In PeopleSoft ERP Projects, PeopleSoft Admins have to create several
instances, refresh production to Development and Test Instances. These are not
just database copy there are so many tasks that needs to be completed after the
PeopleSoft database is copied. Starting from Integration Broker configuration,
PTF configuration, SES configuration and several other tasks that needs to be
executed.
In 8.53 new feature Automated Configuration management was released in trail
basis, in 8.54 this feature is full implemented and provided to be use
easily.
What it does basically is to create to automate the configuration of the
PeopleSoft environments with single click of a button. We need to save the
configuration information in a Template, which saved as Template file. Template
just is a collections of the Plug-ins which configure the PeopleSoft
Environment.
Plug-ins take input parameter values and on execute take care of the
configuration and manual configuration is not required. For example, the value
for your Integration Gateway URL, which you would normally add manually on the
Gateways page, can be entered in your template or template file once, and then
retrieved by the automated configuration management framework and inserted into
the database each time you refresh that environment.
You can create the Template for all the related configuration Plug-ins and
execute them as required. It can be executed in the PIA - Application Engine or
it can be executed from the command line.
Now, you may be wondering what is an Plug-ins, these are just Application
Class. For example, to configure IB Gateway nodes, the application
class(plug-in) PTIBConfigureGatewayNodes in the application package PTEM_CONFIG
is used.
There are 18 devlivered plug-ins that are available, these
configurations are mainly available for
1) Integration Broker
2) Search Framework Configuration
3) PTF Configuration
4) Process Scheduler
5) Performance Monitor configuration.
After setting up the basic infrastructure of a PeopleSoft environment,
including database, application server, Process Scheduler server, and PIA
domain, you run the configuration program (either using PIA or command line).
This configuration program reads your environment properties from the template
or template file, and inserts the stored values into the database, saving you
from updating the settings manually each and every time you create or refresh an
environment.
Sensitive data, like passwords, can be encrypted so that
these parameters are not exposed if sharing the property file among multiple
environments and multiple development or testing teams. With simple option of
the encrypt_password = "true" and decrypt_password = 'true'.
There is an option to Verify the configuration using this
framework - Automated Environment Configuration framework verifies the settings.
The parameters provided in the property file are validated against the
corresponding values inserted into the database to ensure they are
identical.
You can monitor the execution of the Template, View the results in the PIA
page, You can review results after execution with icon displaying against each
plugin like Success, Error, Manual Verification.
You can check for the dependency between the Plug-ins.
You assign a value to a template variable which is in-turn used to assign
values for properties in cases where values are recurring in multiple places in
a template or template file.
Extending Plugins and Creating Plugins - Plugins are
Applications Classes and hence it is easy to Extend the features and create new
plugins based on the project requirement.
After you create a template, you must add the template to a permission list.
PeopleTools provides the PTPT4800 specifically for the purpose of automated
configuration.
Use the ACM Templates page to add a template to the PTPT4800 permission
list.If a template is not added to the PTPT4800 permission list, you cannot use
the template for a configuration run.
Use the PTEM_CONFIG application package to create a plug-in. If you need to
use a custom package, ensure that the custom package starts with PTEM_CONFIG.
Write the plug-in class. The new plug-in class must extend from the base class —
PTEM_CONFIG:EMConfigurationPlugin.
Override and implement the four base class methods
1) getProperties
2) dependant_plugins
3) getPluginHelpMessage
4)
isInternalPlugin
Register the Custom Plugin in the following location.
PeopleTools, then selectAutomated Config Manager, then selectACM
Utilities, then select Register Plugin