Rational ClearCase Introduction
for PeopleSoft DSI UNIX
Administrators
Introduction to ClearCase
• What is ClearCase?
– Rational ClearCase is an advanced multi-platform client-server
source code management system (i.e. source control system)
• What is Source Control?
– Source control is effectively change management for the revision
of source code files in a software product.
• Why do we need Source Control?
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To track what a release is comprised of
To enable the company to support released products
To decrease development time and costs
Protect the company’s assets
To enhance the quality of the company’s products
Introduction to ClearCase
• What does ClearCase do for the Company?
– Allows developers to see what changes have occurred from version
to version
– Allows developers to know which versions comprise a specific
release
– Allows the re-creation and support of any given release at any
given time
– It is the only way to make your changes visible to the rest of the
development community
– Enables parallel development on the same code module by
multiple developers at the same time without interfering with each
other
Introduction to ClearCase
• Which version of the ClearCase configuration management
software do we use at PeopleSoft?
– PeopleSoft currently utilizes Rational’s ClearCase 4.2
• What platforms are supported by ClearCase and used at
PeopleSoft?
– AIX, HP-UX, OSF1, Linux (Red Hat), Solaris, Windows NT 4.0 &
Windows 2000.
– Other platforms are supported by ClearCase but not currently in
use at PeopleSoft.
Introduction to ClearCase
• Who uses ClearCase?
– All application developers and PeopleTools developers within the
Products and Technology organization world wide.
– Any third party organizations contracted by the company to develop
software for resale by PeopleSoft.
– All QA automation teams that utilize ‘PSScript’ based automation to
perform their product tests.
• What sort of support is required for ClearCase?
– Because ClearCase is utilized by all of development world wide, it must
be supported in a 24 / 7 on call basis.
• Why does ClearCase require this status?
– Because the ability to modify and maintain code is critical to the ability of
the company to develop and support it’s products.
– Downtime can mean lost revenue and increased development costs. It
could also prolong the downtime of a customer dependent upon a fix for a
critical incident.
Introduction to ClearCase
• Who is responsible for the support of ClearCase?
– There are two teams that support ClearCase within the company.
• One team supports only the PeopleTools (PT) organization. That team is
PeopleTools Build team managed by David Wilson.
• The other team supports the rest of Application Development. That team is
the Environments Management (EM) Code and Configuration team managed
by Kalyan Kalle.
– Both teams are responsible for the direct support of their respective end
users. Both teams will utilize the vendor where needed to resolve issues.
– Both teams may call on DSI for assistance with system and/or
environment related issues pertaining to ClearCase.
– End users should open a ‘TPRD’ for assistance on PT related ClearCase
issues or an ‘Environments Request’ (ER) for EM related ClearCase
issues. End users should not open DSS requests.
• Why are there two ClearCase groups and two ClearCase installs?
– PeopleTools desires separation from Application Development. In order to
meet this requirement a second ClearCase environment was configured.
The second environment requires a second pre-configured ClearCase
install pre-set for the PT ClearCase environment.
Introduction to ClearCase
• Which team should I go to for assistance with a ClearCase issue?
– Should you have or be assigned an issue regarding ClearCase that you require
assistance on please determine which ClearCase environment the system is using
(PT or EM). The system naming standard should be of assistance here as PT- and
ST- systems should utilize the PT ClearCase environment and all others should
utilize the EM ClearCase environment. If you do not already have a contact within
the appropriate team for this issue please add the group’s manager as an ‘Interested
Party’ to the DSI ticket and request assistance from them. The manager will then
assign a member of their team to assist you on the issue.
– You can also get more data about ClearCase from the online help system through
the use of ‘cleartool man’ and through the DSI UNIX admin web site’s ClearCase
documentation.
• What responsibilities does the DSI UNIX team have with respect to
ClearCase?
– DSI UNIX system administrators are responsible for the maintenance and
management of the production ClearCase servers (including on call support) and
the UNIX based ClearCase clients. They must assist during the process of
ClearCase patches and upgrades. They are responsible for the installation of
ClearCase on DSI managed UNIX systems. They must maintain the UNIX NIS
environment that ClearCase relies upon. They will also be required to assist the
ClearCase teams on system related issues.
– On call support will be handled through the current DSI UNIX on call pager
(also used for ICE support).
Introduction to ClearCase
• Which UNIX and NetApp systems are the ClearCase servers?
– ClearCase at PeopleSoft is split in two environments. However, both
environments share a single Network Appliance for database storage. Each
environment also has it’s own production and backup server.
– ST-NFS02 is the production ClearCase Network Appliance. Each environment (PT
& EM) have their own volume on the unit. PT utilizes ‘vol0’ and EM utilizes
‘vol1’. Nothing other than ClearCase utilizes (or should utilize) this filer.
• Please note: Any and all tickets involving ST-NFS02 need to have both ClearCase
teams involved (via Interested Parties).
– PT utilizes ST-SUN20 as it’s production ClearCase server and ST-SUN25 as it’s
backup ClearCase server. Any and all tickets involving these two servers need to
have the PT group as an ‘Interested Party’.
– EM utilizes CC-SUN01 as it’s production ClearCase server and SCB-SUN02 as
it’s backup ClearCase server. Any and all tickets involving these two servers need
to have the EM group as an ‘Interested Party’.
When adding groups as interested parties please include ‘EM-OPS-CC’ for EM and
‘PeopleTools Product Build’ for PT
Introduction to ClearCase
• What does ClearCase depend upon?
Because ClearCase is a network intensive heterogeneous client-server application it
requires specific configuration and resources available to it in order for it to run
correctly.
• In order for users to appropriately access UNIX based VOBs from NT based
client systems the users must have matching accounts and groups in both the
UNIX server(s) and the NT domain. NIS is required because resources like the
network appliance (ST-NFS02) are shared between the environments and
cannot have duplicate UID/GIDs used. NIS is also required because other
UNIX systems are ClearCase clients and the account and group data must be
accessible by these UNIX systems on every supported client platform.
• In order for ClearCase to execute effectively certain NFS mount, qtree, rsh and
CIFS security options (including share security) must be selected on the
Network Appliance and ClearCase servers.
Introduction to ClearCase
• What does ClearCase depend upon?
– Network Appliance (ST-NFS02) Configuration Requirements
• RSH must be enabled for ‘root’ on production and backup UNIX ClearCase
servers.
• Scheduled snapshots must be disabled.
• Quota management must be disabled.
• CIFS share permissions must not be modified once established and the system
is live
• CIFS ‘oplocks’ must be disabled
• The ‘VOB owner’ account (ccadmin for EM and clrcase for PT) must own the
directories where ClearCase objects will be stored on the ‘filer’
• CIFS security style must be ‘UNIX’
• ClearCase volumes should have their ‘qtree’ set to ‘mixed’ mode
• ClearCase UNIX servers must be able to mount and write on their data
volume(s) as ‘root’
• Filer must be configured with a global hot spare for data protection
• Filer must be series 8xx with Data OnTAP OS 6.01 or higher OR series 7xx
with Data OnTAP OS 5.3.6 or higher
• Filer must be a member of the NT ‘CORP’ domain
• Filer must utilize NIS as it’s authentication source
Introduction to ClearCase
What does ClearCase depend upon?
– Production UNIX Server Configuration Requirements
• Must be able to mount the appropriate filer (ST-NFS02) volume and write as
‘root’
• Limited ‘sudo’ for ‘ccadmin’ account on all systems designated as EM
ClearCase Servers (CC-SUN01, SCB-SUN02). ‘clrcase’ account on PT
ClearCase servers (ST-SUN20, ST-SUN25) should also have limited ‘sudo’
access.
• ‘root’ must run the nightly cron job to perform the ClearCase backup
• All accessing server and client systems must use NFS hard mounts for
ClearCase volumes on the Network Appliance.
• All accessing clients or servers must be at ClearCase version 4.2 or higher
• All accessing clients and servers must be able to mount the ‘filer’ in the same
location in the local filesystem (this requires the Automounter).
Introduction to ClearCase
• How is ClearCase backed up?
– Both ClearCase environments (PT and EM) store all critical application data on the
Network Appliance filer (ST-NFS02) in their respective volumes.
– Backups are started by a cron job owned by ‘root’.
– Each production server will copy the latest application specific configuration files
to the Network Appliance nightly starting at approximately 11PM.
– Each production server will then lock and checkpoint the ClearCase VOB databases
in preparation for a Network Appliance Snapshot backup.
– Once all ClearCase VOB databases are ready, the production server (as root) will
rsh to the Network Appliance (ST-NFS02) and execute a snapshot backup for the
defined volume. Once the snapshot is complete, the production server will unlock
the ClearCase VOB databases re-enabling development. ClearCase backups are
generally completed before midnight each evening.
– Each production server manages the Network Appliance snapshot backups for it’s
volume. Each volume has seven (7) days worth of snapshot backups stored locally
on the Network Appliance filer (ST-NFS02).
– The CORP-IT backup team will mount the snapshot each night and will perform a
full backup of its contents between 12AM and 6AM. CORP-IT on-site backups are
retained for one (1) month.
– Once per week, CORP-IT will take a backup and store it off-site. Off-site backups
are retained for six (6) months.
Further details on the backup and recovery procedure are available in the
ClearCase Disaster Recovery Plan maintained by each ClearCase team.