Siebel Applications Administration Guide > Getting Started >

Selecting a Data Source

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

The following databases are potentially available to administrators and users:

• Local. A database that resides on your local computer. You can synchronize this database with the corporate database. This database is typically stored on a laptop computer, and mobile users who are not connected to a server when working use this database.
• Server. 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.

Always perform system administration tasks against the server database. Although you can perform these tasks against your local database and synchronize, doing so can 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 Business 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 numerous demo user accounts. (SADMIN is one of these accounts.) Each of these accounts 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, then your demo user's responsibility determines that views that you can access within Siebel Business Applications.

You do not have 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. You cannot copy the sample database to the server data sources.

To log on as a demo user, double-click the icon for the listed Siebel application in the Siebel client program group. The Demo Siebel application automatically logs the indicated user into the sample database. For the other Siebel Business Applications, enter the user ID and password in the logon dialog box, and select Connect to: Sample.

The sample database that ships with the Siebel application 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.