At a high level, the Siebel architecture consists of:

Web clients that access the business data A Web server that handles interactions with the Web clients

Servers that manage the business data and provide batch and interactive services for clients

A relational database and file system that store business data

 

 Further drilling down on the Siebel environment we have

The Siebel Business Applications environment consists of the following entities:

Siebel Clients :

Includes Siebel Web client, Siebel Developer Web Client, Wireless Client, Mobile Web Client, handheld client, and Siebel Tools Client

Displays the interactive Siebel application used to manage the Siebel data Runs in a variety of environments

 

o Web browsers

o WML devices

o PDAs (Windows CE and Palm)

Siebel Web Server:

Identifies and passes Siebel requests from Web clients to the Siebel servers Passes completed HTML application pages back to Web clients

Consists of a third-party Web server with the following additional Siebel components

o Virtual directories

o Siebel Web Server Extensions (SWSE)

o Configuration file (.CFG)

 Siebel Enterprise Server:

A logical collection of Siebel Servers that support users accessing a single database server and a single file system.

Logically groups Siebel Servers for common administration via Siebel Server Manager.

Supports sharing of common configuration information

 Siebel Gateway Name Server:

Is a Windows service or Unix daemon process.  Dynamically registers Siebel Server and component availability.

Stores component definitions and assignments, operational parameters, and connectivity information. Stored in siebns.dat file located in \\sea**\gtwysrvr\ADMIN

Includes the connection broker and name server for a single server deployment. (The name server is a separate entity for multiple server deployments.).

Siebel Database Server:

Includes the RDBMS client software and Siebel tables, indexes, and seed data. Stores data used by Siebel eBusiness Applications in a predefined database schema

Supports a variety of third-party relational database management system (RDBMS)

 Siebel File System:

Stores the data and physical files used by Siebel clients and Siebel Enterprise Server. Read/write access is controlled by the File System Manager server component

Is a shared directory that stores compressed files used by Siebel applications

o Examples: Product literature, sales tools, presentations

 

Physical Architecture:

The Siebel Gateway Name Server, Siebel Server, Database Server, and File System can be implemented on one machine or spread across multiple machines

The Siebel Server(s) should have a high-speed LAN connection to the Database Server

 

About Siebel Web Server Extension (SWSE)

Siebel Web Server Extension (SWSE) enables communication between Siebel Web Clients and Siebel Servers. The Siebel Business Applications are a family of Web-based applications that users access through a standard Web browser. Several components work together to deliver the applications to end users:

Siebel Web Client. The Siebel application client running in the browser on the end user's machine.

Web server. Client Web browsers connect to Web servers to access Siebel applications. Supported Web servers and operating systems include:

Microsoft IIS (on Microsoft Windows)

IBM HTTP Server (on AIX and supported Linux platforms)

HP Apache Web Server (on HP-UX)

Oracle HTTP Server (on supported Linux platforms)

Oracle iPlanet Web Server (on Oracle Solaris)

NOTE:  For details about Web server platform support, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Oracle Technology Network. It is critical that you use the exact supported version of the Web server. If you are using Oracle HTTP Server, see also 475370.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support. This document was previously published as Siebel Alert 1317.

Depending on the operating system of the Web server machine, specific Web servers are discussed in this chapter in either the Windows version or the UNIX

version of this guide—the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

Siebel Web Server Extension (SWSE). A plug-in extension that runs within the Web server and that communicates with the Siebel Web Engine (which is part of an Application Object Manager component, such as Call Center Object Manager) on the Siebel Server. This chapter describes installing and configuring the SWSE on the Web server machine.

Siebel Web Engine (Application Object Manager/Siebel Server). The Siebel Web Engine is part of the Application Object Manager (AOM) component on the Siebel Server, such as Call Center Object Manager. The AOM provides access to Siebel applications data and logic.

Siebel Authentication Manager

The authentication manager runs within the Application Object Manager. It is responsible for verifying credentials and establishing a connection to the application database. The three authentication approaches discussed in this section are invoked by configuring the authentication manager properly.

Authentication Manager Overview

The authentication manager receives user credentials from a source determined by the authentication strategy that is implemented. Figure   7 provides a high-level view of the logic that determines the way the authentication manager processes the user credentials it receives.

The authentication manager branches its processing of the identity key by evaluating conditions based on the values of these options:

No security adapter is identified. The authentication manager concludes that database authentication is implemented and that the identity key is a set of credentials provided by the user. The authentication manager interprets the user credentials as a database account and passes them to the Application Object Manager. The Object Manager opens a database connection using the account, and identifies the user by the account.

A security adapter is identified, but Web SSO is not specified. The authentication manager concludes that external authentication by a security adapter is implemented and that the identity key is a set of credentials provided by the user. The authentication manager invokes the security adapter to authenticate the user credentials through the directory and to return a database account, a Siebel user ID, and possibly roles. The Application Object Manager opens a database connection using the account and identifies the user by the user ID.

A security adapter is identified, and Web SSO is specified. The authentication manager concludes that Web SSO is implemented and that the user credentials identify a user who is

preauthenticated by a third party. The authentication manager invokes the security adapter to verify that the credentials come from a trusted source and to return a database account, a Siebel user ID, and, possibly roles from the directory. The Application Object Manager opens a database connection using the database account and identifies the user by the Siebel user ID.