Go to PeopleSoftTutorial.com for future updates: June 2011

I have written article specially for new peoplesoft dbas who most of time try to figure out how to find the details regarding a peoplesoft application. Peoplesoft application consists of database server, application server and webserver. Batch server is also present for reporting purposes.
Lets follow the top down approach and assume that you have been given a URL and are asked to find all the peoplesoft application details from it. (We are assuming you have access to all the servers and your application has a simple configuration with one webserver,one application server and one database server.)

Webserver details
Step1
URL: http://delta1:8101/psp/prod/?cmd=login

Information to gather:

Server name hosting our webserver : delta1

Port no. on which PIA is running : 8101

Peoplesoft Website name : prod

Step2
Log into webserver(delta1 in our case) and enter the following command.
# ps -ef|grep 8101

psoft 385244 1 0 May 18 - 17:08 java -Xms256m -Xmx256m -Dcom.sun.xml.namespace.QName.useCompatibleSerialVersionUID=1.0 -Dweblogic.Chunksize=65536 -Djava.util.logging.config.file=/psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/webserv/GHRMS/applications/peoplesoft/logging.properties -Dorg.apache.commons.logging.Log=org.apache.commons.logging.impl.Jdk14Logger -Dweblogic.Name=WebLogicAdmin -Dps_vault=/psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/webserv/GHRMS/psvault -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/webserv/GHRMS/keystore/pskey -Dweblogic.ProductionModeEnabled=true -Djava.security.policy=/psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/weblogic/weblogic92/server/lib/weblogic.policy -Dssl.debug=false -Dps_home=/psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101 weblogic.Server

Information to gather from it:

Owner/User of the process: psoft

User shown above has rights to start and shutdown the application. If you plan to stop/start the application you need to be logged in as this user, unless you plan to use root user to administer it.

Location from where it is running: /psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/webserv/GHRMS/applications/peoplesoft/

Above path tells you the place where your website is installed which is our webserver home.

Application Server details
Step3
cd to webserver path noted in step2
cd /psoft/weblogic/web849/psoft8101/webserv/GHRMS/applications/peoplesoft/
and enter the following command.

# find ./ -name configuration.properties
./PORTAL/WEB-INF/psftdocs/prod/configuration.properties

Now get the peoplesoft website name which we noted down in the first step. In our case it's 'prod'. Now we need to open the configuration file related to it.

Step4
Enter the following command.
more [PATH OF THE CONFIGURATION FILE RELATED TO YOUR WEBSITE]

# more ./PORTAL/WEB-INF/psftdocs/prod/configuration.properties

Now that we have opened the configuration file we'll get the appserver details from it. Parameter psserver will provide you with the application server details. It would be similar to
psserver=appserver1:9010
(To keep things simple we are considering the case of one appserver connected to one webserver)

Information to gather:

Application Server name : appserver1

JSL Port : 9010

Step5
Log into appserver and enter the following command.
# ps -ef|grep 9101
psoft 679954 1 0 May 31 - 0:29 JSL -C dom=PROD_56831 -g 95 -i 200 -u appserver1 -U /psoft/pt849/appserv/PROD/LOGS/TUXLOG -m 0 -A -- -d /dev/null -n //appserver1:9101 -m 9 -M 12 -I 5 -j ANY -x 40 -S 10 -c 1000000 -w JSH

Information to gather:

Owner name : psoft

User who has started the application server

Location of PS_HOME : /psoft/pt849/appserv/PROD

Path mentioned above is the appserver directory of PS_HOME

Domain name : PROD

Application Server domain name

Database server details
Step6
Navigate to PS_HOME/appserv directory using cd command
cd PS_HOME/appserv/DOMAIN_NAME/
# cd /psoft/pt849/appserv/PROD

Open application server configuration file "psappsrv.cfg"
more psappsrv.cfg
[Startup]
;=========================================================================
; Database Signon settings
;=========================================================================
DBName= psftdb
DBType= ORACLE

Information to gather:

Database/Service name: psftdb

Enter the below command at the prompt
tnsping database/service name
tnsping psftdb

Used TNSNAMES adapter to resolve the alias
Attempting to contact (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = dbserver)(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = psftdb)))
OK (10 msec)

Information to gather:

Database server host name : dbserver

Port no : 1521

We have backtracked our path from webserver to database server and gathered major details about webserver, application server and database server which are the main components of peoplesoft architecture.

We will discuss what is a Peoplesoft connect id, where it is used , how to create connect id and permission required by connect id.

What is a PeopleSoft connect id?
PeopleSoft connect id is a very important peoplesoft database id which is required for initial connection to database in PeopleSoft. It replaces the old concept of having database userid for every peoplesoft user id. A connect Id is a valid user ID that, when used during sign in takes the place of Peoplesoft User Id.
Where is connect ID used?
As mentioned above, peoplesoft connect Id is used for initial authentication with peoplesoft database. We require connect Id whenever we need to configure application server, process scheduler and configure 2 tier client like peoplesoft application designer and data mover. If connect id is not mentioned correctly you will face error while starting application server,process scheduler server & will be unable to login in app designer or data mover.

Application Server: Connect Id is entered when choosing "Configure this domain" option for any application server domain using psadmin utility.
Connect Id can also be entered directly in application server configuration file psappsrv.cfg for the domain being configured. After making changes to psappsrv.cfg file , appserver needs to be configured again using psadmin so that psadmin picks up new settings as mentioned in "psappsrv.cfg" file.
Process Scheduler Server: Similar to application server configuration, connect id is used in process scheduler configuration as well. Connect Id can be entered in process scheduler configuration file "psprcs.cfg" as well.
2 tier client eg. PeopleSoft Application Designer, Data mover: As these 2 tier clients also connects with database so connect id is also required to be configured for these. To configure this we need to go to the configuration manager which can be accessed via installed peopletools workstation. Enter values of connect id and password on the startup tab of peoplesoft configuration manager.

If you don't specify connect id , system will assume that you are trying to access peoplesoft using 3 tier access. Learn how to setup 3 tier connection in peoplesoft .

How to create a connect Id?
While creating a new database, connect id is created using connect.sql script which is present in PS_HOME\scripts\nt\ folder. By default 'people' is connect id, although a new connect id can be created any time later.

What are the permissions required for connect id?
For initial connection with peoplesoft database, connect id needs to have read only access to three major peoplesoft tables i.e PSSTATUS, PSOPRDEFN and PSACCESSPRFL. Usually this access is also granted as part of database installation using grant.sql which is also present in PS_HOME. You can also grant access by running the below commands.
GRANT SELECT ON PSACCESSPRFL to people;
GRANT SELECT ON PSSTATUS to people;
GRANT SELECT ON PSOPRDEFN to people;

If you still have any questions, please leave some comments here or for quick response like our facebook page and ask your question there.

Go to PeopleSoftTutorial.com for future updates

Friday, 10 June 2011

Understanding peoplesoft architecture

Tuesday, 7 June 2011

What is a Peoplesoft Connect ID ?

How was the blog? Help us in getting better