Using Server Keys for Load Balancing

The number of different keys you define depends on:

• The number of servers available.

• The number of processes that can run on each server.

• The number of keys you assign to each server - process number combination.

It is recommended that you assign ten keys to each server - process number combination to allow the administrator to do load balancing by shifting keys from one process to another.

For example, imagine you determine that you need five server processes to process transactions. You have two servers available that can each run three processes, but one of them is already running another process.

It is possible to create only five keys and assign them to the five available server processes, as shown in the following table.

Key	Server	Process Number
Key 1	siebelserver1	1
Key 2	siebelserver1	2
Key 3	siebelserver2	1
Key 4	siebelserver2	2
Key 5	siebelserver2	3

However, if you create only five keys, then the administrator cannot manually switch keys from one process to another if one process is overloaded.

Therefore, it is recommended that you define fifty keys. Initially, you assign ten of these keys to each process. If one of the processes is overloaded, then the administrator can reassign one or more keys from that process to other processes.