EOneDuniya: A CNC's Journey

Auditing JDE: Column for Scheduler Server Status

2017-06-05T12:52:00.000-04:00

In JDE the scheduler server is identified by the control record in the SYSXXX.F91300 table with a *SCHEDULER value in its SJSCHJBMN column.

The status of the scheduler server, as in, its active or inactive status, is represented in the SJSCHCTCD01 column.

SJSCHCTCD01 has 000 if the scheduler server is down.

It can have the following values if the server is up and running:

111 - neither the job launcher nor the job monitor is paused

011 - the job launcher is paused but the job monitor is not paused

101 - the job launcher is not paused but the job monitor is paused

001 - both the job launcher and the job monitor are paused

Auditing JDE: Correcting Production Data and being Sox Compliant

2016-12-08T13:09:00.006-05:00

To err is human. To update wrong data in the wrong field at the wrong time is the hallmark of every business analyst's career. More often than not the responsibility to correct this data falls on the head of the IT team and for that they need UPDATE ACCESS TO PRODUCTION!

This brings us to the nightmare scenario of a developer who may need update access in production to make updates as and when needed. Even though this scenario is legitimate and the data needs to be updated, a SOX auditor would not agree to the fact that a DEV has update access on production data. To make the auditor happy and maintain his faith in the integrity of your financial data you would need to design a process that not only helps you get the job done, but also keeps you Sox Compliant.

Let's examine one such process:

For this to work perfectly you would need the Help-desk team, the dba team and the application support team.
Let the dba team design a functional account on the database with update access and self expiring password. The account should be such that the password, once generated, should expire in 4 hours
Add all your support team members who may update data in prod to a list which captures responses for few secret questions personalized for each member of the team.
Share this list with help-desk team. They should be trained to challenge the caller with the secret question and tally their response before forwarding their request for password to the dba team.
Once a data issue is identified, the Business Analyst raises a High Priority incident in the Incident Management System.
The Incident gets assigned to the app support team, who then raise an Emergency Preventive Change Order to update the data, citing the Incident that was just created by the Business Analyst.
Once the CO is raised, the app Support team member calls the Help-Desk to get the password for the functional account.
The Help-Desk team co-ordinates with the DBA team to get the password generated and then share the same with the app support team member.
Once the password is generated, the app support team member updates the data that was requested in the INC, closes the INC and closes the CO, leaving the password to expire.
This maintains chain of control over the account being used to make the update and also makes sure the account was used for intended purposes.

This 10 step plan, not only maintains data integrity but also helps document each update , commonly referred to as back-end update to the database.

Auditing JDE: Let's look at the Packages

2016-12-08T13:01:00.001-05:00

I have always stated that auditors need to have a basic understanding of the JDE system before they set about designing their "Test of Design" documents for gathering evidence from a JDE system.

In that light, lets talk about the area of interest: Package information in JDE

Simply put, the below query when run on the database shall give you the information you are looking for as an auditor:

SELECT * FROM SYSXXX.F96215 where UPMJ > '116000'

Let's look at what the query entails. In plain English, the query is looking for data in the table F96215 in the SYSXXX schema of the database where the build date is greater than 1st Jan 2015.

SYSXXX stands for the System schema in a JDE database, XXX denotes the version number of the JDE product in question. For instance, an E812 system will have a System schema named SYS812.A Schema in a database is a specialized area which has a particular type of tables characterized by the type of data they hold. A simple JDE setup will have the following schema in its database which may be of interest to the auditor:

SYS812 - System Schema
SVM812 - Server Map Schema
PRODDTA - Business Data
PRODCTL - Production Control tables

The list provided by the query should have the package names that were built during the past year and it should be fairly simple for the auditor to match the names with those on the list of Change Orders that they collect as evidence of approval for the changes that led to those packages being built.

It's always a good practice as a CNC to put the name of the package built, on the change order that was raised for the change being carried out. This makes it easier for all the parties involved to gather evidence showing only approved changes made their way into the system.

Auditing JDE : Let's look at the Users

2016-12-07T12:21:00.000-05:00

I was recently asked by a peer about F00925 and it's value in JDE audit. The specific question was about a particular column on it and why and when that column populates.

When I answered that question for him, it occurred to me that may be this is something that a lot of auditors and CNC's alike would like to know about.

A typical Test of Design document for JDE talks about getting extracts from the following tables to get to know about the User population of a particular JDE setup:

F0092 - Library Lists - User
F0101 - Address Book
F98OWSEC - One World Security
F00950 - Security WorkBench Table

The general idea is that if you have records in the User profile Table (F0092) and can match it with the Address Book (F0101), you would be able to judge the access a user has based upon the roles in the security work bench (F00950). F98OWSEC, is used to judge whether the user is active, when was the security last updated along with the frequency of password change set in the system.

In theory the above practice would give you enough opportunity to look through any unscrupulous access a system may have provided to any given user or a role. However, JDE is a much more nuanced system to be judged based upon just 4 tables. They may be able to lead you to the particular set of fields in a given table a given user may or may not have access to, but you would not be able to answer what all a given user can see, based upon data in just the above four tables concerned.

For that level of knowledge, you would need to have an idea of the normalized tables in the Address book as well as the Control tables that are involved in the setup of the Address Book. The default Address Book application provides 30 category codes. These codes can be altered via the UDC application to point to various aspects of business, like Profit Centers, Customer type, etc. For all of this to make any sort of sense the following list of tables need to be extracted from the JDE setup:

F00924 - User Install Packages
F00922 - User Display Preferences Tag File
F00921 - User Display Preferences
F0093 - Library List Control
F98OWSEC - One World Security
F00950 - Security Workbench Table
F00925 - User Access Definition
F95921 - Role Relationships Table
F00926 - Anonymous User Access Table
F9005 - Variant Description
F9006 - Variant Detail
F0092 - Library Lists - User
F0005 - User Defined Codes
F0004 - User Defined Code Type

Armed with the above tables you can now determine any nook and corner that a user of interest may have access to in the JDE system. It still will not tell you whether the user gets powers to change statuses of projects etc, buts that's topic for a different blog post :)

Work with Activity Rules

2016-07-26T12:47:00.000-04:00

One of the core feature's of OMW(Object Management Workbench) administration in JDE is the Activity Rules and their setup.

Activity rules govern the type of actions that are feasible for a given status of a project in OMW.

Let's begin with a specific example. My test setup has a status 71 which is used by the developers to denote that the project is ready for production move. This status however does not allow the CNC to do a "get", which is a good practice to ensure the latest code is promoted to production.

So if 71 is prod-ready, the CNC will have to move the code to 65 (QA) to do a get and then send it to 71 and finally send it to 72 (Production).

If the CNC now decides to update the activity rule so that "get" can be done for all the projects in status 71, following are the steps the CNC would have to carry out:

Go to GH9081
P98230
Launch the Activity Rules
Click find
Highlight Status 71
Click Add
On the Project Status Activity Rule screen, put 71 in the From Project Status
Add an entry for the role for which the "get" needs to be enabled
Click OK
Click Find
Double click the new entry for 71 that just got created
Add the Object Types that are needed for Allowed action type 05
Click OK

This enabled get for status 71. Just make sure all the object types are covered in the list for the action that is implemented.

The following SQL should give all the entries in F98225 for our scenario:

SELECT TROMWFPS, TROMWTPS, TROMWUSER, TROMWOT, TRSRCRLS, TRTRGRLS, TROMWSRCLOC, TROMWTRGLOC, TROMWAC, TROMWRLSTK, TROMWACTFLG, TROMWTMS1, TROMWTMS2, TROMWTMN1, TROMWTMN2, TROMWTMN3, TRPID, TRMKEY, TRUSER, TRUPMJ, TRUPMT, TRTIMEZONES, TRDSAVNAME FROM SYSXXX.F98225 WHERE ( TROMWTPS = '71' AND TROMWFPS = '71' ) ORDER BY TROMWOT ASC,TROMWSRCLOC ASC

TAMTOOL: Slow Checkin and Get in OMW

2014-08-11T12:09:00.004-04:00

One of the major issues with OMW use over a period of time, is deteriorating performance of Checkin and get methods.

I have seen systems where the screen almost freezes white when you try to do a Get.

This is caused by empty spaces in the spec files that may come in due to constant add and delete of data. These files can be defragmented using the TAMTOOL.exe to eliminate this crawling checkin and get.

To get an idea of the amount of free space that's there, just run the following from the command prompt :

c:\b7\system\bin32>tamtool -countfreenodes -a -p c:\b7\dv7334\spec\

If there are a lot of free nodes in the spec files, following would eliminate them:

c:\b7\system\bin32> tamtool.exe -clone c:\b7\DV7334\spec\gbrspec.xdb c:\b7\DV7334\spec\gbrspec.ddb c:\b7\DV7334\gbrspec.xdb c:\b7\DV7334\gbrspec.ddb -copydata

This should eliminate the performance issues related to Get and Checkin being slow.

I have only have to do this once in my last 8 years of being a CNC. Only did it on ERP 8. Will update the post when i get a chance to try this on the newer versions.

Object Transfer between Disconnected Instances

2014-08-08T12:41:00.000-04:00

At various occassions we come up with a requirement where we need to send pobjects built on one instance to another instance at a remote location. Product packaging is one way of dealing with it.

Lets try and install objects created in one JDE instance on a separate JDE instance of E812 bypassing the Product Packaging technique.

To make things clear, lets say we have one instance of JDE running at a consulting company in USA. Let their Deployment Server be DEPUSA. They need to send some objects in a project to a client in Canada. The client's deployment server is DEPCANADA and their instance is completely independent of the consulting company's instance. Now lets transfer opjects from USA to CANADA.

I ) On Source JDE Installation:

1.    Make a list of all objects that have to be deployed on Target JDE installation.

2.    Check in all the objects from development workstation to the server.

3.    Go to Menu GH9083 (Package Development Tools), take option “Package Assembly” (P9601) and follow the Director. Select all the objects that are to be deployed on   target machine. Make sure that the following instructions are followed while package assembly :
a)    Package type should be an ‘Update Package’.
d)    Parent package should be a ‘Full Package’.
c)    Check the option ‘Include Object specification’.
d)    The ‘Path code’ and ‘Parent Package’, which you are specifying, should      exist on target JDE.
e)    Activate the Update Package before taking the Define Build option.

5. Take Option Package Build (P9621) and follow the Director. Select the package that you have assembled in the above steps to be built as above and make sure that the package is built for Client Workstation only. Check in Build Specifications options. If you have a Business Function in your Package, check in Build Function Option.

6. Activate the Package and submit the Package for Build Process .

7.    Verify the report generated after Build Process is completed .If any errors are reported take option Package Build History (P9622) and verify the Logs, Status of the Package. Then take option Submit Rebuild from this screen if any errors are reported for that Package. Make sure that the Package and All Objects of the Package are built successfully.

8    The Package build process creates PackageName.INF file in the directory \\Servername\E812\PACKAGE_INF (Ex: \\DEPUSA\E812\PACKAGE_INF) and also a PackageName Directory in \\Servername\E812\Pathcode\PACKAGE directory (Ex: \\DEPUSA\E812\ProdE812\PACKAGE)

9. Copy the above PackageName.INF file and PackageName directory on a CD or any other portable media. This is now ready to transfer to the Target JDE Installation.

II) On Target JDE Installation

1    Go to Menu GH9083 (Package Development Tools), take option “Package Assembly” (P9601) and follow the Director similar as you did in STEP-I .Do not select any Objects for the Package to build i.e., Assemble an empty Update Package with the same name as given in STEP-I . The Path code, Parent Package should be the same as given in while assembling an Update package on source JDE installation.

2.    Activate the assembled Package before taking the Define Build option.

3    Take Option Package Build (P9621) and follow the Director. Select the package that you have assembled in the above steps to be built as above and make sure that the package is built for Client Workstation only.

4.   Activate the package before taking the Define Build option

5.    Check the report for any errors. Ensure that the package is built successfully.

6.    Similar to STEP-I the Package build process creates PackageName.INF file in the directory \\Servername\E812\PACKAGE_INF and also a PackageName Directory in \\Servername\E812\Pathcode\PACKAGE directory .

7.    Replace the PackageName.INF and PackageName directory created in this step with those created in earlier step.

8.    Now open the file PackageName.INF in edit mode and change the source Severname wherever you find in the file to the target Servername.

9.    Now select a development workstation in the network and create OL entries for all the new objects, which you are going to deploy. If the objects are existing objects checkout the objects to the workstation.

10.    Deploy the Package to the development workstation.

11.    Open all the objects in the design mode, check whether the specifications are transferred are not. Compile all the objects and check in the objects in to the server.

Done! Your objects have reached the target server :)

Sheduler Mantras

2014-08-07T17:35:00.001-04:00

One of the most requested items on my Help me! form is SCHEDULER. I have more than a couple of hundred responses asking me to post more on scheduler. Since i did not get any concrete questions, here are a few common questions my buddies have had for me in the past:

Q1) Why is the number of scheduler records different in F91300 and F91320?

Ans: In one word the answers is, recurrence. When we set recurrence on a job its updated in F91300 but the date-time run records that get created for that particular job are placed in F91320. So for every job with recurrence we see multiple records in F91320.

Q2) How do I know when a particular job expires?

Ans: Look at SJSCHENTIME in F91300. If it looks incorrect, that's because it is in UTC format and needs to be converted. If you need a detailed post on converting this and putting it into an excel. Shannon has this on his blog here.

Q3) Password update for User jobs on scheduler. Do we change each and every job that's been scheduled under a particular ID?

Ans: If you are not running version 8.12, the answer is an unfortunate Yes. You will indeed need to go to each job that runs under the user's id and change the password. For 8.12 and above, there's a way to update the password automatically provided the correct ESU's are in place. For 8.12 you will need to have JK22431 installed and for 9.0 you will need to have JL11051 installed.

I have always used functional accounts for specific jobs. This still brings in password changes every 90 days but at least the user id's remain consistent.

If you get a hand of F91300 and F91320, JDE scheduler is one of the easiest schedulers to manage. To understand how it works you need to know the JDE.INI settings which govern the scheduler and just these couple of tables. Happy Scheduling!

JDE Scheduler: Delete Jobs

2013-01-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

One of the most common questions asked in JDE forums is why can't we delete jobs from the JDE Scheduler? There is a delete button out there that only throws an error message when pressed!

Well things are not always as simple as they look. And if they were, we poor CNC blokes would have appeared less crazy than we do :)

Here's what actually happens. Each Scheduler job has two records that are stored in the header (F91300) and the details (F91320) tables. So when you try and delete a job from the header, you run the risk of leaving a detail records that has no header and can never be launched. So JDE prevents this from happening by throwing the error message that you get, when you try and delete a Scheduled job from the P91300 application directly.

The correct way to delete these jobs is to run R91300B and then delete the records using P91300. R91300B does not clear the header to leave the audit trail. If you want to clear them, feel free to clear using the application.

JDE Package Build: Pro Tip

2012-06-07T11:31:00.000-04:00

Build your Production Full Packages on QA or Dev Enterprise Server ------- Yes you read that right! And no I am not smoking anything suspicious.

Seriously, there are more than one benefits of doing this. Before I actually go ahead and enlist the benefits, lets take a look as to how we can set this up. You now know that all you need to do for JDE system to recognize a server or machine is to update in a certain table somewhere. This will be no different! Lets see what all tables we need out here.

When we assemble a package , we select the server we want to build the package on based on the entries in F98611 (DataSource Master) Table. So that's where we need to change. Now, we have two DataSource Master Tables, one in the Server Map and one in the System data source. Here we will do the changes in F98611 in the System DataSource because thats where my System looks into for the server info.

If you have the same "SYSXXX" the entry for all your enterprise servers should already exist there and you will not need to configure anything separately. But if your SYSXXX for production is separate you will need to insert the QA server name in the table. This is what you will need to insert in the SYSXXX.F98611 table:

insert into sysXXX.f98611
select omenhv, 'NEWSERVERNAME' omdatp, 'newservername' omsrvr, omdatb, omoown, omdllname, omll, omlib, omomui, omomto, omomds, omomjd, omomcc, omdstp, ompid, omdatuse, omuser, omocm1, omjobn, omocm2, omupmj, omocm3, omupmt, omocma, omocmb, omocmc, omocmdsc from sysXXX.f98611
where omdatp ='NEWSERVERNAME' and omsrvr = 'newservername'

Insert, commit and restart your EOne services for the changes to take effect. Unless you restart the services the entry will not show up on the Server Selection Screen in the Package Assembly application. No points guessing why we need to bounce the services for the entry to show up in that table: Its a bootstrap table.

Now you can select your QA server when you are building a PD full package and the build happily runs on the QA Enterprise server. Yaay!

But wait! What happens after the build completes. You can not deploy a package built on the QA server onto the PD enterprise server, Can you?

Of course, not!! But there is something else we can do. Go onto your Deployment server, under the PACKAGE\packagename dir you will have a folder by the name of the Operating system of your PD enterprise server. Inside this you will have a "enterpriseservername.inf" file. Go ahead and open it.

It will look somewhat like this:

[SERVER PACKAGE]
PackageName=PD7334FQ
Type=FULL
Platform=SUN5.10Generic_139555-08
BuildMachine=qaentsrvr
BuildPort=6010
SPEC=1
SpecList=0 , 1 , 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 2 ,
BSFN=1
CAEC=1
CALLBSFN=1
CBUSPART=1
CCONVERT=1

You will need to update the name of the file to "pdentservr.INF" and change the BuidMachine to pdentsrvr. Save and exit.
There may be a case where you are running two different versions of OS on you enterprise servers. If that be the case, you will need to update the Platform accordingly. SSH into your PD enterprise server and run "uname - a " to get the OS name and just update it in the inf. This takes care of the client part of the build. Fun is at the server part.

For a package to be deployed the package has to exist in the /jdedwardsoneworld/exxx/packages dir of your enterprise server. Now, that we have build the package on the QA Enterprise server we need to send it over to this dir on the PD Enterprise Server. Make sure you have "sftp" enabled between the two servers and libraries for "tar" utility are installed on both of them. Here's how you transfer your package beween QA and PD Enterprise servers:

ssh into your qa ent server
go into the /apps/jdedwardsoneworl/packages dir using cd command
run this tar -cvf temppkg pdpackagename
this creates a zip file called temppkg for your full package "pdpackagename"
sftp pdentsrvr
login with your passwd... its mandatory that you have the same userid owning all the jde files and folders on the two servers.
go into the /apps/jdedwardsoneworl/packages dir using cd command
run this ... put temppkg
Once the copy completes login to your pd ent server
go into the /apps/jdedwardsoneworl/packages dir using cd command
run this... tar -xvf temppkg
Voila .... you have your pdpackagename dir in the /apps/jdedwardsoneworl/packages dir

Now your pd package is ready for deployment. Oh my goodness!! So much effort just for Package build and deployment!!

Well, a lot of this is just one time setup.And it sure has a lot of advantages. Its time we see what they actually are. Here you go:

You can run a PD build during business hours. No night outs!!<Happy CNC>
Ube's running on the PD ent server will not affect the speed of build. <Happy CNC>
Scheduler server can continue to run while the build is ON and you can just stop it when you want to deploy the package <Happy Suits>
Your setup complies to the SOX control which abolishes installation of compilers on Production machines. <Happy Suits>

So two reasons to get a Happy CNC and two for the Suits, I say there can never be a more Win Win in a single act!!

Jokes apart, compilers on production servers are indeed frowned upon in the SOX parlance and there exists a way where we can avoid this completely in JDE. This also helps if you need to trouble shoot a build for anyreason, it can be done whenever needed with no affect to the business whatsoever.

I know this has become one long post and you may have questions about the approach. Well that's why whe have the comment section there. Feel free to ask away....

Jd Edwards by Donatienne Ruby, Christabel [Paperback]

Find us on Google+

Enterprise Server Migration: UNIX

2012-06-06T15:41:00.000-04:00

In my opinion after Package builds, Server Migrations are the real staple food for a JDEdwards CNC consultant. The constant changes in OS technologies and the ever expiring hardware support contracts ensure that we do at least a couple of such migrations in a financial year. If your setup is configured for high availability then you get to do it more often than you would like.

I still remember as a young trainee getting a grasp of this was a nightmare. I have an unexplained fear of the Typical Installation Plan (P98240) application and the white space that it shows. Grids do not scare me as much as that particular white space. All the mumbling rumblings of creating and add on plan, adding the new enterprise server and then removing the old one went over my head in those days as a trainee. But I did one thing well, nodded my head as though I understood every last word of my trainer and sailed through the training. I am more of a guy who knows that if he is drowning he can swim but just wont do it for leisure in a swimming pool. I got to have the waves to challenge me.

Finally when I got to do my first real Unix Enterprise Server Migration at a client's place i dug deep. I dug so deep that I landed at the tables that govern them all. It all started making sense and i have done 9 such migrations this far. Lets talk about the tables that we should be looking at:

SYSXXX.F98611 : DataSource Master Table
SYSXXX.F986101: Object Configuration Master Table
SYSXXX.F91300: Schedule Job Master Table
SYSXXX.F9650: Machine Master Table
SYSXXX.F9651: Machine Detail Table
SVMXXX.F98611: Data Source Master (Server Map DataSource)
SVMXXX.F986101: Object Configuration Master (Server Map DataSource)

Here SYSXXX stands for the Sys schema in the database that has all the tables that fall under the "System - ProductVersion " data source. For instance System - 812 will have a SYS812 schema and System - B7334 will have a SYS7334 schema. Similarly there will be a SVM7334 schema for 'EnterpriseServerName - B7334 Server Map" data source.

If you just change the old server name to new server name in the above tables your migration is half done. Here's a sample Update query that can be run to update the same in say SYSXXX.F98611.

Update SYSXXX.F98611 set omsrvr = 'newserver' where omsrvr = 'oldserver';

All you need to do is get the old server name and replace it with the new one, matching case to case.To get the entire list of updates that you should make, you can just go to the tables I specified and pick the values that you need to change. Once you get all the values it should be fairly easy chalking all the update statements out. Be very careful with the case of the name, specially in Unix

The next step is fairly simple. Once you get the new server ready, make sure you have "rsync" command working on the new server. Make sure you have the same user id configured on this new box. Once you are able to login to the new box with the same id, follow the following steps.

Copy and paste your .profile from the old server to the new server
Make sure you can reach your database from the new server. If you have NAS mounts for the database clients make sure they are connecting properly
Check the "cc" libraries if they are consistent with those on the old server. Make sure the version is in the MTR.
Run "Rsync" to sync up the base "\jdedwardsoneworld" directory on the new server with the old server. Here's the syntax of typical rsync run: rsync -avz --rsync-path=/usr/local/bin/rsync /apps/jdedwardsoneworld/* jdeuser@newservername:/apps/jdedwardsoneworld
Update the JDE.INI to reflect the newservername as the security server. Do this step only if you know that the old server was a security server.
Run ./RunOneWorld.sh and you should be delighted and dancing by now.
Before you get too excited run the porttest and check the output.

So this is how I do my Server Migrations. I find it fairly easy to control and it keeps me away from the Installation Plan. Rather than executing something which I don't know the details of I am much more comfortable changing value and controlling my destiny!!

Configure JDE Development on Citrix

2012-05-08T15:02:00.001-04:00

The Citrix platform provides an easy base for setting up development machines to support development in JDE from offshore. The fundamental logic behind setting development on Citrix is that all the users/developers accessing the environment will have a independent Pathcode created.

Since the default directory for a user resides under C:\Documents and Settings there is a need of changing the default user path. Incase of a shared citrix server it becomes mandatory that a new variable be defined at the system level which can then be used to define the default user path. In the script below the variable
%userpath% is the system variable which maps the user to D:\Users. This is also a good practice because the citrix login will copy the Pathcode over for each user hence mapping it to D: drive will save a lot of space on the System drive C:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@echo off
net use J: /del.
net use J: \\deploymentserver\b7334
if exist %userpath%\%username%\b7\system\bin32\activConsole.exe goto startow
mkdir %userpath%\%username%
@echo Copying standard OneWorld Development Client to your profile...
@echo Please be patient - this takes up to 20 minutes and only occurs
@echo on the first use.....
mkdir %userpath%\%username%\b7
echo Copying authorization files.....
xcopy d:\b7\*.* %userpath%\%username%\b7\*.* /s /e /d /h /y
:startow
copy c:\windows\jde.ini %userpath%\%username%\windows\jde.ini /Y
@echo Starting Oneworld....
start %userpath%\%username%\b7\system\bin32\activConsole.exe
:end
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Save the script as ExecuteJde.bat and publish it via Citrix. The first time a developer executes it from the farm, it creates a B7 dir for the dev's login it under D:\Users and that becomes the patch code the dev uses every time he logs in.

In case of full package builds, just make sure all the local packages are deleted before the full package is installed on the system.

It is preferred that the users have a local profile as opposed to the roaming profile.

Sizing: JAS performance and DOM

2012-03-06T19:29:00.000-05:00

Client work stations play a huge role in the performance benchmarking of any JAS architecture! This statement befuddles many people who view JAS as a sole entity entirely dependent upon the web server and the available bandwidth for performance. If type of processor on the client machine is mentioned in the recommendations list, there's a reason for it !!

Document object Model or DOM has a huge role to play in the working of EnterpriseOne JAS. DOM is a set of conventions for interacting with the objects in the HTML, XHTML or XML documents. DOM presents HTML document as a tree structure. Objects in this tree can be accessed and manipulated using methods on them as specified in the DOM APIs.

Now, EnterpriseOne heavily relied on DOM objects for its functioning. The grids, for example, are stored as DOM elements on the client PC. These elements are processed and rendered by Java Script running on this client PC. So the entire time required to fetch data into a grid is spent on the local machine in processing these DOM elements rather than on the Web Server. Clearly larger the number of columns in the grid larger will be the number of DOM elements and hence greater will be the time to fetch, So now, if the grid columns are fixed and the database type is constant, its clear that a dual core pc will take far less time as opposed to a single core one in fetching records in a grid.

This is the main reason of recommending a level of hardware architecture for the local workstations when sizing for a new EOne implementation.

TAM Spec and XML Spec : Musings

2012-02-14T14:37:00.001-05:00

Spec is short for Specification, which together with the C components form the Central Objects in EnterpriseOne.

Format in which spec is stored saw a change after E1 8.12. Pre 8.12, specs were stored in the TAM format and now we have the XML format.

TAM or Table Access Management was a proprietary format of storing the details of the object specifications. The package build process would build separate TAM files for each central object table (.ddb and.xdb files). This will then have to be generated using enegerator on dedicated machines to get the java code that ran on the html server.

Once XML specs were introduced from e1 8.12 onwards, these specs could be generated 'On Demand' by the web server. The specs got stored in databases instead of TAM files. The build now creates a DBMS table for each spec file. For the client packages these tables get stored in the local databases on the Deployment server and the client workstation whereas for the server packages they get stored in the relational database of the E1 system.

One specialty of these spec tables is that they do not belong to the OL datasources and hence can not be queried from the E1 side. They can however be viewed by using the utilities like the Enterprise manager from the DB side.

With the change in spec types a new feature that came in is that now the client spec and server spec are identical in the system. Previously FDASPEC, FDATEXT and SMTTMPL did not use to get copied to the enterprise server during the package build but now they are.

Here's hoping some doubts about the two buzz words in E1 got clarified for readers of EOneDuniya!

What's up with Vi

2011-11-16T16:56:00.001-05:00

Continuing with my last few posts on basics of Unix world that a CNC needs from time to time, today I chose to talk about the Vi editor. Its one of the most powerful editors on the console and certainly must know aspect of CNC administration.

Here are the few commands i know and have used over the years in Vi extensively. If you don't get it straight away just practice with patience and you will be rolling in no time

If you do not want to go the full path straight away just concentrate on the "basicest" operations of creating, navigating , inserting and deleting in a Vi editor and you will be good for a while!! :)

General Startup
To use vi: vi filename
To exit vi and save changes: ZZ or :wq
To exit vi without saving changes: :q!
To enter vi command mode: [esc]

Counts
A number preceding any vi command tells vi to repeat
that command that many times.

Cursor Movement

h       move left (backspace)

j       move down

k       move up

l       move right (spacebar)

[return]   move to the beginning of the next line

$       last column on the current line

0       move cursor to the first column on the
current line

^       move cursor to first nonblank column on the
current line

w       move to the beginning of the next word or
punctuation mark

W       move past the next space

b       move to the beginning of the previous word
or punctuation mark

B       move to the beginning of the previous word,
ignores punctuation

        e       end of next word or punctuation mark

        E       end of next word, ignoring punctuation

        H       move cursor to the top of the screen

        M       move cursor to the middle of the screen

        L       move cursor to the bottom of the screen

Screen Movement

       G        move to the last line in the file

       xG       move to line x

       z+       move current line to top of screen

       z        move current line to the middle of screen

       z-       move current line to the bottom of screen

       ^F       move forward one screen

       ^B       move backward one line

       ^D       move forward one half screen

       ^U       move backward one half screen

       ^R       redraw screen
( does not work with VT100 type terminals )

       ^L       redraw screen
( does not work with Televideo terminals )

Inserting

       r        replace character under cursor with next
character typed

       R        keep replacing character until [esc] is hit

       i        insert before cursor

       a        append after cursor

       A        append at end of line

       O        open line above cursor and enter append mode

Deleting

x       delete character under cursor

dd      delete line under cursor

        dw      delete word under cursor

        db      delete word before cursor

Copying Code

yy (yank)'copies' line which may then be put by
the p(put) command. Precede with a count for
multiple lines.

Put Command
        brings back previous deletion or yank of lines,
words, or characters

        P       bring back before cursor

        p       bring back after cursor

Find Commands

?       finds a word going backwards

/       finds a word going forwards

        f       finds a character on the line under the
cursor going forward

        F       finds a character on the line under the
cursor going backwards

        t       find a character on the current line going
forward and stop one character before it

T       find a character on the current line going
backward and stop one character before it

; repeat last f, F, t, T

Miscellaneous Commands

. repeat last command

u undoes last command issued

U undoes all commands on one line

xp deletes first character and inserts after
second (swap)

J join current line with the next line

^G display current line number

% if at one parenthesis, will jump to its mate

mx mark current line with character x

'x find line marked with character x

NOTE: Marks are internal and not written to the file.

Line Editor Mode
Any commands form the line editor ex can be issued
upon entering line mode.

To enter: type ':'

To exit: press[return] or [esc]

ex Commands
For a complete list consult the
UNIX Programmer's Manual

READING FILES
copies (reads) filename after cursor in file
currently editing

:r filename

WRITE FILE

:w saves the current file without quitting

MOVING

:# move to line #

:$ move to last line of file

Lets talk .profile

2011-11-10T16:16:00.001-05:00

The .profile file in a Unix environment is a "know all" file. It resides under the /home/<userid> dir of the os and it's the first one to be executed whenever that particular user logs in. This is the file that creates the environment for the user and has all the shell options and environment variables defined.

Before we go into how JDE uses this file and why is it important for it, lets see what all it has first:

First and foremost comes PATH:

As the name suggests this is where the path to the dirs of the installed software go. Lets suppose we have a Unix user account MaxPayne. If MaxPayne has all the paths to the software or commands he uses defined in the .profile , he can run those command from anywhere once he logs in to the Unix shell.

Then comes the Editor.

More often than not, when we talk about default shell its the BASH shell and MaxPayne is no different. His shell is bash too and his .profile has Vi as an editor. Vi Editor is one of the most powerful command line editors that we have. Refer my post for the details about using Vi. If you need to change your editor all you need to do is specify it here in the .profile. For the record MaxPayne loves Vi.

Now we see PS1

PS1 defines what the command prompt looks like in the shell. Typically you will find the server name at the command prompt. But MaxPayne is smarter, he has included the $PWD in the PS1 definition so that he can see which dir he is in without ever needing to run pswd again!!

Last common entry is the Alias

Aliases are used to rename some commonly used commands. For example alias dir=ls will help a confused windows user to get the directory information he needs. Aliasing dir with ls tell the unix system to run ls every time MaxPayne types dir.

All the above are default entries in the .profile of any user. When it comes to a JDE Enterprise server what we see are the Oracle homes and the oneworld homes defined in the .profile. When the platform pack is run in the system it creates a .oneworld file in the user dir. This file tells the jde processes where all the JDE files are. We load this .oneworld in the .profile of the JDE file owner. Unless this is done services will not be able to start. So now when you see load libraries failing or path related issues coming up on restart, you know where to check. Majority of the times a corrupted .profile is the source of this.

This in brief is what .profile means to the JDE CNC. If you need any help configuring yours feel free to drop me a comment.

Let’s Mount …..

2011-11-09T12:41:00.000-05:00

When i was introduced t0 JDE the first and foremost thing that motivated me to go for becoming a CNC expert was that it gave me opportunity to work on UNIX. Its beyond doubt one of the most formidable platforms for any business and i was a lover since my early college days :)

One of the biggest differentiating factors in Unix is its file system handling. People coming from the Windows world find it difficult to understand that the file storage has nothing to do with the drives they see in the explorer but is actually a mounted space allocated from the memory available. Its this “mounting” that makes any file system available for storage.

Syntax for Mount command is as follows:

$ mount /dev/hda3 /home

This command will “load” the resource or filesystem in disk drive hda3 into the local /home and then /home will have the memory on hda3 for use.

The best part of Mount is that you can not only mount hard drives connected to your server but use ones that are connected to the network as well. This is what is meant when some one says “the db client is a NAS mount”!!

Remember that there is no registry to be maintained in Unix and we don’t necessarily have to install an application on a particular machine to use it. It’s all about the Environment Variable and the file locations. So if you have an executable and the right parameters set for it in the environment variable, the executable knows how to take care of itself. It knows exactly where to look for the files it needs to execute.

Now when anyone says that the “db client is a NAS mount”, you can figure out that the DB client is installed on a different machine in the network and that particular drive is mounted in your Enterprise server and the Environment variables on your JDE Enterprise Server are set such that your server knows where to look for the DB client files when its trying to connect to the DB. As far as both the servers concerned are in the same domain and can reach each other in quick time, this works seamlessly.

The biggest advantage that this brings is maintenance of the supporting Applications. If the company has several hundreds of databases this architecture helps the DB support group to maintain all the db’s on their own servers and all the app teams can just mount the locations. Patching and maintenance is spared of the fragmentation and the upgrades can be handled much more efficiently.

If you want to check all the mount points that are currently there on your server execute the following command: more /etc/auto_direct

Have fun!!

Let me know if the post gives you a little bit of an insight on Mount as a UNIX feature. You can always check the man pages for details about any UNIX command. My intention over here was to drive away the initial fear of “what’s this!!” from anyone who is new to the world of Unix & CNC admin.

JDE CNC Interview Questions

2011-11-09T12:34:00.001-05:00

If you landed up on this page searching for “JDE CNC interview questions”, you are at the right place. Read along to find what they ask, what they intend to ask, what they thought they were asking, what they cannot ask and how you should answer, what you should say in case you can’t answer or should you at all be interviewing for a CNC job and yes, you can thank me later.

The first thing that you should do is to stop searching for the interview questions and believe in the fact that there is no shortcut available to portray yourself as an excellent CNC. It’s not a set of instructions that you should know or a bunch of APIs you should know how to call and refer back to. It’s not the “do one time and forget it was ever coded” type of a job. You just cannot read a few pages and get into a CNC’s pinching shoes. No you can’t!!

CNC is a fire fight. It’s a trek through thorny bushes with a low quality slipper on in half pants on a dark night, may I add, without a torch. No, I am not over exaggerating a wee bit. Tell me if you can wake up in the wee hours of the night after you have had a three quarters of a large pizza and a couple of beer bottles to trouble shoot a failed package build or a hung UBE. Or get interrupted on a date for a question regarding why a UBE runs slow from citrix but fast from office. I don’t see any one nodding in affirmation. Yes, this is just a glimpse of a CNC’s work.

A CNC’s job requires a different attitude and a keen eye. It needs a person who loves technology to the extreme and is not bothered to hear complaints about it day in and day out. In fact, any complaints regarding a system to him, is an opportunity to sell an upgrade, a need to get more people involved. A CNC has to be a social butterfly and should be able to convince anybody and everybody that he is in control even in face of a catastrophe. He should know the system inside out rather than outside inwards.

So if you are asked to tell about package build, don’t act like it’s just a job that the dumb guy does at a developer’s command every now and then in your project. Rather be prepared with what’s an err file and how and when does the sts gets created. Know your F91300 when talking about schedulers and remember to talk about platform independence when trying to explain what’s so special about JDEdwards. If you are among the ones who cannot tell what’s the security type of a JDEdwards setup when the security server is not running, CNC is not for you. You just cannot handle the curve balls a CNC job throws at you if you have a unidirectional knowledge. Rather than looking for specific questions and answers invest your time in learning the system more. Learn to appreciate the technology within. Once you have enough respect for the system, you can go for any interview that a CNC job asks for. You will be ready for it.

Please remember that the views expressed are solely my own and I do not guarantee any success. But yes at least if you read this before posting for the quintessential “JDE CNC interview questions” in any JDEdwards forum, it will surely save you from some blushes.

If any CNC gurus land up here, please feel free to leave me a comment. And help me describe the job we all love (no I am not being sarcastic) with better examples than mine.

To all the budding CNC’s , good luck !!

Julian Date and its sql conversion..

2011-11-09T12:30:00.000-05:00

Time and again we pull up UPMJs from the tables via backend and need to convert the date that gets pulled into Gregorian. Following query when appended to any date column in a jde table will give the Gregorian date for the corresponding Julian:

TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(XXXXXX+1900000,’YYYYDDD’),’MM-DD-YYYY’)

Notes:
- where XXXXXX is the column name to convert.
- this only works on 19th century onwards.

If you are more comfortable with XLS following are the two conversion formulae that will help:

=DATE(IF(0+(LEFT(A1,2))<30,2000,1900)+MID(A1,2,2),1,RIGHT(A1,3)) where A1 is your date in Julian

="1"&RIGHT(YEAR(A1),2)&TEXT(A1-DATE(YEAR(A1),1,0),"000") where A1 is your date in gregorian.

Firefox Sync… a real make-life-easy feature..

2011-11-09T12:29:00.001-05:00

Ohh yess.. this feature of Firefox deserves a real good shout out and is in every way remarkable for people who keep changing PC.. read.. keep getting forced to change PC’s. Its the next level to exporting-importing bookmarks … its Syncing your entire Internet ecosystem with your hand held device such that you can sync it with any other device you need to use Firefox on.

If you use Firefox 3.6.* you need to get the “Firefox Sync” Add-on installed to begin using this feature or if you use Firefox 4 beta its there by default. Sync not only moves the book marks between systems but also the stored passwords as well as the cookies. When you install the add-on it asks you to register and then enter a pass phrase for encrypting your data. Once done, all your bookmarks along with the passwords and the cookies are transferred to the Firefox server in an encrypted format. The beauty of the system is that even if you forget the pass phrase used, it stores the encrypted key on your system and it can be used anytime you are trying to sync another device.

The next step is to install the iPhone app Firefox Home and sign in with the user id created for Sync. Once through, all the data is then available on your phone and ready to be synced with any other PC you need to use Firefox on.

There is currently no app for the Android platform because Mozilla is working on Fennec, the complete firefox explorer for android. So there is Hope

Sp24 Special Dep Server Config..

2011-11-09T12:28:00.001-05:00

In line with my last post on SP upgrade on Unix machines, here’s a bit on the special configuration that comes with SP24. Its only needed if you have Vista or Win7 client machines. A few changes have been made to the files being placed under the C: and C:\Windows directories. Since both vista and win 7 restrict programs from accessing these DIR hence JDE has developed symbolic links. Now these Symbolic links are created by the new E1InstallService which needs to be configured on the Dep Server. After building the full package post-SP-upgrade, just before you are about to install a Vista 0r a Win 7 client follow the following steps to enable this service:

1. In the Install.inf on the Dep Server add the following line: OracleE1InstallService={DEP_SERVER_PATH}\E1ServiceInstallation,Setup.exe,/s

2. Create a OracleE1InstallService_silent_setup.inf under E1InstallService folder with the following lines

[SILENT SETUP]
WorkstationDirPath = [your path under c:\Programfiles]
InstallPath=c:\
LaunchPath= {DEP_SERVER_PATH}\OWCinstall\setup.exe
AutoStart = 1

3. Add your user groups under the [E1GlobalGroup] section of the install.inf. Not doing so will result in a dialog box being thrown to alleviate user privs when the user tries to log in a win7 fat client.

4. Now you are all set to install a fat client on a vista or a win 7 client with sp 24.

Foot Note: To check the current version of the Service pack running on your system, go to System\bin32 dir on the deployment server find jdekrnl.dll , right click on it , go to properties and check File Version under the Properties tab.

DataSource Master and WSJ …

2011-11-09T12:27:00.001-05:00

One of the most used app in JDE is WSJ or Work with Submitted Jobs or P986116. Irrespective of our roles in JDE we use this app to check for the job statuses that run on the servers. This is one of the trickiest things to configure when you have a split system and are going through a migration which involves changes in the hostnames of the parent servers. Lets have a sneek peek of what goes on behind the scene when WSJ is executed from a client pc.

1. P986116 gets executed and it lists the Data Sources from F98611 (Data Source Master).

2. When you hit on Find on P986116 the app queries the System.F98611 for all the Server type (SVR) data sources which are then returned on the grid.

3. Now once the data source is selected, the system sets the OMSRVR from the F98611 record as the hostname to be serached in SVM.F986110.

4. Status of the jobs are written in the SVM Job Control Status Master (F986110).

5. System then queries SVM.F986110 pulling up records for which the hostname matches the SVR of the DataSource picked.

If a Unix migration is being attempted care must be taken that the hostname of the machine matches the exact case of the OMSRVR field in F98611. In case of systems with muliple Enterprise servers the SYS.F98611 becomes the spine of everything working together. If there are multiple SYS’s then all of them need to be updated such that a user can query status of his job across the environments. Unless the SYS.F98611 are properly updated the DataSource changes will not show up and users will not be able to check job statuses of say, a job running in PD while he is logged in to QA.

JDE Service Pack upgrade for Unix Systems

2011-11-09T12:26:00.001-05:00

One of the most common type of projects in JDE is SP upgrade of an instance. Deployment Servers being windows machines are the easiest ones to Upgrade. And if you are on XE or Erp8.0 You just need to get the latest ESUs from the Change assistant and get started. For SO upgrade backup the OneWorldClientInstall, System and SystemComp folders , execute the Setup.exe of the SP , check the ptf.log and voila your SP upgrade of the Dep Server is done.

The real test of skill lies in the upgrade of a unix ent server and this is what i will enlist step by step in this post.Lets start from the download.

1. Download the correct SP file from Update Center. I recommend using the latest Change Assistant to get these. Select Type-> EnterpriseOne Tools Release, Release -> either 8.9x or Xe as the case may be with you , Platform -> SUN (based upon the Ent server OS you have) and if you know the version same of the SP you are searching for , you can shorten the result by typing a wild card in the Name filed.

2. In the list of SP’s shown select the latest version that it shows. As a rule of thumb I typically wait for *.1.1 and higher versions to appear. For instance if i am about to do an SP24 upgrade I will today be downloading SP24.1.3. If you are adventurous please feel free to download *.0.0 (specially recommended for POC’s , believe me they give a stupendous learning experience).

3. After you have saved your downloaded Par file for the upgrade. Open it with Winzip oor Winrar or any other unzipper and extract the files.

4. The file contains a system.Z file for the ENT server. Now the next step is to send it over to the ENT server. There are multiple ways to achieve this. If you site allows WinSCP install. Just install it connect to your ENT server, create a temp file on the server and drag and drop this system.z from the local machine onto the dir you just created on the ENT server. To avoid unseen data loss try and configure winscp to transmit in binary mode. Now if winscp isnt possible and you dont have hummingbird as well just remember that everysite allows an FTP connection between the deployment server to the ent server. Make sure that ftp services are enabled on the DEP server IIS and sent it to the ENT server using ftp.

5. Now once the file has been sent over to the ENT server login to th eent server using telnet or PUTTY as might be the case for you using the same user id that runs the JDE services on the ENT server. Go into the temp dir that was created in the step above and execute a “chmod 777 system.Z” command.

6. Stop the JDE services.

7. Go to your /dir/jdedwardsoneworld/ver### dir and execute ” mv system system_bak_date” command. This will create a backup of the system dir. Now you are ready to replacs this old system with the new system.

8. Go to the temp dir that has system.Z and execute the command “zcat system.Z | (cd /dir/jdedwardsoneworld/ver###;tar xvf – )”. This will unzip the system.Z and create a system dir for you in the /dir/jdedwardsoneworld/ver### .

9. Go to /dir/jdedwardsoneworld/ver###/system and rename the RunOneWorld.sh and the EndOneWorld.sh by the following command cp RunOneWorld.sh RunOneWorld.sh_original_sp and cp EndOneWorld.sh EndOneWorld.sh_original_sp. This will preserve the original scripts that came with the SP.

10. Go to /dir/jdedwardsoneworld/ver###/system and copy the RunOneWorld.sh and the EndOneWorld.sh from the system_backup_date into this system dir.

11. Execute a chmod 555 for system/lib/* system/libv32/* and Run cat ptf.log, it should show the latest SP name.

12. Now its the time to give up all hope in life, give up on your weekend plans and question your decision of becoming a CNC and after you have done all that execute ./RunOneWorld.sh

13. If you see the One World Startup Complete message do a Joy Dance and execute a portest. If porttest comes out successful, you are ready for a full package build and take it from there.
The above 12 steps will only help if you are not changing the DB. Remember that if the SP upgrade also involves a DB upgrade you will need to do a variety of changes to the JDE.ini , the .profile etc for the change to take effect.

14. A lil prayer helps!

Let me know if this helps any one of you! Also please feel free to point out any points that I might have missed. Happy SP Upgrading

Inclusive or Exclusive Row Security.. And the fight goes on!!

2011-11-09T12:14:00.001-05:00

This is more like the Parry’s Coffee Bite Ad that we used to watch when we were kids… its toffee…its coffee. The only difference being rather than the candy that we enjoyed Row Security sometimes comes up as a nightmare.

The way ahead is much easier than what you may think of. If you are on 8.9 or higher release just go to the Form exit for Exclusive\Inclusive in the Security Workbench application (P00950) and you can see with your own two eyes what type of security is maintained in your system

If you are on my beloved ERP 8 just do it the old school way by running this query on your F00950:

Select * from sys7334.F00950 where FSUSER = ‘EXCLUSIVE’;

If a value turns up for the query it means you have inclusive security enabled in the system.

In case you are wondering about the meaning of both the security types and do not have access to GSC here are my two cents worth of idea:

Inclusive row security simply means that the value that the user can see are included in the from and thru values defined for him or his role.

Exclusive row security means that the values mentioned are excluded from the user’s view.

The select queries are generated based upon this security setup for the user by the jde middleware. Now I know what’s the real use of the middleware

Convert JULIAN to standard date using SQL….

2011-11-09T12:13:00.001-05:00

EnterpriseOne stores dates in Julian using the following format CYYDDD (“C” is the century, “YY” is the year and “DDD” is the number of days since the start of the year).
To convert a julian date to a standard (gregorian) date format:

TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(XXXXXX+1900000,’YYYYDDD’),’MM-DD-YYYY’)

Notes:
- where XXXXXX is the column name to convert.
- this only works on 19th century onwards.

if you need help putting it in a query lemme know…