SBL-EIM-00206: Failed to run initial process.

Problem:

EIM job failing and the error thrown on UI is "SBL-EIM-00206: Failed to run initial process.". What could be the reason?

Solution:

This is one of the most common error that you can see on the "Completion Information" column on Admin- Server mgmt job list applet. Also this error is faced mostly by beginners in siebel EIM.

First thing, don't panic at all..its a common, known and small issue. Go back and look at your configuration file. If you dont find anything wrong, look again into it.

Most probably it results due to typo in the ifb file. For e.g. the IFB has

INSERT ROW = S_CONTACT, TRUE instead of INSERT ROWS = S_CONTACT, TRUE
[Siebel Intrface Manager] instead of [Siebel Interface Manager]
LOG TRANSACTIONS = FALSE instead of LOG TRANSACTION = FALSE

...and what not!! Look alphabet by alphabet. Sometimes you may miss a parameter which is mandatory like TABLE, BATCH, TYPE etc.

If everyting is ok in IFB, dig the log, you will surely find the root cause here :-)

Delete contacts from siebel through EIM

How to delete contacts from siebel through EIM?

Deleting from siebel can be done by 3 different ways depending on the requirement:

1. Deleting from a target/non-target base table using the user keys: DELETE EXACT method
2. Deleting from a target base table using a filter condition: DELETE MATCHES method
3. Deleting all rows from target base table: DELETE ALL ROWS method

Identify the deletion method:

Here we will take example of deleting contacts by using DELETE EXACT method. The requirement is to delete duplicate contacts in siebel. Once the logic for identifying duplicate contacts is implemented (this may depend on specific business scenario), we can go ahead and delete the party records associated with the contacts.

Get all information needed to load in EIM table:

Remember: To delete a contact, you need to delete contact records and associations from atleast 4 tables: S_PARTY, S_CONTACT, S_CONTACT_BU AND S_POSTN_CON. This is same as when importing a contact. There may be other assoicated records that you may want to delete like activities, service requests, opportunities etc. For accomplishsing these you need to identify all the child tables and records where reference to these contacts are present, build the logic and delete the data.

The only thing need to be identified after implemeting duplicate logic is the PARTY_UID of S_PARTY table. This can be obtained by below query:

--Execute:

SELECT
  CON.ROW_ID,
  PAR.PARTY_UID,
  PAR.PARTY_TYPE_CD
FROM
  SIEBEL.S_CONTACT CON,
  SIEBEL.S_PARTY PAR
WHERE
  PAR.ROW_ID = CON.PAR_ROW_ID
  AND CON.ROW_ID IN(/*DUPLICATE LOGIC SUBQUERY RETURNING CONTACT ROW_ID*/);

Load EIM table:

The interesting thing is that for deleting a contact, only party details need to be entered in EIM_CONTACT. The party information (PARTY_UID, PARTY_TYPE_CD) are the only requirement to delete a contact from all the 4 base tables mentioned above.

--Script:
INSERT INTO SIEBEL.EIM_CONTACT
(
  ROW_ID,
  IF_ROW_STAT,
  IF_ROW_BATCH_NUM,
  PARTY_UID,
  PARTY_TYPE_CD
)
SELECT
  ROWNUM,
  'FOR_IMPORT',
  1,
  PAR.PARTY_UID,
  PAR.PARTY_TYPE_CD
FROM
  SIEBEL.S_CONTACT CON,
  SIEBEL.S_PARTY PAR
WHERE
  PAR.ROW_ID = CON.PAR_ROW_ID
  AND CON.ROW_ID IN(/*DUPLICATE LOGIC SUBQUERY RETURNING CONTACT ROW_ID*/);

Create IFB and Run EIM job:

[Siebel Interface Manager]

PROCESS = "DELETE_CONTACTS"

[DELETE_CONTACTS]
    TYPE = SHELL
    INCLUDE = DELETE_CONTACTS_RECORDS

[DELETE_CONTACTS_RECORDS]
    TYPE = DELETE
    BATCH = 1
    TABLE = EIM_CONTACT
    ONLY BASE TABLES = S_PARTY
    DELETE EXACT = TRUE

    COMMIT EACH PASS = FALSE
    COMMIT EACH TABLE = FALSE
    ROLLBACK ON ERROR = TRUE

Verify the status of the records:

select count(1), if_row_stat, if_row_batch_num
from siebel.eim_contact
where if_row_batch_num = 1
group by if_row_stat, if_row_batch_num;

Oracle PL/SQL performance problems: SQL Tuning

The first basic step towards PL/SQL block/procedure/package tuning:

In most of the EIM processing, the data in EIM tables are pushed through PL/SQL packages or standalone procedures etc. At times the pl/sql code becomes bottleneck during the cut-over window/deployment espicially when the amount of data is huge. Proper tuning of the pl/sql code in advance can reduce the execution time and increase the throughput.

Here I would like focus on just one little but very important and critical parameter for performance. Normally when the throughput is poor and the performance is at stake, we try to put the blame on database factors [and yes the DBA too :-)], available physical resources and many others. But the question is to realize what utilizes the database resources and how efficiently it utilizes.

The basic element of every pl/sql code is the embedded SQL statements. The first thing that should come to our mind when concerned with performance tuning is the SQL statements inside the pl/sql code. Slow SQL statements are the main reason for slow execution. Tuning these sql statement can greatly enhance the performance of the overall code.

You can find a lot amount of content on tuning SQL statement and that too in great details on the internet, here i will just summarize those tips for reference and relate it with Siebel EIM if applicable:

1. Make sure you have appropriate indexes on the  staging and other external ables that are used to push data to EIM tables. This may depend on your requirements.

2. Make sure you have up-to-date statistics on all the tables, using the subprograms in the DBMS_STATS package. For EIM processing this is very very beneficial. (for both EIM and Base tables) E.g. 

-- Execute:

EXEC DBMS_STATS.GATHER_TABLE_STATS('SIEBEL','EIM_CONTACT',DEGREE  =>10,ESTIMATE_PERCENT =>100,METHOD_OPT =>'FOR ALL INDEXED COLUMNS SIZE AUTO',GRANULARITY =>'ALL',CASCADE=>TRUE);

3. Analyze the execution plans and performance of the SQL statements, using: EXPLAIN PLAN statement. E.g.
 

-- Execute:
explain plan for
select * from STG_PRODUCT where batch = '125642890235; -- your SQL statement

-- Output the explain plan
select PLAN_TABLE_OUTPUT
from table(dbms_xplan.display('plan_table',null,'basic'));

4. Rewrite the SQL statements if necessary. For example, query hints can avoid problems such as unnecessary full-table scans. Avoid unnecessary full table scans for tables, this is very costly in terms of execution time.

5. Combine multiple SQL statements into one if possible. Each time you run a SQL statement in PL/SQL (and vice versa) there is a context switch and SQL statements have to be sent to the SQL statement executor (SQL engine) in the database. Obviously, therefore, if you have fewer SQL statements embedded in your PL/SQL code you will reduce the load on the Oracle database processing those statements.

6. a) If you are running SQL statements inside a PL/SQL loop, look at the FORALL statement as a way to replace loops of INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE statements.
b) If you are looping through the result set of a query, look at the BULK COLLECT clause of the SELECT INTO statement as a way to bring the entire result set into memory in a single operation.

Both these are PL/SQL features but helps in tuning the sql statements.

7. Inefficient usage of loops inside the code can also prove very costly. Loops can be replaced with FORALL statements.

8. Use the BULK COLLECT clause on the query to bring the query results into memory in one operation

9. Use subselect (nesting one query inside another) for filtering query results.

10. Use highly optimized string functions such as REPLACE, TRANSLATE, SUBSTR, INSTR, RPAD, and LTRIM, these are very efficient as these use low-level code.

11. use regular expressions like REGEXP_LIKE, REGEXP_INSTR, REGEXP_REPLACE, and REGEXP_SUBSTR for searching and manipulating strings.

12. Implement short-circuit evaluation (as it is called) i.e. put the least expensive conditions first in the WHERE clause that evaluates multiple conditions separated by AND or OR.

13. Choose data types carefully to minimize implicit conversions as too many implicit conversions becomes overhead during execution. Like use of PLS_INTEGER instead of INTEGER etc.

14. Finally, do not ignore the warnings thrown by the compiler, applying the advice of the compiler might increase the efficiency of the overall code.

Much more and much detail can be added to it, but I have kept it simple and precise. You can pick each one of these and explore and research more on oracle documentation.

Have a great tuning :-)

Contacts imported through EIM but not visible on UI

I would like share one of the most common issue while importing contacts in siebel. Let me put it in a problem and solution format:

Problem: 

Contacts are imported in siebel with IF_ROW_STAT as IMPORTED value in EIM_CONTACT but they are not visible on UI. I checked the contacts with siebel administrator position and i am able to see those contact in My teams Contacts and All Contacts views, but the same are not visible to employees who have the visibility of these contacts in My Contacts view

Solution:

1. Check these tables for contacts and its references:

S_PARTY
S_CONTACT
S_CONTACT_BU
S_POSTN_CON

If the contact is imported correctly in S_CONTACT table, pick any row_id say, '1-3KHD-11' and execute the below queries:

select * from siebel.s_party where party_id = '1-3KHD-11';

select * from siebel.s_contact_bu where contact_id = '1-3KHD-11';

select * from siebel.s_postn_con where con_id = '1-3KHD-11';

All the above queries should return at least one record. If not, import data into that table and it will be visible.

2. Check all the search specification on applet as well as Business component level, verify that the search spec condition matches for the records imported.

3. Check the contacts from UI with the position that has the visibility of the contact.


Explanation:

Most of the time, when the contacts are not visible on UI, the common perception is that position would not have been associated correctly. Well, this may be correct for most of the times, but at times we commit some silly mistakes by missing S_CONTACT_BU table in the IFB file parameter ONLY BASE TABLES.

All contacts should have a BU association in S_CONTACT_BU table to be visible on UI. S_CONTACT_BU is the intersection table for S_CONTACT and S_BU. Once this association is properly made, the contacts would be visible to the employee who has the visibility.

Visibility of the contacts also depends on the contacts and position intersection table S_POSTN_CON. For instance, if for a contact row Id, there are 3 records in S_POSTN_CON, this means 3 positions are allowed to see this contact in their My Contacts view. This does not mean that none other than these 3 can see the contacts. The visibility of the contacts apart from assigned positions is also based on the position hierarchy in the organization.

So the first thing we can do is to check all the four tables for correct import. If any discrepancies found, it can be troubleshooted based on the logs.

Next thing is to check the search specification on applet and BC level. For example, if the applet level search spec has [Type] = "Customer" then the imported rows must satisfy this condition to be visible on the contact applet. Similarly if on BC there are any search spec, it should also be satisfied by the imported records.

These information are very basic and fundamental in nature which may help beginners to understand the debugging methods while importing.