Oracle's Siebel CRM is the market-leading Customer Relationship Management software. Unmatched in functionality and scalability, it offers a lot of challenges for the system administrator. This book will be your safe vessel while navigating the deep waters of installing and managing Siebel CRM.
This book is a complete exercise in installing and managing Oracle's Siebel CRM 8 for your organization. You will understand the Siebel architecture and install it piece by piece. In easy-to-follow chapters, the book guides you through the installation of Siebel server, client, and third-party reporting software on Microsoft Windows and Linux. We begin with the planning process, cover downloading the software, and explain the exact installation and configuration tasks.
After reading this book, you will feel fully prepared for setting up multiple Siebel servers and multi-lingual configurations. Not only does the book give you step-by-step instructions, it also fosters your general understanding of the intricate features and functionality of Oracle's Siebel CRM. For example, you will understand how data security works. In addition, you will learn how to support development environments and how to migrate configuration changes between environments using Application Deployment Manager.
Another benefit of this book is that it teaches administrators how to establish system monitoring strategies to identify and avoid performance bottlenecks.
This book provides a practical, hands-on experience. Chapter by chapter, a Siebel CRM self-study environment is created that can be used to follow the examples described in the book and to explore Siebel CRM functionality. The book ensures that you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. It contains clear step-by-step instructions, explanatory tables, screenshots, and precise diagrams.
Chapter 1, Introducing the Siebel Web Architecture lays the foundation for a clear understanding of the Siebel Web Architecture. You will learn about its building blocks and you will be able to describe their functionality and purpose.
Chapter 2, Planning and Preparing the Installation introduces you to the planning and preparation process, which ensures that you are able to install and configure Siebel CRM server software flawlessly.
Chapter 3, Installing Siebel Server Software on Microsoft Windows guides you through the process of installing Siebel CRM server software on Microsoft Windows step by step.
Chapter 4, Configuring Siebel Server Software on Microsoft Windows shows you how to use the Siebel Configuration Wizard to configure Siebel server software and conduct an initial installation of the Siebel server database. The chapter also introduces you to verification and finalization steps.
Chapter 5, Installing and Configuring Siebel Server Software on Linux teaches you to install and configure Siebel CRM server software successfully on Linux using step-by-step instructions.
Chapter 6, Installing Siebel Client Software guides you through the installation of the Siebel Mobile or Developer Web Client, the Siebel Sample Database, and Siebel Tools. In addition, you will learn how to apply patches to Siebel software.
Chapter 7, Installing Additional Server Software explains how to support end users with charting and reporting functionality by installing the Visual Mining NetCharts Server and Oracle BI Publisher.
Chapter 8, Special Server Configurations enables you to install multiple Siebel Servers and configure Siebel Load Balancing. You will also learn how to apply additional language packs and support multi-lingual Siebel CRM deployments.
Chapter 9, Server Management provides full insight into the configuration and management of Siebel Enterprises. The chapter introduces the structure of a Siebel Enterprise and guides you through typical administrator tasks in the Siebel user interface and the Siebel Server Manager command line.
Chapter 10, Authentication makes you an expert in user authentication. Besides understanding the mechanism of database authentication, you will learn how to configure LDAP directory authentication and Web Single-Sign-On.
Chapter 11, Authorization and Access Control strengthens your general understanding of Siebel CRM functionality by providing deep insight into the concepts of user authorization, data access, and personalization.
Chapter 12, Managing User Accounts enables you to set up the organization and position hierarchy in Siebel CRM and create user accounts.
Chapter 13, Siebel Remote and the Siebel Development Environment shows how to support the development team and how the Siebel Remote module allows you to create local databases. In addition, the chapter teaches you how to support mobile users.
Chapter 14, Installing the Siebel Management Server explains how the Siebel Management Server and Siebel Management Agents provide the framework for Siebel modules such as Application Deployment Manager and Siebel Diagnostic Tool. You will learn how to install and configure the Siebel Management Server infrastructure in this chapter.
Chapter 15, Migrating Configuration Changes between Environments guides you through the complete process of migrating configuration changes from development to test or production enterprises using Application Deployment Manager and the Siebel Upgrade Wizard.
Chapter 16, Monitoring Siebel Applications lets you know how to use the following tools to efficiently monitor the performance and usage of Siebel applications: Event Logging, SARM, Diagnostic Tool, Client Side Logging, and Usage Collection.
Appendix A, Sample Planning Document supports you with your first steps and contains a complete example planning document.
Appendix B, Uninstalling Siebel Application Software shows you how to uninstall Siebel CRM software (if you have to).
Appendix C, More Information gives you information on where to find more information on Oracle Siebel CRM.
This book is for a technical audience. You will get most out of this book if you have a solid information technology (IT) background and familiarity with operating systems and relational databases. If you have experience with enterprise-class information systems, consider this an additional benefit.
It is strongly recommended to use additional resources on your Siebel learning path. The course offerings of Oracle University (http://education.oracle.com) are a perfect start.
The book is written with the role of a system administrator in mind who has to ramp up quickly on Siebel CRM, focusing on typical tasks such as installing and managing the Siebel CRM infrastructure.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive."
A block of code is set as follows:
create user GUESTCST identified by 8icJIPZH; grant sse_role to GUESTCST; alter user GUESTCST default tablespace SIEBELDB_DATA; alter user GUESTCST temporary tablespace TEMP;
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
list tasks for comp SCC% show CC_ALIAS, TK_DISP_RUNSTATE(10), TK_LABEL
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "Click the Manual Start button.".
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