In this post within our occasional Meet the ITS team series, we showcase ITS’ PeopleSoft and Database Administration team.
PeopleSoft and Database Administration is one of three teams within the Data Reporting Environments & Application Middleware (DREAM) division of ITS. The other two are the Middleware team and the Enterprise Reporting and Departmental Systems team.
The team’s role
ITS’ PeopleSoft and Database Administration team is made up of two distinct units — Database Administration and PeopleSoft Administration. John McGarrigle, who has worked for ITS for more than 20 years, leads the PeopleSoft and Database Administration team.
The PeopleSoft and Database Administration units deliver useful, technical solutions to those they support across campus. The units “investigate ways to standardize our environments, update and maintain similar versions and patch sets of software installations as well as use tools to help manage environments in a consistent manner,” McGarrigle said.
“In the best of times, the ITS PeopleSoft and Database Administration team is much like Oz – the people behind the curtain helping along the business of the University in various ways,” he said.
His staff members are “most happy when anonymous,” he said. “Anonymity means we are doing our jobs well.”
Database Administration
The ITS Database Administration unit provides application infrastructure support for Oracle and some MySQL environments.
The unit supports databases for:
- ITS applications such as Sakai, ConnectCarolina, Identity Management’s suite of applications, InfoPorte, Kronos/Time Information Management (TIM), the Confluence collaboration tool and many others
- Campus departmental applications run by Arts and Sciences Information Services, better known as OASIS, within the College of Arts and Sciences; School of Nursing; Ackland Art Museum; and several others
- Research applications run by North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute, also known as NC TraCS; Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center; and other research units
The unit is responsible for the overall maintenance of database installations and infrastructure, supporting and building business processes to support data refreshes and working with application teams when functional or performance questions arise.
Work highlights:
- Have all current versions of Oracle database at the latest patch set
- Working with ITS’ Storage and Systems groups to reimagine ITS’ backup strategy and architecture
In addition to McGarrigle, the team is made up of:
- Roger Carden
- Scott Crouch
- Christine Li
- Anand Maharajan
- Suresh Nemani
PeopleSoft Administration
The PeopleSoft Administration team provides application infrastructure support for PeopleSoft (ConnectCarolina) and Perceptive Content (document management) environments.
The team is responsible for the overall maintenance of each application’s infrastructure platform, supporting ITS Enterprise Applications business processes, planning infrastructure needs for upgrades and updates, and providing consultation/collaborative work with Enterprise Applications teams if issues arise.
Work highlights:
- Investigating, researching, planning and building automation for upcoming upgrades to the PeopleSoft and Perceptive Content platforms
- Working with Enterprise Applications to implement an update to forms software and update patches to tax policy
- Continuing to support the daily and weekly effort of moving code though environments for Enterprise Applications teams
In addition to McGarrigle, the team is made up of:
- Vince Barca
- Ted Britt
- Peter Chow
- Nilesh Ranadive
- Siva Tappata