Gather Utility

The Gather utility facilitates communications between PeopleSoft and the customer on technical questions or issues. The Global Support Center (GSC) directs the customer to the Gather Utility when problems arise. Customers can also use a self-service website to run this utility and send in relevant information about their problems or issues.

Using a simple command line interface, the Gather utility is a small Java application that can run on any platform to collect various files from the following environments:

  • Application Server.

  • Web Server.

  • Any additional files that the user chooses (SQL Trace files, PeopleCode Trace Files, and so on).

    The collected files are placed in a single jar file with psft.jar as the default name, in the temp directory. Subsequently, these files are sent to PeopleSoft.

Note:

For this utility to work, the supported version of Java (JRE) must be installed on the target machine.

Getting Started

The following files reside in the starting directory:

  • Gather.class: The main Java class file

  • Helper.class: This class file is called by Gather.class

  • Runnit.bat: A MS-DOS batch file that is used by Windows users.

    UNIX users have to run the Gather utility manually.

  • Vars.sh: a UNIX shell script.

    Gather calls this automatically if the UNIX operating system is detected.

Windows Users

The following steps are used for Windows:

  1. Make sure that you have the PS_HOME environment variable set.

    This saves the user from having to type it in.

  2. Go to PS_HOME\utility.

  3. Type runnit.

  4. Follow the directions that are on the screen.

UNIX Users

Use the following steps for UNIX:

  1. At a command prompt, run the following command where PeopleSoft is installed:

    ../psconfig.sh

  2. Go to the PS_HOME/utility directory.

  3. Change permissions for all files:

    chmod 777 *.*

  4. Enter the following to start the utility:

    java -cp .:$CLASSPATH Gather

    Note:

    UNIX is case-sensitive – Gather is spelled with a capital G.

  5. Follow the instructions that are on the screen.

Environmental Data

On Windows, both the set and netstat commands are invoked with the results copied to a file that is collected. On UNIX, the same thing is done with the env command.

Application Server Data

The following files are collected from the Application Server:

  • PSAPPSRV.CFG

  • PSAPPSRV.UBB

  • LOGS/*.*

    This includes all subdirectories under LOGS. This usually includes all application server or Oracle Tuxedo logs, dump, and replay files.

Web Server Data

The gather utility collects numerous files (log files, configuration files, and so on) from each of the supported web servers. If an analyst only asks for a specific file, send that, but make sure to keep the other collected files in case they are needed.

Additional Files

There is always a need to include files that are not on the above list. These can include PeopleCode Trace files, SQL Trace files, SQL output, and so forth. The command line interface allows you to specify any file that you want to be included in the jar file.