Change Assistant

Change Assistant:-

Change Assistant Introduction

Change Assistant (CA) was first released in PeopleTools 8.44. Change Assistant (CA) automates many task for applying any bundle, maintenance pack etc. Some benefits of using CA are:
- CA can find out bundles/MPs that have already been applied to a PeopleSoft Database
- CA can figure out Bundles/MPs that need to be applied
- CA can download new bundles/MPs
- CA can determine pre-requisites and post-requisites
- CA can determine the order in which new Bundles/MPs are applied
- CA can migrate bundle/MP project automatically
- CA can generate and execute DDL scripts
- CA can execute Data Mover Scripts
- CA can deploy files such as SQR, COBOL etc to file servers

Environment Management Framework (EMF)

PeopleSoft Environment Management (PSEM) Framework enables CA know about the PeopleSoft installation, configuration, and update information. It is used to obtain the configuration and setup information about PeopleSoft environments (i.e., the files servers, the web servers, the application servers, the process scheduler servers and the individual hosts/machines).

CA uses EMF to apply updates to PeopleSoft installation and configurations by helping in carrying out commands remotely on different machines.

EMF has three core elements:
- Environment Management Agent (PSEM Agent): A Java executable. Only one instance of the agent can run at a given time per physical machine. PSEM Agents are setup on each of the servers. Each PSEM Agent initiates communication to the hub (PSEMHUB) and is assigned a unique peer ID.
- Environment Management Hub (PSEMHUB): A web application that is installed at the time of PIA installation and resides at web server machine. It is started automatically at the time web server is booted up. This hub acts as a broker for all communication between peers. It gathers and reports on the environment information sent to it by PSEM Agents.
- Environment Management Viewer (PSEM Viewer): A command line tool that helps users view data that is retrieved from the PSEMHUB.
Before using Change Assistant (CA) for applying bundles/MPs, EMF should be configured and PSEMAgent should be started up on all the servers.

Change Assistant Validation

Make sure the HUB is up and running before starting EMAgents. Before starting the PSEMAgents – complete tasks below:
Web Server Specific: Delete the following directories:
$PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\PersistentStorage
$PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\scratchpad
$PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\data\environment
$PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\data\proxies
Except data.txt, delete other files from directory $PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\data

Agent Specific: Delete the following directories on Linux machine:

$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data\ids
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\PersistentStorage
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\scratchpad
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\transactions (If it exists)
Except matcher.xml, delete other files from directory $PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data

Viewer Specific: Delete the following directories on Linux and NT machines:
$PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\data\ids
$PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\PersistentStorage
$PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\scratchpad
$PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\transactions (If it exists)

Change Assistant Specific: Delete the following directories on the machine where Change Assistant being setup:
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data\ids
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\PersistentStorage
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\scratchpad
$PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\transactions (If it exists)
Except matchers.xml, delete other files from directory $PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data

Now start the PSEMAgent on each of the Application Server and Process Scheduler machines, which includes Linux as well as Windows machines.

Make sure EMAgents are running before using Change Assistant to validate the Environment Management Hub (PSEMHUB)

Change Assistant Setup
To start with, identify an environment that will act as a PSEMHUB.

Configure PSEHMHUB
To start with, identify an environment that will act as a PSEMHUB. In case of a single server configuration for PIA, the PSEMHUB is started whenever we start PIA… and uses the same http post as the PIA.
Let’s say if the PIA URL is: http://ws1_ip:9081/site/signon.html, the hubURL will be http://ws1_ip:9081/PSEMHUB/hub (Format of hubURL is: http://[server_name]:[port]/PSEMHub/hub )

To configure PSEMHUB:

- Go to below directory (of web server machine) $PS_HOME/webserv/DOMAIN_NAME/applications/peoplesoft/PSEMHUB/envmetadata/config

- Edit “configuration.properties” for hubURL, agentport (must be unique) and windowsdrivestocrawl or unixdrivestocrawl.
hubURL=http://ws1_1p:9081/PSEMHUB/hub
unixdrivestocrawl=/u02/pt848
or
windowsdrivestocrawl=D:\pt848

Configure PSEM Agent
To configure PSEM Agent:
- Go to $PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/envmetadata/config
- Edit “configuration.properties” for hubURL, agentport (must be unique) and windowsdrivestocrawl or unixdrivestocrawl.

Once PSEM Agent is configured, start the PSEM Agents in App Server machine, Process Scheduler Server machine, File Server machine, NT machine where CA is configured:
$PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.sh (in Unix) $PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.cmd (in Windows)

For the first time, start the PSEMAgent with recrawl command - so that it crawls the drives to identify the environment components (all servers):
$ $PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.sh recrawl (in Unix)
$PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.cmd recrawl (in Windows)

After recrawl is done, start PSEMAgent normally.
$ $PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.sh recrawl (in Unix)
$PS_HOME/PSEMAgent/StartAgent.cmd recrawl (in Windows)

Before doing so, you may want to modify the StartAgent.sh file in unix using nohup command - so that EM Agent keeps running even if we exit from unix box… To modify the StartAgent.sh, open it in vi editor and update the last line as:

nohup ../jre/bin/java com.peoplesoft.pt.environmentmanagement.agent.Agent $1 &

Save and exit.
Execute $./StartAgent.sh

Setup Change Assistance
Now, that we have done with the configuration of PSEMHUB and PSEM Agent – next step would be to setup Change Assistance.

Open the Change Assistance, and go to Tools -> Options:
- Select “Apply Application Update” as Change Assistant Mode
- Download directory is where we have downloaded the bundle or MP zip files
- Staging directory is the one which CA will use as a stage - it will extract zip files from Download directory to Staging Location and will use contents in this directory for processing
- Output directory is the one where CA will keep all the output files generated during implementation of a bundle or MP

Go to Tools -> Options -> Environment Management Tab:
- Server Host: enter the IP address of PSEMHUB machine
- Server Port: enter the Port Number at which PSEMHUB is configured
- Click Ping to check the connection
- Click View to see the Environment Management Hub Summary – it shows all the environments name and availability of their server components.
Go to Tools -> Scan Configuration:
Go to Tools -> validate:

Apply Change Packages (Bundles or MPs)

Go to Tools -> Apply Change Package:
- Next screen will show the installed environment found
- Select the target environment here
- Going ahead CA will ask for entering User ID (PeopleSoft User) and Access ID, Apply Directory (Download directory) etc.
- CA will show the list of all the change packages available at the above mentioned download directory as illustrated below
- Next, CA asks for the method to apply DB Build Scripts – I choose Manually option
- Next, CA shows the confirm selection screen where it summarizes to be applied MP or Bundle details
- Click Validate now
- Click Begin Apply

In Progress…

Next screen appears and I start applying the MP or Bundles now.