Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning

Consider your hardware resources and requirements carefully prior to rolling out configuration changes, to make sure that business requirements have been met and the client performs as anticipated in the design phase.

Review guidelines presented elsewhere in this book, particularly in Chapter 12, "Tuning Customer Configurations for Performance," and in other relevant documents on the Siebel Bookshelf.

Ongoing testing and monitoring of your system performance is strongly recommended, because database characteristics change over time. To maintain an optimally performing system over time, you must plan for growth or other changes in your deployed application.

Activities that you perform to achieve performance and scalability goals might include the following:

Adjusting your system topology
Configuring the Siebel application in Siebel Tools or through other methods
Configuring Siebel Server components, particularly the Siebel Application Object Manager
Adjusting hardware resources available on local computers
Adjusting operating system settings on server or client computers
Adjusting Siebel Application Interface settings or network settings
Setting user preferences for Siebel applications

This topic contains the following information:

"Providing Sufficient Capacity for Siebel Application Interface and the Network"
"Testing Performance for Web Clients"
"Providing Sufficient Client Hardware Resources"
"Tuning System Components"
"Following Configuration Guidelines"
"Specifying Static File Caching on the Siebel Application Interface"
"Configuring the Data Block Size of HTTP Requests for the Siebel Developer Web Client"
"Managing Performance Related to Message Notification"

Providing Sufficient Capacity for Siebel Application Interface and the Network

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

Make sure that your Siebel Application Interface is appropriately configured to meet your performance requirements. See also "Specifying Static File Caching on the Siebel Application Interface".

Make sure that your network capacity (bandwidth) meets your performance requirements, and that your environment supports full duplex Ethernet. In addition, it is highly recommended that you install all Siebel Servers on the same subnet. For more information, review the general requirements for Siebel Enterprise Server installation and configuration in the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

The following factors impact decisions regarding network bandwidth:

Application configuration. Large, complex views will require bigger templates, more controls, and more data to be sent from the Siebel Application Interface to the client. If bandwidth is an issue, then it is important to consider user scenarios to determine the optimal size and layout per view.

For example, for views used frequently, reduce the number of fields displayed. Rather than assuming a specific set of columns to display in list applets, provide the minimal number of columns required in the base configuration and let users decide which columns to display. For more information, see Chapter 12, "Tuning Customer Configurations for Performance."
Login. The first login is generally the most expensive operation for the Siebel client. The client infrastructure caches the main components of the application on first login. Subsequent logins require far fewer resources. Cached objects remain on the client computer until the cache is cleared or a new version of the application configuration is available.

Testing Performance for Web Clients

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

Oracle Advanced Customer Services offers general guidance based on information known about the characteristics of the configured Siebel application. Contact your Oracle sales representative to request assistance from Oracle Advanced Customer Services.

Customer testing is advised in any case, because assumptions are based on general data. Actual experience can vary due to use-case scenarios. Select a few of the most common scenarios: those that represent the highest percentage of activity. Collect the overall bandwidth used.

Make sure that you are testing with warm views (already visited and cached) if this is how the application will be used most of the time, assuming that users log in and use the application for four to eight hours at a time before logging off and starting a new session.

When you estimate bandwidth required for several users sharing a low-bandwidth connection, consider use-cases carefully and plan accordingly. Rather than planning for worst-case network-performance scenarios (such as all users simultaneous pressing the Enter key or visiting a new view), it is likely that very few users are actually using the network at the same time. For more information about performance monitoring, see Chapter 14, "Monitoring Siebel Application Performance with Siebel ARM."

Web client performance also depends on browser performance. For general information about this issue, see Deploying Siebel Open UI.

Providing Sufficient Client Hardware Resources

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

For best client performance for employee applications, provide sufficient or generous hardware resources to your end users. Requirements can vary according to your deployment.

The more memory that is available on your client computers, the greater the number of views that can be cached. For more information, see "Specifying Static File Caching on the Siebel Application Interface".

The speed of the processors (CPU) on your client computers will affect how quickly the Siebel application user interface is rendered.

For best performance for Siebel applications, it is generally recommended to use recent versions of browsers that support all applicable standards in your testing and in your user deployments. More recent versions often include fixes and performance enhancements.

For Siebel client hardware and other platform requirements and recommendations, see the Certifications tab on My Oracle Support. For information about deploying Siebel applications in the browser, see Deploying Siebel Open UI.

Tuning System Components

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

Overall end user performance is affected by the processing on the client as well as by everything from the Siebel Application Interface to the Siebel database and back. Explore all applicable areas for opportunities to improve overall performance.

Most performance tuning involving Siebel Server components focuses on the Siebel Application Object Manager. For more information, see Chapter 3, "Tuning the Siebel Application Object Manager for Performance."

You can use Siebel ARM to monitor transactions through the Siebel infrastructure. Note areas which require substantial time and resources, and investigate them further for tuning opportunities.

For example, a custom configuration might have resulted in an unintentionally complex SQL statement for which the database instance has not been optimized. Small configuration adjustments in Siebel Tools, or database tuning, can improve both client performance and application scalability on Siebel Servers. For more information about Siebel ARM, see Chapter 14, "Monitoring Siebel Application Performance with Siebel ARM."

Following Configuration Guidelines

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

For best performance by the Siebel client, carefully assess all customer configuration initiatives. All configuration changes must be justifiable in terms of the cost of configuration itself, and in terms of possible impact on performance.

Some application administration tasks might also affect application performance, and must also be carefully assessed.

Follow guidelines presented in Chapter 12, "Tuning Customer Configurations for Performance," or in other books on the Siebel Bookshelf.

Specifying Static File Caching on the Siebel Application Interface

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

Siebel application elements are stored in the browser cache, to improve performance when users log in or access Siebel views.

Note:

When measuring performance, take caching into account. For example, performance is better where application elements are retrieved from the browser cache than when the same elements are not cached and must be retrieved from the system.

Browser caching behavior is also subject to Siebel Application Interface settings for static file caching. Appropriate settings allow files that are rarely updated, such as image files, JavaScript files, or style sheet files, to be cached on the browser. Caching static files reduces network utilization and enhances Siebel Web Client response time.

For more information about tuning Siebel Application Interface, see Chapter 13, "Tuning Operating Systems for Performance."

Configuring the Data Block Size of HTTP Requests for the Siebel Developer Web Client

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".For the Siebel Developer Web Client, Siebel Business Applications use HTTP requests and responses to exchange information between the browser and the internal Web server that is part of the siebel.exe executable program. You can change the maximum length of the HTTP request data that is passed. By default, the maximum limit for the HTTP request is 524288 bytes (512 KB), which is typically sufficient. However, you can change this limit by configuring the DataBlockSize parameter in the [Siebel] section of the application configuration file, such as uagent.cfg for Siebel Call Center. If you change the value of this parameter, and restart the Siebel Developer Web Client, then the siebel.exe memory usage will reflect whatever value you set.

Managing Performance Related to Message Notification

This topic is part of "Guidelines for Siebel Web Client Tuning".

Employee applications such as Siebel Call Center include the message notification feature. The display of messages in the Siebel client requires network resources and local resources on the client computer to continually update the displayed text.

If your deployment does not require it, then turn off the message notification feature to save processing resources.
If some of your users require message notification, then you can specify that users will be able to turn it off by choosing Tools, then User Preferences, and then Message Notification.

For more information about message notification, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.