Maintaining PeopleSoft - Periodic Cleanliness Helps

Actually this applies to any large system whether it be custom or vendor purchased. Generally speaking everyone knows that to keep things manageable they have to perform period maintenance; cleaning out disk space, defragmenting memory, changing parameters for better resource management, etc. Not every organization agrees on when maintenance should occur nor how much should be applied. The usage patterns and business need are the primary factors. Costs and risks involved to running production instances are other factors that have to be considered as well.

There are two major dimensions to any maintenance: the items to be maintained and the timing of the maintenance. A PeopleSoft system has quite a few things to consider:

• Logs. There are many logs ranging from the web server to the application server. All of these logs need to be spooled off or cleaned from running production instances periodically based on how quickly they grow. Simple scripts can handle the work quite well.
• Dumps. These happen. They are very useful at times to analyze problems but when the issues have been resolved these need to be moved from production as quickly as possible to save space. If dumps are not frequent nor of significant size, then they may not be as pressing.
• Temporary files. This happens from time to time as well. It is important to remove any temporary files from reports, XML, errors, or whatever other process is creating them as soon as they are not needed. Also be judicious about the use. They do take up space and processing power that could be better spent in the system.
• Domains. Every so often domains need to be brought down and recycled. While it is true a PeopleSoft application can go on quite a while without bringing them down, the domains will actually degrade over time due to use. Ideally the production architecture has several domains in place with capacity to spare. Cycling through domains at planned intervals is the best way to continue business operations while refreshing domain resources.
• Database. Whether it be Oracle, DB2 or MS Sql Server the databases need their own maintenance as well. Usually adjusting the various parameters for growth and defragmentation. Since PeopleSoft stores both meta-data and application data in the same database just in different structures, the database tends to be the most important area of maintenance. It is also the most frustrating for many companies since the PeopleSoft schema is not necessarily managed by the native database in the sense of being what could be considered compliant. For example the lack of many things such as procedures, triggers, referential integrity, etc. tend to drive DBAs insane. This is because the nature of a PeopleSoft system is to have the application servers perform all that logic. Collaborative efforts between PeopleSoft experts and the DBAs is essential to a healthy production instance.

The timing of maintenance will have been made available via the architecture such as multiple domains and clustered databases coupled with targeting low activity periods within the system. In the end caution around production applications will drive when and how maintenance activities need to occur.

Finding the right amount of maintenance will be based on the amount of activity and growth the system bears over time. High degrees of instability are the most common signs that maintenance activities need to be reviewed in terms of comprehensiveness and timing which can lead to unwanted service issues or even outages. So plan, implement, review and repeat as often as you can. A well maintained production system can last years with no downtime.