Policy Server Guides › Policy Design Guide › Grouping Resources in Realms › Realms › How Resources Are Identified by Agent, Realm, and Rule

How Resources Are Identified by Agent, Realm, and Rule

The resources protected by SiteMinder are identified by the following:

[Agent] [Realm Resource Filter] [Rule Resource]

Agent

An Agent monitors a server that contains one or more realms of protected resources.

Realm Resource Filter

A string, such as a relative path to a directory, that specifies the resources covered by the realm. If the realm is a top-level realm, specify the resources relative to the server that serves up the files or application. If the realm is nested, specify the resources relative to the parent realm.

For example, the realm might cover the contents of a directory that is immediately below the document root of a Web server, such as:

<document_root>/HR

Here, you could specify the realm resource filter as:

/HR

Rule Resource

A string or regular expression that specifies the resources to which the rule applies. Specify the resources relative to the realm containing the resource. For example, if the realm resource filter ends with a directory name, the rule resource might include a subdirectory of the realm directory and even the name of a file in that subdirectory, such as:

/Managers/PayRanges.html

You can use wildcards to broaden the specification of a rule. For example:

/Managers/*

Combining the three elements, suppose that:

• The agent called MyAgent protects a Web server on host MyHost, in domain myorg.org.
• You want the realm to cover the contents of the following Web Server directory:

  <document_root>/HR

• The HR directory contains a subdirectory called Managers, and you want to protect all files in the subdirectory.

For the Policy Server, the following figure shows the effective resource.

You could configure the directory called Managers as a nested realm under the /HR realm.

To access the protected page PayRanges.html, under the Managers subdirectory, a user would need to:

1. Specify the resource:

   http://MyHost.myorg.org/HR/Managers/PayRanges.html

2. Provide credentials for a user authorized to access the resource. Administrators use policies to specify which users are authorized to access a resource.

More information:

Agents and Agent Groups

Configure a Realm

Rules