Sizing your Elasticsearch Cluster for PeopleSoft Financials 9.2

Searching in several documents, I could not find figures that helps sizing your Elasticsearch Cluster for Production.

Here are some findings after indexing Production data, that will help understand better the capacity you need in term of storage:

General Ledger |  Storage required for Base Language = 1.1 GB = 670'000 documents in Elasticsearch
  - JRNL_HEADER - Journal Header Data - 1'200'00 lines
  - JRNL_LN - Journal Line Data - 100'000'000 lines

Account Payabale  |  Storage required for Base Language = 0.5 GB = 330'000 documents in Elasticsearch 
  - VOUCHER - AP Voucher Header Table - 3'000'000
  - VOUCHER_LINE - Voucher Line - 6'500'000

Payments  |  Storage required for Base Language = 1.2 GB = 480'000 documents in Elasticsearch
  - PAYMENT_TBL - AP Disbursements - 3'000'000 lines
 
Vendors  |  Storage required for Base Language = 1.0 GB = 200'000 documents in Elasticsearch
  - Vendor - Vendor Header Table - 280'000 lines

So anticipate to get a cluster we enough CPU and RAM, but standard server in any Cloud would be enough in term of storage.

Elasticsearch is a Cloud engine for PeopleSoft

Oracle has not released PeopleSoft Elasticsearch yet but you should look at options to consume this as a service in the Cloud.

El
astic can propose this as part of it's Elastic Cloud offer, but also Cloud services like Qbox.io can do so.

The great value in this is that you can use a high available Cluster without any knowledge about the technology and just consume this as a service.

Definitely cloud is an engine for PeopleSoft.

@oow16 The vehicle to realize Digital Transformation is Cloud

The problem is Digital Transformation
The opportunity is Digital Transformation
The vehicle to realize that is Cloud

@OOW16 PeopleSoft and the Oracle Cloud Advantage

It's now been 10 month Oracle delivered PeopleSoft Cloud Architecture.
The first version was clearly oriented on Linux and Oracle database (db on Linux) which matches the Oracle Cloud ecosystem.

The next big step will add PeopleSoft Cloud Manager to model your Infrastructure and deploy in Oracle Cloud.

Though Oracle announced Deployment Packages (DPK) on  all platforms (IBM Power, HP-UX, Solaris ...) in the next PeopleTools 8.56 (in 2017) this does not leave big room for other strategies unless competitors delivers:
  - tools to deploy PeopleSoft on other hardware IBM Power, HP-UX ...
  - build Cloud offer on IBM Power or HP-UX ...

This is clearly not a direction to look at, and we should better concentrate on the battle between Azure, AWS and Oracle Cloud.

Elasticsearch to replace Oracle SES

Oracle SES extended PeopleSoft search for several years but proved to be complicated to implement and with some limitations (indexing required frequently etc ...)
We are now waiting for Elasticsearch to be delivered in PeopleTools 8.56 and backported to 8.55.

To ease the deployment, Oracle has included a feature where you can switch to Elastic without stopping PeopleSoft.

You can configure several search sources with a priority. Once decommissioning SES, you will transparently switch to Elastic !

PeopleSoft Cloud Manager and PeopleTools 8.56 @OOW2016

The 2 more interesting @OOW2016 are definitely PeopleSoft Cloud Manager and PeopleTools 8.56 They were presented at Oracle Open World but we don't have any schedule yet.
Let's assume the plans are:
  - PeopleSoft Cloud Manager in December 2016
  - PeopleTools 8.56 in February 2017

PeopleTools Automated Environment Configuration - PTEM

A while ago Oracle started to deliver PeopleSoft appliances on VirtualBox...
To do this they developed tool-kits to be able to deliver a self configurable system like PTEM.

With "PeopleTools Automated Environment Configuration" you can configure the components that most admins are configuring using SQL refresh scripts.
Unfortunately some parameters cannot be refreshed using SQL: ie the Integration Gateway properties file ... but you can do it with PTEM !

With this new feature you can:

1. Rename Integration Broker Node
2.  Configure Integration Broker Node
3. Configure Gateway node
4. Configure gateway properties file (integrationGateway.properties)
5. Configure Process Scheduler Report Node
6. Configure Process Scheduler Server
7. Configure Secure Enterprise Search (SES)
8.  Deploy and schedule Search Index
9. Configure PeopleSoft Test Framework (PTF)

Even if it's not yet supported by Oracle you can use it to build new environment or to refresh environments.
If you have VirtualBox PeopleSoft images you can also have a look how it's done.

The main steps are:

1) set variables
export PTEM_PROP=ptem_YourEnv.properties
echo $PTEM_PROP

2) Check the server configuration file
echo $PS_SERVER_CFG

3) Run PTEM configuration
psae -CT ORACLE -CD ORACLE_SID -CO PS -CP PS -R PTEM_CONFIG -AI PTEM_CONFIG

Make PeopleSoft and Active Directory case insensitive

CASE #1
PeopleSoft deliveres a function LDAP_AUTHENTICATION() to authenticate PeopleSoft users with Active Directory credentials.
It is designed to be case isensitive, but all users must be created upper case:
  - DANIEL.CRAIG in PeopleSoft
  - any case in Active Directory. Daniel.Craig or daniel.craig or DANIEL.CRAIG will work

CASE #2
You may want to create users lower case in PeopleSoft? then you just need basic code change to make it possible:
  - daniel.craig in PeopleSoft
  - any case in Active Directory. Daniel.Craig or daniel.craig or DANIEL.CRAIG will work

CASE #3
You may want users to be case sensitive between PeopleSoft and Active Directory ? This is also possible with basic code change:
  - daniel.craig in PeopleSoft
  - only authenticated with daniel.craig in Active Directory

  CASE #4
You don't have much control in users provisioning in PeopleSoft or Active Directory ... or both ?

1.1 search for this line: &USER_PROFILE.UserID = Upper(&prflProps.GetByPropertyName("UserID").value);
1.2 and replace it With: &USER_PROFILE.UserID = &prflProps.GetByPropertyName("UserID").value;
2.1 search for this line: SetAuthenticationResult( True, Upper(&psUserId), "", False);
2.2 and replace it with: SetAuthenticationResult( True, &psUserId, "", False);
With this setup you are configured like CASE #3 but you need an extra step.

3.1 Add the following line before this line: SetAuthenticationResult( True, &psUserId, "", False);
    SQLExec("select OPRID from PSOPRDEFN where lower(OPRID) = :1", Lower(&psUserId), &psUserId);


You can now have mixed authentication cases like:
  - daniel.craig in PeopleSoft
  - and Daniel.Craig in Active Directory
and
  - Tony.Stark in PeopleSoft 
  - and tony.stark in Active Directory

JRE 7 runs PeopleTools 8.53

The Java part of PeopleTools 8.53 will no longer use JRE 6 but JRE 7.
All Java layers like WebLogic or BI Publisher will now require to install JRE 7.

PeopleTools 8.53 generally available

Initially planned in September 2012, PeopleTools 8.53 are generally available since the 1st of February 2013.
They will be the foundation for PeopleSoft 9.2, so it's time to get prepared !

Need a job scheduling system for PeopleSoft Enterprise ?

PeopleSoft Process Plugin (PPPlugin) for Job2Do can help you building a robust batch system, for any of your PeopleSoft Applications: Financials, Supply Chain, Human Capital Management, Customer Relationship Management.

 http://www.ppplugin.com/

or

http://www.facebook.com/PPPlugin

PeopleSoft WebLogic Application Firewall

In the context of intranet and internet services, you might be interested to protect you PeopleSoft applications from external users and possible threats.
You can probably prevent big issues if you technicaly lockdown some sensible features.

With "PeopleSoft WebLogic Application Firewall" this is possible to add an extra security level on the Web server layer (WebLogic).
This does not exempt having a strong PeopleSoft user security !

To enforce security you have to identify in a list  - the WhiteList - the PeopleSoft Components that you allow from internet.
By default all other Components will be unauthorized.

If you have interest in this feature, I can provide a link to download it for free.

No storage-enabled nodes exist for service DistributedSessions in PIA_weblogic.log

When you try to setup Coherence*Web with PeopleSoft, if you see this message “No storage-enabled nodes exist for service DistributedSessions” in PIA_weblogic.log, you have probably misconfigured your Cache Server.

The Cache Server is starting with it’s own configuration defined in coherence-cache-config.xml.

In that file you need to declare the Cache Service named “DistributedSessions” like this:

    <distributed-scheme>

      <scheme-name>session-base</scheme-name>

      <service-name>DistributedSessions</service-name>

      <serializer>

        <instance>

        </instance>

      </serializer>

      <thread-count>0</thread-count>

      <lease-granularity>member</lease-granularity>

      <local-storage system-property="tangosol.coherence.session.localstorage">true</local-storage>

      <partition-count>257</partition-count>

      <backup-count>1</backup-count>

      <backup-storage>

        <type>on-heap</type>

      </backup-storage>

      <backing-map-scheme>

        <local-scheme>

          <scheme-ref>unlimited-local</scheme-ref>

        </local-scheme>

      </backing-map-scheme>

      <autostart>true</autostart>

    </distributed-scheme>

Content/Portal URL not defined for node PSFT_EP (262,81)

When verifying PeopleSoft and Oracle Secure Enterprise Search connectivity, you may face an error at "STEP 2: Deploy":

Content/Portal URL not defined for node PSFT_EP (262,81) PTSF_FEED.SESFeedDataSource.OnExecute  Name:execute  PCPC:16048  Statement:279
Called from:PTFP_FEED.Feed.OnExecute  Name:execute  Statement:677
Called from:PTFP_FEED.FeedFactory.OnExecute  Name:getFeedDoc  Statement:244
Called from:PTSF_RNDTRP_WRK.PTSF_RNDTRIP_CRAWL.FieldChange  Statement:46

Content/Portal URL not defined for node %1 

 This is probably because you forgot the basics ? You must check that the Portal Node is configured (and the Integration Broker)!

Navigate to PeopleTools > Portal > Node Definitions
Select PSFT_EP node (if your are configuring ses with PeopleSoft Finance), then Portal tab.

You must configure "Content URI Text" and "Portal URI Text".

After this, STEP 2 should work fine.

 

 

iReceipt pictures included in the iPhone to PeopleSoft Transaction

This is confirmed in the PeopleSoft 9.2 Release Value Proposition (July 2012) that the pictures taken from iPhone will be included in the transaction to PeopleSoft:

"the iOS-based Oracle iReceipts application enables users to take pictures (or pull from the camera roll) on an iPhone and feed the pictures into PeopleSoft Expenses - My Wallet so that the photo file attachment is included with the transaction"

PeopleSoft Installer fails on VirtualBox Shared Drive

It is very usefull to install PeopleSoft using VirtualBox (4.1.10).
This is possible to install possible on OEL or Solaris 11 x86-64 as this is now supported by Oracle.

It's even more helpfull if you can access to the installation disk on a Shared Drive.

Sadelly, this is not working yet, as you will get the following error message:

"mmap failed for CEN and END part of zip file"

PeopleTools 8.53 Release Value Proposition is now published

In case you want to upgrade to PeopleSoft 9.2, you can anticipate some activities with the PeopleTools 8.53 Release Value Proposition.

All 9.2 will be based on this PeopleTools Release scheduled later this year.

https://support.oracle.com/CSP/main/article?cmd=show&type=ATT&id=1473194.1:PEOPLETOOLS_853_RVP

Offload PS/nVision Workloads with Active Data Guard and Golden Gate

With PeopleTools 8.53, Oracle continue to invest in the database "offloading" architecture.
After the queries, now you can offload PS/nVision to a standby database.
To use this feature you need to create a standby database either with "Data Guard" or "Golden Gate" which are 2 Oracle products.

Enabling Virus Scanning in PeopleSoft and Testing it !

You can unable Virus Scanning in PeopleSoft (PeopleTools 8.5x) directly in the PIA (Webserver).
It's using a Java implementation of ICAP (Internet Content Adaptation Protocol) to call an antivirus service provider.
Now if you need to test it works, you can use a "safe" virus provided by the eicar.org.
The file uploaded to PeopleSoft will be sent to the antivirus service provider and rejected if it contains a virus.

PeopleTools 8.52 and Oracle Coherence*Web

New to PeopleTools 8.52 is the support for Oracle Coherence*Web.

This is a greate new supported configuration to build high availability Web server layer for PeopleSoft users.

Oracle Coherence provides a reliable distributed in-memory data grid infrastructure. A module of Oracle
Coherence, named Coherence*Web, provides HTTP Session Management features used by
PeopleSoft systems.

You don't need any more to maintain persitence at your load balancer.