---
title: "Marketing Automation Engine"
slug: "marketing-automation-engine"
abstract: "Overview of Sitecore Marketing Automation Engine supported infrastructure, references, scaling, and privacy and security."
---
# Marketing Automation Engine

The Marketing Automation Engine role processes campaign and activity enrollments, and moves contacts through campaigns.

## Supported infrastructure

You can host the Marketing Automation Engine role on:

- Windows Service
- Azure WebJob

Refer to the [Sitecore compatibility table](https://kb.sitecore.net/articles/087164) for compatible versions.

## Reference structure

The Marketing Automation Engine role has its place in the Sitecore reference structure. It can be referenced by other roles, and it can also reference other roles.

![Illustration showing the Marketing Automation Engine role's place in the Sitecore reference structure.](https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/images/marketing-automation-engine.png)

### Referenced by

The Marketing Automation Engine role is not referenced by other roles.

### References

The Marketing Automation Engine role references the following roles:

### Storage roles

| Role name | Connection string name | Port | Type | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [xDB Reference Data database](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/xdb-reference-data-database.html) | xdb.referencedata | 1433 | SQL |  |
| [Marketing Automation database](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/marketing-automation-database.html) | xdb.marketingautomation | 1433 | SQL |  |
| [Message Bus](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/message-bus.html) | messaging | 1433 | SQL | If you install Sitecore using SIF, SQL is the default provider. |
|  |  | 443 | Azure Service Bus | If you install Sitecore on Azure, Azure Service Bus is the default provider. Azure Service Bus is available in 9.2 and later. |

### Application roles

| Role name | Connection string name | Port | Type |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [xConnect Collection service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/xconnect-collection-service.html) | xconnect.collection | 443 | HTTPS |
| [xConnect Collection Search service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/xconnect-collection-search-service.html) | xconnect.search | 443 | HTTPS |

## Privacy and security

The Marketing Automation Engine role handles personal data in the following ways:

- Reads and writes contact data to and from the [xConnect Collection service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/xconnect-collection-service.html "xConnect Collection service") and [xConnect Collection Search service](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/xconnect-collection-search-service.html "xConnect Collection Search service") during activity processing.

### Privacy recommendations

- Personal data should not be saved to the [Marketing Automation database](https://doc.sitecore.com/xp/en/developers/104/platform-administration-and-architecture/marketing-automation-database.html "Marketing Automation database") - for example, as custom values in activities.