Changing the PS, Application Server Process Scheduler Password

With a vanilla PeopleSoft installation, one of the first things you should do is change the password for the adminstrator account PS from the default. This post details what you need to do to accomplish this and offers a number of hints and tips along the way.

Backup First

Before making these changes in production I would advise taking a full backup of the system first. And making sure that the backup was successful.

Chosing a new PS Password

As this account gives you carte blanche access to the PeopleSoft system, care should be taken when changing it to ensure that the password chosen is as strong as possible. The new password should: -

• Use a minimum of 7 characters and a maximum of 8 characters in length.


• Use only mixed case alpha and numeric characters.


• Avoid common names, words, and anything obvious, such as your Operator ID. It should also be significantly different from your most recent passwords.

For further suggestions regarding password selection please refer to my previous article The Art of Creating a Password.

Changing the Password

• To change the password you need to: -


• Change the PS Password through the web;


• Change the Application Server password using PSADMIN;


• Change the Process Scheduler Passwor using PSADMIN.

Changing the PS Password

Log in to PeopleSoft through the web.

Navigate to: -

Home > PeopleTools > Security > User Profiles > User Profiles

And change the password for PS.

Note that in some installations a seperate PSAPPS user account is used by the Application Server and Process Scheduler. To detemine if this is so, have a look at their configuration files psappsrv.cfg and psprcs.cfg respectively. These will contain the ID and password used to connect to PeopleSoft. If PSAPPS is used then you should change it in the same manner as you changed PS.

Change the Application Server Password

There are two ways you can change the App Server password. You could directly edit the configuration file, named above, or use PSADMIN. As direct editing can cause problems if you encrypt it, I would reccoment you use PSADMIN.

Configure the Application Server

First select Application Server from the main menu to got to the Application Server Administration menu.

Then select Administer a domain and pick the domain you want to change.

Now select configure this domain and answer 'y' when it says that 'this option will shutdown the domain do you want to continue' and 'y' when it asks if you want to change any config values.

The first thing it will ask is if you want to change any startup values, answer 'y' to this.

Continue to press enter untill you get to UserPswd then enter you new PS or PSAPPS password as apropriate.

When it asks if you want to encrypt this password answer 'y'. This will mask it in the config file and make it less easy to hack.

Then keep hitting return to take the default values until configuration is complete.

Restart the Application Server

To restart the saerver with the new password, go to the Domain Administration menu and select 'Boot this domain'.

Change the Process Scheduler Password

Configure the Process Scheduler

First select Process Scheduler from the main menu to got to the Process Scheduler Administration menu.

Select 'Configure a Process Scheduler' and choose the database you want to change from the list displayed.

When told 'This option will shutdown the process scheduler. Do you want to continue' answer 'y'.

As with the Application server the Startup section will appear early on. When asked, enter 'y' when asked 'Do you want to change any values'.

When UserPswd appears enter 'y' to change it and enter the new PS or PSAPPS password.

Again I would advise you to encrypt this password, so enter 'y' when asked.

Keep hitting return to take the default values until configuration is complete.

Restart the Process Scheduler

Got to the Process Scheduler Administration screen and select 'Start a Process Scheduler Server'.

Select the apropriate database from the list displayed.