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Tunnel Service API Guidance

This section contains the following topics:

Tunnel Service API Overview

The Tunnel Service API provides secure transfer of data between an agent and a shared library that supports the Tunnel Service.

When an agent sends a tunnel request to the Policy Server, the request contains:

The name of the service library
The function to be called in the service library
The data to be passed to the function

The Policy Server initializes the appropriate service, invokes the requested function, and passes the data to the function. Once the service has performed its task, the Policy Server returns the results to the agent. The following graphic shows the tunnel service process:

Graphic showing how the API is used in the tunnel service process

Develop a Custom Tunnel Service

Each tunnel service is an instance of a shared library that supports the Tunnel Service API. To support a tunnel service, you must build a new shared library.

Install the shared library in one of the following locations:

On UNIX platforms, in the SiteMinder lib directory
On Windows platforms, in the SiteMinder bin directory

Include File

To develop a tunnel service, include the SmApi.h header file:

#include "SmApi.h"