Installing and Administering Siebel Smart Answer

This chapter describes how to install and administer the Siebel Smart Answer Server. It includes the following topics:

Components of Siebel Smart Answer Server

Siebel Smart Answer uses the following components:

Siebel Smart Answer Installer. The installer for Siebel Smart Answer will perform the initial steps of configuration and installation for your Siebel Smart Answer System. It is capable of installing the Siebel Smart Answer Server and Siebel Smart Answer Administrative Tool. It also contains all the necessary software required for the Siebel Smart Answer Integration Adapter.
Siebel Smart Answer Server. All the major functionality of the Siebel Smart Answer System is driven by the Siebel Smart Answer Server, such as the operations of the Integration Adapter and Administrative Tool. The Siebel Smart Answer Server is capable of running a master and slave setup such that if a Siebel Smart Answer Server fails, the slave server will immediately take over operation, ensuring high availability.
Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool. This tool is a graphical user interface for managing the data inside of the Siebel Smart Answer Server. For more information on Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.
Siebel Smart Answer Integration Adapter for Siebel. The adapter is a small library that allows Siebel Business Applications to connect to the Siebel Smart Answer Server for providing Language Identification, Categorization, and Feedback for Categorization.

Installation Prerequisites for Siebel Smart Answer

This section will cover the hardware and software requirements for the Siebel Smart Answer components. The requirements for Siebel Smart Answer are broken into three parts: Siebel Smart Answer Server, Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool, and Siebel Smart Answer Adapter requirements.

Siebel Smart Answer Server

For more information about the operating system, hardware, and software required as prerequisites to installing Oracle’s Siebel Smart Answer Server, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms Guide.

Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool

The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool is a remote client for interfacing with Oracle’s Siebel Smart Answer Server. In order to use the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool you must have an active Siebel Smart Answer Server installed on your network. The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool is currently available on all major operating systems that support the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.6 or greater.

Smart Answer Adapter for Siebel

The Smart Answer Adapter for Siebel is a thin client interface that interacts with Oracle’s Siebel Smart Answer Server. A Siebel Smart Answer Server must be installed on your network for the adapter to work. For more information about the prerequisites for installing Oracle's Smart Answer Adapter for Siebel, see Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms Guide.

Installing Siebel Smart Answer Server

The following are the required tasks for installing Oracle’s Siebel Smart Answer Server.

To install the Siebel Smart Answer Server

Unpack the Installation Package (SmartAnswerInstall.zip), located in the Smart_Answer directory.
Run install.py in the extracted directory.
Select language from the list.

The main install screen appears providing the options described in the following table:

Option	Description
Configure And Install	Creates a new configuration for Siebel Smart Answer and installs the necessary software for Siebel Smart Answer Server.
Install	Installs Siebel Smart Answer Server from an existing configuration.
Admin Tool	Creates a distributable package for the Administrative Tool.
Quit	Exits the installer.

Note: Configuration will walk you through a number of screens asking you to enter in some information. After you have entered in the appropriate data, select Next to proceed. You may also select Previous at any point to go to the previous screen. On the final configuration screen you will be able to select Finish to start the installation process. At each step of the configuration process you will be asked to enter information. If the Installer thinks you may have entered incorrect information it will prompt you for a correction. Select Next when you have filled in all information on a screen to proceed to the next configuration step.

Select Configure and Install.
Choose an installation directory. The first item to configure is the location where the smart_answer_server directory will be created. This directory will store all of the Siebel Smart Answer Server software and data.
Name the Master and Alternate servers. These are server host names which must be accessible from each other and also from the computer where the Siebel application is installed. Configuring an Alternate server is optional, but highly recommended for environments requiring uninterrupted service with high reliability.
For best performance the Siebel server, Master server, and Alternate server must be installed and run on separate computers.
Configure Smart Answer to send notifications. The Siebel Smart Answer Server can send email notifications to administrators whenever the Alternate or Master server becomes unreachable. To enable notifications you will need an SMTP mail server and an existing email address to send to. If your SMTP mail server requires authentication you will must specify this as well. To specify multiple addresses to send to, simply separate with a comma; that is, admin@mycompany.com, other@mycompany.com. Addresses can also be in the format Name [address]; that is, First Last admin@mycompany.com.
Identify the Siebel Database. In order to keep the Siebel Smart Answer Server synchronized with Siebel, Siebel Smart Answer needs read access to the database that the Siebel application uses. Siebel Smart Answer will not insert data directly into the Siebel application; it will only read parts of the database to ensure the categories it is returning are up to date. Siebel Smart Answer supports synchronization with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.

Note: If using Oracle as the backend database, the database name is SIEBEL. It assumes the database name is dbo, for MSSQL. For information on modifying the defaults, see Configuring Siebel Smart Answer to Synchronize with Siebel Catalogs.
Set the PostgreSQL database installation location (for example: C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\8.3). Siebel Smart Answer Server uses the PostgreSQL database for storage. This is done to ensure performance of the Siebel application is not compromised by Siebel Smart Answer. No other configuration is needed beyond the default installation of the PostgreSQL database. After Siebel Smart Answer knows where the PostgreSQL database has been installed, the Siebel Smart Answer Server will handle all of the setup and administration of the database it uses.
After you have completed all configuration steps, select Finish to start the installation process.
A new window will pop up showing the progress of the installation. As a final step in the installation of the Siebel Smart Answer Server, the installer will create a Windows service Smart Answer Server - Master or (Smart Answer Server - Alternate if installing the Alternate server).
Select OK and the main installation screen will be presented to you again.

Installing Siebel Smart Answer as a Windows Service

Running Siebel Smart Answer as a service eliminates the possibility of data corruption and allows the Siebel Smart Answer Server to run in the background without the need of a logged in user. As the final step of the installation process the Siebel Smart Answer Server(s) are installed as services.

Starting the Siebel Smart Answer Servers

Use the following procedure to start the Siebel Smart Answer servers.

To start the Siebel Smart Answer Servers

Navigate to Administrative Tools - Services from the Start Menu or the Control Panel.
Select the service Smart Answer Server - Master (or Alternate) service.
Right-click on the entry for the selected service and select the Properties from the menu.
Change the Startup Type to Automatic.
Select Apply and then OK to close the Properties window.
To start the service, go to the Status column, right-click, and select Start.

Running the Command Line Administration Tool for Initial Setup

Siebel Smart Answer Server has a command line client utility for maintaining the Siebel Smart Answer Server after it is installed and running. This utility only works on the computer with the active Siebel Smart Answer Server.

To run the command line utility

Navigate to the smart_answer_server directory.
Run python cmd_admin.py help to see the full listing of all the command options.

Note: Executing python cmd_admin.py help [command name] will show more information about the command specified in [command name]. For more information on the command line utility options, see Running the Command Line Administration Tutorial.
Run tests to ensure your installation is fully up and running by executing python cmd_admin.py test. If not all tests pass, attempt to re-install. Or for help with installing the Siebel Smart Answer Server create a Service Request (SR) on My Oracle Support. Alternatively you can phone Oracle Global Customer Support directly to create a service request or get a status update on your current SR.
Create a new user by executing: python cmd_admin.py createuser sa_admin. You will be prompted for a new password and also to confirm the new password.

Note: This is the same user and password that will be used for the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.
Create the default corpus by executing: python cmd_admin.py createcorpus [corpus name. i.e KB]. You will be prompted for a user name and password. Enter the user you created in the previous step.
Delete the default user admin by executing: python cmd_admin.py deleteuser admin.

Installing the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool

The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool is an easy to use interface for creating and managing a knowledge base corpus and model. For more information on the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

To install the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool

Run install.py in the extracted directory.

The main install screen appears providing the following options:

Option	Description
Configure And Install	Creates a new configuration for Siebel Smart Answer and installs the necessary software for Siebel Smart Answer Server.
Install	Installs Siebel Smart Answer Server from an existing configuration.
Admin Tool	Creates a distributable package for the Administrative Tool.
Quit	Exits the installer.

Select Admin Tool. The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool installation starts a configuration wizard with Previous, Next, Cancel, and Finish buttons for navigating the configuration steps.
Load the installation configuration file from the smart_answer_server directory (D:\smart_answer_server\install.properties). This file is called install.properties and contains configuration information about the location of the Master and Alternate Siebel Smart Answer servers installed in the previous steps.
Select an installation directory where the smart_answer_admin will be created. This directory will contain all of the necessary software to run the Siebel Smart Answer Administrative Tool.
When created, it is possible to copy this directory to any computer with Java installed and run the client. This has been done for ease of installation. Siebel Smart Answer will only allow one user to administer a corpus at a time.
Configure Siebel Smart Answer Server Endpoint. As an optional second step a user can configure the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool to point to a default Siebel Smart Answer Server. This is an optional step and can be done later by changing the default.ini file inside the installed smart_answer_admin directory.
Select Finish to proceed with Installation. A progress bar will be presented to you showing how far along the installation process is. A pop up dialog will notify you that installation has finished.

After the installation is complete, you will be asked if you would like to create a shortcut in the Programs menu to run the Administrative tool.

Installing the Siebel Smart Answer Adapter

Siebel requires two files to talk to Siebel Smart Answer: SAAdapter.dll, and saconnectorconfig.txt. The connecting component between the Siebel Server and the Siebel Smart Answer Server is a library called SAAdapter.dll. This file can be found in the installation package or the smart_answer_server directory under siebel_dll.

Copy SAAdapater.dll to the server running Siebel under the Siebel installation directory siebsrvr\BIN.

Note: SAAdapter.dll operates on the network port 20102
Create a file saconnectorconfig.txt inside the siebsrvr\smartanswer directory. saconnectorconfig.txt must contain the hostnames of the Master and (if available) and Alternate server where you installed the Siebel Smart Answer Server(s). The format of saconnectorconfig.txt must follow the example below with the Catalogs Sales and Support enabled for Siebel Smart Answer:
[Sales]
my_sa_host1
my_sa_host2
[Support]
support_sa_host1
support_sa_host2

Note: It is highly recommended that each knowledge base have a dedicated Siebel Smart Answer server in order to guarantee timely responses.
Verify that the file SAConfig.xml inside siebsrvr\smartanswer contains the correct location to SAAdpater.dll.
Create a system environment variable SAConnectorConfigDir that contains the full path of the directory containing saconnectorconfig.txt; that is
```
D:\ sba81\siebsrvr\smartanswer
```
Log out and log back in to the account that you are installing Siebel Smart Answer and Siebel Server so that the variable takes effect.
Restart the Siebel Server.

Uninstalling Siebel Smart Answer

If at any time you must upgrade to a new version of the Siebel Smart Answer Server or wish to remove Siebel Smart Answer from a computer you must uninstall the Siebel Adapter, the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool, and the Siebel Smart Answer Server.

Uninstalling the Siebel Smart Answer Adapter

Use the following procedure to uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Adapter.

To uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Adapter

Disable Siebel Smart Answer for all Catalogs to ensure no requests attempt to run.
Remove SAAdapter.dll from siebsrvr/BIN.
Delete saconnectorconfig.txt from siebsrvr/smartanswer.

Uninstalling the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool

Use the following procedure to uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

To uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool

Ensure no Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tools are running on the computer.
Delete shortcut under Programs menu.
Delete smart_answer_admin directory.

Uninstalling the Siebel Smart Answer Server

Use the following procedure to uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Server.

To uninstall the Siebel Smart Answer Server

Stop the Siebel Smart Answer Server.
Ensure no windows are open to the smart_answer_server folder and that the Siebel server is stopped.

Note: The uninstall process will fail to delete all files if a window is open to the installed directory that is to be removed. This includes all command prompts and directory explorers.
Execute uninstall.py from the Installation package.
The uninstall process will ask you to do the following:
- Enter the full path to the installed directory. Example: C:\smart_answer_server.
- Answer YES or NO if you would like to remove all Windows services for running Siebel Smart Answer.
- Answer YES or NO if you would like to delete the installed directory and all of its contents.
  
  Note: This will remove all data and software for this installation. If you wish to save your data create a backup file using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

Siebel Smart Answer Server Directory Contents

The smart_answer_server directory contains the program files for running and administering the Siebel Smart Answer Server. The program files covered in this section include:

cmd_admin.py starts a command line client for basic server administration tasks.
metaserver.log contains the logs for the Siebel Smart Answer Server. This file will not be created until the Siebel Smart Answer Server is first run.

Running the Command Line Administration Tutorial

Siebel Smart Answer Server has a command line utility for basic administration tasks. This is especially important since both user and corpus creation and deleting is only available from the command line client.

To run the command line administration tutorial

Navigate to the smart_answer_server directory and execute: python cmd_admin.py help.

Execute python cmd_admin.py help [command name] to show more information about each available command. The commands available from the command line cmd_admin.py tool are described in the following table.

Command	Description
createcorpus	Creates an empty collection of documents for later use.
createuser	Creates a user for using the Siebel Smart Answer Server.
deletecorpus	Deletes all data associated with a corpus.
deleteuser	Deletes a user.
domaintenance	Immediately execute a maintenance cycle on a corpus. Note: A maintenance cycle synchronizes categories from Siebel, removes redundant or outdated examples that have accumulated in the corpus, and trains a new knowledge base.
getmaintenance	Reports the time daily maintenance is set to run for a corpus.
help	Displays the list of commands available in the Command line administrative tool.
setmaintenance	Sets the time daily maintenance is set to run for a corpus.
shutdown	Cleanly shuts down the Siebel Smart Answer Server.
test	Executes a brief set of tests to verify basic functionality of the Siebel Smart Answer Server.
testnotification	Sends an email testing notification configuration.

Configuring Siebel Smart Answer to Synchronize with Siebel Catalogs

By default Siebel Smart Answer assumes that the Siebel Database is named SIEBEL if the type of the database is Oracle. It assumes it is dbo, if the database is MSSQL. These default names are set at installation time. Your database name might not match these default names.

To configure Siebel Smart Answer to synchronize with Siebel Catalogs

Navigate to the smart_answer_server\scripts directory.
Open the file metaserver.config in Notepad or the editor of your choice.

Add the parameters as described in the following table.

Parameter	Value
siebel.query.catalog = SELECT ROW_ID FROM [DBNAME].S_CTLG WHERE NAME = ?	Replace [DBNAME] with the name of your database.
siebel.query.categories = SELECT ROW_ID, NAME, PAR_CAT_ID, RESP_THRESHOLD FROM [DBNAME].S_CTLG_CAT WHERE CTLG_ID =?	Replace [DBNAME] with the name of your database.

Configuring Master and Alternate Siebel Smart Answer Servers

Each Siebel Smart Answer Server is capable of running with two servers. The Master server is the active server which is responsible for the run time operations of the Siebel Smart Answer system. The Alternate server is the backup server which does no run-time processing, but collects data from the Master to ensure all of the data is synchronized between the servers in case failover is required. There are two programs for starting servers in the smart_answer_server directory, which were installed as services during installation.

Startup Behavior

What follows are guidelines for the start up process and expected behavior of the Siebel Smart Answer Master and Alternate servers.

The server immediately tries to locate and connect to the other server. This is true for both the Master and the Alternate servers.
Servers must not be started simultaneously. Wait approximately 30 seconds for the Master server to start before starting the Alternate server.
If this attempt fails, this server considers itself the Master and takes over the Siebel Smart Answer run-time services.
If at startup a server successfully connects to a Master, it considers itself the Alternate.
When this happens the Alternate will re-initialize its underlying data to match the Master and then continue to mirror any updates to the Master as long as the Master is reachable.

Note: Configuration data is not mirrored, only data relating to corpora, dashboard analytics, and knowledge bases are mirrored (All data viewable in the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool is synchronized).

Failover Behavior

If for any reason the Master server is unreachable by the Alternate server, (power outage, computer failure, network failure). The Alternate server will enter recovery mode. When this happens the Alternate server:

Stops trying to synchronize data.
Starts the Siebel Smart Answer run-time services.
Waits for communication from clients such as the SAAdapter.dll or the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool.

Note: At this point the Alternate is now considered the Master server.
The original Master server must be manually started again, at which point it will:
1. Re-initialize data from the new Master.
2. Begin synchronizing incoming data from the new Master.
  
  Note: The server will stay in the Alternate state until the new Master fails.
The SAAdapter.dll will rotate through the list of servers in saconnectorconfig.txt until it finds a valid connection. Currently Siebel Smart Answer only supports one additional backup server.
The Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool must be reconnected to the new Master.

Redeploying the Siebel Smart Answer Servers

In the case where the Siebel Smart Answer servers must be moved or upgraded to different hostnames you must update the Siebel Smart Answer connector configuration files and restart the appropriate services.

To redeploy the Siebel Smart Answer Servers

Navigate to the Siebel Smart Answer Server installation directory.
Back up smart_answer_server\scripts\metaserver.config.
Back up siebsrvr/smartanswer/saconnectorconfig.txt.

Update the new hostname references in:

siebsrvr\smart_answer_server\scripts\metaserver.config

Update the new hostname references in:

siebsrvr\smartanswer\saconnectorconfig.txt

Restart Siebel Server.

Notifications When Communication Is Lost to a Siebel Smart Answer Server

Whenever an Alternate loses communication with a Master or a Master loses communication with an Alternate. An email will be sent to the address specified in Installation with a message identifying the detected failure.

Installing the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool on Other Computers

The smart_answer_admin directory created by the installer can be copied to another computer for easy distribution of the Administrative Tool. The default.ini file in the smart_answer_admin folder is the only configurable element of the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool. For more information on configuring the default.ini file, see Using the Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool and Siebel Smart Answer Administration Tool Guide.

Siebel Smart Answer Error Codes

The following are the error codes and their meaning. The errors and any relevant details can be found in [siebelserverinstallationroot]\log\smartanswer_XXX.log:

NoDefaultModel. There is no model present for the selected catalog. To fix this error, the user must retrain the model using the Smart Answer Administration Tool.
NoSuchCatalog. The catalog specified in the request does not exist on this Smart Answer instance.
RequestParseError. The request was ill-formed in some way. Details may be found in the Smart Answer log.
NoEndpointFound. No endpoint corresponding to the specified Catalog could be found in the connector's configuration file. A connection to the endpoint for the specified catalog could not be established.
UnknownError. An error other than one of the above occurred. The server administrator must consult the Smart Answer log for more details.