I ran into a weird problem where I was unable to install PIA (PeopleSoft Internet Architecture) through the delivered install tools (PsMpPIAInstall or PSADMIN).  It kept getting about 90% complete and then drop out and report an error saying PIA failed to install.

I was not able to find out much about the error, but what I did find was that I was missing a bunch of libraries specifically in my case WLST classes.  As it turned out I had been cleaning up a bad install of another product and deleted the utils directory from the BEA home.

I re-installed the weblogic 10.3.0.4 version on the server into a new BEA home, and everything worked fine after that.

I found several cases that report multiple reasons for the failure but in the end the only thing that remained constant was re-install and everything works again.  There are several directories that weblogic installs with that are necessary in order to make PIA install work.

Error:  java.lang.RuntimeException: Could not find the OffLine WLST class

When doing the install you can issue the parameter: -debug -DDEBUG=true and that will issue thousands of information rows, but it does give some idea where the issue is.

Currently, I am working at a client and they have people using the Chrome browser, which is now supported in the 8.52 Toolset, however, the browser check still reports that the Chrome browser is not compatible.

The simpliest way to fix the problem is to modify the signin.html file.  In 8.52 this file is located in the {webroot}/WEB-INF/psftdocs/{piasite} folder.  You need to remove or comment out the HTML code line:

<h2 id=”browsercheck_error” class=”psloginerror” style=”text-align: left;”></h2>

It should be noted that the code delivered in signin.html will be changed back to delivered code with the installation of an additional PIA site or the configuration of a new domain.  This file would need to manually changed after any codeline changes. If you are using multiple web server instances each instance will need to manually edited in order to make it universal.

When you are creating a service for your application/process server in windows using the psadmin tool.  If the user account you are using does not have local administrator access on Windows 2008, it will generate the error:

openSCManager failed access is denied (0X5)

You will need to run the “Command Prompt” link with the option “Run as administrator”. You should be able to right click on the menu item in the start menu and select this option. Once at the command line change to the appserv directory and run psadmin, and then install your windows service.

Robert Herjavec – Driven Last year I was at the Super Business Conference put on by The Fast Track To Cashflow Group. One of the main speakers was Robert Herjavec. I have to say I was not terribly excited to hear him speak, as I figured it would be all about the Dragon’s Den and that isn’t all that interesting to me. However, once Robert took to the stage I was taken back. By far one of the best stories I have heard and his message really hit home and resonated with me. I download a copy of his book “Driven” from amazon on my kindle, and have thoroughly enjoyed the read.

Everybody will offer you free advice, but the only good thing about free advice is the price.

Check the book out, you won’t be disappointed, and if you have a chance to hear Robert speak, I would highly recommend it.

When working on SSH sessions, you run into some environments that have weird prompts and colors associated with the prompt. Often I find I can’t even see the prompt where it is a dark blue on black. Maybe that is just a sign that I am getting older but it is really difficult to see.

So to change the prompt here are a list of options:

• \a : an ASCII bell character (07)
• \d : the date (Format: “Tue May 26”)
• \D{format} : the format is passed to strftime(3) and the result is inserted into the prompt string; an empty format results in a locale-specific time representation. The braces are required
• \e : an ASCII escape character (033)
• \h : the hostname up to the first ‘.’
• \H : the hostname
• \j : the number of jobs currently managed by the shell
• \l : the basename of the shell’s terminal device name
• \n : newline
• \r : carriage return
• \s : the name of the shell, the basename of $0 (the portion following the final slash)
• \t : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format
• \T : the current time in 12-hour HH:MM:SS format
• \@ : the current time in 12-hour am/pm format
• \A : the current time in 24-hour HH:MM format
• \u : the username of the current user
• \v : the version of bash (e.g., 2.00)
• \V : the release of bash, version + patch level (e.g., 2.00.0)
• \w : the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
• \W : the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME abbreviated with a tilde
• \! : the history number of this command
• \# : the command number of this command
• \$ : if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
• \nnn : the character corresponding to the octal number nnn
• \\ : a backslash
• \[ : begin a sequence of non-printing characters, which could be used to embed a terminal control sequence into the prompt
• \] : end a sequence of non-printing characters

In order to change the color you will need to add the escape sequence:  \e[x;ym where x = 0 or 1, zero is darker and one is lighter.

• y = 30 – Black, 31 – Red, 32 – Green, 33 – Brown, 34 – Blue, 35 – Purple, 36 – Cyan

So to change your prompt to be Red with user @ machine short name showing the directory in brackets and a mode at the end you would do the following, note that the \e[m at the end of the string effectively ends the color change otherwise the color change will impact everything that isn’t color controlled:

export PS1=’\e[1;31m[\u@\h \W] \$ \e[m’