Implementation Guide › Performance Tuning › Performance Tuning Introduced

Performance Tuning Introduced

The Policy Server evaluates and enforces access control policies by servicing three basic requests:

• IsProtected—is the requested resource protected?
• IsAuthenticated—did the user requesting the resource present credentials to establish an identity?
• IsAuthorized—is the authenticated user authorized to view the protected resource?

Servicing each of these requests creates transactions between SiteMinder components. SiteMinder performance tuning is the iterative process of increasing throughput and reducing latency by:

• Understanding where and when these transactions occur
• Identifying the SiteMinder settings and features that affect performance
• Using third-party and SiteMinder tools to measure performance and identify infrastructure bottlenecks

A good strategy is to examine performance factors in the web, application, and data tiers.

Note: SiteMinder is middleware and is not deployed independently. The following sections focus on tuning SiteMinder components in the Web and Application tiers, but not how to tune the actual Web, Application, or Data tiers themselves. See your vendor–specific documentation for more information about tuning the web servers, directory servers, and databases in your environment.