Adapter for Siebel Connections

Overview

The following sections provide instructions for creating and managing Adapter for Siebel connections.

For more information about how connections work, see Adapter Connections.

Before Configuring or Managing Adapter Connections

About this task

To prepare to configure or manage an adapter connection :

Procedure

  1. Install IBM webMethods Integration Server and Adapter for Siebel on the same machine. For details, see Installing, Upgrading, and Uninstalling the Adapter for Siebel.
  2. Make sure you have webMethods administrator privileges so that you can access the Adapter for Siebel administrative screens. For information about setting user privileges, see the IBM webMethods Integration Server Administrator’s Guide for your release.
  3. Start Integration Server and Integration Server Administrator, if they are not already running.
  4. Using Integration Server Administrator, make sure the WmSiebelAdapter package is enabled. See Enabling a Package for instructions.
  5. Using Digital Event Services or Designer, create a user-defined package to contain the connection, if you have not already done so. For more information about managing packages, see Adapter for Siebel Package Management.

Run-Time Behavior of Connection Pools in Production Environments

As you configure and test your adapter, set the Minimum Pool Size field to 1 or greater. Doing this ensures that Integration Server will verify your connection parameters when you enable (establish) the connection, using the Adapter for Siebel.

However, when you deploy the adapter in a production environment, set the Minimum Pool Size field to 0 to avoid possible connectivity failures. When the Minimum Pool Size field is set to 1 or greater, and the Siebel Server closes an inactive Siebel connection in its pool, the Siebel Server does not notify the Adapter for Siebel that this connection has been closed because the Siebel Server has no knowledge of the Adapter for Siebel connection pool. If one of your adapter services uses a connection that the Siebel Servers has closed, that adapter service will fail and you will receive a Siebel disconnect message. To eliminate this potential problem, set the Minimum Pool Size field to 0. In this case, instead of keeping one or more connections open at all times (risking the possibility that the Siebel Server may close its inactive connections), the Adapter for Siebel connection pool opens one or more connections as needed, eliminating this possibility. Because the pool reuses connections, performance might not be impacted at all. Remember that the connection pool keeps active all connections that have not exceeded the setting specified for the Expire Timeout field. For example, if you set Expire Timeout to 30000 milliseconds, the pool will retain any inactive connection in the pool for 30 seconds before closing it. Thus, if an adapter service executes at least once every 30 seconds, the same connection will be reused.

Note: The Expire Timeout interval that you set for the adapter connection must be less than the interval that Siebel's connection pool manager sets for its own connections. For example, if Siebel's connection pool manager sets the interval at 20 seconds and you set the Expire Timeout interval at 30 seconds, then the Siebel connection pool manager will always timeout the connections before the adapter's connection pool does.

Configuring Adapter Connections

About this task

When you configure a Adapter for Siebel connection, you specify information that the adapter uses to connect to and log into a Siebel system. You configure connections using Integration Server Administrator.

As mentioned in the installation chapter, to use a Siebel Java Data Bean client connection, you must obtain the following .jar files from the Siebel Server installation CD and place them in the WmSiebelAdapter\code\jars directory:

  • SiebelJI_Common.jar (Not required for Siebel Client version 7.7.1 and later)
  • Siebel.jar (Required only for Siebel Client version 7.7.1 and later)
  • SiebelJI_xxx.jar

    where xxx is your locale. For example, SiebelJI_enu.jar for English.

To configure a connection :

Procedure

  1. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  2. On the Connections screen, click Configure New Connection.
  3. On the Connection Types screen, select one of the following adapter connection types:
    Connection Type Description
    IBM webMethods Adapter for SiebelJava Connection Uses Siebel's Java Data Bean Business Object Interface (BOI) API to communicate with the Siebel Server. This connection requires that your Windows or UNIX platform supports a JVM that the Data Bean supports.

    When configuring a connection that will connect to a virtual server used for Siebel Server load balancing, select this connection type. For more information about this feature, see Using Connections with Siebel Server Load Balancing.

    IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel Windows Thin Connection Uses Siebel's COM Data Control to communicate with the Siebel Server's Object Manager.

    The Configure Connection Type screen is displayed. For more information, see Connection Types.

  4. In the Configure Connection Type section, provide values for the following parameters:
    Parameter Description/Action
    Package The package in which to create the connection.

    You must create the package using Digital Event Services or Designer before you can specify it using this parameter. For general information about creating packages, see the IBM webMethods Service Development Help for your release.

    Note: Create the connection in a user-defined package rather than in the adapter's package. See Adapter for Siebel Package Management for other important considerations when creating packages for the Adapter for Siebel.
    Folder Name The folder in which to create the connection.
    Connection Name The name you want to give the connection (32 characters maximum). Connection names cannot have spaces or use special characters reserved by Integration Server, Digital Event Services or Designer. For more information about the use of special characters in package, folder, and element names, see the IBM webMethods Service Development Help for your release.
  5. In the Connection Properties section, provide values for the following parameters:
    Parameter Description/Action
    Transport Optional. The protocol to communicate with the Siebel Server. Type tcpip (the default) or http.
    Encryption Optional. The ability to encrypt data. Select none (the default) or mscrypto.
    Compression Optional. The data in compressed format. Select none (the default), zlib, or pkware.
    Gateway Server The name of the Siebel Gateway Server through which you want to open a session to the Siebel Server. Enter the server name or the server's IP address.
    Note: If this connection will connect to a virtual server used for Siebel Server load balancing, enter the name of the Siebel virtual server for this field. For more information about this feature, see Using Connections with Siebel Server Load Balancing.
    Siebel Enterprise The name of the Siebel Enterprise to which you want to connect.
    Object Manager The name of the Siebel Object Manager through which you want to access the Siebel application's business objects.
    Siebel Server The name of the Siebel Server through which you want to access the Siebel application's business objects.

    You do not need to provide the name of the Siebel Server for Siebel Server version 7.7.1 and later.

    Note: If this connection will connect to a virtual server used for Siebel Server load balancing, leave this field blank. For more information about this feature, see Using Connections with Siebel Server Load Balancing.
    Repository Context The Siebel repository in which the Siebel application stores the business component and business object definitions.
    Note: Specify the same repository that your Siebel Server uses.
    Language A valid Siebel language code specifying which language the Siebel connection uses. For example, ENU specifies English. For a list of all available codes, see your Siebel documentation.
    User Name The login name to use to log in to the Siebel Server. If no login is required, leave this field blank.
    Password The password to use to log in to the Siebel Server. If no login is required, leave this field blank.
  6. In the Connection Management Properties section, provide values for the following parameters:
    Parameter Description/Action
    Enable Connection Pooling Enables the adapter to use connection pooling. Default: true.

    For more information about connection pooling, see Connection Pooling and Run-Time Behavior of Connection Pools in Production Environments.

    Note: If you plan to enable connection pooling in a clustered environment, consider the connection pool size. For details, see Clustering Considerations and Requirements.
    Minimum Pool Size The minimum number of connection objects that remain in the connection pool at all times, even if the connections become idle. When the adapter creates the pool, it creates this number of connections. Default: 1.
    Important: As you configure and test your adapter, we recommend that you set the Minimum Pool Size field to 1 or greater. Doing this ensures that the adapter will verify your connection parameters when you enable (establish) the connection, using the Adapter for Siebel. However, when you deploy the adapter in a production environment, set the Minimum Pool Size field to 0 to avoid possible connectivity failures. For details, see Run-Time Behavior of Connection Pools in Production Environments.
    Maximum Pool Size The maximum number of connection objects that can exist at one time in the connection pool. When the connection pool has reached its maximum number of connections, the adapter will reuse any inactive connections in the pool or, if all connections are active, it will wait for a connection to become available. Default: 10.
    Pool Increment Size The number of connections by which the pool will be incremented if connections are needed, up to the maximum pool size. Default: 1.
    Block Timeout The number of milliseconds that Integration Server will wait to obtain a connection with the Siebel application before it times out and returns an error. Default: 1000 milliseconds.
    Expire Timeout The number of milliseconds that an inactive connection can remain in the pool before it is closed and removed from the pool. For example, to specify 10 seconds, specify 10000. Enter 0 to specify no timeout. Default: 1000 milliseconds.
    Note: The Expire Timeout interval that you set for the adapter connection must be less than the interval that Siebel's connection pool manager sets for its own connections. For example, if Siebel's connection pool manager sets the interval at 20 seconds and you set the Expire Timeout interval at 30 seconds, then the Siebel connection pool manager will always timeout the connections before the adapter's connection pool does.
    Note: The adapter will never violate the Minimum Pool Size parameter. These connections remain in the pool regardless of how long they are inactive.
    Startup Retry Count The number of times that the system should attempt to initialize the connection pool at startup if the initial attempt fails.

    Default: 0.

    Startup Backoff Timeout The number of seconds that the system should wait between attempts to initialize the connection pool.
  7. Click Save Connection.

    The connection you created appears on the adapter's Connections screen and in the Digital Event Services Service Browser or the Designer Package Navigator.

  8. Enable the connection, as described in Enabling Adapter Connections.

    When you enable the connection, Integration Server verifies your connection parameters and tries to establish a connection to the Siebel application, assuming you configured your connection with the Minimum Pool Size field set to 1 or greater. If you set the Minimum Pool Size field set to 0, Integration Server does not try to establish a connection until you use the connection to configure adapter services.

Dynamically Changing a Service's Connection at Run Time

You can run a service using a connection other than the default connection that was associated with the service when the service was created. To override the default, you must code your flow to pass a value through the pipeline into a service's $connectionName field.

For example, you have a flow whose primary purpose is to update a business component (for example, Contact) on a production Siebel server. However, you want the flow to have the capability to update the same business component on a test Siebel server-with the decision of which Siebel server to update to be made programmatically at run time. The output signature of the flow's first service contains a field called Target. The flow could branch based on the value in Target. If Target contains the value Production, the second service in the flow would ignore $connectionName-thus using its default connection to connect to (and then update) the production Siebel server. However, if Target contains the value Test, the second service in the flow would use the value in the $connectionName from the pipeline and connect to (and then update) the test Siebel server.

Keep in mind these restrictions when using dynamic connections:

  • Both connections-the default and override-must connect to the same version of Siebel Server.
  • The $connectionName field is present only in services…
    • created with Digital Event Services 6.5 or later
    • created with Digital Event Services 6.1 (or earlier) and edited with Digital Event Services 6.5
    • created with Designer

For more information, see Changing the Connection Associated with an Adapter Service at Run Time.

Viewing Adapter Connection Parameters

You can view a connection's parameters from Integration Server Administrator, Digital Event Services or Designer.

Using Integration Server Administrator

About this task

To view the parameters for a connection using the Integration Server Administrator

Procedure

  1. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.

    When using the adapter with Integration Server 8.0 and later, you can sort and filter the list of connections that appears on the Connections screen.

    • To sort information on the Connections screen, click the Up and Down arrows at the top of the column you want to sort.
    • To filter the list of connections:
      1. On the Connections screen, click Filter Connections.
      2. Type the criterion by which you want to filter into the Filter criteria box. Filtering is based on the node name, not the connection alias. To locate all connections containing specific alphanumeric characters, use asterisks (*) as wildcards. For example, if you want to display all connections containing the string "abc", type *abc* in the Filter criteria box.
      3. Click Submit. The Connections screen displays the connections that match the filter criteria.
      4. To re-display all connections, click Show All Connections.

    The Connections screen appears, listing all the current connections. You can control the number of connections that are displayed on this screen. For more information, see Controlling Pagination.

  2. On the Connections screen, click the icon for the connection you want to see.

    The View Connection screen displays the parameters for the connection. For descriptions of the connection parameters, see the table of parameters in Configuring Adapter Connections.

  3. Click Return to IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel Connections to return to the main connections screen.

Using Digital Event Services or Designer

About this task

To view the parameters for a connection using Digital Event Services or Designer L

Procedure

  1. Start Digital Event Services or Designer if it is not already running.
  2. From the Digital Event Services Navigation panel or the Designer Package Navigator view, open the package and folder in which the connection is located.
  3. Double-click the connection you want to view.
  4. The parameters for the connection appear in the Connection Information tab. For descriptions of the connection parameters, see Configuring Adapter Connections.

Editing Adapter Connections

About this task

If the login information for your Siebel Server changes, or if you want to redefine parameters that a connection uses when connecting to a Siebel Server, you must update your connection. You edit adapter connections using the Integration Server Administrator.

To edit a connection :

Procedure

  1. Disable the connection that you want to edit. See Disabling Adapter Connections for instructions.
  2. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  3. On the Connections screen, click the icon for the connection you want to edit.

    The Edit Connection screen displays the current parameters for the connection. Update the connection's parameters by typing or selecting the values you want to specify.

    For descriptions of the connection parameters, see the table of parameters in Configuring Adapter Connections.

  4. Click Save Changes to save the connection and return to the Connections screen.
  5. Enable the connection you edited. See Enabling Adapter Connections for instructions.

Copying Adapter Connections

About this task

You can copy an existing Adapter for Siebel connection to configure a new connection with the same or similar connection properties without having to re-type all of the properties for the connection. You copy adapter connections using Integration Server Administrator.

To copy a connection

Procedure

  1. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  2. On the Connections screen, click the icon for the connection you want to copy.

    The Copy Connection screen displays the current parameters for the connection you want to copy. Name the new connection, specify a Package Name and Folder Name, and edit any connection parameters as needed by typing or selecting the values you want to specify.

    Note: When you copy a connection, the new connection does not save the password of the original connection. You must enter and then retype the password before you can save the new connection.

    For descriptions of the connection parameters, see Configuring Adapter Connections.

  3. Click Save Connection Copy to save the connection and return to the Connections screen.

Deleting Adapter Connections

About this task

If you no longer want to use a particular Adapter for Siebel connection, you can delete it by following the instructions in this section. You delete adapter connections using Integration Server Administrator.

If you delete a Adapter for Siebel connection, the adapter services that are defined to use the connection will no longer work. However, you can change which connection an adapter service uses. Therefore, if you delete a Adapter for Siebel connection, you can assign a different connection to an adapter service and re-use the service. To do this, you use the built-in webMethods pub.art.service:setAdapterServiceNodeConnectionservice. For more information, see Changing the Connection Associated With an Adapter Service at Design Time.

To delete a connection

Procedure

  1. Disable the connection you want to delete. See Disabling Adapter Connections for instructions.
  2. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  3. On the Connections screen, click for the connection you want to delete.

    Integration Server deletes the adapter connection.

Enabling Adapter Connections

About this task

A Adapter for Siebel connection must be enabled before you can configure any adapter service using the connection, or before an adapter service can use the connection at run time. You enable adapter connections using Integration Server Administrator.

When you enable a connection, the adapter verifies your connection parameters and tries to establish a connection to the Siebel application, assuming you configured your connection with the Minimum Pool Size field set to 1 or greater. However, when you deploy the adapter in a production environment, set the Minimum Pool Size field to 0 to avoid possible connectivity failures. For details, see Run-Time Behavior of Connection Pools in Production Environments.

Note: When you reload a package that contains enabled connections, the connections will automatically be enabled when the package reloads. If the package contains connections that are disabled, they will remain disabled when the package reloads.

To enable a connection :

Procedure

  1. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  2. On the Connections screen, click No in the Enabled column for the connection you want to enable.

Results

Integration Server Administrator enables the adapter connection and displays a and Yes in the Enabled column.

Disabling Adapter Connections

About this task

Adapter for Siebel connections must be disabled before you can edit or delete them. You disable adapter connections using Integration Server Administrator.

To disable a connection :

Procedure

  1. In Integration Server Administrator, select Adapters > IBM webMethods Adapter for Siebel.
  2. On the Connections screen, click Yes in the Enabled column for the connection you want to disable.

    Integration Server Administrator disables the adapter connection and displays a No in the Enabled column.