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Setting Up Server Components for Siebel Loyalty

There are two server components defined for the Loyalty engine:

• eLoyalty Process Engine - Realtime. Processes the requests from users when they click the Process button to process a transaction or tier. For each request submitted from a client, a separate Siebel task is started that processes the object exits when done.
• eLoyalty Process Engine - Batch. Performs back-end processing. Once started, this component runs in the background and processes objects as they are created in the database. Each of its Siebel tasks continue to wait for objects to process until the component or server is shut down.

Setting Up the Realtime Server Component

To set up the realtime component, you must configure several parameters. In addition, you can choose whether to run this component in synchronous or asynchronous mode.

Parameters of the Realtime Component

You should set the following parameters for the realtime component:

• Maximum Tasks. This parameter determines the maximum number of tasks the component can run. Set its value based on the number of users who will be using realtime processing through the user interface.
• MinMTServers and MaxMTServers. Set the value of these two parameters to one. This is because only one process should be running for this component in the enterprise.

Running the Realtime Component in Synchronous and Asynchronous Mode

When the user clicks the Process button, the realtime component can process the request in one of the following modes:

• Synchronous. The client waits for transaction processing to be completed before control is returned to the client. The user cannot do anything until the processing is completed. When control is returned to the user, the record reflects changes such as change in status or number of points.
• Asynchronous. The client submits a transaction and control returns to the client immediately. The user can continue working, but the user must requery the transaction to see if the processing is completed (by looking at the Status) and to check the results.

The decision about which mode to use depends on the load in the deployment. There is typically a satisfactory response time in synchronous mode with a few hundred users and a light to medium load. You should use asynchronous mode if there are thousands of users all using real time processing, which is not common.

In a typical deployment, realtime processing is not used heavily, so the application runs in synchronous mode by default.

To configure the processing mode

• Use Siebel Tools to change the user property ComponentRequestMode defined in the business service LOY Processing Engine.

  Acceptable values for this user property are Sync and Async.

Setting Up the Batch Server Component

To set up the batch component, you can configure its parameters and you can set up a workflow to start this component when the server starts.

Parameters of the Batch Server Component

You can configure the batch server component by changing the parameters that are used in processing, which are summarized in Table 5. All of the parameters in this table apply only to eLoyalty Processing Engine - Batch.

Starting the Batch Server Component

The batch component must be started whenever the server is started. You can automate this process by using a workflow included in the product, which can be invoked on server startup. For more information about workflows, see Siebel Business Process Designer Administration Guide.

To start the batch component, you must know:

• The number of servers and number of processes on each server. This number is determined by the administrator based on the transaction load.
• The number of threads desired in each process. This number is determined based on the hardware being used. For each process, at least two threads are necessary—the queue manager thread and the processing thread. There can be more than one processing thread, depending on the number of CPUs and other resources available. Having too many threads will cause an unnecessary paging and using too few threads will cause slow processing. It is best to use two or three threads per process.

NOTE:  Before starting the component, be sure that the keys have been correctly defined, as described in Setting Up Server Keys for Siebel Loyalty.

To start the servers manually

1. Be sure that the component parameters MinMTServers and MaxMTServers are set to the Number of Processes desired on each server.
2. For each server:
   1. Calculate (# of processes on server) x (1 + # of Processing Threads/Process)
   2. Submit this number of component requests for the eLoyalty Processing Engine - Batch.

      You can submit these component requests from the User Interface or from the server manager.

To use a workflow to start the servers

1. In the Siebel Business Process Administration screen, set up the workflow LOY Engine - Start Engine workflow by specifying the following two process properties:
   • NumberOfProcesses
   • NumberOfProcessingThreadsPerProcess.
2. Activate this workflow.

   This workflow will submit the component requests to start the required number of processes.