Siebel Installation Guide for UNIX > Additional Postinstallation and Configuration Tasks > Process of Configuring Load Balancing for Siebel Business Applications >

Setting Up a Third-Party HTTP Load Balancer

A third-party load balancer receives SISNAPI messages from the Web server. The load balancer routes each message based on the URL that it contains. To configure an HTTP load balancer, you must write connection rules that route these messages to the correct Siebel Servers.

Use the generate lbconfig command to generate a file containing definitions for such connection rules. For more information, see Generating the Load Balancing Configuration File (lbconfig.txt).

The generate lbconfig command reviews the configuration of the Siebel Servers, then generates a file that pairs connection strings included in SISNAPI messages with paths to the correct Siebel Servers. The rules are stored in the load balancing configuration file (lbconfig.txt). Use this file to help configure the third-party load balancer. Use the following procedure to set up a third-party HTTP load balancer.

This task is a step in Process of Configuring Load Balancing for Siebel Business Applications.

To set up a third-party HTTP load balancer

1. Install and complete the initial configuration of the third-party HTTP load balancer.

   See the vendor documentation for more information.

2. Verify that the load balancer can work with the computers that host the Siebel Servers.

   See the vendor documentation for the networking requirements.

3. Open the lbconfig.txt file that you generated as a reference for configuring the third-party load balancer.
4. Add Siebel Servers to the load balancer as pools of resources.

   Typically, each resource is defined as a combination of host name or IP address, and TCP Port. Use the host name or IP address of the Siebel Server, and the port number for the SCBroker component (by default, this is port 2321).

5. Create load balancing rules or content rules in the load balancer.

   Load balancing rules are mappings between URLs and pools of resources. For each line in the lbconfig.txt file, create one such mapping or rule in the load balancer.

   For configuration guidelines for load balancers, see 477835.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support. This document was previously published as Siebel Technical Note 540.

   NOTE:  You must configure the HTTP load balancer to handle all three types of rules: component, server, and round-robin.

6. For each group of load balancing rules, define the desired load balancing scheme.

   For component rules, use any preferred load balancing scheme.

   For server and round-robin rules, a round-robin load balancing scheme is recommended.

7. Define a virtual IP address and virtual port number for all of the load balancing rules.

   The virtual IP address and virtual port number must match what is defined in the Application Object Manager connect strings of the SWSE configuration file (eapps.cfg). This file is located in SWSE_ROOT\bin. SWSE_ROOT is the SWSE installation directory.

8. If the load balancer has a configurable TCP connection timeout interval, then adjust this setting so that it is greater than the value of the parameter SISNAPI Connection Maximum Idle Time (alias ConnIdleTime). Doing so prevents the load balancer from disconnecting active SISNAPI sessions.

   For more information about setting ConnIdleTime, see Setting the Load Balancer Connection Timeout Interval. See also Siebel System Administration Guide.