: A 3-day seminar that covers a variety of topics that will be of interest to all technicians involved with a PeopleSoft system. Though primarily targeted at Oracle database administrators, much of the material will also be relevant on other database platforms, and to both PeopleSoft developers and other system administrators. The fee for this seminar is £950 excluding VAT.
Overview: A brief historical overview of PeopleSoft and PeopleTools to explain to how we got to where we are.
BEA Tuxedo: PeopleSoft's Application Server Technology: This chapter provides an overview of the parts of Tuxedo that PeopleSoft utilizes. I have always found BEA’s documentation to be impressive and valuable, and this chapter should provide sufficient background for you to start using that documentation.
Database Connectivity: This chapter describes the database schemas that PeopleSoft creates, the privileges granted by the installation scripts, and how those privileges are used by the signon process, and explaining what this reveals about the structure of PeopleSoft databases.
Database Structure: This chapter discusses the function and interrelationship of the Oraclec database and PeopleSoft dictionaries, focusing on how the PeopleTools tables specify the data model to PeopleSoft, and describes how this information is used when PeopleSoft executes.
Keys & Indexes: This chapter discusses the use of keys and indexes in PeopleSoft, and how they translate into indexes and implicit constraints in Oracle (there is an almost total absence of explicit constraints in a PeopleSoft database). In the previous chapter, we looked at how the two data dictionaries are related. Here, we will look at how PeopleSoft uses the 'keys' defined in its data dictionary to generate SQL in the application and to create the indexes in the database to support that SQL.
PeopleSoft DDL: This chapter describes how the Application Designer dynamically builds DDL statements, and in particular where some of the physical attributes are defined and how these models can be enhanced to handle some, but not all, Oracle features. It also covers additional PeopleTools tables that correspond to parts of the Oracle catalogue.
Tablespaces: This chapter looks at the various tablespaces that PeopleSoft creates in an Oracle database and how they are used. Some of the choices that PeopleSoft has made are a little surprising, such as the decision to have many tablespaces for tables but only one for indexes. So, I will also discuss some of the options you have to make life a little easier when managing tablespaces.
Locking, Transactions, Concurrency: This chapter discusses some things that you can't do anything about, but you should be aware of them. Including the methods that PeopleSoft uses to maintain data integrity in a multi-user environment while at the same time avoiding techniques that are specific to a particular database platform.
Performance Metrics: This chapter details the various sources of performance metrics and monitoring facilities within PeopleSoft, specifically online monitoring and metrics, batch metrics, and trace files. Some of these are physical log files, whereas others are stored within the database. While none of them exactly measures the user experience, they are certainly closer to the user than the database. From these, it is possible to obtain better information about how well a particular piece of the technology chain or a particular process is performing.
PeopleTools Performance Utilities: In version 8.4x, PeopleSoft started to instrument PeopleTools Internet Architecture to generate performance metrics. The centrepiece of this effort is the PeopleSoft Performance Monitor. This session will explain all the new instrumentation and demonstrate how to use it.
Optimisation Techniques: This chapter demonstrates how to enable Oracle SQL trace to capture information about the SQL being issued by the application, how to explain how to find where in the application the SQL is defined, and how to determine whether, and to what extent, it is possible to change the code. It does not explain how to optimize SQL statements, nor how and why the various techniques for optimization work (there many Oracle-specific books on that subject).
: This one day seminar is a subset of the three day PeopleSoft for the Oracle DBA course above. It focuses on the role of the BEA Tuxedo Application Server in the PeopleSoft technology stack. How it works, how to monitor it, how to tune it, how it relates to the other tiers. The process scheduler is included because, from the latest release of PeopleTools, it may also be run as a Tuxedo domain. The fee for this seminar is £350 excluding VAT.
Overview: A brief historical overview of PeopleSoft and PeopleTools to explain to how we got to where we are.
BEA Tuxedo: PeopleSoft's Application Server Technology: This chapter provides an overview of the parts of Tuxedo that PeopleSoft utilizes. I have always found BEA’s documentation to be impressive and valuable, and this chapter should provide sufficient background for you to start using that documentation
Configuring the Application Server: This chapter deals with the mechanics of configuring the application server. It explains how the various files are combined and compiled in the Tuxedo configuration file. An understanding of this is necessary before moving on to sizing and configuring the application server for optimal performance, which is discussed in the next chapter. This chapter also discusses the Tuxedo Administration Console, a Java applet shipped by BEA with Tuxedo that permits remote administration and some monitoring of the application server.
Tuning the Application Server: Chapters 2 and 12 discussed the underlying architecture of and how to configure the application server. They provide a basis for this chapter, in which I discuss some of the issues that can affect application server performance, including sizing the domain to have an appropriate number of application server processes, setting operating system kernel parameters, and load balancing.
Process Scheduler: In this chapter, I describe the architecture and configuration of the Process Scheduler, the data that is set up when a process is scheduled to be run by an operator in the PIA. I will also discuss some configuration options and administrative tasks that can prevent the overhead of the Process Schedulers and batch programs from affecting the performance of the whole system.
PeopleSoft Performance Optimisation: This one day seminar is also a subset of the three day PeopleSoft for the Oracle DBA course above. It examines how to obtain performance metrics from the PeopleSoft software, including the new Performance Monitor, and then how to use that information to identify and resolve performance bottlenecks. It goes on to demonstrate how to identify source code, and how to use database tuning techniques in the context of a PeopleSoft system. The fee for this seminar is £350 excluding VAT.
Performance Metrics: This chapter details the various sources of performance metrics and monitoring facilities within PeopleSoft, specifically online monitoring and metrics, batch metrics, and trace files. Some of these are physical log files, whereas others are stored within the database. While none of them exactly measures the user experience, they are certainly closer to the user than the database. From these, it is possible to obtain better information about how well a particular piece of the technology chain or a particular process is performing.
PeopleTools Performance Utilities: In version 8.4x, PeopleSoft started to instrument PeopleTools Internet Architecture to generate performance metrics. The centrepiece of this effort is the PeopleSoft Performance Monitor. This session will explain all the new instrumentation and demonstrate how to use it.
Optimisation Techniques: This chapter demonstrates how to enable Oracle SQL trace to capture information about the SQL being issued by the application, how to explain how to find where in the application the SQL is defined, and how to determine whether, and to what extent, it is possible to change the code. It does not explain how to optimize SQL statements, nor how and why the various techniques for optimization work (there many Oracle-specific books on that subject).