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Peopletools 8.62 upgrade - Learnings and takeaways

By Sagaya Alphonse posted 15 days ago

  

At Boston University, we recently upgraded our PeopleTools version from 8.59 to 8.62. I wanted to share some of our key learnings and takeaways for anyone planning a similar upgrade, and to exchange insights with others who have gone through this journey.

Challenges

·       Major infrastructure upgrades

o   We upgraded to:

    • Oracle Linux Server 8.9
    • Tuxedo 22.1
    • WebLogic 14.1.2
    • Visual COBOL 9.0
    • OpenSearch 2.11

o   OpenSearch, in particular, brings enhanced search capabilities but also requires careful configuration.

·       Impact on customizations

o   Branding customizations were heavily impacted

o   Customizations within PeopleTools and reporting tools required retrofitting

·       File server IP changes

o   Required updates across integrations and configurations

Timeline

  • Demo upgrade: 2 weeks
  • Development upgrade: 2 weeks
  • Compare analysis, retrofitting, unit testing: 3 weeks
  • System testing: 4 weeks
  • Performance testing: 1 week

👉 Total effort: ~12 weeks
👉 Production upgrade window: ~24 hours

A key success factor was upgrading the TEST and PERF environments in parallel with DEV, which significantly optimized the timeline. The go-live was smooth due to thorough planning and testing.

Key Learnings

  • Enhanced Search Framework
    • Improved two-column layout
    • Greater flexibility using Configurable Search Framework
  • Search Result Changes
    • Results reduced from 300 → 100 (performance-driven)
    • Default display reduced to 10 rows
    • Can be adjusted via Configurable Search Options
  • Smart Prompts / Smart Dropdowns
    • Frequently used values appear automatically
    • Can be controlled at server, page, or user profile level
    • Mixed feedback from users - flexibility to disable is helpful
  • Process Monitor Auto-Refresh
    • Eliminates manual refresh during process execution
    • A small but impactful productivity improvement
  • Security Considerations (Important)
    • OpenSearch in 8.62 enforces SSL by default
    • Avoid exposing hostname details
    • Disable “Show Connection & Sys Info” in PROD
    • Ctrl+J can expose sensitive information → should remain disabled in PROD
  • New Features Worth Exploring
    • Landing Pages
    • Insights Dashboards & Analytics
    • Integration Broker enhancements
    • Security improvements
    • PS Query enhancements
    • Cloud & Kubernetes support
    • Application Designer updates
  • IP Address Change Lessons
    • Avoid hardcoding IPs
    • Prefer hostnames for flexibility
  • Final Alter Audit Impact
    • Custom records impacted integrations
    • Excluding them from Final Alter Audit helped resolve issues

Final Thoughts

This upgrade was a great learning experience and a strong team effort. Planning, parallel execution, and thorough testing played a huge role in making the go-live smooth.

If you’re planning a PeopleTools 8.62 upgrade and have questions, feel free to reach out!

12 comments
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Comments

Casey Manders
4 days ago

Hi Sagaya, Can you tell me more about how you were able to enable the auto-refresh capability on Process Monitor?

Ted Atkinson
8 days ago

Hi Sagaya - thanks for sharing this. It is very helpful.

We have just started the preparation this week for our upgrade from PT 8.61 to PT 8.62.

Sagaya Alphonse
8 days ago

@Sunil Kumar Panta Thank you! Please see my response below and reach out if you have any questions.

1. Did your institution implement a code freeze, meaning no new code was introduced       during this period other than retrofits? We originally planned for a two-week code freeze, but in practice it became a one-week complete freeze. We also maintained a dedicated path for the tools upgrade and a separate path for project support. Having these two distinct paths made the process much easier to manage.
2. Were any PUM Images or PRPs included, or was there any additional work involved? No, this was a pure tools upgrade. Given the infrastructure changes involved, we wanted to limit the scope strictly to the tools.
3. Did you encounter any challenges in adopting new features? Yes. At first, users were not enthusiastic about the look and feel of the new search pages, and it took some time for them to adjust. Some users were also uncomfortable using smart prompts and drop-downs, so we gave them the option to turn those features off in their user profile. In addition, users were unhappy about the disabling of the Ctrl + J option, so we re-enabled it in non-production environments.
Hope this is helpful!

Sunil Kumar Panta
8 days ago

Hi Sagaya , thank you for sharing this. Completing a jump of three PeopleTools versions in 12 weeks, along with other infrastructure updates, is truly impressive.
 
We are planning to upgrade from PT 8.61 to 8.62 soon, and the information you shared is very helpful.
 
I have a few questions:
 
1. Did your institution implement a code freeze, meaning no new code was introduced       during this period other than retrofits?
2. Were any PUM Images or PRPs included, or was there any additional work involved?
3. Did you encounter any challenges in adopting new features?
Thanks, 
Sunil

Padmaja Kurumaddali
10 days ago

We started our upgrade last month and this is definitely helpful! Thanks for taking time to share this. 

Sagaya Alphonse
11 days ago

Hi @Anuj Chauhan,

We were definitely interested in exploring the new UI Landing Pages. However, Oracle has not yet delivered ready-to-use templates for us to try. We understand that templates are expected in upcoming PUM releases. Currently, we use HP as the front-facing tool for students and faculty. That said, we are still interested in evaluating Landing Pages for staff and administrative users in the future.

On the TEST and PERF environments running in parallel with DEV, most of the work on the admin side involved backend upgrades, especially since we moved from 8.59 to 8.62. Because these were separate environments, we did not encounter major coordination issues. The environments were built and prepared in advance, and once we were ready for the next phase, we migrated the retrofits accordingly.

Hope this helps. Please feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions.

Anuj Chauhan
11 days ago

Hi Sagaya - thank you for posting this.

Did you go live with the new UI Landing Pages, or are you still using the traditional Fluid homepage approach?

Also, when running TEST and PERF in parallel with DEV, did you encounter any coordination challenges or risks?



Tom Johnson
12 days ago

Sagaya - Thank you for posting this.  We are moving from 6.14 to 6.2x over the summer or in fall, and this is a great piece to help us start our planning! 

Sagaya Alphonse
12 days ago

Thank you, @Paul Houghton, @Anna Kourouniotis & @Douglas Pump!

@Paul Houghton - Thanks again for the insights on Cloud and Kubernetes support. This has been on my radar, so I wanted to take a closer look and see what options we have. It might make sense to wait for the next tools upgrade before moving forward. I’ll share anything I come across that’s relevant.

Paul Houghton
13 days ago

Thanks  for the useful summary. You note

  • Cloud & Kubernetes support

as an enhancement worth exploring. I did so, and it turns out that Cobol is not supported in Docker or Kubernetes which means it is a non-starter for us at the University of Cambridge, and I suspect for many others. I feel Oracle could have made this limitation clearer.

Anna Kourouniotis
13 days ago

This is a really solid overview of the tasks and timelines involved for such a major upgrade. Thanks for sharing~!

Douglas Pump
15 days ago

Thanks for sharing this. Some good content to review. At DePaul University, we are looking to upgrade from 8.59 to 8.62 later in the year, so I will be circling back to this.