Replicating an Installed Environment

This appendix provides an overview of environment replication and discusses how to:

Click to jump to parent topicUnderstanding Environment Replication

Environment Replication involves taking a working, well-tested environment, and copying the Tools binary and configuration files to a new location to create a new environment by making minor modifications to the new configurations.

To further define the term “environment”, there are three separate components that can have multiple environment configurations: Web Server, Application Server, and Process Scheduler Server.

A web server environment consists of one or more site directories under the WEBSERV directory within a single PS_HOME location. Each directory contains configurations that point to a single Application Server through a JSL port designation. Although a site may point to more than one redundant application server machine names for failover or load balancing, each machine name is given a unique JSL port number. Another PS_HOME directory location on a Web Server machine would be considered another environment.

A single Application Server environment consists of one or more domain directories under the APPSERV directory within a single PS_HOME location. Each domain contains configuration settings that point to a single database. Multiple domains can be configured to point to the same database for failover or load balancing. Each domain has its own server processes and must be configured to have unique WSL and JSL port numbers.

A single Process Schedule Environment consists of one or more connect database directories under the APPSERV\PRCS directory within a single PS_HOME location. Each database that needs to schedule processes must have its own Process Scheduler server configured separately. The configuration files are kept in their own directory location under the PRCS directory.

Note. For the purposes of this document, the term “environment” refers to all the server processes under a single PS_HOME directory location on each of the servers. The Web Server environment is separate from the Application Server environment, which is separate from the Process Scheduler Server environment.

Important! When you configure and run an Environment Management agent, hub, or viewer, files associated with that component are created and updated with information that refers to the absolute directory structure of your PeopleSoft system. When you replicate your installed environment, the information in those files is no longer valid for the new location. You must reconfigure the Environment Management components after replicating them.

See Reconfiguring Replicated Environment Management Components.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicProblems Associated with Environment Replication

In the field, there are many methods an installer, on-site consultant, or customer may perform in order to replicate a single server environment. Usually, this is done by procedures memorized by a consultant, without any formalized steps to follow. Also there are no formal final verification steps to ensure a proper environment setup.

Discussions with field consultants who have performed environment replication many times in the past revealed that environment replication is much more prevalent within a single machine, rather than replicating to new machines. Since the need exists for creating new environments to keep binaries separate for patch acceptance and testing, new PS_HOME directory locations are created for this purpose. This is usually performed on the same machine for the sake of simplicity. Hence, there is no need to install and maintain 3rd party software on separate machines.

Click to jump to parent topicReplicating a Web Server Environment

Use the following steps to replicate the web server environment:

  1. Copy the PeopleSoft Web Server PS_HOME directory structure to a new location, whether it is a new machine, or same machine with a new high level PS_HOME directory name.

  2. Run PS_HOME\setup\PsMpPIAInstall\setup.exe or equivalent from the copied/cloned location.

  3. Select Redeploy PeopleSoft Application.

  4. Choose a site name.

  5. Enter the application server name and port information.

Note. Be sure to enter a different JSL port value when replicating on the same machine.

Click to jump to parent topicReplicating an Application Server Environment

For Application Server environment replication, the first step again is to copy the PS_HOME directory structure on the application server to the new location, either to a new machine or to a new directory on the same machine. This procedure copies the binaries, as well as the existing domains that are linked to a database.

After the delivery of the new PS_HOME, the existing domains need to be reconfigured in order for the domains to be booted and run. This procedure generates a new unique Tuxedo shared memory ID value that is different than the one in the original domain.

If you keep the original domain names and configuration settings (Database name, User ID, ports, etc), you can reconfigure the domain by simply running PSADMIN through the command line, using the -c configure command for each domain.

If you keep the original domain names but you need to change any of the configuration settings, then you should use the PSADMIN interactive tool. In this case, you need to do the following:

  1. Select each domain to configure.

  2. Select Y to change the configuration values.

  3. Input the new values as needed.

Alternatively, you can edit the PSAPPSRV.CFG file directly in the domain directory. You can then use the command line interface to PSADMIN to reconfigure the domain.

If you want to rename the domain names to be more intuitive for its task (for example, Prod, dev, test, demo, etc), then you can utilize the PSADMIN import option.

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicSteps to Replicate PeopleSoft Application Server Using Import Option

Use the following steps to replicate an application server environment:

  1. In PSADMIN, select 1 for Application Server.

  2. Select option 4 to import domain configuration.

  3. Select option 1 to import from file.

  4. Enter a domain name that you want to create and press ENTER.

  5. Select 1 to boot up the server.

The command line to rename a domain would be:

PSADMIN -c import PS_HOME -d domain_name -n new_name

The values are the current PS_HOME directory location, the domain name to rename, and the new name to create. A new domain name is created using the configuration values of the original name.

The import option also accepts a path to a configuration file (PSAPPSRV.CFG) for importing new configuration parameters. The configuration file can be manually modified for the users specifications, and then imported to create new domains.

Click to jump to parent topicReplicating the PeopleSoft Process Scheduler Environment

Process Scheduler Server configuration file, psprcs.cfg, is stored under PS_HOME\appserv\databasepsprcs.cfg. Only one database can be accessed by a single Process Scheduler Server, although multiple servers can access the same database.

The procedure for replicating Process Scheduler environments is the same as it is for Application Servers. Changes to the configuration file require that the environment be reconfigured in order to recreate the Tuxedo binary configuration file. The process is the same as noted above, using the PSADMIN command line process to create, configure, and import Process Scheduler configurations.

The following configuration settings from psprcs.cfg point to the current PS_HOME location and can be moved to new locations without modifications: CBLBIN, CRWRPTPATH, TOOLBIN, TOOLBINSVR, DataMover dirs, and nVision dirs. The binaries will substitute the correct directory location for PS_HOME.

The configuration settings pointing to hard-coded locations are DBBIN, WINWORD, and SQRBIN. The DBBIN, Database connection binaries, and WINWORD settings, would presumably reside in the same common directory across environments. The SQRBIN setting generally points to a common file server location, which was created with the initial CD install. As long as the drive mappings remain intact, this setting should remain unmodified as well.

Click to jump to parent topicReconfiguring Replicated Environment Management Components

This section discusses how to:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicReconfiguring an Environment Management Agent

The following files are required by an environment management agent:

Note. New_PS_HOME is the directory where PeopleTools is located in your replicated environment.

To reconfigure the agent:

  1. Delete all subdirectories below New_PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\data\

    Note. Don't delete the matchers.xml file in this location.

  2. Delete the following directories:

  3. Modify StartAgent.bat (or StartAgent.sh on UNIX).

    Ensure that references to the drive and path of the PSEMAgent directory are correct for the New PS_HOME location.

  4. Modify StopAgent.bat (or StopAgent.sh on UNIX).

    Ensure that references to the drive and path of the PSEMAgent directory are correct for the New PS_HOME location.

  5. Verify the settings in the agent configuration file:

    New_PS_HOME\PSEMAgent\envmetadata\config\configuration.properties

    Properties that specify path locations must be valid for the replicated agent in its new location, but the same hub is still addressed by all agents. Ensure that the following settings are correct for the replicated agent:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicReconfiguring the Environment Management Hub

Although replication produces multiple Environment Management hub directory structures, and starting PIA makes each of those hubs active, you specify only one hub as the location of the Environment Management log files. You must reconfigure the newly replicated hub only if you've modified the agents to specify it as the logging hub.

The following files are required by the environment management hub:

Note. New_PS_HOME is the directory where PeopleTools is located in your replicated environment.

To reconfigure the hub:

  1. Delete all subdirectories below New_PS_HOME\webserv\peoplesoft\applications\peoplesoft\PSEMHUB\envmetadata\data\

    Note. Don't delete the data.txt file in this location.

  2. Delete the following directories:

Click to jump to top of pageClick to jump to parent topicReconfiguring the Environment Management Viewer

The following files are required by an environment management viewer:

Note. New_PS_HOME is the directory where PeopleTools is located in your replicated environment.

To reconfigure the hub:

  1. Delete all subdirectories below New_PS_HOME\PSEMViewer\envmetadata\data\

    Note. Don't delete the files in this location, just the subdirectories.

  2. Delete the following directories: