Before You Begin

This tutorial shows you how to obtain a Microsoft Windows image and apply the necessary changes for use with PeopleSoft Cloud Manager.

Background

The PeopleTools Client components used with PeopleSoft Cloud Manager require the use of Microsoft Windows-based tools, such as Change Assistant. You can use one of the Oracle platform images for Microsoft Windows without modification, or use the instructions in this tutorial to create an updated custom image based on an Oracle platform image.

When configuring Cloud Manager, you can supply the OCID directly for one of the Oracle-provided images for Microsoft Windows 2016. Use this optional procedure only if you need to use a Windows image that you have customized.

See the tutorial Specify Cloud Manager Settings.

For information about instance shapes, see Compute Shapes in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure documentation.

This is the seventh tutorial in the Install PeopleSoft Cloud Manager series. Read the tutorials in the order listed. The optional tutorials offer alternate methods for setup.

What Do You Need?

A Virtual Cloud Network is required to create the instance from the Microsoft Windows image. The VCN setup must allow access to the Microsoft Windows instance using Remote Desktop Protocol.

See the tutorial Plan the Virtual Cloud Network for PeopleSoft Cloud Manager.

Step 1: Create an Instance for a Custom Windows Image

Use the Compute Console to configure a VM instance from an Oracle-provided platform image for Microsoft Windows.

  1. Sign in to Compute using the URL provided by your administrator, for example:

    https://console.us-ashburn-1.oraclecloud.com.

  2. Enter the name of your tenancy if necessary, and enter your user name and password.
  3. On the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console home page, click Create a VM Instance under Quick Actions.
    Oracle Cloud Infrastructure console Quick Launch page
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance3_ocihomepage.png)
  4. On the Create Compute Instance page, enter a name for the Windows instance.
  5. Select the compartment for the instance from the Create in Compartment drop-down list.
  6. Click Change Image.
    Create Compute Instance page, click Change Image Source
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance6_chgimgsrc.png)
  7. On the Browse All Images page, select the Platform Images tab.
  8. Select the Windows Server 2016 Standard image.
  9. Read the Oracle terms and restrictions, and select the option agreeing to the terms.
  10. Click Select Image.
    Browse All Images page
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance10_browseimages.png)
  11. On the Create Compute Instance page, select the Availability Domain where you want the instance to reside.
  12. Click Change Shape to select a shape.

    Note that the shapes associated with the Windows image will also be available for nodes created in Cloud Manager on Microsoft Windows.

    Select Change Shape
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance12_change_shape.png)
  13. On the Browse All Shapes page, select Virtual Machine for the Instance type.
    Browse All Shapes page
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance13_browseshapes.png)
  14. Select a Shape series. This example shows Intel Skylake.

    For information about options for instance shapes, see Compute Shapes in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure documentation.

  15. Select a shape from the table.

    The shapes listed depend upon the selected OS image and the availability for your tenancy. Select a shape with at least 1 OCPU and 15 GBs memory.

  16. Click Select Shape.

    The Create Compute Instance page shows the updated image and shape.

    Create Compute Instance page with updated image and shape
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance14_shape_selected.png)
  17. Select a compartment from the Virtual Cloud Network Compartment drop-down list, and select a VCN from the drop-down list.

    See the tutorial Create a Virtual Cloud Network for PeopleSoft Cloud Manager in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Console (optional) for information on creating a VCN.

  18. Select a subnet and compartment.

    You can choose either a private subnet or a public subnet. If you choose a private subnet, then the Microsoft Windows instance will be accessible from another Microsoft Windows instance on the same subnet. If you choose a public subnet, then the Microsoft Windows instance is easily accessible over the Internet.

    Create Compute Instance page, select VCN
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance14_networking.png)
  19. Select the option Assign Public IP address and review the information.

    The page includes a note warning you that assigning a public IP address makes the instance accessible from the Internet.

  20. Click Create.

    The page includes information that you can find the initial password for the instance on the details page, and you will be forced to change it upon first logging in.

    Create Compute Instance Page, click Create
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance15_publicip.png)

  21. On the instance details page, make a note of the Public IP Address, 198.51.100.22 in this example, and the username, opc.

    Instance Details page
    Description of this illustration (prov-win-instance18_runninginstance.png)

  22. Click the link to Copy the Initial Password to your local clipboard.

Step 2: Access the Windows Instance with Remote Desktop Connection

After you create the Windows instance, use Remote Desktop Connection to access it.

See Oracle Cloud Infrastructure online documentation, Compute, Connecting to an Instance.

  1. Launch Remote Desktop Connection, for example from the Start menu of a local Microsoft Windows host.
  2. In the Computer field, enter the Public IP address, which is 198.51.100.22 in this example, of the Microsoft Windows VM that you noted in the previous section. Enter opc in the User name field.
    Remote Desktop Connection dialog box
    Description of this illustration (access-win-inst2-rdp.png)
  3. Click Connect.
  4. Enter the default password you noted from the instance details page.
  5. Click Yes on the security message, which mentions that the identity of the remote computer cannot be verified.
  6. Change the password to a complex password and make a note for future use.

Step 3: Create a Generalized Image

See Creating a Generalized Image.

  1. In the Windows instance VM, open a browser and go to Windows Generalized Image Support Files.
  2. Download the support file that is appropriate for the shape you are using.
  3. Save the file in the default location.
  4. Right-click the file you downloaded, and select Run as Administrator.
  5. Extract the files to C:\Windows\Panther. The following files are extracted for all Windows Server versions:
    • Generalize.cmd
    • Specialize.cmd
    • unattend.xml
    • Post-Generalize.ps1
  6. Right-click Generalize.cmd and select Run as Administrator. The process typically ends the Remote Desktop session. If not, log out of the session.
  7. Wait a few minutes for the process to complete.

Step 4: Create a Custom Image

  1. In Compute Console, select Compute, Instances.
  2. Locate the updated Windows instance.
  3. Select the link for the instance name, or click the actions icon and select View Instance Details.
    View Instance Details on the action menu
    Description of this illustration (create-custom-windows-image3_action_menu.png)
  4. On the Instance details page, click More Actions, and select Create Custom Image.
    Instance Details with Create Custom Image menu item
    Description of this illustration (create-custom-windows-image4_custom_image_menu.png)
  5. Select the compartment where you want the custom image to reside.
  6. Enter a name, which is infodev-custom-win-image in this example.
    Create Custom Image dialog box
    Description of this illustration (create-custom-windows-image4.png)
  7. Click Create Custom Image.
  8. Monitor the progress on the Compute, Custom Images page.
  9. When the status of the custom image changes to Available, click the custom image name or the actions icon.
    Custom Image with new image
    Description of this illustration (create-custom-windows-image3_cust_img_list.png)
  10. On the Custom Image Details page, copy the OCID for the custom image. You use it in the next section.
    Custom Image Details page, copy OCID for custom image
    Description of this illustration (create-custom-windows-image8_getocid.png)
  11. After you create the custom image, you can safely remove the instance used to create the image.

    See Creating Windows Custom Images in the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure online documentation.

Step 5: Update the Cloud Manager Settings Page

  1. Complete the Cloud Manager installation.

    See the tutorial Specify Cloud Manager Settings.

  2. Sign in to the Cloud Manager instance as the Cloud Administrator, click the Cloud Manager Settings card, and select the Infrastructure Settings page.
  3. Enter the OCID for the Microsoft Windows custom image in the Operating System Image section for Microsoft Windows.
    Infrastructure Settings page, Operating System Images section
    Description of this illustration (winimage_cm_infrasettings_ossystem.png)
  4. Click Save at the top of the page.
  5. Click OK on the message "Infrastructure Settings saved successfully. Please click on Refresh OCI Metadata button to import the latest Infrastructure data."
  6. Click Refresh OCI Metadata.

    This ensures that the shapes that are associated with this image are reflected in Cloud Manager.

  7. Click OK on the message "Import of latest Infrastructure data has been initiated."
  8. After the data importation is complete, as indicated by the green check marks, you can continue with Cloud Manager tasks such as creating a file server and provisioning environments.

Troubleshoot

When you provision an environment that uses the Windows image, for example the PeopleTools client, you may see the following error message:

http response error: 401 - invalid content type

This error occurs when the wrong value is entered for the Windows image OCID in the Cloud Manager Infrastructure Settings page. If you see this error, correct the value on the Infrastructure Settings page and save the page.

Next Steps

Create Vault Resources for Password Management for PeopleSoft Cloud Manager

Learn More