We put together a podcast with a short Q&A from our latest book PeopleSoft PeopleTools Data Management and Upgrade Handbook. If you have been wondering whether or not to buy the book, listen to this podcast. Perhaps it will help you make an informed decision.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
How to Configure and Use Integration Broker
Integration Broker has become a critical service for PeopleSoft applications. If you are new to Integration Broker or are having trouble with Integration Broker configuration, then take a look at this new Integration Broker course published by my friends at CGI consulting. The course consists of an 84 page instructional PDF and a couple of source files. The course covers everything from configuration to using SoapUI. Here are some highlights:
- Setting up Integration Broker
- Publishing a CI based service
- Testing a web service (CI or otherwise) with SoapUI
- Calling a service from PeopleCode
- Application Class PeopleCode handlers
- Routing transformations
- JDeveloper XSLT Mapper
- App Engine Service Operation handlers
- And much, much more
One item I noticed that is NOT covered is creating custom listeners and targets using the Integration Broker SDK. Not to worry, though because I cover creating custom targets in my book PeopleTools Tips & Techniques.
The CGI Integration Broker course is a great read. I recommend downloading and saving a copy for future reference.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Alliance 2013
Alliance 2013 in Indianapolis is just around the corner. Here is my schedule:
- Meet the Experts (Technical) March 18th at 2:30 PM
- 31719 PeopleTools Developer: Tips & Techniques on Monday, March 18th at 4:30 PM in Sagamore 4
- 31723 Delivering a Ground-Breaking User Interface Using PeopleTools and the Interaction Hub on Tuesday, March 19th at 11 AM in Sagamore 4
- Meet the Experts (Technical) March 19th at 12:00 PM
Monday, December 03, 2012
Broadcasting Notifications to Logged in Users
Disclaimer: the following post is not a full solution. It is just a series of very simple examples showing how to implement message broadcasting. A production grade solution may look very similar (just as simple as this, in fact), but with one critical difference: security. I left security out of the examples to focus strictly on how to broadcast notifications. DO NOT IMPLEMENT THIS SOLUTION WITHOUT FIRST SECURING THE CLIENT CONNECTIONS!! I give some security ideas at the end of this post.
In the OTN forums, a customer recently asked how to push notification messages from the server to logged in users. It is a good question, and it's one I have heard before. For example, let's say you are an administrator and you want to push out a message telling all users that the system is going down for maintenance in 15 minutes. This is a tricky issue because it stands in contrast to the protocol chosen by modern enterprise applications: HTTP(S), also known as "the web." Through the web, client browsers connect to servers and then disconnect. Servers don't connect to clients, and clients don't hold connections open while waiting for a constant stream. This is what makes the server side message push challenging. How can a server push a message to a disconnected client? Some very smart people have come up with a few answers with long polling and WebSockets being the most common.
The next question: How can a PeopleSoft developer implement this type of solution? It would be possible to implement a long polling solution using an iScript (I don't recommend this, but let me explain it anyway). With this approach a browser makes an Ajax request to an iScript and the iScript sleeps, loops, and does whatever it can to avoid responding until it has something to send back to the client. In this case, the iScript would wait until a database table contained a message, and then it would send that message back to the client. The client would process the message and immediately create another connection to the server. Here is why I don't recommend this type of solution: the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (PIA). PIA is designed to perform well in a disconnected state. Connection pooling, etc. work well when disconnected. Changing the client's behavior by maintaining a persistent connection to PeopleCode running on the app server pretty much invalidates the use of a connection pool. Running this type of connected service would require a dramatic increase in app server connections. This would require one app server connection for each logged in user PLUS a pool of stateless connections to be shared by normal PIA clients. The app server pool is generally smaller than the maximum number of expected connections because no one expects every client browser to connect at exactly the same time. Using iScript based long polling, however, would dramatically increase that number. If anyone has other experiences, please share them.
Rather than tie up so much of PIA with a plethora of light-weight, potentially insignificant requests, I prefer socket.io coupled with node.js. The idea here is that many PeopleSoft clients connect to the socket.io server, but we only make one connection to the PeopleSoft server. In fact, we don't have to make any connections to the PeopleSoft server. Rather, the PeopleSoft server can connect to socket.io as a special client. Think of this as sort of a "chat" application where there are lots of participants waiting, but only one person is speaking. We just don't want to tie up the whole PIA while waiting for the server to "speak." Here is a sample node.js socket program:
var app = require('http').createServer()
, io = require('socket.io').listen(app)
, fs = require('fs');
app.listen(8888 /* pick a port */);
io.sockets.on('connection', function (socket) {
// The "master" (PeopleSoft) will send a "notification" message if it has
// something to broadcast
// TODO: authenticate client here
socket.on('notification', function (data) {
socket.broadcast.emit('notification', data);
});
});
Now we need a way to register PeopleSoft web browser clients as participants in this "chat." The easiest way I know of to register clients is to inject JavaScript into a common HTML definition. If you are using PT 8.52 or later, I recommend PT_COMMON. For earlier versions of PeopleTools, I recommend PT_COPYURL. When injecting JavaScript libraries through a JavaScript file, we have to follow certain rules:
- Don't use document.write. The document.write method assumes the browser is still parsing the original document. In the modern Ajax world, that may not be true.
- Don't write code that uses a library without first loading the library. This seems obvious, but it is really about the way a browser handles JavaScript. When we import a library using the technique below, the library isn't yet available, so don't follow the import with library specific code. Make sure the library is ready first.
Here is a sample injection listing that imports the socket.io JavaScript library. When implementing this type of solution, you would add something like this to to PT_COPYURL or PT_COMMON.
(function() {
// Update with your socket.io server
var socketServerUrl = "http://jims-laptop:8888";
var importScript = function(url) {
var s = document.createElement("script");
s.type = "text/javascript";
s.src = url;
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s);
};
var setupSocket = function() {
// there are many ways to ensure that a script is ready
if (!window.io) {
setTimeout(setupSocket, 1000);
} else {
var socket = io.connect(socketServerUrl);
socket.on("notification", function (data) {
alert(data.message);
});
}
};
importScript(socketServerUrl + "/socket.io/socket.io.js");
setupSocket();
})();This will register each logged in user's browser window with the socket server. Of course, if a user has multiple windows open, each will receive notifications. The notification demonstrated here is a very obtrusive JavaScript alert. There are a lot more elegant notification methods.
The final piece that remains is registering PeopleSoft as the "master" chat participant. There are at least 101 ways to accomplish this, so I'll just give a boilerplate node.js script showing how to connect and broadcast a message. How you register with the socket server will depend on your use case. If your use case is to create an online page where administrators can type in a broadcast message and have it instantly sent to all logged in users, then you can create a simple PeopleSoft page/component with an HTML area and JavaScript very similar to below. The page would have a text area for entering a message and a button for sending the message. On send, the code would call socket.emit to send the message. If your requirement is to send a broadcast message based on the changing contents of a database table, then you may write a database specific procedure to connect and send the message. If you have to check the state of the application on interval and send a message, then you might use a shell script or node.js script to check something on interval and then send a broadcast message if required. Another approach may be to have Integration Broker send a special message to the node.js server (with authentication, of course).
Here is a node.js example. It broadcasts a message every 5 seconds, just for testing purposes.
var io = require('socket.io-client'),
// update the server and port #
socket = io.connect('jims-laptop', {
port: 8888
});
socket.on('connect', function () { console.log("socket connected"); });
var counter = 1;
setInterval(function() {
socket.emit('notification', {message: 'This is a very important PeopleSoft message! Ping #' + counter});
counter += 1;
}, 5000);Please note that we didn't secure any of this communication! Given the implementation above, any user could broadcast to all other users by simply typing the appropriate emit statement into a JavaScript console. When securing this notification, you want to ensure two things:
- That all connected clients are real PeopleSoft users (except the master)
- That only the "master" (or administrators) can send broadcast messages
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
AWE Mass Approval
The sample chapter for my PeopleTools Tips and Techniques book (Chapter 3) contains all of the steps required to add AWE to a PeopleSoft transaction. A colleague who recently used this chapter to AWE enable a transaction asked me how to mass approve transactions. Most of the code required to mass approve transactions is actually on the last page of Chapter 3. Here is an expanded template with placeholders. Just wrap this in a loop and wire it up to a button, App Engine, or some other execution environment.
Local Record &headerRec = CreateRecord(Record.NAME_OF_AWE_HEADER_RECORD);
Local EOAW_CORE:ApprovalManager &apprManager;
Local string &processId = /* hard coded value goes here */;
REM ** Populate approval header record keys here;
&headerRec.GetField(Field.KEY1).Value = /* Key 1 from scroll */
&headerRec.GetField(Field.KEY2).Value = /* Key 2 from scroll */
...
&apprManager = create EOAW_CORE:ApprovalManager(&processId, &headerRec, %OperatorId);
If (&apprManager.hasAppInst) Then
&apprManager.DoApprove(&headerRec);
Else
REM ** throw error;
End-If;Each time through the loop, update the header record values, acquire a new instance of the ApprovalManager, and execute DoApprove.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Convert Byte Array into String
In the OTN forums, someone recently asked how to convert a byte array into a String. Assuming the byte array contains characters, not binary data, you can convert a binary array into a string by using the Java String byte array constructor. Here is a short example:
REM ** Create an array of bytes for testing purposes;
Local JavaObject &input = CreateJavaObject("java.lang.String", "A test string.");
Local JavaObject &bytes = &input.getBytes();
REM Convert the bytes back into a String;
Local JavaObject &output = CreateJavaObject("java.lang.String", &bytes);
MessageBox(0, "", 0, 0, &output.toString());
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Query for Component and/or CREF Navigation Take II
Several years ago I wrote the post Query for Component and/or CREF Navigation which demonstrated how to use Oracle's connect by clause with the portal registry to find the navigation to a PeopleSoft component. Why? Most users are trained to send a Ctrl-J screenshot to their developers when they encounter issues. Knowing the menu, market, and component is great, but developers need to know the navigation in order to replicate the issue. The point of the query is to find the navigation to some component or CREF without having to ask a functional expert for more details. As of 11gR2, Oracle now supports recursive common table expressions, a T-SQL feature supported by Microsoft and DB2. Here is a new iteration of that old post that uses Common Table Expressions. For those using non-Oracle databases, be sure to update the concatenation character to match your database platform. If you use this SQL within PeopleSoft (as a view, etc), then save yourself some potential grief and use the %Concat Meta-SQL variable instead of a database specific concatenation operator.
Full portal registry path
WITH PORTAL_REGISTRY (PORTAL_NAME, PORTAL_REFTYPE, PORTAL_OBJNAME, PORTAL_LABEL, PORTAL_URI_SEG1, PORTAL_URI_SEG2, PORTAL_URI_SEG3, PATH) AS (
SELECT P.PORTAL_NAME
, P.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P.PORTAL_LABEL
, PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, P.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PSPRSMDEFN P
WHERE P.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME = ' '
UNION ALL
SELECT P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P_ONE.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, PATH || ' --> ' || P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY P
INNER JOIN PSPRSMDEFN P_ONE
ON P.PORTAL_NAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
AND P.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'F'
AND P.PORTAL_OBJNAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME
WHERE P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME != ' ' )
SELECT PORTAL_NAME
, PORTAL_OBJNAME
, PORTAL_REFTYPE
, PATH
, PORTAL_LABEL
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY
WHERE PORTAL_REFTYPE != 'F'
Find the path when you know the CREF ID:
WITH PORTAL_REGISTRY (PORTAL_NAME, PORTAL_REFTYPE, PORTAL_OBJNAME, PORTAL_LABEL, PORTAL_URI_SEG1, PORTAL_URI_SEG2, PORTAL_URI_SEG3, PATH) AS (
SELECT P.PORTAL_NAME
, P.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P.PORTAL_LABEL
, PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, P.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PSPRSMDEFN P
WHERE P.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME = ' '
UNION ALL
SELECT P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P_ONE.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, PATH || ' --> ' || P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY P
INNER JOIN PSPRSMDEFN P_ONE
ON P.PORTAL_NAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
AND P.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'F'
AND P.PORTAL_OBJNAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME
WHERE P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME != ' ' )
SELECT PORTAL_NAME
, PORTAL_OBJNAME
, PORTAL_REFTYPE
, PATH
, PORTAL_LABEL
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY
WHERE PORTAL_REFTYPE != 'F'
AND PORTAL_NAME = 'EMPLOYEE'
AND PORTAL_OBJNAME = 'PT_EMAIL_PSWD_GBL'
Find the path when you know the menu, component, and market
WITH PORTAL_REGISTRY (PORTAL_NAME, PORTAL_REFTYPE, PORTAL_OBJNAME, PORTAL_LABEL, PORTAL_URI_SEG1, PORTAL_URI_SEG2, PORTAL_URI_SEG3, PATH) AS (
SELECT P.PORTAL_NAME
, P.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P.PORTAL_LABEL
, PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, P.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PSPRSMDEFN P
WHERE P.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME = ' '
UNION ALL
SELECT P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_REFTYPE
, P_ONE.PORTAL_OBJNAME
, P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG1
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG2
, P_ONE.PORTAL_URI_SEG3
, PATH || ' --> ' || P_ONE.PORTAL_LABEL AS PATH
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY P
INNER JOIN PSPRSMDEFN P_ONE
ON P.PORTAL_NAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_NAME
AND P.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'F'
AND P.PORTAL_OBJNAME = P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME
WHERE P_ONE.PORTAL_PRNTOBJNAME != ' ' )
SELECT PORTAL_NAME
, PORTAL_OBJNAME
, PORTAL_REFTYPE
, PATH
, PORTAL_LABEL
FROM PORTAL_REGISTRY
WHERE PORTAL_REFTYPE != 'F'
AND PORTAL_NAME = 'EMPLOYEE'
AND PORTAL_URI_SEG1 = 'UTILITIES'
AND PORTAL_URI_SEG2 = 'PSOPTIONS'
AND PORTAL_URI_SEG3 = 'GBL';
Notice that the main table expression remains unchanged. For each of the scenarios, I'm just manipulating the query that selects from the table expression. Are you interested in learning more about Common Table Expressions? Here is a list of posts I used to gain a better understanding of this feature:
Monday, October 15, 2012
Manipulating Zip Files with PeopleCode
I've seen a few forum posts that show how to zip files using both Exec and the XML Publisher PSXP_RPTDEFNMANAGER:Utility app package. Those are great options, but might not fit every scenario. Since the Java API includes support for zip files, let's investigate how we can use it to create or extract zip files.
Java allows developers to create zip files by writing data to a ZipOutputStream. We've used OutputStreams a few times on this blog to write data to files. A ZipOutputStream is just a wrapper around an OutputStream that writes contents in the zip file format. Here is an example of reading a text file and writing it out to a ZipOutputStream
REM ** The file I want to compress;
Local string &fileNameToZip = "c:\temp\blah.txt";
REM ** The internal zip file's structure -- internal location of blah.txt;
Local string &zipInternalPath = "my/internal/zip/folder/structure";
Local JavaObject &zip = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream", CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileOutputStream", "c:\temp\compressed.zip", True));
Local JavaObject &file = CreateJavaObject("java.io.File", &fileNameToZip);
REM ** We will read &fileNameToZip into a buffer and write it out to &zip;
Local JavaObject &buf = CreateJavaArray("byte[]", 1024);
Local number &byteCount;
Local JavaObject &in = CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileInputStream", &fileNameToZip);
Local JavaObject &zipEntry = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipEntry", &zipInternalPath | "/" | &file.getName());
REM ** Make sure zip entry retains original modified date;
&zipEntry.setTime(&file.lastModified());
&zip.putNextEntry(&zipEntry);
&byteCount = &in.read(&buf);
While &byteCount > 0
&zip.write(&buf, 0, &byteCount);
&byteCount = &in.read(&buf);
End-While;
&in.close();
&zip.flush();
&zip.close();To add multiple files to a single zip file, we can convert the above code into a function (preferably a FUNCLIB function) and then call it multiple times, once for each file:
Function AddFileToZip(&zipInternalPath, &fileNameToZip, &zip)
Local JavaObject &file = CreateJavaObject("java.io.File", &fileNameToZip);
REM ** We will read &fileNameToZip into a buffer and write it out to &zip;
Local JavaObject &buf = CreateJavaArray("byte[]", 1024);
Local number &byteCount;
Local JavaObject &in = CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileInputStream", &fileNameToZip);
Local JavaObject &zipEntry = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipEntry", &zipInternalPath | "/" | &file.getName());
REM ** Make sure zip entry retains original modified date;
&zipEntry.setTime(&file.lastModified());
&zip.putNextEntry(&zipEntry);
&byteCount = &in.read(&buf);
While &byteCount > 0
&zip.write(&buf, 0, &byteCount);
&byteCount = &in.read(&buf);
End-While;
&in.close();
End-Function;
Local JavaObject &zip = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream", CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileOutputStream", "c:\temp\compressed.zip", True));
AddFileToZip("folder1", "c:\temp\file1.txt", &zip);
AddFileToZip("folder1", "c:\temp\file2.txt", &zip);
AddFileToZip("folder2", "c:\temp\file1.txt", &zip);
AddFileToZip("folder2", "c:\temp\file2.txt", &zip);
&zip.flush();
&zip.close();The contents to zip doesn't have to come from a static file in your file system. It could come from the database or... well, anywhere. Here is an example of zipping static text. In this example I intentionally left the internal zip file path (folder) blank to show how to create a zip file with no structure.
Local JavaObject &textToCompress = CreateJavaObject("java.lang.String", "This is some text to compress... probably a bloated XML document or something ;)");
Local string &zipInternalFileName = "contents.txt";
Local JavaObject &zip = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipOutputStream", CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileOutputStream", "c:\temp\compressed.zip", True));
Local JavaObject &zipEntry = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipEntry", &zipInternalFileName);
Local JavaObject &buf = &textToCompress.getBytes();
Local number &byteCount = &buf.length;
&zip.putNextEntry(&zipEntry);
&zip.write(&buf, 0, &byteCount);
&zip.flush();
&zip.close();And, finally, unzipping files. The following example prints the text inside each file from a zip file named "compressed.zip" that contains four fictitious text files named file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt, and file4.txt.
Local JavaObject &zipFileInputStream = CreateJavaObject("java.io.FileInputStream", "c:\temp\compressed.zip");
Local JavaObject &zipInputStream = CreateJavaObject("java.util.zip.ZipInputStream", &zipFileInputStream);
Local JavaObject &zipEntry = &zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
Local JavaObject &buf = CreateJavaArray("byte[]", 1024);
Local number &byteCount;
While &zipEntry <> Null
If (&zipEntry.isDirectory()) Then
REM ** do nothing;
Else
Local JavaObject &out = CreateJavaObject("java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream");
&byteCount = &zipInputStream.read(&buf);
While &byteCount > 0
&out.write(&buf, 0, &byteCount);
&byteCount = &zipInputStream.read(&buf);
End-While;
&zipInputStream.closeEntry();
MessageBox(0, "", 0, 0, &out.toString());
/*Else
&log.writeline("&zipEntry is a directory named " | &zipEntry.getName);*/
End-If;
&zipEntry = &zipInputStream.getNextEntry();
End-While;
&zipInputStream.close();
&zipFileInputStream.close();What about unzipping binary files into the file system? I'll let you write that one.
Password protected zip files? Java doesn't make this easy. There are a few Java libraries, but as Chris Rigsby points out here, using non-standard Java classes (including your own) can be hazardous. At this time, it seems the best way to password protect a zip file is to use Exec to call a command line zip program. On Linux with the zip utility, use the -P parameter to encrypt with a password.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Book Signing at OpenWorld 2012
Each year Oracle Press authors gather for a half hour "meet the authors" and book signing at the OpenWorld bookstore. This year the book signing half hour is from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Be sure to check the bookstore signage for your favorite author's scheduled time. I will be in the bookstore during the "Meet the Authors" event on Thursday. Please bring your book and/or questions. We will have a great time discussing technology!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Learn About Building PeopleSoft Mobile Apps this Sunday at OpenWorld
If you are attending OpenWorld and arrive in San Francisco before 2:15 PM this Sunday, then come to Moscone West room 3009. I will be sharing tips and concepts for building mobile applications on the PeopleTools platform. This session is open to anyone registered for OpenWorld. The session ID is SIG10516. You can read the session announcement on the OAUG PeopleSoft SIG web site.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
PeopleSoft OVM VirtualBox Conversion Links
Are you interested in converting a PeopleSoft OVM template into a VirtualBox instance you can run on your laptop? The following is a list of resources to help you as you attempt to convert a PeopleSoft OVM template into a VirtualBox instance:
Thursday, August 09, 2012
OpenWorld 2012
OpenWorld is not far off. Have you completed your schedule? Here are a few sessions I plan to attend:Sunday, Sep 30th
- 2:15 PM -- SIG10516 - PeopleSoft Technology SIG Presents: Developing Mobile Applications using PeopleTools, Moscone West 3009
Monday, Oct 1st
- 10:45 AM -- CON9210 - Performance Tuning for the PeopleSoft Administrator, David Kurtz, Moscone West 3009
- 12:15 PM -- CON9188 - Art of the Possible: A Great User Experience via PeopleSoft Applications Portal, Moscone West 3009 (I'm a co-presenter)
- 1:30 PM - 6:00 PM -- Moscone West demo grounds
- 1:15 PM -- CON9192 - Implementing a PeopleSoft Maintenance Strategy with My Update Manager, Moscone West 3009
- 2:15 PM - 6:00 PM -- Moscone West demo grounds
Wednesday, Oct 3rd
- 9:45 AM - Noon -- Moscone West demo grounds
- 1:15 PM -- CON9185 - PeopleTools Developer: Tips & Techniques, Moscone West 3009 (I'm the presenter)
- 3:30 PM -- CON9186 - Case Study: Delivering a Ground-Breaking User Interface with PeopleTools, Moscone West 3009
- 3:30 PM -- CON4799 - Five Reasons to Upgrade to PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.52, Hakan Biroglu, Moscone West 3011
- 5:00 PM -- CON9200 - PeopleTools Product Team panel Discussion, Moscone West 3009
Thursday, Oct 4th
- 11:15 PM -- CON9197 - PeopleTools Developer: A Guide to Properly Enhancing PeopleSoft Applications, Moscone West 3011 (Graham Smith)
If you have my book and I haven't signed it, bring it (only if you want, of course)! I'm happy to sign books at any time.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Converting the PeopleTools OVM Template to VirtualBox
This post assumes you already have a working database as described in Converting PeopleSoft OVM Templates to VirtualBox Guests or some other PeopleSoft PT 8.52.03 database. It also assumes that you have the cloned starting point of a base OEL with the OVM functions (steps 1 through 22 from the prior post).
The PeopleTools Image (App, Web, and Prcs)
- Run through steps 1 through 3 as listed here. Notice that step 3 gives the PT image the IP address of 192.168.56.51. Update your network settings and hostname to match the /etc/hosts file and make sure it matches what is in the db image.
- Add the following to psadm2's .bash_profile (/home/psadm2/.bash_profile):
# psft env vars export PS_APP_HOME=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/apptools export PS_CFG_HOME=/home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912 export ORACLE_BASE=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/oracle-client export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/11.2.0.x export ORACLE_SID=FSCM912 export TUXDIR=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/bea/tuxedo export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$TUXDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/lib . /opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/psconfig.sh export PATH=$TUXDIR/bin:$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin export LANG=C
* Special thank you to Nicolas Gasparotto for his Installation Documents. My first handful of times through the script, my app server wouldn't start. I found three issues: TUXDIR, LANG, and PATH. TUXDIR and LANG are both documented in various places on Nicolas's blog.
- We need to copy a few files off the PT OVM system disk. Create a mount point for /dev/sdc2, mount it, and copy the files:
mkdir /tmp/sdc2 mount /dev/sdc2 /tmp/sdc2 cp -R -p /tmp/sdc2/opt/oracle /opt/
- Create the PS_CFG_HOME directory:
mkdir -p /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912 chown -R psadm2:oracle /home/psadm2/psft
- Add the tools disk image to /etc/fstab
/dev/sdb1 /opt/oracle/psft/pt ext3 defaults 1 3
- Mount the tools disk:
mount /opt/oracle/psft/pt
- Update the ulimits for Weblogic's sake. Add the following to the end of /etc/security/limits.conf. I copied these values out of the system OVM disk image:
* hard nofile 65536 * soft nofile 65536 * hard nproc 65536 * hard nproc 65536 * hard core unlimited * soft core unlimited * hard memlock 50000000 * soft memlock 50000000
- The scripts will generate an app server domain named APPDOM and a process scheduler domain named PRCSDOM. If that is not preferable to you, then edit /opt/oracle/psft/vm/oraclevm-template-utils.sh. Search for APPSRVDOM=APPDOM AND PRCSDOM=PRCSDOM. Replace APPDOM and PRCSDOM with your preferred values. I just accepted the defaults.
- Run the template script (I ran as root): move into the /opt/oracle/psft/vm directory, export DECOUPLE_USR_GROUP, and run oraclevm-template.sh:
sudo -i cd /opt/oracle/psft/vm export DECOUPLE_USR_GROUP=appinst ./oraclevm-template.sh
- Here is the output my system generated when I ran the script. My answers to prompts are in bold.
[root@fscm912pt vm]# ./oraclevm-template.sh Creating ovm_configure_pre No Current Do you wish to configure the VM for Demo Purposes [y/n]:y Do you wish to configure a Decoupled Application Home [y/n]:y Default Do you wish to setup PeopleSoft Application Server on this VM [y|n]: y CreateVirtualEnvironment Enter the name of the database [TESTDB]:FSCM912 CreateVirtualEnvironment Enter the name of the database [TESTDB]:FSCM912 Enter the hostname for the database server [fscm912pt]:fscm912db Enter the port number for the database host [1521]: Are you happy with your answers [y|n] : y WARN: An If this VM is connecting to a PeopleSoft database created from an Oracle VM template some additional setup may be required. We can automate these steps for you. If you are connecting to a Database that has been used before you may wish to skip this step. Do you want this additional setup to be performed? [y|n]: y ChangeDBUserProfiles Running Running Copying application server configuration files... Copying [/opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/appserv/small.cfx] to [/home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/APPDOM/psappsrv.cfg] Stripping Annotations... Copying [/opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/appserv/small.cfx] to [/home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/APPDOM/psappsrv.cfx] Copying Jolt repository file... Domain created. Performing load prechecks ... Loading validation table... setting DBName=FSCM912 setting DBType=ORACLE setting UserId=VP1 setting UserPswd=VP1 setting ConnectId=people setting ConnectPswd=peop1e setting ServerName=____ setting Port=7000 setting Port=9000 setting Listener Port=9100 setting Domain ID=APPDOM setting Add to PATH=. New CFG file written with modified Startup parameters Log Directory entry not found in configuration file. Setting Log Directory to the default... [PS_SERVDIR/LOGS] Spawning disabled for server PSAPPSRV. WARNING: PSSAMSRV is configured with Min instance set to 1. To avoid loss of service, configure Min instance to atleast 2. Configuration file successfully created. CFG setting changes completed, loading configuration... Domain configuration complete. Created Performing load prechecks ... Loading validation table... WARNING: PSSAMSRV and PSQRYSRV are configured with Min instance set to 1. To avoid loss of service, configure Min instance to atleast 2. Loading new configuration... Domain configuration complete. Domain Starting Archived a copy of the domain configuration to /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/APPDOM/Archive/psappsrv.cfg 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 043 Booting admin processes ... exec BBL -A : process id=4048 ... Started. 1 process started. Attaching to active bulletin board. > Attempting to boot ... INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 043 Booting server processes ... exec PSWATCHSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 141117 -D APPDOM -S PSWATCHSRV : process id=4052 ... Started. exec PSAPPSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s@psappsrv.lst -- -D APPDOM -S PSAPPSRV : process id=4053 ... Started. exec PSAPPSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s@psappsrv.lst -- -D APPDOM -S PSAPPSRV : process id=4059 ... Started. exec PSQRYSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s@psqrysrv.lst -- -D APPDOM -S PSQRYSRV : process id=4065 ... Started. exec PSSAMSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -D APPDOM -S PSSAMSRV : process id=4069 ... Started. exec PSANALYTICSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -D APPDOM -S PSANALYTICSRV : process id=4072 ... Started. exec PSANALYTICSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -D APPDOM -S PSANALYTICSRV : process id=4075 ... Started. exec PSANALYTICSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -D APPDOM -S PSANALYTICSRV : process id=4078 ... Started. exec PSBRKHND -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSBRKHND_dflt:BrkProcess -- -D APPDOM -S PSBRKHND_dflt : process id=4081 ... Started. exec PSBRKDSP -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSBRKDSP_dflt:Dispatch -- -D APPDOM -S PSBRKDSP_dflt : process id=4084 ... Started. exec PSPUBHND -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSPUBHND_dflt:PubConProcess -- -D APPDOM -S PSPUBHND_dflt : process id=4087 ... Started. exec PSPUBDSP -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSPUBDSP_dflt:Dispatch -- -D APPDOM -S PSPUBDSP_dflt : process id=4091 ... Started. exec PSSUBHND -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSSUBHND_dflt:SubConProcess -- -D APPDOM -S PSSUBHND_dflt : process id=4103 ... Started. exec PSSUBDSP -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -s PSSUBDSP_dflt:Dispatch -- -D APPDOM -S PSSUBDSP_dflt : process id=4106 ... Started. exec PSMONITORSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 141117 -D APPDOM -S PSMONITORSRV : process id=4109 ... Started. exec JSL -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -n //fscm912pt:9000 -m 5 -M 7 -I 5 -j ANY -x 40 -S 10 -c 1000000 -w JSH : process id=4113 ... Started. exec JREPSVR -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -W -P /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/APPDOM/jrepository : process id=4119 ... Started. 17 processes started. Domain Creating Process Scheduler Server for Database PRCSDOM... Copying Process Scheduler Server configuration file(s)... Stripping Annotations... Process Scheduler Server configuration created. Loading validation table... setting DBName=FSCM912 setting DBType=ORACLE setting UserId=VP1 setting UserPswd=VP1 setting ConnectId=people setting ConnectPswd=peop1e setting ServerName=fscm912db setting PrcsServerName=PRCS936 setting Log/Output Directory=%PS_SERVDIR%/log_output setting Add to PATH=. setting SQRBIN=%PS_HOME%/bin/sqr/%PS_DB%/bin New CFG file written with modified Startup parameters Log Directory entry not found in configuration file. Setting Log Directory to the default... [PS_SERVDIR/LOGS] Spawning enabled for server PSDSTSRV. WARNING: PSDSTSRV is configured with Min instance set to 1. To avoid loss of service, configure Min instance to atleast 2. Configuration file successfully created. CFG setting changes completed, loading configuration... Process Scheduler Server configuration complete. Created Loading validation table... Log Directory entry not found in configuration file. Setting Log Directory to the default... [PS_SERVDIR/LOGS] Spawning enabled for server PSDSTSRV. WARNING: PSDSTSRV is configured with Min instance set to 1. To avoid loss of service, configure Min instance to atleast 2. Configuration file successfully created. CFG setting changes completed, loading configuration... Domain configuration complete. Process Scheduler Server configuration complete. Domain Starting Archived a copy of the domain configuration to /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/prcs/PRCSDOM/Archive/psprcs.cfg 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 043 Booting admin processes ... exec BBL -A : process id=4347 ... Started. 1 process started. Attaching to active bulletin board. > Attempting to boot ... INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 043 Booting server processes ... exec PSMSTPRC -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSMSTPRC : process id=4351 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=4356 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=4360 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=4364 ... Started. exec PSDSTSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -p 1,600:1,1 -sPostReport -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSDSTSRV : process id=4368 ... Started. exec PSPRCSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -sInitiateRequest -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSPRCSRV : process id=4373 ... Started. exec PSMONITORSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 72323 -PS PRCS936 -S PSMONITORSRV : process id=4381 ... Started. 7 processes started. Domain Do you wish to setup PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture on this VM [y|n]: y CreateVirtualEnvironment Doing PIA silent install Setting temporary directory /opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/tmp/IA.4502 Executing setup.linux LAX_VM /opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/jre/bin/java -i silent -DRES_FILE_PATH=/opt/oracle/psft/pt/tools/tmp/install.properties -DCOMP_NAME=fscm912pt -DPS_UMASK=0022 Preparing to install... Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive... Configuring the installer for this system's environment... Launching installer... Preparing SILENT Mode Installation... =============================================================================== PeopleSoft Internet Architecture (created with InstallAnywhere) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== Installing... ------------- [==================|==================|==================|==================] [------------------|------------------|------------------|------------------] Installation Complete. Enter the connect string for the AppServer domain. This is the host:port on which the Application Server domain will listen for incoming connections. You may provide failover and load balancing rules using the format described in the PeopleBooks. Hit Enter to use the default [fscm912pt:9000]: Are you happy with your answers [y|n] : y Updated Ownership Attempting to start WebLogic Server PIA No activity will be logged to this window. Server activity will be logged to /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/webserv/peoplesoft/servers/PIA/logs/PIA_* PID for WebLogic Server PIA is: 5065 PIA You are running both AppBatch and PeopleSoft Internet Architecture in the same VM. This means that some additional automated setup can be done. Report Nodes, integrations etc. can be created due to the presence of multiple tiers in the same host. Note: you may not wish to do this if connecting to an existing database This is a step typically taken in demo environment with a clean database Do you wish for this additional setup to be performed [y|n]: y User SetupPRCSReportNodes Running Process SetupIntegrationBroker Running Updated Integration Stopping Stopping Shutdown will wait for each process to complete current job... Shutting down all admin and server processes in /home/psadm2/psft/pt/8.52/FSCM912/appserv/prcs/PRCSDOM/PSTUXCFG Shutting down server processes ... Server Id = 1 Group Id = MONITOR Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 101 Group Id = BASE Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 103 Group Id = BASE Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 3 Group Id = AESRV Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 2 Group Id = AESRV Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 1 Group Id = AESRV Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Server Id = 102 Group Id = BASE Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded Shutting down admin processes ... Server Id = 0 Group Id = fscm912pt Machine = fscm912pt: shutdown succeeded 8 processes stopped. Starting 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 043 Booting admin processes ... exec BBL -A : process id=5846 ... Started. 1 process started. Attaching to active bulletin board. > Attempting to boot ... INFO: Oracle Tuxedo, Version 10.3.0.0, 64-bit, Patch Level 043 Booting server processes ... exec PSMSTPRC -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSMSTPRC : process id=5850 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=5855 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=5859 ... Started. exec PSAESRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -- -CD FSCM912 -S PSAESRV : process id=5863 ... Started. exec PSDSTSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -p 1,600:1,1 -sPostReport -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSDSTSRV : process id=5867 ... Started. exec PSPRCSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -sInitiateRequest -- -CD FSCM912 -PS PRCS936 -A start -S PSPRCSRV : process id=5872 ... Started. exec PSMONITORSRV -o ./LOGS/stdout -e ./LOGS/stderr -A -- -ID 72323 -PS PRCS936 -S PSMONITORSRV : process id=5880 ... Started. 7 processes started. Domain ovm_configure_post - The script nfs mounted the apptools directory from the database image. Upon reboot, that mount will disappear. To persist this mount point, add the following to /etc/fstab
FSCM912DB:/opt/oracle/psft/ptdb/apptools /opt/oracle/psft/pt/apptools nfs rsize=8192,wsize=8192,timeo=14,intr
- If you want to App Designer to connect in 3-tier, then: #1 become psadm2 (sudo -u psadm2 -i), #2 psadmin, #3 configure the domain and turn on option 6, #4 restart the domain.
- Add an entry to your Windows hosts file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) to point to your VBox guest.
Seriously, this was the fastest install ever. I didn't have to install Tuxedo, Oracle client, Weblogic. I didn't have to configure report nodes, pub/sub, etc. The script took care of everything.
Please let me know if you have any questions or notice any omissions in my steps. I tried to document as I was executing them, but you know how that goes...
So what next? I was thinking it would be really cool to run these images in lxc. According to this post, Oracle has all the scripts, etc to run OVM images in lxc. Perhaps it can run the JeOS images created by the PeopleTools team?
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Converting PeopleSoft OVM Templates to VirtualBox Guests
I have seen several comments, blogs, questions, OTN forum posts, etc from people like me wanting to know how to run Oracle's PeopleSoft VM templates without OVM. If I had the hardware, I would love to run OVM templates directly, but I don't think it would be wise to reformat my Dell laptop as an OVM host. This post contains the steps I used to convert the FSCM FP2 PeopleTools 8.52.03 OVM template into a VirtualBox guest (currently running on my Dell XPS laptop). I started with the PeopleSoft Oracle Virtual Machine Templates Development and Customization Guide, which gave me some clues about the design of these OVM's. I'm typing all of this from memory, so let me know if I forget anything.
PeopleSoft's OVM templates are split into two tiers (instances): A database tier and a generic tools tier. If you were to boot these images in OVM, the database tier would ask you a series of questions (SID, etc), and then configure the database based on your answers. The tools tier will perform a similar initialization to acquire database information and then will mount the database's PS_APP_HOME as well as create a PS_CFG_HOME, with app, batch, and web server instances. The "pairing" process includes updating Integration Broker and other host specific database settings.
The steps
- Download and install VirtualBox.
- Download an OS. I chose OEL 5.2. You can download it from the Oracle Linux Software Delivery Cloud. In the Media Pack Search, select the Product Pack Oracle Linux and the Platform x86 64 bit. Select the DVD download.
- Download both a PeopleSoft DB and PeopleTools OVM template. These are also available on the Oracle Linux Software Delivery Cloud. In the Media Pack Search, select the Product Pack Oracle VM Templates and the Platform x86 64 bit. While constructing this example, I used PeopleSoft VM Templates for FSCM 9.1 Release Media Pack v3 for x86 (64 bit), which requires 5 total downloads.
- After the templates finish downloading, extract all the zip files. Each one is a tgz fragment and will need to be concatenated into a single, large .tgz file. For example, on Windows I concatenated the 3 DB files into a single tgz file using the command:
copy /b OVM_EL5U2_X86_64_FSCMDB_9_1_2_PVM.tgz.1of3+OVM_EL5U2_X86_64_FSCMDB_9_1_2_PVM.tgz.2of3+OVM_EL5U2_X86_64_FSCMDB_9_1_2_PVM.tgz.3of3 OVM_EL5U2_X86_64_FSCMDB_9_1_2_PVM.tgz
In the end, you should have one tgz file for the DB image, and one tgz file for the PeoleTools image. - Untar and unzip the two tgz file (On Windows I use 7-Zip).
- You should now have 2 main directories: One containing .img files for the DB (mine is named OVM_EL5U2_X86_64_FSCMDB_9_1_2_PVM) and one for the PeopleTools .img files (mine is named OVM_EL5U7_X86_64_TOOLS8_52_03_PVM). These .img files are raw disk images. If we were using OVM, OVM would pretend they were physical disk drives and make them available to the OS for mounting. Using losetup, it would be possible for us to mount these .img files directly, but I find it is a LOT easier to convert them to VirtualBox images (.vdi files). When you installed VirtualBox, you received a command called VBoxManage. If your host OS is windows, then add the VirtualBox installation directory (C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox) to your PATH environment variable (right-click on "My Computer", select Properties, then Advanced Properties, then Advanced, then Environment Variables). Once you have VBoxManage on your path, open a command prompt and CD to one of the folders containing your .img files. For example, inside your database folder, you will find oracle11g_x86_64_asm.img, System.img, and XXXXDB.img. For each of these files, execute
VBoxManage convertfromraw xxx.img xxx.vdi(replace xxx with the .img file name) - Launch VirtualBox and create a new Guest OS with an OS type of Linux and a version of Oracle (64 bit). Set the memory to 2048 MB (2 GB of RAM). For the Virtual Hard Disk, choose "Create new hard disk." Walk through the new hard disk wizard. I chose a dynamically allocated disk of 20 GB, but the OS only required 8 GB. When the wizards finish, you will have a Guest definition. Open the guest's settings to insert a virtual DVD into the drive. Click on the Storage setting on the left. In the storage tree, select the CD icon to show the CD drive attributes. Click the little CD icon to the right of the "IDE Secondary Master" drop-down to select your OS's install media. In my case, this is the Enterprise-R5-U2-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso DVD image.
- Network adapters: if you know what you are doing, configure your network adapters. For the initial install, I kept one adapter with the default NAT. After install, I reconfigured my network adapters and I'll tell how I configured them in a few steps.
- Start your new guest and install OEL. You can accept most of the defaults. I turned off the firewall and set selinux to permissive. No, I don't recommend anyone do this, it was just the fastest way to get the image working. What you do about firewalls, etc is your responsibility.
- Configure sudo if you would rather use sudo instead of becoming root for later steps. I did, and I recommend you do as well, but it is not required. As root, I think I ran visudo and added this line to the end of the file:
%admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
I then added myself to the admin group. - Configure Yum to use the Oracle Public Yum server. Instructions are on the Oracle Public Yum site (Look for Oracle Linux 5).
- In your guest, open a terminal, become root (or use sudo) to run
yum update. Install all available updates to get your system current. - From the VirtualBox menu at the top of your guest window, select Devices > Install Guest Additions. This will mount the guest additions CD. From a terminal as root (or sudo), cd to /media/VBOXADDITIONS_4.1.16_78094 and run
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run. Expect it to fail the first time it runs. When I ran it, I saw this:Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules The headers for the current running kernel were not found. If the following module compilation fails then this could be the reason. The missing package can be probably installed with yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.32-300.25.1.el5uek Building the main Guest Additions module [FAILED]
To resolve the issue, I copied the line from the VBox install output,yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.32-300.25.1.el5uek, and ran it. I then I re-ran./VBoxLinuxAdditions.runto success. - Shutdown your guest to configure more network adapters.
- In the VM's network settings, set Network Interface 1 to Host Only. This is probably the easiest way to get your host and guest communicating over the network. Unfortunately, Host Only network adapters can't access the internet. To get internet access, add a second Network Interface for NAT. This will allow your VM to download updates, etc, over the internet.
- Start your VM and ensure that mouse capture, shared folders, etc are working.
- Later we will run the delivered OVM configuration scripts, but since we aren't running OVM, we will have to fake some of the OVM infrastructure. As root (or sudo), create the directory /usr/lib/oraclevm-template (
mkdir -p /usr/lib/oraclevm-template). Create and edit the file /usr/lib/oraclevm-template/functions (vim /usr/lib/oraclevm-template/functions). Paste in the following contents:ovm_info() { echo "INFO: $1" } ovm_log() { echo $1 } ovm_warn() { echo "WARN: $1" } ovm_error() { echo "ERROR: $1" }The oraclevm templates will call these functions to log/report information about the process. Note: we waited until now to create this file so we would have Guest Additions copy/paste. We are doing this prior to cloning so we will have this file in both the tools and db images. - Create the following users and groups. Please pay careful attention to the uid and gid parameters below. I found these values in the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files from the OVM system image. You can use whatever uid and gid values you prefer, but changing them will require you to chown files. It is also important that psadm3 and appinst match between your database and tools image. Your tools image will nfs mount files owned by psadm3 and appinst.
groupadd oinstall groupadd dba groupadd -g 505 oracle groupadd -g 506 appinst useradd -g oinstall -G dba oracle useradd -u 505 -g oracle -G appinst psadm1 useradd -u 506 -g oracle psadm2 useradd -u 507 -g appinst psadm3
Please note that I did not configure any passwords for these users. If you want, you can set passwords. I just usesudo -u oracle -i. - Create a temporary directory under /media for mounting the original OVM OS disk and then mount it. We will use this to copy a few files. While you are at it, create the destination folder for the files to copy:
mkdir -p /media/tmp mkdir -p /opt/oracle/psft/ mount /dev/sdd2 /media/tmp cp -R --preserve=all /media/tmp/opt/oracle/psft/vm /opt/oracle/psft/
- Shutdown your guest and clone it. You want a clone for two reasons: #1 in case you mess up and #2 to use as a base for the later tools image. To clone, select the machine in the VirtualBox Manager list, and then choose Clone from the Machine menu. I suggest keeping the original as a base image in case you want to create more instances (or need to start over). If you keep the original for a backup, create two clones: one for the DB, and one for the middle/PeopleTools tier. I named my clones FSCM912_DB and FSCM912_PT
- After creating your clones, move the vdi files you created earlier into the appropriate VM folder. For example, move oracle11g_x86_64_asm.vdi, System.vdi, and FSCMDB.vdi into the folder containing your Virtual Box DB guest files.
- Switch back to the VirtualBox Manager and open the settings for each of your 2 VM's. Add each of the vdi files to the appropriate guest's Storage SATA Controller. For example, in the DB Guest, add FSCMDB.vdi, oracle11g_x86_64_asm.vdi, System.vdi. System.vdi represents the boot/OS disk image used by OVM. We will use it to copy a few files, and then drop it.
The Database Image
- Boot the database image and log in.
- For a static IP on the host-only network do this: (Note: the benefit of having a static IP is that you don't have to update your hosts file every time your db IP address changes) Open a terminal and become root to execute the command (or sudo, which is what I do) ifconfig. Look for the IP address for eth0. In my configuration it is 192.168.56.101. Copy all but the 101 part (the first 3 segments). In the OEL menu bar, select System | Administration | Network. Highlight eth0 and click the Edit button in the toolbar. On the general tab, select the Statically set radio button and enter an IP address and subnet mask. For my network configuration, I chose 192.168.56.50 for my IP address and a subnet of 255.255.255.0. Click OK to close the edit dialog, and then choose File | Save from the menu bar. Using the buttons on the right, deactivate eth0 and then activate eth0. This will activate your static IP. Note: It will also mess up resolv.conf, so don't expect to get internet access until reboot (or reactivate eth1, etc).
- This new guest needs a host name. Set the host name by editing /etc/sysconfig/network. Change the HOSTNAME line to something new (fscm912db?). In /etc/hosts, make sure you have an IP address mapping that matches the HOSTNAME line (add it to the localhost line if using DHCP and have no IP address reservations). Here is my /etc/hosts file:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost ::1 localhost6.localdomain6 localhost6 192.168.56.50 fscm912db fscm912db.example.com 192.168.56.51 fscm912pt fscm912pt.example.com
- Create the following directories (as root or sudo).
mkdir /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb mkdir /u01
- Run fsdisk -l to see the disks and partitions attached to the guest. Each hard disk should be /dev/sdx where x represents letters a through d. For example, /dev/sda is the primary disk associated with the guest. /dev/sdb should be the database disk and should have the largest reported size. Here is the output from my guest:
[root@fscm912db ~]# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 21.4 GB, 21474836480 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2610 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux /dev/sda2 14 2610 20860402+ 8e Linux LVM Disk /dev/sdb: 53.6 GB, 53695479808 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6528 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdb1 1 6528 52436128+ 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdc: 26.2 GB, 26214400000 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3187 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdc1 1 1246 10008463+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc2 1247 2213 7767427+ 83 Linux /dev/sdc3 2214 3187 7823655 83 Linux Disk /dev/sdd: 6622 MB, 6622806016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 805 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdd1 * 1 4 32098+ 83 Linux /dev/sdd2 5 413 3285292+ 83 Linux /dev/sdd3 414 805 3148740 82 Linux swap / Solaris Disk /dev/dm-0: 19.2 GB, 19260243968 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2341 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk /dev/dm-0 doesn't contain a valid partition table Disk /dev/dm-1: 2080 MB, 2080374784 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 252 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Disk /dev/dm-1 doesn't contain a valid partition table
/dev/sda has 3 partitions, /dev/sdb has one partition, /dev/sdc has 3 partitions, and /dev/sdd has 3 partitions. To recap: /dev/sda is the primary OS/boot disk, /dev/sdb should be the database disk, /dev/sdc will have the $ORACLE_HOME, /dev/sdd is the original OVM OS disk. It is fine if yours are in a slightly different order. Just remember the order and change your mount points accordingly (or shutdown and reorder your SATA devices). - Add the following entries to /etc/fstab to mount the database disk and the oracle home disk:
/dev/sdb1 /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb ext3 defaults 1 3 /dev/sdc1 /u01 ext3 defaults 1 4
- Next time you reboot, these partitions will mount automatically. So that we can use them now, mount the new partitions with these commands:
mount /u01 mount /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb
- Since we are discussing disks, now might be a good time to check how much swap you allocated to make sure you allocated enough. I didn't. I ran through an 11.2.0.1.0 install on one of these base tools images and Oracle told me I should have roughly 3 GB of swap. I only had 2 GB, so I created some more. Check your swap by executing
[root@fscm912db psft]# swapon -s Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01 partition 2031608 0 -1 /root/swapfile file 2097144 0 -2
The sizes are in kilobytes, so copy your number and paste it into google like so: 2031608 kilobytes in gigabytes. Google will do the conversion for you and return something like 2 031 608 kilobytes = 1.93749237 gigabytes. If you need to add more swap, an easy way is to use a swap file (or create a swap partition -- not sure if it matters since they are all virtual disk files anyway):dd if=/dev/zero of=/root/swapfile bs=1024 count=2097152 mkswap /root/swapfile chown root:root /root/swapfile chmod 0600 /root/swapfile swapon /root/swapfile
Add the following to your /etc/fstab so the swap file will load on boot:/root/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0
See this handy tutorial for more information on adding swap. - Check your mounted partitions:
[root@fscm912db /]# ls /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb/ apptools lost+found oradata orapatch scripts templates [root@fscm912db /]# ls /u01/ app config db-cleanup.sh db-config db-reconfig.sh dbstart lost+found
- The db-reconfig.sh script expects to find oracleasmlib and oracleasm-`uname -r`. I was not able to find an oracleasmlib for my kernel (2.6.32-300.25.1.el5uek), and the test for oracleasm-`uname -r` seems a bit unnecessary since a different kernel version seems to be running just fine on my kernel (perhaps a test for the command oracleasm would have been more appropriate?). We will install as many of the dependencies as possible, and then comment out the rest. In fact, you could probably comment out the entire oracleasm section and skip these dependencies (I didn't try that, just went with the path of least resistance). Note: in steps 10 - 12, don't actually run db-reconfig.sh. The template script will call this script. We just need to make sure we take care of all the prerequisites.
- Install the following packages as root (or execute as sudo).
yum install oracle-validated # required (or you can do the manual kernel config) yum install oracleasm
Note, we won't really mount an ASM device, but the OVM scripts think one should exist. The template scripts will configure oracleasm, so you won't need to do that. If you are interested, though there is a nice tutorial here. Basically, you just need to runoracleasm configureand use the values specified in the tutorial. - Open /u01/db-reconfig.sh and search for
fail "oracleasm-`uname -r` not installed.It should be around line 400. Comment out that line by adding a#in front of it. Do the same a few lines later for fail "oracleasmlib not installed." And then further down, comment out the network configuration section (VBox takes care of network configuration for us).# check if required packages have been installed if ! rpm -q oracleasm-`uname -r` >/dev/null 2>&1; then # fail "oracleasm-`uname -r` not installed." ovm_info "oracleasm-`uname -r` not installed." fi if ! rpm -q oracleasmlib >/dev/null 2>&1; then # fail "oracleasmlib not installed." ovm_info "oracleasmlib not installed" fi ... # Somewhere around line 430? # configure network DHCP/static IP # ovm_configure_networkNote: I used the ovm_info macro we created earlier to print what the template intended to print, but without halting the script. - The template scripts will attempt to relink the Oracle 11.1.0.7 database binaries. Right now, they probably aren't owned by user oracle. Unless they are owned by user oracle, the relinking script will fail with permission denied errors. Run the following command to change the ownership on all of these files:
chown -R oracle:oinstall /u01/app/oracle
- Now for the big moment... As root (or run with sudo), cd into
/opt/oracle/psft/vmand run./oraclevm-template.sh. The script will ask you if you want to relink the binaries. Say yes. The next prompt will be for an Oracle SID (database name). Come up with one that is only 8 ASCII characters long. But if you see error messages before the prompt, type Ctrl-C now. This will end the script. First, resolve the errors, then rerun the script. - When all is said and done, become user oracle. If you are root now, just type
su - oracle. This will put you in your home directory. Type ll to see a long listing. You will see two new symbolic links: scripts and templates. Templates links back to the scripts we just ran. Scripts contains start/stop scripts, etc for the database. While here, review your .bash_profile (vim .bash_profile). You will notice that the script inserted entries for ORACLE_BASE, ORACLE_HOME, etc. - Edit the initXXX.ora script. I found the default
db_domainproperty unsatisfactory for my configuration. If you don't want the db_domain, or it doesn't work for you, comment out the db_domain property.vim $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initFSCM912.ora ########################################### # Database Identification ########################################### #db_domain=us.oracle.com # db_name=
- Edit the tnsnames to make the host, SID, and SERVICE_NAME match the initXXX.ora and host name. Here is my tnsnames.ora file. Notice that I removed all the qualified names:
vim $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora # tnsnames.ora Network Configuration File: ORCL = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = fscm912db )(PORT = 1521)) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVER = DEDICATED) (SERVICE_NAME = orcl) ) ) FSCM912 = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = fscm912db)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = FSCM912 ) (SID = FSCM912 ) ) ) - Open lsnrctl and check the status. If it isn't started, start it:
[oracle@fscm912db ~]$ lsnrctl LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on 31-MAY-2012 21:58:12 Copyright (c) 1991, 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Welcome to LSNRCTL, type "help" for information. LSNRCTL> status Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fscm912db)(PORT=1521))) TNS-12541: TNS:no listener TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error TNS-00511: No listener Linux Error: 111: Connection refused Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1521))) TNS-12541: TNS:no listener TNS-12560: TNS:protocol adapter error TNS-00511: No listener Linux Error: 2: No such file or directory LSNRCTL> # If you saw errors like above, then it isn't started. Start it: LSNRCTL> start Starting /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/bin/tnslsnr: please wait... TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production System parameter file is /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora Log messages written to /u01/app/oracle/diag/tnslsnr/fscm912db/listener/alert/log.xml Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521))) Listening on: (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521))) Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fscm912db)(PORT=1521))) STATUS of the LISTENER ------------------------ Alias LISTENER Version TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production Start Date 31-MAY-2012 22:00:30 Uptime 0 days 0 hr. 0 min. 0 sec Trace Level off Security ON: Local OS Authentication SNMP OFF Listener Parameter File /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora Listener Log File /u01/app/oracle/diag/tnslsnr/fscm912db/listener/alert/log.xml Listening Endpoints Summary... (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521))) (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521))) The listener supports no services The command completed successfully
Quit lsnrctl by typingquit. - As user oracle, start your database:
~/scripts/startSID.sh FSCM912
If it is already running, you will see a note to that affect. In a matter of time, the database will register itself with the listener. If it doesn't, log into sqlplus / as sysdba and runalter system register;sqlplus / as sysdba SQL> alter system register; System altered. SQL> quit
Now typelsnrctl status. If you still don't see your database registered, run ~/scripts/stopSID.sh FSCM912 (your SID) and then ~/scripts/startSID.sh. Once registered, you should see:Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=fscm912db)(PORT=1521))) STATUS of the LISTENER ------------------------ Alias LISTENER Version TNSLSNR for Linux: Version 11.1.0.7.0 - Production Start Date 31-MAY-2012 15:27:43 Uptime 0 days 6 hr. 30 min. 31 sec Trace Level off Security ON: Local OS Authentication SNMP OFF Listener Parameter File /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/network/admin/listener.ora Listener Log File /u01/app/oracle/product/11.1.0/db_1/log/diag/tnslsnr/fscm912db/listener/alert/log.xml Listening Endpoints Summary... (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost.localdomain)(PORT=1521))) (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(KEY=EXTPROC1521))) Services Summary... Service "FSCM912" has 1 instance(s). Instance "FSCM912", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... Service "FSCM912_XPT" has 1 instance(s). Instance "FSCM912", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... Service "XDB" has 1 instance(s). Instance "FSCM912", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service... The command completed successfully
- Test it out by trying to connect to SQLPlus as SYSADM:
[oracle@fscm912db ~]$ sqlplus SYSADM@FSCM912 SQL*Plus: Release 11.1.0.7.0 - Production on Thu May 31 22:10:08 2012 Copyright (c) 1982, 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Enter password: Connected to: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.1.0.7.0 - 64bit Production With the Partitioning, OLAP, Data Mining and Real Application Testing options SQL> SELECT COUNT(1) FROM PSRECDEFN; COUNT(1) ---------- 71809 SQL> quit - The database tier contains application specific files that the tools tier will require (PS_APP_HOME). There are a handful of ways to make these files available. The way I chose was to use nfs. At a minimum, you have to share out a file. You can also configure hosts.allow and hosts.deny, but I just did the minimum. Make sure you take the appropriate security precautions when sharing out nfs folders.
[root@fscm912db vm]# vim /etc/exports /opt/oracle/psft/ptdb/apptools FSCM912PT(ro) [root@fscm912db vm]# chkconfig nfs on [root@fscm912db vm]# chkconfig nfs --list nfs 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
Since we defined a host here in the exports file, we should also map it to an IP address in the /etc/hosts file. Update your hosts file accordingly. - If all is good here, you can move onto configuring your Windows workstation to connect to this guest. For the workstation, install PT 8.52.03 (download PT 8.52 and then the 03 patch). You will also need to install an Oracle client. I don't know if it is possible to still find an 11.1.0.7.0 client, but 11.2.0.1 works just fine. Add an entry to your Windows hosts file (c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts) to point to your VBox guest, and add a TNS entry for the VBox guest. The TNS entry will look very similar to the one on the guest. Here is mine:
FSCM912 = (DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = FSCM912DB)(PORT = 1521)) ) (CONNECT_DATA = (SERVICE_NAME = FSCM912) ) )You should now be able to use App Designer, Data Mover, and all other two-tier PeopleTools client tools. - After configuring a client, run setspace.sqr to populate the list of Table spaces for App Designer:
c:\PT8.52\bin\sqr\ora\BINW>sqrw.exe -ZIFC:\PT8.52\sqr\pssqr.ini -iC:\PT8.52\sqr\ c:\pt8.52\sqr\setspace.sqr
- The next time you shutdown your database guest, you can remove the system.vdi SATA device from the list of storage devices.
You can find the steps for configuring the App, Batch, and Web server here.
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