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Creating the Siebel File System

This topic is part of Planning Your Siebel Deployment.

The Siebel File System is a shared directory, or set of directories, that is network-accessible to the Siebel Server and that can store files such as attachments for use by Siebel Business Applications. Siebel File System directories might optionally exist on multiple separate devices or partitions.

Each File System directory might be created on a server computer where you have installed a Siebel Server, or on another network server that can share the directory, so that it is available to the Siebel Server. Consult your third-party documentation for requirements for networked file systems.

Creating multiple Siebel File System directories in different locations can enable you to store larger volumes of data. As new file attachments are inserted, they are evenly distributed to these multiple File System directories. If you create multiple File System directories, then you must include all of the directory locations, delimited by commas, when you specify the Siebel File System location during configuration of your Siebel environment. Each File System directory location must be uniquely named within the network context where it will be accessed.

You can exclude certain types of files from being saved to the Siebel File System, as determined by their file extensions. For more information about setting system preferences to enable this feature and to specify the file extensions to be excluded, see Siebel Security Hardening Guide.

Siebel File System Requirements

The following are requirements for the Siebel File System. Additional requirements are noted later in this topic.

• A primary Siebel File System directory must be created before you configure the Siebel Enterprise. You specify this location during configuration. The user running the Siebel Configuration Wizard must have write permission in this directory.
• It is strongly recommended that you disable short file-name generation on Windows servers hosting the Siebel File System, because this type of file-naming can cause severe performance issues when the file system grows to a large size.
• The underlying physical file system must use file locking. Valid locks must be returned that are appropriate to the action being undertaken. For example, when a file is created or written to, an exclusive lock is needed. File locking must ensure the integrity of the files accessed. If a write lock is acquired for a file, then no other process must be able to access the file. For more information and recommendations, see 759070.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support.

  For a UNIX deployment with an NFS file system, you must enable the NFS server's lockd and statd daemons, and also the basic NFS daemons that implement mounting and accessing a share. These locking daemons must be tuned to the number of operating system threads. Otherwise, these daemons might not be able to manage the high volume of concurrent file system lock requests that a large scale Siebel CRM system can generate.

• If the operating systems of the computers hosting the Siebel Server and a File System directory are different (for example, one Windows and one UNIX), then you might have to deploy a third-party cross-platform networking tool, such as Samba, to allow both computers to share the directory. See your third-party vendor documentation for details.
• You must create a separate Siebel File System for each Siebel Enterprise. For example, if you have development and test databases, then you must have two separate Siebel Enterprises, and therefore two Siebel File Systems.
• The ability to use multiple directories and devices for the Siebel File System does not apply to the Siebel Mobile Web Client, for which the Siebel File System must use a single directory on the client computer.
• If you operate a File System directory as part of a cluster for failover purposes, then you must create the directory on a clustered disk drive with a clustered network share resource. For information about clustering your servers and about deployment options for the Siebel File System, see Siebel Deployment Planning Guide.

Siebel File System and Siebel Server Components

Each Siebel Server accesses the Siebel File System (for the Siebel Enterprise) by means of a dedicated server component, called File System Manager (alias FSMSrvr). Individual Siebel Web Clients require no direct knowledge of the locations of the Siebel File System directories, because they connect to FSMSrvr through the Application Object Manager component on the Siebel Server to request file uploads or downloads. The Application Object Manager passes such requests to FSMSrvr, which processes the requests through interaction with the File System directories.

Because the Siebel Server is the sole access mechanism to the Siebel File System, the user with administrative privileges for the Siebel Server, and no other user, must have access privileges to the File System directories. This precaution protects the File System from direct physical access by all other users.

Some Siebel Server components might access the Siebel File System directly, without using File System Manager.

Siebel File System Parameter

The Siebel File System parameter defines the particular directory or set of directories that you are using for the Siebel File System. Specify multiple File System directories delimited by commas.

The Siebel File System parameter can be defined at the Siebel Enterprise level, Siebel Server level, or server component level. For example, for a Siebel Server dedicated for use with Siebel EIM, you might choose to use a Siebel File System location that is not in general use in the Siebel Enterprise. Use Server Manager to individually modify the parameter at the Siebel Server or component level, if the File System that is to be used by a particular Siebel Server or applicable component has different directory locations than are defined for the Siebel Enterprise.

The value of the Siebel File System parameter cannot exceed 255 characters in length.

NOTE:  Verify that the network names of servers that support the Siebel File System are properly recorded in your copy of the worksheet in Siebel Deployment Planning Worksheet. Use the computer names, not the IP addresses, for the Siebel File System names. IP addresses are not supported.

Siebel File System Encryption

Depending on how your environment is configured, the File System Manager component encrypts and decrypts certain types of attachment files stored in the Siebel File System, in the att subdirectories of the Siebel File System directories. The Siebel Developer Web Client also encrypts and decrypts attachment files.

The setting for the parameter EncryptPrefix (full name Encrypt Prefix of File System) for the File System Manager component or for the Siebel Developer Web Client determines which types of attachment files are subject to encryption and decryption. Attachment files are encrypted and decrypted for records that are stored in the specified Siebel database tables.

Attachment files are decrypted and encrypted as needed, based on the setting of EncryptPrefix. Existing unencrypted attachment files are not encrypted automatically unless they are resaved to the File System, given an appropriate setting for EncryptPrefix.

NOTE:  Encrypted attachment files can always be decrypted when they are retrieved, if necessary, regardless of the setting of EncryptPrefix. However, it is strongly recommended to set EncryptPrefix consistently for all instances of the File System Manager component or of the Siebel Developer Web Client that will access the same Siebel File System.

For detailed information about configuring Siebel File System encryption, see Siebel Security Guide. You can use the SiebFSEncrypt utility to manually encrypt existing attachment files in the Siebel File System. For more information about using this utility, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

Siebel File System Utilities

The following utilities are available to help you manage your Siebel File System directories: sfscleanup, sfspartition, and SiebFSEncrypt.

• Use sfscleanup to clean up orphan files in the Siebel File System.
• Use sfspartition to configure an existing Siebel File System to use multiple partitions or multiple directories.
• Use SiebFSEncrypt to compress and encrypt existing files in the Siebel File System.

For information about using these utilities, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

Naming a Siebel File System Directory

Each Siebel File System directory name must be alphanumeric, must begin with an alphabetic character, and cannot contain special characters or spaces. Underscores are permitted. For example, you might name a directory something like this:

/server/siebel or /server/siebel/filesystem

Such a directory might be referred to using the following notation:

/SiebelFS/siebel15

where:

• SiebelFS is the host name of the computer (for example, where a dedicated computer is used for the Siebel File System).
• siebel15 is the name of the shared directory.

You have to specify all of the applicable shared directories (delimited by commas) when configuring the Siebel Enterprise. These shared directories must be available to all of the Siebel Servers in the Siebel Enterprise. You might have to use a file-sharing tool to access the directories.

As part of the Siebel Server installation, File System Manager automatically generates a set of subdirectories under each Siebel File System root directory, as described in Table 28.

NOTE:  When you create a Siebel File System shared directory, only the associated Siebel Servers must be allowed to create subdirectories in that location. Do not manually create subdirectories in that location.

For more information about some of these subdirectories, see Siebel System Administration Guide.

Setting Up the Siebel File System

Use the following procedures to set up the Siebel File System directories.

NOTE:  In addition to using the following steps, you must install the third-party software required to view standard attachment types, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or Lotus Notes, on client computers where users run Siebel Business Applications.

To set up the Siebel File System

1. Create each directory on the applicable server and record all of the directory locations in the copy that you made of the worksheet in Siebel Deployment Planning Worksheet.
2. Using the appropriate administrative tools for your UNIX operating system, set permissions for the Siebel administrator to access the directory and subdirectories to 700.

   NOTE:  Only the Siebel administrator for the Siebel Server, and no other user, must have access privileges to the Siebel File System directories.

3. Grant access to each Siebel Server for the appropriate group.

   If an appropriate GUI-based administrative tool does not exist on your operating system, then you can use the chmod and chgrp utilities to set these parameters. Consult your UNIX operating system documentation for more information.

Related Topics

Populating the Siebel File System

Related Books

Siebel Deployment Planning Guide

Siebel System Administration Guide

Siebel Security Guide

Siebel Security Hardening Guide