Applications Administration Guide > Getting Started >

Selecting a Data Source

When you start a Siebel application from the Siebel Dedicated Web Client, you specify the data source to which you want to connect.

The following databases are potentially available to administrators and end users:

• Local. Resides on your local computer. Can be synchronized with the corporate database. Typically stored on a laptop computer and used by mobile users who are not connected to a server when working.
• Server. This is your enterprise server database.
• Sample. A database of sample data, stored on your workstation. Using this database, you can experiment with a Siebel application without risk of damaging actual organizational data.

You should always perform system administration tasks against the server database. Although you can perform these tasks against your local database and synchronize, doing so has the potential to cause errors, including data conflicts. In addition, performance problems can result from a large local database, and from routing large numbers of transactions.

About the Sample Database

Siebel eBusiness Applications include a sample database to use in demonstrating, evaluating, or experimenting with the Siebel client and Siebel Tools. (For more information, see Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.)

The sample database includes a number of demo user accounts (SADMIN is one of these). Each of these has a predefined responsibility that reflects the demo user's position within the sample organization. If you log in to the sample database as a demo user, you can access certain views within Siebel eBusiness Applications based on the demo user's responsibility.

You do not need to install server components to run the Siebel sample database. However, you cannot access the Administration - Server Management screen if the server component is not running. The sample database cannot be copied to the server data sources.

To log on as a demo user, double-click the icon for the listed application in the Siebel client program group. Applications listed as "Demo" automatically log the indicated user into the sample database. For the other applications, enter the user ID and password in the logon dialog box and choose Connect to: Sample. For more information about the sample database, including a list of demo users, see Release Notes on Siebel SupportWeb.

The sample database that ships with the Siebel system has a built-in license key that includes access to all views and modules for a period of a year from the initial ship date of the product.