Change Assistant

Change Assistant is a standalone application that enables you to assemble and organize the steps necessary to apply updates and fixes for PeopleSoft application maintenance updates as well as performing upgrades. Change Assistant automates many of the steps, but will prompt you and guide you through any manual steps with embedded documentation.

You use Change Assistant for these situations:

  • Selecting and applying updates related to PeopleSoft application maintenance. Change packages are automatically created based on the customers selection of the updates to apply.

  • Performing upgrades, which includes PeopleTools-only upgrades and PeopleSoft application-only upgrades.

  • Applying database changes for PeopleTools patches.

Note: You use Change Assistant to apply updates that have a .ZIP extension. You do not use Change Assistant to apply updates that have an .EXE extension.

You can use PeopleSoft Update Manager for select applications releases to search for updates you may need for your environment and to review the potential impact of the selected changes. PeopleSoft Update Manager will automatically include requisite updates based on the items you select; it will show you what has already been applied to your target environment; and, it will let you review the changes included with each update before selecting it. You can then create a custom change package definition with your selected updates.

Important! The change package definition created only guarantees the requisites for the specific target selected. If the same change package is applied to a different target, you may encounter errors or warnings if the environment is not at the same level as the target specified when the package definition was created.

You can use a newer version of Change Assistant than the version of PeopleTools you are using. However, the environment management agents and hub must be at the same release level as Change Assistant.

For PUM , your PeopleTools version could be at 8.54.03, but you can run Change Assistant at the 8.54.08 level since the environment management hub and agents are on the same release.

For non PUM-enabled environments, the environment management agents and hub must be at the same release/patch level as Change Assistant, in order to apply updates. For example, your PeopleTools version could be at 8.53.09, but you can run Change Assistant at the 8.53.14 level as long as the agents and hub are also at the 8.53.14 level.

Periodically, Oracle provides patches for PeopleTools that supply fixes to critical defects. With each PeopleTools patch version, Oracle provides the following updates in executable format:

Executable

Description

version.exe

For example, 85014.exe

Contains all current fixes to the entire PeopleTools product, including those fixes to the software update technology, which includes Change Assistant and all environment management elements (agents, hub, and so on).

version-PSCA.exe

For example, 85014-PSCA.exe

Contains only the current fixes for Change Assistant and all environment management elements (agents, hub, and so on).

The software update technology runs independently from the rest of PeopleTools.

Important! This only applies to non PUM_enabled applications.

Note: If you install a complete PeopleTools patch, you do not need to apply the -PSCA patch individually. Apply the -PSCA patch individually only if you are running non PUM-enabled applications and interested in just the fixes for the software update tools and not the fixes for the entire PeopleTools product.

The -PSCA patch enables you to apply only the latest fixes to Change Assistant and the environment management framework without applying the latest full PeopleTools patch. By doing so, you can avoid the regression testing that typically occurs after applying a full PeopleTools patch.