Installation Guides › SOA Agent for Web Servers Guide › SOA Agent for Web Servers Introduction › Overview

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Overview

The SOA Agent for Web Servers is an XML-enabled version of the CA SiteMinder Web Agent that operates with a Web server to handle XML messages sent to Web service implementations.

When a Web consumer (client) application sends an XML message to a URL that is bound to a Web service, the SOA Agent for Web Servers intercepts these messages and communicates with the Policy Server to process authentication and authorization requests before the XML message is passed on to the Web service. In addition, the Policy Server can provide information that the SOA Agent for Web Servers adds to the XML message, such as a SAML assertion based on the originating client application’s identity.

Note: If you have purchased CA SiteMinder, you can also use the core Web Agent functionality of the SOA Agent for Web Servers to protect other resources on a Web server. For more information about this functionality, see the SiteMinder documentation—the remainder of this chapter deals specifically with use of the SOA Agent for Web Servers to protect Web services.