I believe with release of PeopleTools 8.44, they introduced a new feature that requires a user id for internal web server communication to load web profile information from the database and also performance agent information.

By default PeopleSoft delivered the product with the default userid PTWEBSERVER.  Which uses a default delivered role of “PeopleTools Web Server”, which links to the delivered permission list “PTPT1500”.

When you build your PIA (PeopleSoft Internet Architecture) you will be asked to enter a userid and password for this internal web server communication.  If the information is incorrect you will often see the error: “CHECK APPSERVER LOGS. THE SITE BOOTED WITH INTERNAL DEFAULT SETTINGS, BECAUSE OF: bea.jolt.ApplicationException: TPESVCFAIL – application level service failure”.

This user information is stored in the configuration.properties file, which is located in the:

<webserv root>/applications/peoplesoft/PORTAL.war/WEB-INF/psftdocs/<piasite>/ folder (for weblogic)

You will notice that the userid/password are encrypted.  This encryption is done using the PSCipher utility that is delivered with the pia.  I haven’t verified this but in past releases you could enter the userid and password unencrypted and it worked fine, however, I always encrypt them now, so I have tested this against 8.5x.  It should also be noted that the userid and password are both case-sensitive.

To encrypt the password use the PSCipher script located at <webserv root>/bin. PeopleTools 8.51 moved utility files to the folder <webserv root>/piabin. I usually run the setENV first (however, it usually does it for you now) and then run PSCipher <newpasstoencrypt>.  It will return an Encrypted password in the form:   {V1.1}xxxxxxxxxxx= copy this password and place it into the configuration.properties file.

If you are still experiencing a problem, make sure that the user you are trying to connect with has the correct password entered into the user security screens, and that the account is unlocked.

With the release of the 8.51 Tools they also introduced a password for the domain.  You set this password in the configuration of the application server, and you have to enter it for things like integration broker and also in the PIA web configuration.  This password is encrypted the same way in the configuration.properties file.

Happy Configuring!