Programming Guides › Programming Guide for C › Agent API › Central Host Configuration

Central Host Configuration

SiteMinder agents, including custom agents, connect to a Policy Server through the Agent API. SiteMinder recognizes two different types of agents, based on the way that connection parameters are provided:

• v4.x agents. Connection parameters required to connect to a Policy Server are agent-specific. They include the agent's name, the name or IP address of the host machine where the agent resides, and the shared secret. These parameters are provided when you define an agent object on the Policy Server. Connection parameters defined for a v4.x agent apply to that agent only.
• v5.x and later agents. Connection parameters required to connect to the Policy Server can apply to multiple agents on the host machine where the agents reside. With v5.x and later agents, the host machine is called a trusted host.

  The information required to initialize the connection to a Policy Server is stored in an SmHost.conf file on the host machine. Additional information that determines how the Policy Server interacts with its agents is defined on the Policy Server in a host configuration object.

  Host configuration object parameters (such as failover and clustering instructions) apply to all agents associated with the host configuration object. They are centrally managed in the Administrative UI.

Custom v5.x and later agents support central host configuration (which determines the way a Policy Server and its agents interact), but not central agent configuration (which determines the way an agent operates). You cannot define an agent configuration object for a custom agent in the Policy Server. Configuration parameters for the operation of a custom agent are defined in the WebAgent.conf file (or in the case of IIS 6.0 agents, in the LocalConfig.conf file).