in that little Core I-3 are going to be sprinting until they fall over dead.

Chapter 1 also tells us to go ahead and install the Oracle DBMS and get a seed database.  I’ve already did that with my last posting.  I’ve rechecked it with SQLPlus and SQLDeveloper for connectivity.

On the other hand, the manual also suggests installing PeopleSoft Upgrade Assistant and Oracle Configuration Monitor.  Since this is going to be a R&D database for my own education, I’m not going to install those system maintenance pieces.

I also have planned on NOT installing PeopleBooks since Oracle’s hosted PeopleBooks are just too easy to use.  Why take up the disk space and processor cycles maintaining them on my system when all I have to do is open a web browser to Oracle?  And yes, I don’t know how to install and maintain the Verity servers either.

Next step is Chapter 2.  I think I might actually have to start doing something along the build path in that chapter.  It’s named “Installing Web Server Products”. .. catchy!