About the Siebel Gateway

The Siebel Gateway coordinates the Siebel Enterprise Server and Siebel Servers. A single Siebel Gateway can support a single Siebel Enterprise Server. The Siebel Gateway provides the persistent backing of Siebel Enterprise Server configuration information, including:

• Definitions and assignments of component groups and components

• Operational parameters

• Connectivity information

Because this information changes, such as during the configuration of a Siebel Server, it is written to the Siebel Gateway registry. At startup, the Siebel Server obtains its configuration information from the Siebel Gateway registry.

The Siebel Gateway provides the dynamic registry for Siebel Server and component availability information. At startup, a Siebel Server within the Siebel Enterprise Server notifies the Siebel Gateway of its availability and stores its connectivity information, such as network addresses, in the Siebel Gateway's nonpersistent (volatile) store.

Enterprise components (including the Server Manager) query the Siebel Gateway for Siebel Server availability and connectivity information. When a Siebel Server shuts down, this nonpersistent information is cleared from the Siebel Gateway.

In a Windows environment, the Siebel Gateway runs as a Windows service. In a UNIX environment, the Siebel Gateway runs as a daemon process. The system process for the Siebel Gateway is siebsvc.exe on Windows and siebsvc on UNIX. Each running Siebel Server has a corresponding Siebel Gateway system process.

The Siebel Gateway also includes an application container. The application container process for the Siebel Gateway is javaw.exe on Windows and javaw on UNIX.

A single Siebel Gateway can potentially serve several databases in an environment (such as multiple development and test environments). To mitigate dependencies and improve recoverability, keep the Siebel production environment separate from other Siebel environments (development or test) by using a separate Siebel Gateway.

If you decide to maintain multiple development or test environments on one Siebel Gateway, then you must use a distinct Siebel Enterprise Server for each table owner (or each Siebel database, for Microsoft SQL Server).

Note: There can be only one Siebel Gateway installed on any one computer. For more information, see Siebel Deployment Planning Guide and the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

Impact of Failure

When the Siebel Gateway goes down, service to active user connections is not immediately interrupted. All of the Siebel Server components, including Application Object Managers, that are currently running continue to do so. However, no new Siebel Server components can be started or added. Server administration functions become limited.