If you have worked on either HCM or Campus Solutions applications in PeopleSoft then you would have come across the term '
HCM SOA Registry'. Associated with the HCM SOA Registry is a step/process to 'Refresh Cache' which can either be done online or batch.
I have seen many customers (using HCM or Campus Solutions) who run this 'Refresh Cache' on a regular basis and sometimes as a post step to standard migrations. By standard migrations, I mean the weekly/fortnightly migrations which are part of production support release cycles and not necessarily the bundle/patch/upgrade migrations.
What is wrong with running this process regularly as a post step to any migration?
Well, nothing. But of late, I am finding several cases where the 'Refresh Cache' process fails with
"RowsetCache::Save: Save failed for xxx/xxx=: unknown error. (2,975)" error particularly since HRMS 9.0 Bundle 26 (last HR bundle for CS).
Since this online/batch cache refresh has been causing a lot of pain, I wanted to find out when it is appropriate to refresh cache (reverse engineering and identifying the events - object changes - that would necessitate a refresh). I ended up building a SQL query to identify whether a migration of a project (say part of weekly/fortnightly production support release) would require a 'HCM SOA - Refresh Cache' just based on the objects it contains.
Before I share the details of the SQL query, I would like to share some of my notes since I did not find any information that was straight forward or easy to understand specifically on HCM Registry - Refresh Cache.
HCM SOA Registry:
HCM SOA Registry, like any other SOA Registry, provides a mechanism for service registration, discovery and binding.
SOA Registry Example:
Reference:
Web 2.0 Architectures
HCM SOA Registry:
PeopleBooks Reference:
Understanding the HCM Interface Registry
My Process/Flow Diagram:
HCM SOA Registry
How do we access HCM SOA Registry?
Main Menu > Set Up HRMS > System Administration > HCM Registry
Service Registry:
Transformation Registry:
Where does HCM SOA Registry data get stored?
According to Doc ID 658098.1: HCM Service Framework Error When Adding, Updating, or Viewing Person Data in Campus Solutions:
"The HCM Service Registry (Set Up HRMS > System Administration > HCM Registry > Service Registry) captures the meta-data about the HCM SOA services: input and output signatures, implementation application classes, web services, component interfaces, etc. This meta-data is stored on the HC_REGISTRY portal (PeopleTools > Portal). This portal contains no other data."
How do we access this HC_REGISTRY portal where the HCM SOA Registry is stored?
- Navigate to Portal – Structure and Content: Main Menu > PeopleTools > Portal > Structure and Content.
- Replace the default portal (EMPLOYEE) with HC_REGISTRY in the URL.
For example:
https://www.test.edu/psp/ps/
EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/PORTAL_ADMIN.PORTAL_OBJ_LIST.GBL
>>>>
https://www.test.edu/psp/ps/
HC_REGISTRY/HRMS/c/PORTAL_ADMIN.PORTAL_OBJ_LIST.GBL
HCM SOA Registry Hierarchy:
PeopleSoft Rowset Cache and how is it used by HCM SOA Registry?
- PeopleTools stores application data in a database cache to increase system performance.
- The RowsetCache contains a rowset, and serializes the contained rowset to binary form for speed.
- The RowsetCache class enables you to access this memory structure, created at runtime, and shared by all users.
-
As with most PeopleTools objects, RowsetCache objects are cached to memory and file, but they are also cached to the data base.
- Rowset cache is stored in PSCONTDEFN and PSCONTENT.
PeopleBooks Reference:
PeopleSoft Rowset Cache
Using PeopleSoft Rowset Cache
According to Doc ID 658098.1: HCM Service Framework Error When Adding, Updating, or Viewing Person Data in Campus Solutions:
"The meta-data stored in the HC_REGISTRY portal is needed at run-time in order to execute the service. To speed up the retrieval of this meta-data at run-time, it is stored in cache, using PeopleTools Rowset Cache objects."
Layers of HCM Registry Metadata Caching:
App Server Cache*: As with most PeopleTools objects, Rowset cache also gets cached at the app server layer.
HCM Registry - Online Refresh Cache:
- Main Menu > Setup HRMS > System Administration > HCM Registry > Service Registry > Refresh Cache
- Refreshes HCM SOA Rowset Cache (PSCONTDEFN and PSCONTENT) with current HCM SOA metadata (HC_REGISTRY Portal).
HCM Registry - Batch Refresh Cache:
- Main Menu > Setup HRMS > System Administration > HCM Registry > Refresh HCM SOA Portal Access.
- Refreshes security on HC_REGISTRY portal.
- Makes sure all folders and CREFs in HC_REGISTRY are PUBLIC.
- DOES NOT add any roles. Adding a default role to all users is now a deprecated functionality. Refer: Doc ID 1370324.1 - FAQ on Refresh HCM SOA Portal Access - Question 1.
- Refreshes HCM SOA Rowset Cache (PSCONTDEFN and PSCONTENT) with current HCM SOA metadata (HC_REGISTRY Portal).
SQL to identify if a migration (list of projects) requires a HCM SOA - Refresh Cache:
Based on the HCM SOA Registry Hierarchy diagram above, we can see that all metadata (HC_REGISTRY Portal) and interfaces (App Classes, SQL Views, Messages) are PeopleTools Managed Objects. So the below SQL looks at PeopleTools metadata to figure out if a list of projects (part of a release) contain any objects associated with HCM SOA Registry.
-- Test Value for &&1: 'HCM900_MP11_D','PRJ812865','PRJ889693','PRJ889694','PRJ882259'
/* HCM Registry Objects - Content References */
SELECT 'HC Registry objects (CREFs) found in release. Run SOA Refresh Cache.' AS Found,
'HC_REGISTRY' AS OBJECT,
OBJECTVALUE3 AS PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPROJECTITEM A
WHERE A.projectname IN (&&1)
AND A.OBJECTTYPE = 55
AND OBJECTVALUE1 = 'HC_REGISTRY'
UNION
/* Interface Objects - Application Classes (Services, Types, Exceptions) */
SELECT 'HCM metadata objects (services/types/exceptions) found in release. Run HCM SOA Refresh Cache.' AS Found,
TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) AS OBJECT,
I.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL I
WHERE I.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND I.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND I.PORTAL_OBJNAME IN
(SELECT A.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL A
WHERE A.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND A.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND A.PORTAL_ATTR_NAM = 'TYPE'
AND TO_CHAR(A.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN ('EXC', 'SRV', 'TYP')
)
AND I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL like '%:%'
AND TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN
(SELECT REPLACE (A.objectvalue1 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue2 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue3 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue4, ': ')
FROM PSPROJECTITEM A
WHERE A.projectname IN (&&1)
AND objecttype = 58
)
UNION
/* Interface Objects - Views */
SELECT 'HCM metadata objects (views) found in release. Run HCM SOA Refresh Cache.' AS Found,
TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) AS OBJECT,
I.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL I
WHERE I.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND I.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND I.PORTAL_OBJNAME IN
(SELECT A.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL A
WHERE A.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND A.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND A.PORTAL_ATTR_NAM = 'TYPE'
AND TO_CHAR(A.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN ('IVW')
)
AND PORTAL_ATTR_NAM = 'IMPLEMENTATION'
AND TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN
(SELECT REPLACE (A.objectvalue1 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue2 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue3 | | ':' | | A.objectvalue4, ': ')
FROM PSPROJECTITEM A
WHERE A.projectname IN (&&1)
AND objecttype = 0
)
UNION
/* Interface Objects - HCM Transformation Maps */
SELECT 'HCM metadata objects (messages) found in release. Run HCM SOA Refresh Cache.' AS Found,
TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) AS OBJECT,
I.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL I
WHERE I.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND I.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND I.PORTAL_OBJNAME IN
(SELECT A.PORTAL_OBJNAME
FROM PSPRSMSYSATTRVL A
WHERE A.PORTAL_NAME = 'HC_REGISTRY'
AND A.PORTAL_REFTYPE = 'C'
AND A.PORTAL_ATTR_NAM = 'TYPE'
AND TO_CHAR(A.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN ('TRF')
)
AND PORTAL_ATTR_NAM IN ('MSGNAME', 'TO_MSGNAME')
AND TO_CHAR(I.PORTAL_ATTR_VAL) IN
(SELECT OBJECTVALUE1
FROM PSPROJECTITEM A
WHERE A.projectname IN (&&1)
AND A.OBJECTTYPE = 37
);
If the query returns results then we need to run HCM SOA - Refresh Cache. If not, there is no need.
Note: This post is only focusing on the need (if any) for running the HCM SOA - Refresh Cache as a post step to migrations. This does not mean that there would not be other circumstances (outside of migrations) where the Refresh Cache might be necessary.
