Application Maintenance Tips and Tricks for Keeping Your Application Current

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Application Maintenance Tips and Tricks for
Keeping Your Application Current
October 8, 2004 _at_ 930 AM USM Regional PeopleSoft
Conference Cumberland, Maryland
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Session Overview

• This session will cover the following areas
• Tips and tricks for searching customer connection
  for patches and fixes
• Tips and tricks for applying patches and fixes
• Developing a maintenance schedule for applying
  patches and fixes (Financials and HR/SA)
• Introduction to Change Assistant (new to
  PeopleTools 8.44 or higher)

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Searching Customer Connection

• How to Find What Im Looking For?
• Login to customer connection
• Select Updates and Fixes
• Select Apply to Release
• Under Apply to Release
• Enter the following information
• Product Line (ex. Student Administration)
• Product (ex. Academic Advisement)
• Release (ex. - 8 SP1)
• Last Posted (ex. gt 08/01/2004)
• Click Search

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Searching Customer Connection
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Searching Customer Connection
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Searching Customer Connection

• Is there a way to search for patches for the
  entire product????

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Searching Customer Connection

• Yes, there is!
• Remove the prAA from the URL and press Enter

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Searching Customer Connection

• New results

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Documenting Patches and Fixes
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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR

• Before you begin
• Create the ps_home directory structure on your C
  drive
• Example C\TEMP\PATCHES
• Create a copy of the installation document and
  spreadsheet provided by PS with each patch

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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR

• Apply the first patch to DMO and/or SYS
• Copy the source files from the patch to your
  PS_HOME directory under c\temp\patches
• Update your custom installation document
• After applying the first patch to the database
• Select File, Save Project As
• Enter the name of your new custom patch project
  (ex. CSU063004)

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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR
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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR

• Apply the next patch to the database
• Again, copy the source files from the patch to
  your PS_HOME directory under c\temp\patches
• Update your custom installation document
• After applying the second patch, open the custom
  project (CSU063004)
• Merge the second patch into your custom project
• File, Merge Projects
• Enter the patch name and click Insert
• Repeat steps 2 - 4 for each subsequent patch

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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR
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Applying Patches and Fixes HR/SA/CR

• After you have installed all the patches and
  fixes, copy your PS_HOME from the C drive to your
  file, app, and batch (process scheduler) server
  for the database you just updated
• Compile ALL COBOL programs
• Compile INAS programs

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Applying Patches and Fixes - Financials

• PeopleSoft provides Maintenance Packs to keep
  your system current!
• What is a Maintenance Pack?
• A maintenance pack is a quarterly update
  provided by PeopleSoft that includes all updates
  and fixes delivered during a specified timeframe
  for the entire product line.
• Note Maintenance Packs can only be used if
  youve been patching the entire product!

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Maintenance Schedules
HR/SA/CR Base maintenance schedule around
Financial Aid Regs Releases and Tax Updates

• Regs Release Schedule
• Regs 1 November
• Regs 2 January
• Regs 3 April
• Regs 4 June

• Tax Updates
• A January
• B April
• C June
• D August
• E November
• F G? - December

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Maintenance Schedules

• Financials / Supply Chain Management
• Base on delivery dates of maintenance packs
• April
• July
• October
• January

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Change Assistant - Overview

• Delivered with PeopleTools 8.44 and above
• Works in conjunction with the EMF (Environmental
  Management Framework) Hub
• Replaces Upgrade Assistant in PeopleTools 8.46
• What is it?
• From PeopleTools 8.45 PeopleBooks
• Single tool for administrators designed to
  automate the process of installing software
  patches, updates, and upgrades
• Note Information provided from Change Assistant
  is only reliable for the most recent PS
  applications (such as Financials 8.8)

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Summary

• Patches and Fixes - Tips
• Download and document patches and fixes on a
  regular basis
• Recompile ALL COBOL programs
• Recompile ALL INAS (FA) programs
• Run ALL STORExx.DMS scripts
• Patch the entire application (not just the
  licensed modules)
• Plan for at least one PeopleTools upgrade per
  year
• For SA/HR upgrade usually required for Regs
  release for the next aid year
• Develop a maintenance schedule

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STAY CURRENT!Questions?Chris Kennedy
Senior Technical Consultant The Cedar Group
chris.kennedy_at_thecedargroup.com