A Basic Introduction to Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM)

About Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM):

• Siebel EIM is a server component in the Siebel EAI component group that transfers data between the Siebel database and other corporate data sources.
• Exchange of information is accomplished through intermediary tables called EIM/Interface tables.
• The EIM tables act as a staging area between the Siebel application database and other data sources.
• EIM is the primary method of loading mass quantities of data into the Siebel database.
• EIM can be used to perform bulk imports, updates, merges, and deletes of data.

How does EIM Works?

• Siebel applications uses Siebel Base tables for storing and retrieving data. The data that is to be imported can come from various sources like legacy database, external database etc.
• The external data cannot be directly imported into siebel base tables. This is due to the reason that database structure of the external databases, their formats, schema etc would differ from siebel database structures. In fact Siebel does not allows this.
• For the consistency of data and load process, the external data first stages into the EIM tables and then subsequently loaded into siebel tables through EIM jobs.
• So the data exchanges between the Siebel database and external databases occurs in two parts:

1. Load data into EIM tables.
2. Run Siebel EIM jobs to import the data from the EIM tables into the Siebel base tables.

• It is worthy to note that the first part of this data-exchange process involves only the EIM tables from siebel side, only the second part of the process involves the functionality of Siebel EIM.
• Also, EIM should be used to perform bulk imports, exports, merges, and deletes, instead of direct SQL. Oracle does not allows this.

EIM Process/Functions:

There are 4 different process/functions in Siebel EIM namely:
1. Import
2. Delete
3. Merge
4. Export
Details of these process can be found in later blog posts.

Process Flow between EIM and Non-Siebel databases:

For each EIM process, you need to complete the following sequence of steps.

1. Prepare the EIM tables:

• For delete, merge, or import operations, the EIM tables require loading with representative data that allows EIM to identify the specific Siebel base table on which to operate.
• You can use either an SQL program utility or native SQL to perform this function.
• The EIM export processes require minimal preparation of the EIM tables.
• When an export operation takes place, the EIM tables are populated with data from the Siebel base tables. Therefore, you can use either an SQL program or native SQL to transfer data from the Siebel application to a non-Siebel application.

2. Edit the EIM configuration file:

• An ASCII or Unicode (binary) text file of extension type .IFB that resides in the Siebel Server/admin directory allows you to define the type of EIM processes to be performed: export, delete, merge, or import.

3. Run EIM:

• EIM is submitted as a Siebel Server batch component task (EIM job) either from the UI i.e. Administration - Server Management views or from the Server Manager command line interface.

4. Check results:

• The EIM component task produces a log file, which provides tracing information about the process.
• The tracing information produced is variable dependent upon the EIM component task parameters used and the Siebel Server event logging deployed for the EIM component.
• As always, during testing operations you should check the EIM processes using increased tracing information, and then reduce tracing when the process is deployed to production.

Compiled By
Abu Maryam Mohammed Arif