Implementing Siebel eBusiness Applications on DB2 UDB for z/OS and OS/390 > Preparing for Implementation on the DB2 Host >

About System Connectivity Architecture

The Siebel eBusiness Applications communicate with IBM DB2 UDB for z/OS and OS/390 through IBM DB2 Connect middleware.

The three editions of DB2 Connect are:

• DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition (EE). Supports database connectivity for users running Siebel Web Client when communicating with the Siebel Server. Optionally, this edition can support database connectivity for multiple individual users running Siebel Dedicated Web Client. This edition is installed on a midtier server such as a Siebel Server machine.
• DB2 Connect Unlimited Edition (UE). Provides the functionality of DB2 Connect Enterprise Edition but is priced differently.
• DB2 Connect Personal Edition (PE). Supports database connectivity for an individual user running Siebel Dedicated Web Client on a workstation. This edition is installed on a user's local workstation.

DB2 Connect EE or UE can reside either on the same machine as Siebel Server or on common connection gateway machines. (Do not confuse the concept of a gateway machine with the Siebel Gateway Name Server. DB2 Connect EE or UE is used to broker the connections to DB2 for multiple database clients (Siebel Servers or Dedicated Web Clients). See Table 6 for DB2 Connect configurations.

NOTE:  If you deploy DB2 Connect EE or UE with Siebel Dedicated Web Client, you must also install a DB2 Connect run-time component on your Siebel Dedicated Web Client machines. The DB2 Runtime must be installed on the Siebel Server if it does not co-exist with DB2 Connect.

Siebel Servers and Siebel Dedicated Web Clients communicate with DB2 Connect through TCP/IP. (DB2 Connect also supports communication through SNA, but SNA currently does not support connection pooling. For this reason, it is recommended that you use TCP/IP.)