The web server

As the entire communication with the browser on the end user's computer has to be done via http, a web server is a vital part of the Siebel Web Architecture. Siebel CRM supports a variety of vendors and products such as Microsoft's Internet Information Services, HP Web Server (Apache), or Oracle HTTP Server (Apache).

The web server has to exist but does not need to take heavy load. As we have seen above, the Application Object Manager handles all incoming requests. So, the web server's only task is to pass requests to the application object manager and pass the result back to the end user's browser.

It is exactly at this point where questions should be raised. How can a third-party web server communicate with a proprietary application server? (We learned that the Siebel Server is not a standard application server.) The solution is just at hand in the form of a piece of software that is installed on the web server in order to teach it the internal Siebel protocol. This is where the Siebel Web Server Extension enters the stage.