Siebel Architecture Tutorial and Concepts on Database Server

Siebel Architecture Tutorial and Concepts on Database Server Best Practice

Resource and database monitoring
Establish procedures and solutions for the ongoing monitoring of the database and the database server. This includes the usage of the server resources, the responsiveness of the database and the general health of the various database objects, such as fragmentation of the database tables. The database vendor should have identified those aspects of the database that require monitoring.

Capacity planning
Capacity planning for the Siebel Enterprise as a whole is a good idea and in particular the database server. Ensure that the results of the resource monitoring are used for capacity planning as well as potential changes in the user community, the usage of the application and changes in application functionality.

Backup strategy
Prior to going into production, establish the backup strategy and solution for the database. When considering the backup strategy, ensure that the system can be easily and relatively quickly recovered.

Scalable platform
When deciding upon a platform for the database server, ensure a scalable solution is employed. Generally, during the production lifecycle of a Siebel eBusiness application, users and functionality are added over time. They each require additional resources and can lead to upgrades being necessary for the database server as well as other components. In general, replacing the database server is one of the most challenging tasks that could be undertaken within a Siebel Enterprise due to the amount of data that could have to be moved.
Avoid this operation as far as possible by ensuring the database server can be upgraded in place.

Control data model
The Siebel eBusiness data model that is supplied with the application offers a rich set of predefined tables and supporting indexes. Using Siebel Tools, the data model can be extended further with additional attributes, new indexes and new tables. Modifying the Siebel data model must not be considered a trivial task, since changes can have significant impacts in areas of the application.
Consider carefully any changes to the data model and consider the following:
• Maintain central control of the Siebel data model to co-ordinate changes
• Avoid reusing columns for diverse purposes
• Include the database administrator to ensure changes are valid
• Analyse the impact on database size and performance
• Avoid using joins for frequently required data
• Employ extension tables where data is not used frequently
#siebel