8.55 – Build PeopleSoft Images with DPKs (Part 2)

As you have likely heard – and if you haven’t, go see Dan’s post now– the first 8.55 PI has been released. It is a big change from how 8.53 and 8.54 PIs were delivered to us in the past. Oracle is now leveraging DPKs to get us our images. As Dan had mentioned in his previous post, there are two options with this new delivery method: VirtualBox and Native OS. Now, you may see VirtualBox and assume you will still be downloading zip files and then running good old ova_gen.bat to generate a PI .ova file. This is actually NOT the case anymore. The new ‘old’ way is still run in VirtualBox but delivered via DPK. Here is a basic run down of what happens now:

  1. Download the Update Image VirtualBox zip files.
  2. Extract the first zip file, which should produce a setup folder.
  3. Run the `psft-dpk-setup.ps1` script via PowerShell. Note: I had to adjust my Execution Policy to get this to work.
  4. The rest of the zip files will be extracted.
  5. A bunch of validation happens related to VirtualBox.
  6. If validated, a shell VM will be imported into your VirtualBox via a delivered .ova file.
  7. You will be asked some networking questions.
  8. The script will launch the shell VM and finish.
  9. The shell will now be running and prompt you with a few more questions.
  10. At this point the DPK files are actually imported into the shell VM.
  11. You are prompted with a few options to customize your deployment.
  12. The DPKs are deployed and the PI is up and running!

That was pretty high level, but I wanted to point out that the VirtualBox method is using DPKs – similar to the Native OS option. So again, don’t expect to find a ova_gen.bat file and full .ova file to drop into VirtualBox. There will be a slight learning curve with the new DPK method, even if you stick with VirtualBox.

Luckily, Oracle does a pretty good job going into detail in the DPK for Update Images installation guide. To find this guide in MOS, navigate to the PUM Home Page and then your Update Image Home Page. Under the Installation Documentation section, you should find a link to the document – PeopleSoft Deployment Packages for Update Images Installation (PeopleSoft PeopleTools 8.55). This is a fairly lengthy document, walking you through all the different use cases and requirements for installation. It also covers the PeopleTools Client DPKs, which we will be covering in a Part 3 future post coming soon.

As always, feel free to join the conversation in the comments below. I would be interested to hear how others are fairing with this new process so far, and how it may change the way they currently operate.

63 thoughts on “8.55 – Build PeopleSoft Images with DPKs (Part 2)”

  1. Hi
    I am getting erorr when its Validating the shared Folder .
    its asking shared Folder containing various Peoplesoft environment DPKs should be setup on the VM .

    Please tell me which folder is this ?

    1. This should be the folder on the host that contains all the DPK .zip files, the shell .ova file, etc. If you go to your VM settings, click on Shares Folders, you can add the folder there.

      1. Hey Dan, yes its my first attempt to run the DPK on a VirtualBox. I’ve run several PUM images previously on the VirtualBox and have been able to get them to work.
        I do have another PUM image (92.015) in the same VirtualBox. Its shut down but that shouldn’t impact running a second appliance.

        The error I get is:
        Setting up PeopleSoft PIA Domain [FAILED]

        The initialization of PeopleSoft environment failed.
        Check the log file /var/log/psft_setup_log.20160213

        The log file says:

        /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/util/command_line.rb:146:in ‘run’
        /usr/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/puppet/util/command_line.rb:92:in ‘execute’
        /usr/bin/puppet:8
        [ERROR] Feb 13 00:51:11 psft-setup.sh: Puppet apply of pt_profile::pt_pia failed

        I appreciate you taking time to reply. Any thoughts?

        1. Mark – try kicking off the puppet apply command directly. If you pass in the --debug and --trace options you’ll see lots (and lots) of output from puppet. If you pipe that into a text file you can read through the logs to see if there is a specific error message.

          puppet apply site.pp --debug --trace

  2. Hi,
    I’m trying to get the VirtualBox image – HCM update image 16 – installed on my laptop.. When I run the PowerShell script, it does all the extraction and displays an error message stating – “Linux is not supported in this release” and exists.

    I’m running this script on a Windows 10 PC, so am not sure what I might be doing wrong. Appreciate your help!

    Mani

  3. Hi Mani, that is a very interesting error to see when running on Windows 10! You may want to checkout the Oracle Community site. There is a lot of discussion there about all sorts of issues people are having.

    https://community.oracle.com/community/support/peoplesoft/install_upgrade_-_psft

    Another option for you would be to manually import the shell .ova file. Once that is imported, you will have to add your DPK_HOME directory as a Shared Folder in Virtual Box, with mounted selected. Then when you start up the VM it should complete the setup inside the guest. Either way, let us know how it goes!

  4. Hi Kyle,
    Thanks for responding. Just to confirm – what Host OS did you use while using the VirtualBox solution? I suppose you’re using Windows 8.1?

    And regarding your other suggestion – how do I manually import the shell .ova file? Once the PS script exits, it creates a Shell OVA file of around 755 MB. I tried to import that to virtualBox, but it says that I need a x64 CPU. But, I know for sure that the one in mylaptop is a x64 CPU.

    Can you please let me know if there is anything else that I should do manually create the shell .ova file?

    Thanks again for your prompt response!

    Mani

    1. I used Windows Server 2008 actually. The ova you imported was the one I was talking about. These are very strange errors you are getting! I may give it a try on Win10 myself and see what I get.

  5. Hi Kyle,
    Thanks again. I tried importing the OVA file again. The problem was that the OS was set to 32-bit by default instead of 64-bit. Changed that and the import process started without any problem.

    Now, I have another issue – when trying to log into PIA, I get an error – BEA.jolt.Exception”- did some googling and found it was being caused by setting up a new Web server password instead of the default one. And, the PSOPRDEFN table needs to be updated for the same.

    Now, I have trouble getting the App Designer, Data Mover and couldn’t find the setup file for installing Oracle Client 12c. Do you have the steps to be carried out to installed these please?

    Thank you.

    -Mani

    1. Dan and I are still planning a PT Client DPK post, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Until then I would suggest taking a look at the installation guide mentioned in the post. The script you are looking for is SetupPTClient.bat, which can be found on the Samba Shared drive from your newly installed VM. In the installation guide, Task 5-4-1 explains how to find and run the script.

  6. Thanks, Kyle! Looks like there are issues when importing the OVA file via VirtualBox manually. I might have done something wrong – but, I don’t see all the folders that are listed in that task.

    Anyway, thanks again! And it would really help if you could do a post on installing PeopleTools 8.55 with screenshots – kinda like a step-by-step guide. If you find time, that is 🙂

    Excellent work as always and thanks for promptly responding to my comments.

    -Mani

  7. Hi,
    I went through the process and now it seems to be running. I haven´t highlited any failed step.
    The problem is I cannot access PIA. I looked to the ipaddress (ifconfig command) but is not showing the page when i use the value for the inet address. Any clue? something I could double check?

    On the other hand, trying to change the samba.conf file to give the permissions for pi_home folder, I cannot see the same file structure than for previous PUMs. It has no section for ptools or pi_home….any idea?

    I am thinking on doing another install but this time more like the traditional way (page 92 of the manual), importing the appliance and so on, and see if there is something missing.

    rgds,
    Rafa

    1. Hi Rafa

      Run netstat -an | grep 8000 to see what IP the web server is listening on. Also, check your VM settings to make sure it is using Bridged or NAT networking.

      For the smb.conf file in /etc/samba/, I see two sections in our VBOX PUM: [pi_home] and [tools_client]. In Windows, if you open a share to the VM (\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) do you see those two shares?

      1. Thanks Dan for the quick reply,
        The sentence to be run on the vbox once logged? cause i did and is not retrieving anything.
        It is bridged.

        I opened a share to the VM, on the psadm3 user, and is empty.

        Something is definitely wrong. It is like if the tools and services were not created.

  8. Me again,
    Expecting something missing i went again through the process and yes, it failed on the following:

    Setting up peoplesoft hcm database HR92U16: failed

    The initialization of peoplesoft environment failed. Check the log file /var/log/psft_setup.log.20160216 for the errors. After correcting the errors, you can directly run the Puppet apply command to continue with the initialization process.

    Log is only showing the following:

    Error: psft-setup.sh: Puppet apply of pt_profile::pt_psft_db failed

    This is similar to what Mark commented above.
    I have no idea on what to run, where, and how to check the errors if any. What a nightmare!

    1. Sorry guys,
      I already found the problem. There is a bug with current packages. See support (Doc ID 2104607.1)
      Bug 22205375 – CONFIGURING HOSTNAME WITH ALL CAPS FAILS WHEN DEPLOYING DPK.

      Yes, hostname must be lowercase :S

      As an advice to future readers, if you have any errors during the installation, review the log file but don´t focus on the last sentence as it is generic, scroll up looking for the root cause and that will point you on the right direction.
      However, support wil be full of cases in the coming days 🙂

      Thanks Dan and Kyle for you help and great posts

      1. Rafael,
        So glad you found the root cause of your issue! I did hear about that hostname bug, but would never have thought to mention it based on the error you initially found. Very good advice regarding where to find the “true” issue in the log. Thanks for coming back to report your findings!

        I’d also like to point everyone to the discussion happening on the Oracle Community Install/Upgrade/Maintain/PUM board. There is a TON of activity on there right now, including Oracle employees. Chances are if you are having an issue, someone else is too and discussing it there.

  9. Kyle/Dan,
    The issue I had reported earlier – “Linux not supported in this release” – was a bug in the PS script, which has now been corrected and the installation was complete without any problems. As Rafael has pointed out, the “hostname has to be in lower case” – was something I had followed from the beginning(based on inputs from Oracle Support).

    Here’s a blog post with screenshots on installing PeopleTools 8.55/HCM Image 16 with VirtualBox – I’ve added couple of issues that I’ve faced(like the hostname one) – could probably help someone

    https://mani2web.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/installing-peopletools-8-55-peoplesoft-hcm-image-16-on-virtualbox-using-dpks-part-1/

    https://mani2web.wordpress.com/2016/02/17/installing-peopletools-8-55-peoplesoft-hcm-image-16-on-virtualbox-using-dpks-part-2/

    Thanks,
    Mani

    1. Thanks Mani – it seems the “hostname” bug is causing many people issues! And thanks for posting your DPK install steps. I’m sure others will find the post quite useful.

  10. Hi Dan,

    I have built PI with DPK for 9.2 patch 16 and When I opened the PIA link .It looks like fluid pages. please tell me how to change it to normal PeopleSoft pages and how to create change package with the same.

    Regards,
    Soumi

  11. Great presentation. We are in the reading\planning stage for an Upgrade from PS Fin\Scm 9.1 tools 8.51 to PS 9.2 probably tools 8.55

    So wouldn’t we still need to use the Oracle Virtual Box method to house the Update image appliance, and the latest Upgrade Certified Upgrade Image appliance when the certified tools 8.55 upgrade path comes out? Right now the certified Upgrade image is tools 8.54 and there appears to be several fixes in 8.55 we would want.

    1. Kent, if you are upgrading to PeopleTools 8.55, you have the choice of NativeOS or VirtualBox DPK’s. For a 9.2 and 8.55 upgrade, you’ll pull the upgrade template from the PeopleSoft Image (PI), which is new in 8.55, when they certify a PI for the 9.2 upgrade.

      Does that make sense?

  12. Dan, kind of, but since we need both the latest update image (at this point 17) and the upgrade image wouldn’t we need to use the Virtual box so we can have two images installed? Or are you thinking 2 separate boxes (win 7+) to use the native os install.

    1. Ah, Kent, you are right. I forgot that the upgrade source image is still separate from the PUM image. For the HR Image 16 upgrade source (I don’t see FS Image 17 upgrade source yet), they have a VBox and NativeOS option. Since you only need the Upgrade Source for your Initial Pass, using VBox might be the easiest option. You can spin it up for the IP and shut it down once you are done using it. I’d hang on to the Upgrade Image until your upgrade is complete (just in case). VBox for your Upgrade Image seems like a good solution. Sorry for the confusion!

  13. Hi Dan.

    I am still reading but with DPK’s is the theory that you would use the upgrade image (as demo), PUM and change assistant to upgrade a copy of production. Then use dpk to install the full environment on our windows 2012 application servers. It appears the DPK’s need the database already created at the right version.

    I wouldn’t guess we would want to install the Peoplesoft Image on our test\qual\prod application servers.

  14. Pingback: 8.55 – Build PeopleSoft Images with DPKs – psadmin.io

  15. Soumi:

    Look for Select PeopleTools, Personalization, Personaliztaion Options, select PPTL.

    Then Select HPPC then Format page select set option default as classic.

  16. Hi, I built PeopleSoft Instance (PS9.2/PT8.55) on my laptop (OS: Windows 10, DB: MSSQL Server) with classic (virtual CD) installation method. Its running on the native OS (i.e. not using VirtualBox). Now if I have to apply newer patch of PT, can I download & use DPKs? If ‘Yes’ what steps do I need to follow? Thank you.

  17. Pingback: 8.55 – PeopleTools Client DPK – psadmin.io

  18. Pingback: 8.55 – Build PeopleSoft Images with DPKs (Part 3) – psadmin.io

  19. Hi

    I was able to install and access PeopleSoft after following instructions you have mentioned but after I shutdown virtual box and my laptop, it stopped working.

    Though i am able to start & initialize the virtual machine but site wont load in IE.

    Please help.

  20. Hi,

    I am not able to complete “Downloading DPK’s into the VM” step ,my computer always goes to blank screen.
    I got 8 GB RAM ,Windows 10 with i5 processor.
    Does anyone know the issue ?

    1. Hi KS,

      Did you find any solution to the issue? I am stuck at the same point. My computer freezes whenever the step “Downloading DPK’s into the VM” starts.

      Regards,
      SS

  21. Hello Dan

    I am trying to install PS 9.2 18 image on my Windows 10 laptop…. I am running into the same problem as what the previous post ( from KS) indicates….. Is there any change in the process here? I downloaded virtuall files (not the native o/s) and once it starts to download the DPKs , it gets slow or stuck. I see that it downloaded the files in the VM folder, but after that it is slow in installing. It is been more than 20 hours ….. Any help would be appreciated…. To indicate where we are going wrong…..

  22. I’m using the Native OS method on a Windows 7 Ultimate PC but each time I try it fails when building the pre-boot peoplesoft environment Domain. The log that it points to gives a very generic error. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks.

  23. Great column! I was curious…I’ve installed Image 20 for FSCM 9.2 (Native O/S) on a Microsoft VM, and was wondering if one could install the Change Assistant/Peopletools on the same VM?

    Cheers
    Peter

  24. Anyone having Database fail issue.

    Setting up PeopleSoft Database: [FAILED]

    Setting up Puppet on the Host:
    Copying PeopleSoft Puppet Modules: [ OK ]
    Updating the Puppet Hiera YAML Files: [ OK ]
    Updating the Role in Puppet Site File for the Host: [ OK ]

    Enter the name of the database. Please ensure that the database
    name starts with a letter and includes only alphanumeric characters
    and is no more than 8 characters in length [IH91U002]:

    Enter the name of PeopleSoft Connect ID. Please ensure that the
    id includes only alphanumeric characters and is no more than 8
    in length [people]: people
    Enter the PeopleSoft Connect ID Password. Please ensure that the
    password does not contain any spaces and quote characters and is
    at least 6 and no more than 8 characters in length: ******
    Re-Enter the PeopleSoft Connect ID Password: ******

    [Optional] Enter the Application Server Domain Connection Password.
    Please ensure that the password (if provided) does not contain any
    spaces and quote characters and is at least 8 and no more than 30
    characters in length: ********
    Re-Enter the Application Server Domain Connection Password: ********

    Enter a new WebLogic Server Admin Password. Please ensure that the
    password has at least 8 characters with at least one uppercase, one
    number or a special character: ********
    Re-Enter the new WebLogic Server Admin Password: ********

    Do you wish to configure SES on this Host? [y|N]: N

    Are you happy with your answers? [y|n]: y

    Updating the Puppet Hiera YAML Files with User Input: [ OK ]

    Do you want to continue with the default initialization process? [y|n]: y

    Starting the Default Initialization of PeopleSoft Environment:

    Deploying Application Components: [ OK ]
    Deploying PeopleTools Components: [ OK ]
    Deploying Oracle Database Server: [ OK ]
    Setting up PeopleSoft OS Users Environment: [ OK ]
    Setting up PeopleSoft Database: [FAILED]

    The initialization of PeopleSoft environment failed.
    Check the log file D:\dpk\setup\psft-dpk-setup.ps1.log for the errors.
    After correcting the errors, you can directly run the Puppet apply
    command to continue with the initialization process.

    1. Yes, I had a lot of problems trying to create the VirtualBox environment for PUM 21 (Financials) this time around. After three tries with three different failure messages, I finally tried lowering the memory of the VM from 12gb to 8gb and then it finally completed successfully.

  25. Thank you Jeremy for your quick response. In my case I am using NativeOS pum image 21 for finance.
    It stuck at Database install. Since I am using virtual box image could lower memory as it worked for you.

    1. Qamar, My understanding is for Native OS setup there is no need for virtual image. I am getting the error change from absent to present failed: Error updating connect information for database”. Has anybody encountered this message and if so what is the resolution. Thx

      Dev

  26. I have an old Toshiba Satellite (power laptop during it’s prime) with 4GB RAM, i3 Core 2.47GHz, 200GB HDD.

    I’d like to create and play in a DPK ‘sandbox’ on this laptop. I plan to upgrade RAM to max of 8GB.

    Any recommendations on “best” Linux Distro to run PeopleTools 8.55 and HRMS 9.2 suite ? I should be able to install ELM comfortably, but not necessarily run at the same time.

    Thanks in advance!
    Efrem

    1. If you already have Windows installed, I’d probably just keep that and go with the VirtualBox DPK option. Otherwise Oracle Linux 7.2 should be fine.

  27. What are the licensing restrictions on the VirtualBox images?
    For example, as a developer with an organization that has a PeopleSoft support id/contract, how many copies of the VirtualBox VMs can I have running? I haven’t found any resources on the restrictions:

    Can I run more than one environment on a computer (e.g. 2x FSCM instances for development)
    Can I choose bridged networking in VirtualBox to share my development instance with another developer in the same organization?
    What if I installed the dev instance in an on-premise VM, as a development environment? Is it legal?

  28. First off – Many many thanks these posts are fantastic.
    I have installed Image 21 and got it all up and running but when I try to connect using Change Assistant I get a message saying “Another instance of Change Assistant is already running.” but there isn’t – any ideas as to why it would say that?

  29. During the DPK installation through virtual box, I got an error stating — Starting Peoplesoft Domains – [Failed.]

    The log file shows that a puppet command failed —
    [ERROR] May 27 11:19:12 psft-setup.sh: Puppet apply of pt_profile::pt_domain_boot failed.

    It does mention that after correcting the errors you can directly run the puppet apply command, but I don’t know how to correct this error. Also, I’m not sure where to find the puppet apply command and how to run it.
    Can someone please help me here.

    Regards,
    Prateek

  30. Hi all,

    I am installing PUM image virtualbox on my personal PC, I changed execution policy to RemoteSigned on PowerShell. As soon as I started setup by entering following :

    PS C:\Apps\PUM\HCM-920-UPD-022-OVA_1of15\setup> ./psft-dpk-setup.ps1

    It stopped at following message:

    “Starting the PeopleSoft Environment Setup Process:

    Platform Is not Supported in this Release.”

    I am trying to install it on Windows 10, 6gb memory. I hope this is not an issue.

    Thanks,

    Tina.

    1. Hi Tina

      Move your setup folder up one level to C:\Apps\PUM\setup and re-run psft-dpk-setup.ps1. The “Platform is not supported” error is poorly worded. The bootstrap script is looking for the other .zip files one level up from setup.

      dan

  31. Hi, I need some guidance here please. I have been deploying PUMs native OS for the past year on RHEL and all worked well until the latest HCM 023 release last week. It seems the procedure has changed and I don’t know for sure if anything missing on my end. After I unzip and run the setup bash file, I got this
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “psft_dpk_setup.py”, line 30, in
    from psft_environment_manager import PsftEnvironmentManager
    File “/hcm.9.2.023/setup/scripts/psft_environment_manager.py”, line 32, in
    from psft_environment import PsftEnvironment
    File “/hcm.9.2.023/setup/scripts/platform/psft_environment.py”, line 23, in
    import yaml
    ImportError: No module named yaml

    I installed python yam but then got bunch of other python errors. Has anyone got it working? Thanks

    1. Hi Bo – I’ve been getting the same error when running the Linux NativeOS on the new 8.56-based HR Image 23. Still working on resolving the error as well. If I figure it out I’ll post back here.

      1. thank you Dan. I think I found the issue. The issue was the permission of the python that came with the PUM was not set correctly to be executable so when the script runs, it uses default system’s python and fails. I chmod hcm.9.2.023/setup/python/bin/python and is running now, let see if it will finish (finger cross)

        1. Ok I got really close and it failed at
          Changing the Passwords for the Environment: [FAILED]
          This new image is really really buggy and such a pain. Thanks Oracle!!!

          2017-07-30 21:57:28 -0600 Puppet (debug): DMS run failed: , Execution of ‘su -s /bin/bash – psadm2 -c ” /opt/oracle/psft/pt/ps_home8.56.01/bin/psdmtx /tmp/temp_dms_276.txt “‘ returned 131: 24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Unexpected signal received
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Location: /vob/peopletools/src/pspal/exception_sigaction.cpp:520: RecoverableSignalHandler
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Generating process state report to /home/psadm2/PS_CACHE/LOGS/psdmtx.24163/process_state.txt
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Terminating process now.
          Quit (core dumped)
          2017-07-30 21:57:28 -0600 Puppet (debug): Output of the executed DMS: , Execution of ‘su -s /bin/bash – psadm2 -c ” /opt/oracle/psft/pt/ps_home8.56.01/bin/psdmtx /tmp/temp_dms_276.txt “‘ returned 131: 24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Unexpected signal received
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Location: /vob/peopletools/src/pspal/exception_sigaction.cpp:520: RecoverableSignalHandler
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Generating process state report to /home/psadm2/PS_CACHE/LOGS/psdmtx.24163/process_state.txt
          24163: 1501473446: PSPAL::Abort: Terminating process now.
          Quit (core dumped)
          2017-07-30 21:57:28 -0600 Puppet (err): Could not change the Web Profile – PTWEBSERVER Password. DMS has Failed
          /usr/share/ruby/vendor_ruby/puppet/util/errors.rb:106:in `fail’
          2017-07-30 21:57:28 -0600 /Stage[main]/Pt_profile::Pt_password/Pt_password[HR92U023]/returns (err): change from absent to 0 failed: Could not change the Web Profile – PTWEBSERVER Password. DMS has Failed

  32. Hi,
    Many People have listed this problem but nobody has given the answer . Please help 🙁
    I am not able to complete “Downloading DPK’s into the VM” step ,my computer always goes to blank screen.
    I got 8 GB RAM ,Windows 10 with i3 processor.
    Does anyone know the issue ?
    I can see atleast 4 to 5 people reported this issue but cudnt get the answer

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