This week on the podcast, Kyle and Dan discuss securing your public user and leaking information, how to speed up change assistant upgrade projects, and new ACM plugins to work with Load Balanced gateways.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson.
You can run PeopleSoft Images on your laptop using three tools that work seamlessly together: VirtualBox, Vagrant, and Vagabond.
Download and install VirtualBox and Vagrant on your laptop.
Next, you will need to download Vagabond from GitHub. The preferred way to to download is via git (you can install Git but it’s optional). Without git, you can click on the latest Release and download the zip file.
cd ~/Downloads
# unzip ps-vagabond*.zip if downloading from the Releases
git clone https://github.com/psadmin-io/ps-vagabond.git
cd ps-vagabond
There are two configuration files we need to run Vagabond:
Vagabond delivers example versions of each of these files and we can copy the .example files.
cd config
copy-item ./psft_customizations.yaml.example psft_customizations.yaml
copy-item ./config.rb.example config.rb
cd ..
You only need to modify the psft_customizations.yaml file if you are building a Finance or Interaction Hub image. You need to modify the default user to be VP1 instead of PS.
The config.rb file you must modify to make Vagabond work. It needs two pieces of information: your My Oracle Support Credentials, and a Patch ID for the PeopleSoft Image.
MOS_USERNAME="dan@psadmin.io"
MOS_PASSWORD="password"
PATCH_ID="34775556"
Now you are ready to build the PeopleSoft Image.
vagrant up
You will see output from Vagrant displaying the different tasks it handles setting up the VM. Vagrant will download a base Oracle Linux 8 VM, create a new VirtualBox VM, configure the networking, and start provisioning. Provisioning is the set of scripts that Vagabond provides to automate the download and building of PeopleSoft Images. Below is a (simplified) version of the output you will see as Vagabond runs.
Bringing machine 'ps-vagabond' up with 'virtualbox' provider...
==> ps-vagabond: Importing base box 'generic/oracle8'...
==> ps-vagabond: Setting the name of the VM: 34775556
==> ps-vagabond: Configuring and enabling network interfaces...
==> ps-vagabond: Mounting shared folders...
ps-vagabond: /vagrant => /Users/dan/Downloads/ps-vagabond
ps-vagabond: /media/sf_34775556 => /Users/dan/Downloads/ps-vagabond/dpks/download
==> ps-vagabond: Running provisioner: networking_setup (shell)...
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO:
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO:
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: ===> Add '192.168.56.34 psvagabond psvagabond.psadmin.local' to your hosts file
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO:
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO:
==> ps-vagabond: Running provisioner: storage (shell)...
==> ps-vagabond: Running provisioner: bootstrap-lnx (shell)...
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond: dP dP
ps-vagabond: 88 88
ps-vagabond: dP .dP .d8888b. .d8888b. .d8888b. 88d888b. .d8888b. 88d888b. .d888b88
ps-vagabond: 88 d8' 88' `88 88' `88 88' `88 88' `88 88' `88 88' `88 88' `88
ps-vagabond: 88 .88' 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88 88. .88 88 88 88. .88
ps-vagabond: 8888P' `88888P8 `8888P88 `88888P8 88Y8888' `88888P' dP dP `88888P8
ps-vagabond: .88
ps-vagabond: d8888P
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Updating installed packages
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Installing additional packages
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Disable SELinux for PeopleSoft Images
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Downloading patch files
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Unpacking DPK setup scripts
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Executing Pre setup script
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Executing DPK setup script
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Install psadmin_plus
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Open Firewall Ports
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond: TASK DURATION
ps-vagabond: ========================================
ps-vagabond: install_psadmin_plus 00:00:01
ps-vagabond: download_patch_files 00:13:36
ps-vagabond: unpack_setup_scripts 00:00:41
ps-vagabond: execute_pre_setup 00:00:00
ps-vagabond: install_additional_packages 00:01:29
ps-vagabond: update_packages 00:03:40
ps-vagabond: open_firewall_ports 00:00:02
ps-vagabond: execute_psft_dpk_setup 01:00:56
ps-vagabond: generate_response_file 00:00:00
ps-vagabond: disable_selinux 00:00:00
ps-vagabond: ========================================
ps-vagabond: TOTAL TIME: 01:20:25
ps-vagabond:
==> ps-vagabond: Running provisioner: cache-lnx (shell)...
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Copying Manifests
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Fix DPK App Engine Bug
ps-vagabond: ☆ INFO: Pre-load Application Cache
ps-vagabond:
ps-vagabond: TASK DURATION
ps-vagabond: ========================================
ps-vagabond: fix_dpk_bug 00:00:02
ps-vagabond: load_cache 00:21:03
ps-vagabond: download_manifests 00:00:00
ps-vagabond: ========================================
ps-vagabond: TOTAL TIME: 00:21:05
ps-vagabond:
To access the PeopleSoft Image from a browser, you first need to add a hosts entry. In the output, you’ll see the text you need to add to the file.
For Windows, the file is located at C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts, and Mac/Linux the file is /etc/hosts. From our example above, you would add this line to the file:
192.168.56.34 psvagabond psvagabond.psadmin.local
Then you can access the PeopleSoft Image at http://psvagabond.psadmin.local:8000/ps/signon.html
A few tips for working with Vagrant VMs. It’s very easy to take a snapshot as a backup of the VM. I always take a snapshot right after building the image.
vagrant snapshot save build
If you need to stop or start the VM, use these commands:
vagrant halt # stop the VM
vagrant up # start the VM
vagrant suspend # pause the VM
vagrant resume # unpause the VM
You can also SSH into the VM if you want to access the server:
vagrant ssh
This week on the podcast, Kyle and Dan talk about the new psadmin.io Themes for 8.60, and then they discuss how they are currently using the DPK to build new environments and what has changed in the DPK since it was released.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson.
We have released new branding themes for PeopleTools 8.60! The new themes use colors that better match the new Redwood UI color palette, and the underlying stylesheets use the new CSS variables in 8.60.
There are 10 colors to choose from in this release.
But, it’s also very easy to change the colors, or even make your own based on this project. Starting with PeopleTools 8.60, there are new CSS variables to simplify branding changes. There are only 2 color variables used in this project:
:root {
--pt-banner-background-color: #1374BA; /* Primary */
--pt-border-contrast-color: #2C526E; /* Accent */
--pt-strip-height: 0px;
}
You can modify these colors to suit your needs and make the themes match your own branding requirements. The --pt-strip-height variable is to hide the Redwood color strip in the default theme.
The goal of our themes is to simply change the header color (for Fluid and Classic) so you know which environment you are working in. But you can take these new CSS variables and change so much more.
To install the themes, download the IO_STYLE_REDWOOD.zip file from Github and use the Data Migration Workbench to import the project. You can read more about the project and how install it on GitHub.
This week on the podcast, Kyle and Dan talk about the changes to the 8.60 database upgrade and the new PPTLS860 project. Dan also shares some updates to the IO_STYLE_859 project and discusses his new io_homes DPK module.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson.
gem install mosbot This week on the podcast, Dan discusses a new tool he built to simplify CPU patches by using the same tools as the Infrastructure DPK. byop, or Build Your Own Patches, will take a list of patches to download and store them in a format that matches the Infrastructure DPK.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson.
byop Overview @ 10:00Custom Fact to trigger Infrastructure-DPK processing
/puppet/production/modules/pt_role/lib/facter/cpu.rb
# Set the env var APPLY_INFRA_CPU=true and run the DPK to apply the Infra-DPK patches
Facter.add(:apply_infra_cpu) do
setcode do
apply_infra_cpu = ENV["APPLY_INFRA_CPU"] || 'false'
end
end
Bash alias I use to apply CPU patches via Infrastructure-DPK
$ alias applycpu='sudo APPLY_INFRA_CPU=true && puppet apply -e "contain ::pt_profile::pt_tools_deployment" --confdir <dpk_home>/puppet -d'
$ applycpu
You can now register for psadmin.conf 2023! Click here to see more information and register.
psadmin.conf is a conference specifically for PeopleSoft Administrators. The conference features talks from expert admins on a variety of topics, as well as hands-on training from Oracle ACEs. The goal of the conference is to expand your knowledge of PeopleSoft Administration and network with admins from around the country.
Registration is limited to 50 attendees, so register early to ensure your spot!
In this video we will build a new PeopleSoft Image to check out some of the newer features. We will use OCI to host our image because the PeopleSoft team provides us with images that are ready to build. We just need to provide some passwords and away we go.
The OCI Marketplace is where you can find pre-packaged software ready to deploy on OCI. Each new image release, the PeopleSoft team pushes a new build for each application. For this demo, we will use Finance Image 46.
There are a few benefits to the OCI Marketplace-based PeopleSoft Images over other methods.
There are a few drawbacks to using these images though.
When building a Marketplace-based Image, you must increase the boot volume to at least 200GB. This will ensure there is plenty of space to extract the DPK files and install PeopleSoft.
You can enter these by hand – it’s a JSON string – but there are different requirements for each password. You can use the sample JSON below for reference, but let’s take a quick tangent and I’ll show you how I generated my passwords.
The secret is psst
To run psst, you need Python and Git installed:
For Windows you can use Powershell and Chocolatey to install these:
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072;
iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
choco install python3 -y
choco install git -y
For Linux and macOS:
yum install git -y
yum install python3 -y
The psst tool is hosted on Github and you can clone the code to run it:
git clone https://github.com/psadmin-io/psst.git
cd psst
pip install .
psst secrets generate -oci
{
"connect_pwd": "eu9P3HCj6WwI95vj498JX6Yzjk6VGS",
"access_pwd": "hsRqmDFjyrntMEJ74fMBBwMKi",
"admin_pwd": "0WkAoB531GXr#2AtvpNo9SZ5u-_gEh",
"weblogic_admin_pwd": "#ma1Q4%7SrIyKmpfIT3iS!&1Q22o$x",
"webprofile_user_pwd": "xSFb74gd2YeyvkXjh1s9tI7wDK9Dew",
"gw_user_pwd": "xtc4IxtBkDiNpJCMT04wRXGUNHG4bQ",
"domain_conn_pwd": "G2rxzYThC2BTKq5DfHc",
"opr_pwd": "78rN8StJt8rvSaUwB1FAWgEMK"
}
You can copy the JSON and paste it directly into the OCI Console’s “cloud-init” section.
Our instance is created with a public IP address, but the DNS name is private to your OCI Cloud Network. To translate between the two, we will add a hosts entry to our computer. Grab both the Public IP and Internal FQDN values from the Instances page.
For Linux and macOS
echo "<ip address> <fqdn>" | sudo tee -a /etc/hosts
For Windows, add this line to the end of the file c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts
<ip address> <fqdn>
For example, my hosts entry looks like this:
129.213.146.185 fscm046.subnet12081732.vcn12081732.oraclevcn.com
Linux, macOS, and WSL Users:
chmod 600 ~/Downloads/ssh-key-2022-12-08.key
ssh -i ~/Downloads/ssh-key-2022-12-08.key opc@<IP>
PuTTY for Windows
PIA Rule
0.0.0.0/08000Kibana Rule
0.0.0.0/05601TNS Rule (Optional – Required for App Designer or SQL access)
0.0.0.0/01521(Optional) Add firewalld Rule for TNS
sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-port=1521/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
This week on the podcast, PeopleTools Strategy Director Sasank Vemana joins us to talk about the upcoming switch to Opensearch, Configurable Search, Redwood UI, and some of his favorite features in PeopleTools 8.60.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson
This week on the podcast, Kyle and Dan discuss PeopleTools 8.60 and the great features that were released. Dan also shares his thoughts on using Cloud Manager to upgrade environments to 8.60.
The PeopleSoft Administrator Podcast is hosted by Dan Iverson and Kyle Benson.