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About Siebel Gateway Name Server

The Siebel Gateway Name Server serves as the dynamic address registry for Siebel Servers and components. At startup, a Siebel Server within the Siebel Enterprise Server stores its network address in the Gateway Name Server's nonpersistent address registry.

Siebel Enterprise Server components query the Gateway Name Server address registry for Siebel Server availability and address information. When a Siebel Server shuts down, it clears this information from the address registry.

The Gateway Name Server also includes a persistent file (siebns.dat) containing Siebel Server configuration information, including:

• Definitions and assignments of component groups and components
• Operational parameters
• Connectivity information

As this information changes, such as during the installation or configuration of a Siebel Server, it is written to the configuration file on the Name Server.

In a production environment, there can be only one Gateway Name Server installed per environment. Do not share the same Gateway Name Server for your development, test, and production environments. The Gateway Name Server is usually a candidate for high availability using a cluster configuration. If the primary node in the cluster fails, the second machine in the Gateway Name Server cluster takes over, minimizing potential downtime.

Language Pack Installation

You do not need to install all the languages that your Siebel deployment may run on the Siebel Gateway Name Server. However, the Gateway Name Server installation includes utilities used for Siebel Server administration. Siebel administrators only see some server administration error messages in the languages that have been installed on the Gateway Name Server.