PeopleSoft Signon Process

Peoplesoft adopted the n-tier architecture from 8.x versions onwards.

There are different ways to connect to database.

1. Direct login to database with database userID/Password. (2-Tier)

  
     Below are the ways we connect to database directly.

     Login through Toad/SQL Plus using SYSADM as userID/pwd.    

•      This the the powerful userID.
•      Using this we can do DML/DDL from backend. Usually PSAdmin/Database Admin use these.
•      Sometimes Application Developers do require access in Dev environments.
•      We can also create other Database Userids which have only select access to database.

     Login through App Designer. 

1.      In the Login Window, user has the option to select Type of  login.
2.      There if we select Database say Oracle then we are connecting directly to database.
3.      User enters the credentials,
4.      App designer first connects to database using the connectID provided in the Configuration  Manager.Usually, ConnectID will be people. 
5.     Once connection is successful, the user 'people' issues a couple of select statements on peopletools  Security tables (namely, PSDBOWNER/PSSTATUS/PSACCESSPRFL/PSOPRDEFN) to validate the credentials provided.
6.     Gets the owner name from PSDBOWNER, usually SYSADM
7.     Then checks the tools release.
8.     Retrieves the SYMBOLICID (usually SYSADM1)  for the given UserID from PSOPRDEFN. 
9.     Now gets the ACCESSID/PWD (usually SYSADM) from the PSACCESSPRFL which is linked  to the SYMBOLICID.
10.     Disconnects from Database
11.    Connects using AccessID namely SYSADM/pwd. This UserID is powerful as it had full access to  the database.
12.    Now App Designer opens and is awaiting user action.

      Login through Application Server.

   

•       This happens when we boot the server using PSADMIN utility.
•       The Appserver Config file has the details of UserID/Pwd and also the ConnectID/Pwd. 
•       So initial connection happens through the ConnectID  namely 'people' , and then validates the credentials against the Peopletools Security tables as mentioned above. 
•       Once validated, it disconnects and connects again using UserID/Pwd present in the file.
•       This way a persitent connection is made to the database by the Application server.