Windows Clustering in Siebel – Part 2

January 15, 2011 By 2 Comments

It’s been a very, very busy couple of months! Our baby is due in March and we’re manically trying to get things in place! Exciting times, but I’m finding less and less time for my beloved blog.

I’m going to try to conclude my article on Siebel Clustering today – this article may be a bit shorter than usual, as I have to assemble the new baby changing unit that arrived this morning. ;)

You should have 4 servers now in your virtual environment:

  • A SAN server, exposing a folder location to act as the Quorum disk
  • A Windows 2003 DNS and AD server, so that we can maintain our clusters and they know where to find each other
  • 2 Windows 2003 Server that will run clustering, both registered on your new domain (I’ve gone for oli.com) and added as hosts to your AD

Your AD setup will look something like this:

The first thing to do is to enable clustering on the two hosts:

  1. Connect to your first cluster host
  2. Click Start > All Program > Administrative Tools > Cluster Administrator
  3. Select the File > New > Cluster… menu item
  4. Click next then enter the domain that you set up on the AD server you installed form last time. I’m using oli.com
  5. Give the cluster a name (SIEB-CLUST) and click next
  6. Enter the first node host name and click next
  7. Windows will validate your node and cluster config to make sure you have everything in place
  8. Enter an IP address for the cluster – something like 192.168.1.101
  9. Specific an Admin user within your domain (Administrator and the password you set up when configuring AD will do nicely)
  10. Click the Quorum button on the summary screen and make sure your shared SAN disk is selected
  11. Click next to finish the configuration.

You should see something like this:

Now add the second node:

  1. Select File > New > Node
  2. Add the name of your second host
  3. Windows will now do a bit of checking – enter your admin password, same as before
  4. Windows will complete the creation of the second node

You’ll have something like this:

Now to install the Siebel Gateway as a cluster service

  1. Perform a standard Siebel Gateway installation as normal
  2. When prompted, check the ‘Clustered Gateway’ option and specify the cluster name – SIEBEL-CLUSTER in the example above
  3. Install the Gateway to your shared disk resource – this would typically be a different drive to the Quorum disk, but we’ll use this in the example for simplicity
  4. Once installation is complete, create a generic service resource on your first node – we’ll use the Cluster Group for now but you should create a specific group for each application
  5. Specify the Siebel Gateway service name – gtwyns

Start it up and you’ll have something like this:

Now, fail the group over to node 2 and setup the Gateway:

  1. Right click the Cluster Group and select ‘Move Group…’
  2. You’ll see your resources come up on node 2
  3. Now, connect to node 2 as the Gateway installation disk is now hosted on this server
  4. Open a command prompt and navigate to the Gateway installation location and CD to the ADMIN folder
  5. Run the cluster configuration batch file: cluster_gtwy.bat
  6. This will set up various bits and pieces, such as ODBC entries, that will allow the Gateway to run on the second node.
  7. Fail the resource group back to node 1 and you’re done!

Hopefully this article will have given you a basic understanding of what’s involved in enabling Windows Clustering and installing Siebel components into the cluster.

As ever, please feel free to post your own experiences or ask any questions on this topic.

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Windows Clustering in Siebel

November 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I’m going to move away from configuration for the time being and go back to the architecture and installation side of Siebel.

A recent project had me building an entire Siebel Production environment from scratch. I’ve been using Windows clustering, Siebel load balancing, Oracle reporting and a wide range of other technologies. This particular environment is built on Windows 2003 Server but the same principles apply to 2008. So, I thought I’d start off a new series of articles starting with Windows Clustering and its application in Siebel.

In particular, the following components of Siebel fit well into a clustered architecture:

  1. The Siebel Gateway
  2. One or more Siebel Application Servers
  3. The Siebel File System

We’ll look at setting up Windows Clustering, defining resource groups and resources to support it and we’ll look at installing and configuring Siebel in a clustered environment.

As ever, Siebel Bookshelf has a lot of information on the Siebel side of things. Windows Clustering is separate but you’ll find a load of information on a site such as Microsoft Technet. It’s well worth a Google in advance of the articles, to familiarise yourself with the technology.

In order to learn this stuff I installed some Windows 2003 VMs in my Virtual Box environment:

  • SIEB-CLUST-1
  • SIEB-CLUST-2

I also downloaded a free SAN server environment called OpenFiler that I installed on a Linux VM:

  • SIEB-SAN

I’d encourage you to do the same and have a basic setup of the 3 machines before we start. The SAN disk needs to be mounted and visible on both of the cluster nodes.

See you next time for more clustering fun.

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Oracle Siebel CRM 8 – Book Review

August 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

As I mentioned in my previous post, I am lucky enough to have been offered the opportunity to peruse a review copy of Alex Hansal’s new book, ‘Oracle Siebel CRM 8 Installation and Management’. I’ve had a few days to go through it and wanted to share my findings with you.

First up, a number of important observations:

  1. This book is NOT a reference guide. Siebel Bookshelf is still the one and only reference library that you will need when configuring, administering and managing Siebel day to day
  2. This book is NOT a configuration guide. Do not expect to pick this book up and begin working in Siebel Tools. This is an installation and maintenance guide, not a developers guide
  3. This book is NOT a beginners guide to Siebel. In order to get the most out of the contents, you should posses some understanding of Siebel technologies

Bearing in mind the statements above, I’m pleased to say that this book is actually pretty good!

My first observation is that the book is very well written. The language is clear and  concise (especially pleasing as the author is a native German speaker) and it is well illustrated with useful screenshots and diagrams. The contents are laid out logically and each chapter flows well into the next.

In brief, the book covers the basics of getting started with an out of the box Siebel 8 installation. Roughly speaking, it covers the following areas:

  1. Overview of the Siebel architecture
  2. Installation of the main Siebel components on both Windows and Unix / Linux platforms, including setting up security adapters and SSO
  3. Server Administration
  4. Siebel Application Deployment Manager (ADM)
  5. Monitoring Siebel applications
  6. Managing Siebel Remote

There is also a chapter or two around access control and personalization and position and organisation hierarchy, which I did find a little odd. Given the nature of the rest of the content, this seemed to be a deviation into the developers domain. I could be wrong, however, and it’s obviously better to have more than less!

The first chapter will be useful if you’re new to Siebel, otherwise it’s just a recap of what you probably (hopefully!) already know. If you’re moving from 6 to 7 / 8 then it might handy to note the architectural changes in those versions. If so, welcome to the 21st century!

The installation, configuration and administration chapters are excellent and really serve to condense the gargantuan quantities of information available in Bookshelf into a manageable step by step guide. I tested this section on one of my colleagues on my current project and he managed to install a base 8.1 SIA environment just by following the guide. A testament to the content, given he has very little Siebel experience! The process is very well defined and the instructions and screenshots clear and concise. Siebel Remote Administration is also given a lot of attention and the author has done well to introduce features that you will definitely find useful.  Personally, I’ve done more Siebel installations than I can remember and thought I knew it all – there are some great tips and tricks that will appeal to even the most seasoned Siebel architect. Of particular note are the security administration and the Oracle BI Publisher installation sections. These are both complex topics and require much to’ing and fro’ing in Siebel Bookshelf to accomplish. It really is excellent to have these important concepts broken down into easy to follow steps.

The ADM section is welcome but I feel it is lacking in the level of detail that would really make it useful. ADM has been around since Siebel 7 but has yet to appeal to me as a one stop shop for migrating reference and non-repository data between environments. Some real world examples of, say, migrating deltas of hierarchical LOV values from Dev to Test would have made this chapter far more useful; as would an example of setting up custom object types to migrate other types of data. As it is, the chapter is a good overview of ADM and gives you an introduction to what it’s all about.

Monitoring is a great addition and is an area often overlooked by technical references. The core features of the SARM and the Siebel Management Server are covered and this offers a handy introduction to a wealth of performance and debugging information that you can now pull out of your Siebel instance. For me, this was new ground and something I’ll definitely be looking to refer to more often in the future.

Overall, it’s a good book. It’s not a ‘Learn Siebel in 24 hours’ type of book: I would always recommend the Core Consulting course and a couple of years working on a project, if you are really serious about getting into Siebel technology. It’s a companion, rather than a replacement, to Siebel Bookshelf and would sit well on the shelf of any Siebel infrastructure specialist or System Administrator.

You can buy the book direct from Pakt Publishing or from Amazon.

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Siebel 8.1 on Windows 7

May 21, 2010 By 9 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve created a new post with some new discoveries around installing Siebel on Windows 7!

I’ve noticed a lot of interest around using Siebel Tools and the Siebel Web Client with Windows 7:

Having been a Windows 7 user since the early betas, I have to say it’s the best Windows operating system yet. Where Vista piled in with clunky processes, UAC, compatibility problems and a host of other issues, Windows 7 feels light and user friendly. I use it on all my desktops and laptops and I have to say, I love it.

However, since version 7, the Siebel Client and Tools Client seem to have veered away from being happy, Win32 applications. I remember the good old days of Siebel 99 and Siebel 2000 (6.x) with their nice, friendly InstallShield installers and I don’t remember having any problems running them, from NT through XP to Vista. However, things have changed!

Your first hurdle is the download. Long gone are install CD / DVD images: now we have colossal ZIP file downloads and ImageCreator. Don’t let this put you off visiting Oracle eDelivery and downloading yourself a copy though. Download the 3 or 4 ZIP files associated with the media pack of the version you’re interested in, unzip into a single directory and run ImageCreator. From here, you can create familar installation folders for your target platform and products. This is your first hurdle – ImageCreator HATES Windows 7! The only way I’ve been able to extract an installation is by running the installer in XP mode in Windows 7 Ultimate. Here’s a better alternative for you:

  1. Burn the extracted files to a dual layer DVD
  2. Find an XP machine and run ImageCreator
  3. Create DVDs of the Client and Server installation folders

I know this sounds silly, but it’s by far the best way to get working installers, with language packs, and you only have to do it once.

Your next hurdle in the dreaded OUI – Oracle Universal Installer. Now, in my opinion, OUI is one of the nastiest pieces of software I’ve ever come across. It’s a nightmare and quirky as hell! Don’t let this put you off: there are a few key things to note when running OUI under Windows 7:

  1. Always run the install from a physical drive or mapped drive. It will not run correctly if run from a UNC path
  2. Run the install from a path without spaces. It’s medieval, but it will save you hassle!
  3. Right click the installer and select ‘Run As Administrator’ and run in the ‘Windows XP SP3′ compatibility mode

If you follow those steps, you should be able to install both the Web Client and Siebel Tools without any problems.

When it comes  to running the applications, follow the same steps as above: for each of the executables (siebel.exe and siebdev.exe), set the ‘Run As Administrator’ and ‘Windows XP SP 3′ compatibility options in the same way as before.

Configure your CFG file as normal, double click, login in and enjoy! :)

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Build your own Siebel

May 12, 2010 By 15 Comments

I like to keep up to date on Siebel and other technology. To help me keep my skills in check, I have a full Siebel installation running on virtual machines on my home desktop:

I found this to be a very useful mini project that has taught me a lot about installation and configuration of Siebel applications, as well as it’s supporting technologies. Here’s a brief guide for anyone looking to do the same:

  1. If you’re a Microsoft shop, subscribe to Microsoft Technet. I’ve found this service invaluable. With a Technet subscription, you have access to a host of technologies that you can use free of charge, for evaluation and testing purposes. Windows 7, HyperV, Windows Server 2003/2008, Office 2010 are all available through a Technet subscription and will give you a great basis to start building your own infrastructure
  2. Download Siebel software from Oracle eDelivery. Again, this is free for evaluation purposes. SIA and SEA are now delivered together, so a single set of installation media for your platform choice will cover all options
  3. Download database software such as Oracle XE (free for personal use), Oracle 11gR2 (for evaluation purposes) or whichever database software you want to use, such as SQL Server or MySQL
  4. Download a virtualization solution. I use Windows Virtual PC with Windows 7 but you can use Virtual Server 2005, VMWare Server or any number of free products
  5. Create virtual machines for your database server, Siebel / Web Server, BIP Server and XP / Windows 7 clients
  6. Install your server OS on each of your VMs, taking care to apply Service Packs and patches up to the required level
  7. Initialise your database instance
  8. Install and patch the Siebel base software and set up the Gateway and Enterprise Servers (this will create an ODBC data source for the Database installation)
  9. Install the Database
  10. Configure the Siebel Gateway, Enterprise Server, Siebel Server and SWE components
  11. Install BIP and configure
  12. Install and patch Client and Tools on your client VMs – I like to keep an XP client available for testing as not everything works according to plan on Windows 7

You’ll find it a useful and satisfying learning experience to set up an entire enterprise. Feel free to post your experiences!

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