Enterprise PeopleTools 8.50 PeopleBook: Change Assistant

Configuring Change Assistant

This chapter provides an overview and discusses:

Setting Up Change Assistant.
Specifying Change Assistant Options.
Validating Change Assistant Settings.

Setting Up Change Assistant

This section covers topics related to setting up Change Assistant, including how to:

Install Change Assistant.
Confirm the path variable.
Scan the workstation.
Define environment identification.

Installing Change Assistant

Change Assistant runs only on supported Microsoft Windows workstations. Change Assistant is not automatically installed when you install PeopleTools. You install Change Assistant by running a separate setup.exe program in:

PS_HOME\setup\PsCA

After installing Change Assistant, you open it by selecting Start, Programs, Peoplesoft 8.x, Change Assistant.

Note. If there are any PeopleTools Required for Install patches posted, make sure that those are applied first before running the setup program.

Note. The user who runs Change Assistant does not need to have Administrator privileges on the Windows workstation, but the user needs to have read/write access to the directory (and all subdirectories) in which Change Assistant is installed, such as C:\Program Files\PeopleSoft\Change Assistant.

Complete installation instructions for Change Assistant appear in your PeopleTools installation guide.

Confirming the Path Variable

After installing Change Assistant, ensure that the PATH system variable has been set. The following locations need to appear as the first entries in the PATH string:

PS_HOME\bin\client\winx86
PS_HOME\jre\bin

Where PS_HOME is the location where you installed PeopleTools.

To verify Path settings:

Select Start, Settings, Control Panel.
Double-click the System icon.
Select the Advanced tab on the System Properties dialog box.
Click Environment Variables.
Select the Path variable in the System Variables section, then click the Edit button.

The Edit System Variables screen appears.
On the Edit System Variables dialog box, ensure that in the Variable Value field, the following directory locations appear as the first entries in the Path string:
```
C:\PS_HOME\bin\client\winx86;c:\PS_HOME\jre\bin;
```
If you've made any modifications, click OK to save your settings.

Scanning the Workstation

The first time you use Change Assistant, it automatically scans your workstation for applications that it will use in order to automate the steps. For example, it automatically finds your SQL Query tool and uses it to run SQL commands or scripts. To perform this scan, select Tools, Scan Configuration.

If you add a new application or update an existing application, Change Assistant must perform a scan of the system in order to discover the changes.

Define Environment Identification

In the browser, navigate to the PeopleTools Options page (PeopleTools, Utilities, Administration, PeopleTools Options) and make sure that the Environment Long Name and Environment Short Name are specified correctly.

The Environment Management Framework and Change Assistant use these values, along with the GUID, to identify an environment and associate environment information with a particular named environment. Likewise, it enables you to search for updates for a specific environment.

Specifying Change Assistant Options

This section describes options to set in Change Assistant.

Select Tools, Options, Change Assistant.

Change Assistant Mode

Select the mode that reflects how you will be using Change Assistant. The menu items that will appear when you use Change Assistant are enabled and disabled based on the mode selected.

Apply Application Update

Perform PeopleTools Only Upgrade

Perform Application Upgrade

Create or Modify Templates

Enable Server Processing

(Applies only in Perform Application Upgrade mode) Enables Change Assistant to run select step types on a host server through a remote EMF Agent. Selecting this option enables the options in the Remote Agent group box for specifying the remote agent.

The details of setting up this option are documented in the upgrade portion of this PeopleBook.

Maximum Concurrent Processes

Specifies the maximum number of processes that can be executed concurrently on the local machine. The default is 1.

Directories

Download Directory	Enter the full path of the location to which you want to download your change packages.
*PS_HOME	Enter the full path in which you installed PeopleTools. Note. Specify the PS_HOME location that is the same version of PeopleTools that the target database is running on. For PeopleTools scripts and executable to run successfully against a database, they must be at equivalent versions. The PeopleTools version of the PS_HOME does not necessarily need to be the same version as the Change Assistant session you are running. Change Assistant may be at a higher version.
*Staging Directory	Enter the directory in which you would like to stage all the Change Assistant update files. This is the location that Change Assistant will store files to be used during the apply update process.
*Output Directory	Enter the directory in which you want the log files generated by the update process to reside.

Remote Agent

These options apply only when performing an application upgrade, not for applying change packages. For application upgrades, Change Assistant can run select step types through an EMF Agent running on a remote host. This can improve performance and processing times.

To enable these options, you need to select Enable Server Processing under the Perform Application Upgrade mode.

The details of setting up this option are documented in the upgrade portion of this PeopleBook.

Setting Email Options

Select Tools, Options, Email.

Send Email Notifications	Select this check box to receive email notifications if there are errors in the update process. Change Assistant also sends you a completion message when it encounters a Stop in the update process.
SMTP Server	Enter the SMTP mail server from which you receive the error or completion messages.
Port	Enter the port from which you want to access the email.
Send To	Enter the address to which you want the email sent.
Return Address	Enter the email address of the sender. Use this to identify who sent the notification.
Test	Validates that email is sent to the designated recipients and is working correctly. Note. Ensure that your SMTP server is installed and configured correctly.

Setting Up Web Services Options

Select Tools, Options, Web Services.

Host

(Optional) Enter the name of the proxy server if you want to run Change Assistant behind the firewall using a proxy server.

Port

(Optional) Enter the port number for the proxy server.

Anonymous Proxy

Indicates that you are using a proxy server that does not require authenticated connections.

Microsoft Proxy Server

Indicates that you are using a proxy server with Windows authentication.

Windows Domain

The network domain in which the system runs.

Other Proxy Servers

Indicates you are using non-Microsoft proxy servers.

Setting Environment Management Options

Select Tools, Options, Environment Management.

Server Hostname

The hostname of the server in which the Environment Management components reside.

Server Port

Indicates the port in which to connect to the Environment Management hub.

Click to verify a valid server URL. If you see “Service is off” to the right of this button, then you must correct the server URL and ping again until you see “Service is on.”

Chunk Size

Used for deploying files during a software update. Default is 1024 * 1024 bytes. Typically this does not need to be changed unless there are a significant number of files greater that 1024KB in a software update.

Ping Interval

Ping interval is in milliseconds for Change Assistant to contact the hub for new messages.

Drives to Crawl

Setting of drives to crawl to identify the configuration of the Change Assistant machine. Windows directories need to use the forward slash (/) character. Include your local drive in this setting so that Change Assistant can locate the SQL Query tool used for automating steps. Also include the path of the SQL Query tool.

Validating Change Assistant Settings

After you have set up and configured Change Assistant and the Environment Management components, you should validate your Change Assistant and environment settings.

Change Assistant validates settings by:

Locating valid SQL query tools required to run SQL scripts.
Testing the Environment Management hub and ensuring that Change Assistant can communicate with it.
Testing the update gateway URL and ensuring that Change Assistant can communicate with it.

You can also print a summary of your environment, which can facilitates the diagnosis of problems by Oracle Global Customer Support.

To validate your environment:

Select Tools, Validate.
Click Start Validation.

The validation processing of the example runs in this order:

When the validation process has completed, a completion message appears.
If any of the steps were unable to complete successfully, open the log file to determine the cause.

Click View Log in the lower part of the screen to see more details regarding individual steps of the validation.

Note. If you use proxy servers, the system will ping those and prompt for proxy server user ID and password. In this case, the validation step numbers would be different from the example.

Host	(Optional) Enter the name of the proxy server if you want to run Change Assistant behind the firewall using a proxy server.
Port	(Optional) Enter the port number for the proxy server.
Anonymous Proxy	Indicates that you are using a proxy server that does not require authenticated connections.
Microsoft Proxy Server	Indicates that you are using a proxy server with Windows authentication.
Windows Domain	The network domain in which the system runs.
Other Proxy Servers	Indicates you are using non-Microsoft proxy servers.

Server Hostname	The hostname of the server in which the Environment Management components reside.
Server Port	Indicates the port in which to connect to the Environment Management hub.
	Click to verify a valid server URL. If you see “Service is off” to the right of this button, then you must correct the server URL and ping again until you see “Service is on.”
Chunk Size	Used for deploying files during a software update. Default is 1024 * 1024 bytes. Typically this does not need to be changed unless there are a significant number of files greater that 1024KB in a software update.
Ping Interval	Ping interval is in milliseconds for Change Assistant to contact the hub for new messages.
Drives to Crawl	Setting of drives to crawl to identify the configuration of the Change Assistant machine. Windows directories need to use the forward slash (/) character. Include your local drive in this setting so that Change Assistant can locate the SQL Query tool used for automating steps. Also include the path of the SQL Query tool.