Siebel Deployment Planning Guide > Siebel Infrastructure Planning >

Determining Network Requirements

This task is a step in Process of Infrastructure Planning.

The purpose of this infrastructure planning task is to identify the network requirements needed to support the Siebel deployment.

To determine network requirements

1. Use the information about average and peak workloads to verify that there is sufficient network bandwidth to handle network traffic to and from, as well as within, the Siebel deployment.
2. Determine whether to use data encryption. If so, then define data encryption policies. Then add data encryption protocols to the deployment plans that you outlined using Mapping Siebel Deployment Elements to Platforms.
3. Define firewall requirements. If you are creating a network DMZ, then also define the requirements for proxy servers and other items that you install in the DMZ.

   Include network address translation (NAT) and HTTPS requirements.

4. Analyze interactions and dependencies between networking components.

   For example, assume that you plan to use HTTP with SSL between browsers and Web servers. You also plan to install a Web server load balancer. Typically, Web server load balancers cannot do HTTP, URL-based load balancing unless the load balancer has an integrated SSL accelerator.

   An SSL accelerator allows SSL connections to be terminated at the Web server load balancer. This allows the load balancer to parse packet information and perform HTTP, URL-based load balancing.

5. Write down the virtual IP (VIP) address used by Web server and Siebel Server load balancers. Make sure the requesting component is set up to access the VIP. Furthermore, make sure that you have configured firewalls to allow VIP traffic to go through.
6. Select port numbers for all of the network components that listen on TCP ports.

   This includes Web server load balancers, Web servers, Siebel Server load balancers, Siebel Servers, and server clusters. For a full description of Siebel Server components that require a port number assignment, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

   The default TCP port number for Web server-to-Siebel Server traffic is 2321. This is the port number of the Siebel Connection Broker (SCBroker); however, you can configure the port number. If a third-party HTTP load balancer is deployed, then you must set it up to communicate with Siebel Servers using the SCBroker port. You cannot assign the Siebel Gateway Name Server and Siebel Servers port numbers higher than 32767.

   If Siebel native load balancing is deployed, then the load balancing configuration file must reference this port number. See Choosing a Load Balancing Method.

   Also, verify that firewalls are configured to communicate with the correct TCP ports.

7. Consider any other factors that might affect networking connectivity.