Well, last month, I wrote a blog about how much I enjoyed my initial installation with Oracle’s Secure Enterprise Search that is now integrated into the Oracle PeopleSoft 9.2 applications. Surprisingly, I received a lot of email saying that I was not alone in my pain, and more surprisingly, folks were having a lot more problems with it then I did. Heck mine worked with only a day of fooling around with it.

Here is a some of the information I put together:

1. Watch the certification levels and the versions delivered by default. For some reason and I just checked this on edelivery the O-SES that is available for download in the Application Media Packs for HR is version 11.1.2.2.0 which is NOT certified on Windows 2008 R2 or Windows 2012, Solaris 11, RHEL 6.x. Version 11.2.2.2.0 is certified on Windows 2008 R2, Solaris 11 and RHEL 6.x. However, at this time there is NO certified version for Windows 2012. —It should be noted that I have installed and configured 11.1.2.2.0 on Windows 2012 and it worked fine for the Portal Registry Search.

2. Integration Broker is HEAVILY used with O-SES.
– Make sure that your IB configuration is setup and working correctly.
– Make sure that you have the nodes setup with password authentication.
– Make sure the Domain Connection Password (8.53) is 8 characters long and is encrypted in the configuration file.
– Even if you don’t do SSL on the webserver, make sure you run the pskeymanager tool to set a non-default password on the keystore (pskey) on the webserver, and then add the password (encrypted with pscipher) to the integrationGateway.properties file for the PSIGW (PeopleSoft Integration Gateway) configuration.
– If you are using a secure gateway url, make sure the root and intermediate certificates for the keychain are in the digital certificates configuration.
– Make sure all the Service Operations associated with Service: ADMINSERVICE, ORACLESEARCHSERVICE, PT_SES, PTFP_FEED, PTSF_SECURITY, PTSF_SES_FEED and PTSF_META_DATA are active and have a valid routing that is active, and make sure the routing makes sense.
– The Service Operation PTSF_SES_SCHEDULED_FEED has two routings on it that I have seen. One is to the WSDL_NODE and the other is to the ATOM node. What I found was that the I had to inactivate the WSDL_NODE and make sure the ATOM routing was active. If you look in the integration broker monitor I had the FEED messages reporting as done, but if you look at the pub contract it was in error. Once I removed them and resubmitted the builds it generate the messages correctly and the contracts executed correctly and therefore started returning valid entries.

3. Make sure that you can do the 4 step test for the round trip. PeopleTools > Search Framework > Utilities > Diagnostics. If the first 2 steps fail there is most likely a problem with O-SES installation and configuration, if step 3 or 4 fail, there is most likely a problem with the Integration Broker setup for O-SES.

4. Test the search on the Search Test Page. PeopleTools > Search Framework > Utilities > Search Test Page. There is a button on this page to Clear Security Cache, and I found a couple of times that when I did the clear that searches began to work. I haven’t looked into the specifics of the cache it is clearing, but I just noted that this worked in a couple of cases.

5. Make sure the Security Permissions PTPT3100, PTPT3200, PTPT3300 are setup on your administrative user. I also made sure that the PTPT1000 list had permission to the searches that I had deployed under the new tab for permission lists: Search Groups.

6. Turning on the search dialogue box in the headers. First you need to turn this feature on, which is done on the Portal General Settings page: PeopleTools > Portal > General Settings.

6b. Search groups are not appearing in the search box. Make sure that the search index is added to the home page context. PeopleTools > Search Framework > Administration > View Search Contexts. For example if you want the Portal Registry to be in the search, you need to add PTPORTALREGISTRY to the Home Page Context Type.

7. Can Multiple Environments use the same O-SES database? Yes. The best example of this is on a development environment where you might have DEMO, DEV, TEST, QA all running. You can point all of them to use the same O-SES database.

Smart Thinking Newsletter

5 ERP Blunders (and How to Avoid Them)

The sheer complexity of implementing an ERP system means that there are many opportunities for error; avoiding the common mistakes is key to ensuring a successful implementation. Here’s what to consider:

• ERP Apprehension – No matter how smooth your implementation, it all comes down to your users and how comfortable they are with the system. A thorough training program goes a long way.
• Manpower Needs – ERP systems require manpower for ongoing management, underestimating those needs can lead to frustration as well as affecting customers.
• Unrealistic Expectations – Setting a “go-live” date is all well and good, but things happen. Ensure your project is fully (and reasonably) thought out and planned before setting the date in stone.
• Going “Big” – Making a huge initial investment to complete an entire ERP transformation may seem like a great plan, but it’s also a huge drain on resources and comes with a significant learning curve. Small changes, over a few years, are more advisable.
• Generic Solutions – Although a more affordable option, generic solutions are not always a good fit; customization can help make your ERP system a better fit.

Okay, the website might be called TheSmartPanda, but every now and then I stumble over stupid easy things that would have made my life so much easier, if I had just thought to inquire. Yesterday was one of those days. At The Smart Panda we have contracts being signed all the time, some of these contracts can be very long and require multiple signatures.

Before yesterday, I would print the contract, sign the contract, scan the signed contract and resend the scanned contract back to the client. This requires me to be at the office so that I can use the document scanner, and I use paper, toner, time and large data storage to do all of these steps. Yesterday, I received a contract signed back to me but it was digitally done, and it dawned on me there just might be an easier way. Sure enough in Adobe PDF, on most of your readers the third icon is the “Signature” button. I just never noticed it because most times the PDF opens in the web browser not the actual reader.

If you download your PDF and open it in the reader, select the signature icon the signature navigation pane will open and you can create your initials and signature for PDF documents. Then select the place initials and/or signature along with text for items like dates, printed names, etc.

I figure this will save me 10 hours a year which makes this a huge cost saving tip, not to mention the frustration of using the document scanner and large scanned document files no larger being used. win-win-win!

PeopleSoft has introduced new functionality in 8.53 and the 9.2 applications called the Data Migration Workbench. This functionality allows for easier migration of data which is directly related to the use of the new PeopleSoft Upgrade Manager (PUM). There has always been issues try to migrate “non” PeopleSoft meta-data objects from environment to environment. So items like data mover scripts and SQR’s always had to be manually migrated.

Part of the Data Migration Workbench is Application Data Sets (ADS). These data sets can be compared and copied, however, there is a whole new security element just for ADS. PeopleSoft delivered the permission list PTPT3500, which ties to the role ADS Designer. Make sure that your Upgrade user has access to this role/permission. Also make sure that the ADS permissions are turned on. Navigate to PeopleTools->Security->Permissions&Roles->Permission Lists, select the PTPT3500 permission, and go to the new Data Migration tab. Add in any access group permissions and under the copy compare permissions make sure it is set to Full Access.

During the application patching I was doing, the PTADS{BUG#} compare step was failing.

PeopleTools 8.53.06 – Application Engine
Copyright (c) 1988-2013 Oracle and/or its affiliates.
All Rights Reserved
Begin Application Engine Process (257,401)
Compare project from repository/area/project: USKANWD21374/Area/PTADS16299507 (257,400)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 400
Message Reason: Compare project from repository/area/project: USKANWD21374/Area/PTADS16299507 (257,400)
User does not have permission to perform Compare from File (257,308)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 308
Message Reason: User does not have permission to perform Compare from File (257,308)
Load from file failed (257,298)
Message Set Number: 257
Message Number: 298
Message Reason: Load from file failed (257,298)
End Application Engine Process (257,402)
Application Engine program PTADSAEPRCS ended normally

After turning on this new security, I ran it again and received the same error. Just to ensure that I was on the right track, I went and deleted the 2-Tier cache (usually c:\ps\{dbname}), and re-ran and everything worked!

I was setting up a new environment for a training class and the new server was running on RHEL6.5 with PeopleTools 8.53. The application was a 9.0 application so for ease I just put verity on the server to build the portal registry index search.

The verity install went without a problem. I went in and ran the PORTAL_INDEX AE to build the search index. That went to success! I search for an item and I get no results.

When I search the application server logs I find the following error:

PSAPPSRV.30784 (808) [2014-04-14T01:39:52.074 VP1@{MyIP} (CHROME 34.0.1847.116; MAC) ICScript](0)
Error E0-1509 (Drvr): dlopen() returned: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Error E0-1510 (Drvr): Error loading driver library ‘/oracle/psoft/pt853/verity/linux/_ilnx21/bin/locuni.so’
Error E0-1203 (Language): Error reading language definition file: /oracle/psoft/pt853/verity/linux/common/frenchv/loc00.lng
Error E0-1230 (Language): Could not create locale frenchv
VeritySrch::search: SessionManager::getSession failed: failed to obtain or create a valid VDK session.

My libstdc++.so.5 is in the 64 bit user library, when I did a little test and added the lib64 to the path, I got ELFCLASS64 error. I flipped over to the root account and install the 32bit library and the problem was solved.

yum install compat-libstdc++-33.i686