Siebel CRM Performance Tuning Guide Siebel 2018 E24801-01 |
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In planning to deploy Siebel Application Object Managers, or in troubleshooting performance for existing Siebel Application Object Manager deployments, you must consider several factors that determine or influence performance.
Factors that are central to the task of configuring the Siebel Application Object Manager are also called performance drivers. Performance drivers for Siebel Application Object Manager include concurrent users and average think time. Other important factors such as hardware resources will set limits on overall capacity or capacity per server.
Subsequent topics provide information and guidelines to help you achieve and maintain optimal performance and scalability.
These factors are critical in initially configuring your Siebel Application Object Managers, particularly when specifying values for the component parameters MaxTasks
, MaxMTServers
, and MinMTServers
, which are discussed in "Tuning Siebel Application Object Manager Components for CPU and Memory Utilization".
The number of concurrent users is the total number of user sessions supported at any one time. It also includes sessions supporting anonymous users. It is useful to distinguish between concurrently connected users and concurrently active users: both sets of users consume memory, but only active users consume CPU (processor) resources.
For planning and tuning purposes, you must consider concurrent users (and total users) at multiple levels:
The entire deployment (enterprise)
Each Siebel Server
Each Siebel Application Object Manager component on each server
Each multithreaded process for each Siebel Application Object Manager component
The maximum number of concurrent users per Siebel Server (assuming, for example, that a particular Siebel Server computer is dedicated to running Siebel Application Object Manager components) depends on the average think time, on your hardware resources, and on the nature of your Siebel applications deployment.
In terms of configuration, the maximum number of concurrent users for the Siebel Application Object Manager is limited by the value of the MaxTasks
parameter. The effective maximum is also limited by the number of multithreaded processes for this Siebel Application Object Manager and by your hardware resources.
Depending on the average think time and other factors, each multithreaded process (that is, process within the Siebel Application Object Manager) typically supports a maximum of about 100 concurrent users. Configure enough multithreaded processes (using the MaxMTServers
parameter) to support the maximum number of concurrent users required for your peak loads.
Note: Some complex or specialized Object Manager components support fewer concurrent users. For example, Object Managers for Siebel eCommunications (part of Siebel Industry Applications) and Siebel Product Configurator typically support about 25 concurrent users. For more information about the Object Manager for Siebel Product Configurator (Siebel Product Configuration Object Manager), see Chapter 8, "Tuning Siebel Product Configurator for Performance." |
Think time is the average elapsed time between operations performed by users in a Siebel application. Think time includes the time required by users to conduct customer interactions, enter data into the application, and work in other applications.
The assumed think time has a direct relationship to the number of concurrent tasks that a multithreaded process can support. However, factors such as a high degree of customization or heavy use of scripting will reduce the number of tasks that each process can support.
Determine the average think time based on the usage patterns typical of your user base. After the application has been configured, perform a clickstream analysis for your key processes, and try to capture the time between the user actions (operations) that are represented by the clicks. Also use the list statistics
command in Siebel Server Manager to help you calculate average think time.
Consider the average time between each operation (such as clicking New) and each overall transaction (such as performing all steps for creating a new contact). Mouse clicks do not equate to operations if they do not send a request to the Siebel application infrastructure. Calculate the overall average think time based on all of these factors.
The ratio of 100 (100 tasks per process), based on a 30-second think time, is assumed in the formula for setting the MaxMTServers
parameter. This formula is presented in "Tuning Siebel Application Object Manager Components for CPU and Memory Utilization".
The ratio of 100 is based on having approximately three users running operations at the exact same time (100 divided by 30 = approximately 3.3). It is generally observed that each multithreaded process can handle about three operations at the same time with minimal performance degradation.
With longer think times, one multithreaded process can support more than 100 concurrent tasks; with shorter think times, fewer tasks. For example, if the think time is 15 seconds between user operations, then about 50 tasks per process could be supported (15 times 3.3 = approximately 50, or 50 divided by 15 = approximately 3.3).
Which Siebel applications and other modules that you are using, how you have configured your Siebel applications, how you have deployed your applications, and other such factors also affect Siebel Application Object Manager performance and how many concurrent users that you can support. Some of these factors include:
Will you support employee applications (such as Siebel Call Center), customer applications (such as Siebel eService), partner applications (such as Siebel PRM), or some combination of these?
Will you deploy your Siebel software in a global environment using multiple languages?
What degree and what kind of application configuration changes have you made, such as those that you do using Siebel Tools? For more information, see Chapter 12, "Tuning Customer Configurations for Performance."
The number of concurrent tasks that you can support varies based on the level of customization or the use of process automation for the application the Siebel Application Object Manager supports. Recommendations in this guide generally assume that operations performed are fairly standard or typical. Depending on your deployment and the modules used, some operations initiated by a single user action can be relatively complex and demand more resources than most other operations.
Will you use specialized functionality such as offered by Siebel Product Configurator (for product configuration) or Siebel CTI (computer telephony integration for call center agents)? How will you deploy such functionality? What percentage of your user base will use such functionality? These are only examples of such specialized functionality.
Hardware resources for each Siebel Server computer, particularly the CPU (processors) and memory, are a factor in how many concurrent users can be supported for each Siebel Application Object Manager component. For example, a four-processor computer has twice the resources of a two-processor computer and can potentially support twice as many concurrent users. Key hardware resources for Siebel Application Object Manager performance include:
CPU (processors). The number of processor cores in the CPU for the server computer, and the rating of these processors.
Memory. The amount of RAM, and whether it can accommodate users without excessive paging.
Disk I/O and network capacity are other important hardware factors, but they do not affect Siebel Application Object Manager tuning. They do significantly affect performance for the Siebel database and the Siebel File System, which can severely impact the overall user response time.
The total number of processor cores (alternatively, the total number of computers with a given number of processors) that you can devote to supporting Siebel Application Object Manager components will determine the total number of concurrent users.