by PT 8.62
Randall Groncki
Real Time Indexing (RTI) pushes changes in your PeopleSoft data to your Insights dashboards in near real time.
It happens in seconds.
As the changes occur.
Not waiting for scheduled refreshes.
Though the concept may seem daunting, the configuration and enablement is quite simple. However, Real Time Indexing should be considered when designing the dataset rather than a later enhancement. There are basic, fundamental concepts that, if not considered upfront, may require redevelopment of the dataset for Real Time Indexing compatibility.
Path Ahead
- Planning & Requirements
- Configure Process Scheduler
- Configure Server Process
- Configure Real Time Indexing for Search Definition
- Execute Trigger
- Test
Planning, Requirements & Things to Consider
It takes a village
Turning on and configuring RTI requires more than just selecting an option on a PeopleSoft page.
- PSAdmins: configure the process scheduler(s) for RTI. This involves shutting them down, configuring them and restarting as well as ongoing maintenance during upgrades and adding new Process Schedulers to the pool
- DBAs: Triggers need to be set on the source tables. PeopleSoft does generate DDL for the trigger, but this must be applied and maintained in all environments accordingly
- Developers: Designing and implementing the datasets and dashboards.
Mass Updates and batch can drown your RTI
Is the data source table affected by mass updates and batch?
You may want to turn off RTI during large data events such as mass updates and batch processes. Having RTI on a table such as the HCM table JOB may provide timely insights. However, running mass updates on the table for an event such as annual salary increases can drown out the listener resulting in a significant lag before OpenSearch is updated with the latest information.
A batch process such as an interface might have the same effect.
Plan during design to determine which, if any, processes should turn off RTI during execution. After the mass update is completed, schedule an incremental update to bring OpenSearch in sync with your PeopleSoft data.
Query or Connected Query
RTI only works with Search Definitions that use a PSQuery or Connected Query as the data source. This is because the server process works with those Query definitions at runtime to execute only for the keys of the changed data.
No AE Libraries
But there are App Packages.
Search Definitions allow us to configure Application Engine libraries to run before and after our Query executes to extract the data. I commonly use the preprocessing AE library to populate and calculate data in worktables before sending to Insights.
These AE libraries WILL NOT RUN during the RTI update.
The RTI configuration does allow you to designate an App Class to execute prior to the Query SQL executing. Take in the whole picture ahead of time during design time to avoid duplicating functionality in both AE and App Packages.
Do you really want to maintain duplicate code? You know this will end badly if you choose “Yes”.
Parent/Child Transaction Structures
RTI can get messy if you attach your trigger to the wrong table in your data structure.
Plan on attaching RTI to the parent table. An Add, Delete or Change to that parent will trigger one RTI instance to report the change to OpenSearch.
Attaching the trigger to the child tables can get very noisy and messy quickly. The transaction would trigger on every child of the parent.
For example: attaching the RTI triggers to the Item table of an Invoice structure. If someone adds an invoice with 100 line items, you want the RTI trigger to execute once for the whole transaction, not trigger 100 times for each of the line items. This can slow down, or worse, drown out your RTI performance.
Trigger Maintenance
Each environment this RTI enabled search definition is migrated to will need the triggers created there. Triggers may also get dropped during modifications and upgrades. Have a plan to validate your needed triggers exist
PeopleTools Version
You need to be on at least PeopleTools 8.60 to take advantage of Real Time Indexing
Configure Process Scheduler
This, of course, is for your PeopleSoft Admins.
The Process Scheduler needs updated to enable RTI. Shut down the Process Scheduler, enter the configuration menu and make sure that “6) Real Time Indexing” is set to “Yes”.
There is a follow-on discussion for your admins about Vertical and Horizontal scaling for your server processes. We’ll leave that discussion to them and for another time.
Restart your Process Schedulers after turning on RTI
Configure Server Process
Navigation: PeopleTools > Search Framework > Search Admin Activity Guide > Administration > Search Options.
This is another conversation to have between the PeopleSoft Developer, the PS Admin and the users.
Just remember that “Real Time Indexes” is, really, “near” Real time. But how “near” do your users really need? The closer to “Real Time” you require puts more work on the Process Schedulers and the backend infrastructure. By the way, those machines are doing a lot of other work too.
Is ten seconds good enough? Or do you really need two seconds?
| Index Refresh Interval | Set the duration of time (in seconds) after which indexes in the search engine are refreshed or saved |
| Heartbeat Interval | The Heartbeat Interval property is associated with real-time indexing. |
| Real Time Indexing Set size | Specify the maximum number of transactions in one set for real-time processing (per heartbeat) |
| Real Time Indexing Threshold | Maintenance and Defragmentation of the staging table. Works with AE program (PTRTI_TRUNC) |
I would leave the defaults until you find a reason to adjust them.
Configure Real Time Indexing for Search Definition
Navigation: PeopleTools > Search Framework > Real Time Indexing > Configure Real Time Indexing
Setup RTI for your Search Definition
Setting up Real Time Indexing requires a Search Definition that is already configured and deployed in your PeopleSoft system. This is not another way to set up a Search Definition, it requires that it exists and is working.
Navigate to the Configure Real Time Indexing page and find your Search Definition in the list.
In the Trigger Record section, choose your Trigger record. This is the primary table in your data structure that will show an Add, Delete or Change in the transaction.
Click the “Enable Real Time Indexing” at the top of the page
When you click the “Save” button, two additional links appear at the top of the page: “Reload” and “Trigger SQL”
Click on the “Trigger SQL” link and PeopleSoft generates the specific Trigger SQL for table you declared in the “Trigger” section. Depending on your browser settings, the SQL will either download or popup on a new browser tab.
Save this Trigger SQL to a file.
Execute Trigger
Execute the trigger SQL in your target PeopleSoft database. In most environments, you will have to work with your DBAs and Admins to create Triggers.
In the Oracle database, the trigger compiles and is attached to the table.
Test
Now that everything is built and configured, the last step is to test.
For our example, we test by adding a class to an employee and then refreshing the dashboard.
First, look at the dashboard before we add a class. We see there are 241 total classes listed in our data set.
Add a class to a student using the Quick Enrollment component.
I added this PeopleTools class to employee KU0002
After saving the course enrollment, return to the Dashboard and refresh.
We should see the course count increase to 242 after just a few seconds
Our Real Time Indexing worked. The new row of data was transferred to OpenSearch, ingested and the dashboard updated just by saving our transaction on the training table.
This single example may not seem exciting or extravagant. But it does demonstrate the basic RTI functionality. Multiply this example by users entering PeopleSoft transactions all over your enterprise and being updated in everyone’s dashboard nearly instantly.
This is Real Time Business Intelligence.
More Information from other sources
| PeopleBooks | PeopleTools 8.62 Understanding Real-Time Indexing |
| PeopleSoft Channel | Configure Real Time Indexing from Scratch – PeopleSoft Enhanced Global Search – Tutorial |
| JSMPros | Enabling Search Framework Real Time Indexing (RTI) |
| PeopleSoft Tutorial | Understanding Real Time Indexing |
| PeopleSoft Blog | PeopleSoft Real Time Indexing (RTI) Batch Switch |
Sounds great …. many Component apps .. can we turn into an app we can play on our hand held device and build something meaningful rather than a farm ??
Let’s make ERP fun .. doable ??