Chapter 2 About Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server

This chapter provides information about Sun Java System Policy Agent 2.2 as it pertains specifically to Apache HTTP Server.

While the individual web agents tend to be similar in terms of installation and configuration, they can have unique characteristics that allow them to interact with unique characteristics in the underlying deployment container, such as a web server or proxy server. Therefore, this chapter describes characteristics that are unique to this agent, Sun Java SystemAccess Manager Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server, and that are unique to just the deployment container, Apache HTTP Server. This chapter also summarizes specific tasks you might need to perform because of the unique characteristics of the deployment container.

Supported Platforms and Compatibility of Agent for Apache HTTP Server

The following sections provide information about the supported platforms of Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server as well as the compatibility of this agent with Access Manager.

Supported Platforms of Agent for Apache HTTP Server

The following table presents the supported platforms of Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server. Notice that this document describes what is technically two separate agents: Agent for Apache HTTP Server 1.3.33 and Agent for Apache HTTP Server 2.0.54. Throughout this guide, these two agents are referred to together as Agent for Apache HTTP Server.

This guide does not apply to Agent for Apache HTTP Server 2.2. For information about that agent, see Sun Java System Access Manager Policy Agent 2.2 Guide for Apache HTTP Server 2.2.

The supported platforms for these two agents differ as shown in the table that follows.

Table 2–1 Supported Platforms of Agent for Apache HTTP Server

Agent for	Supported Platforms
Apache HTTP Server 1.3.33*  Note – Be aware that this guide is applicable to both Agent for Apache HTTP Server 1.3.33 and Agent for Apache HTTP Server 2.0.54	SolarisTM Operating System (OS) for the SPARC® platform, versions 8, 9, and 10 Solaris (OS) for x86 platforms, versions 8, 9, and 10    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 3.0  SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
Agent for	Supported Platforms
Apache HTTP Server 2.0.54*	Solaris Operating System (OS) for the SPARC platform, versions 8, 9, and 10  Solaris (OS) for x86 platforms, versions 8, 9, and 10  AIX 5L, versions 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3  Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 3.0, versions 32 bit and 64 bit  Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server 4.0, versions 32 bit and 64 bit  SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9  Debian GNU/Linux 3.0  Windows 2003, Enterprise Edition  Windows 2003, Standard Edition

*Agent for Apache HTTP Server has been verified with the Apache default Multi-Processing Mode (MPM) on all supported platforms as described in http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/mpm.html.

Compatibility of Agent for Sun Java System Apache HTTP Server With Access Manager

All agents in the Policy Agent 2.2 release are compatible with versions of Sun Java System Access Manager as described in this section.

Compatibility of Policy Agent 2.2 With Access Manager 7 and Access Manager 7.1

All agents in the Policy Agent 2.2 release are compatible with Access Manager 7 and Access Manager 7.1. Compatibility applies to both of the available modes of Access Manager: Realm Mode and Legacy Mode.

Install the latest Access Manager patches to ensure that all enhancements and fixes are applied. For an example of Access Manager patches that can be installed, see the compatibility information discussed in Sun Java System Access Manager Policy Agent 2.2 Release Notes.

Compatibility of Policy Agent 2.2 With Access Manager 6.3

All agents in Policy Agent 2.2 are also compatible with Access Manager 6.3 Patch 1 or greater. However, certain limitations apply. For more information about the limitations, see Backward Compatibility With Access Manager 6.3.

Information Specific to Agent for Apache HTTP Server

This section describes anything that is unique about this specific web agent.

Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server is unique in that it does not support the following features:

Notifications

Sun Java System Policy Agent 2.2 for Apache HTTP Server does not support notifications. Therefore, updating the cache through a notification mechanism is not an available feature. However, since the notification mechanism is available for other agents in the Policy Agent 2.2 software set, a property exists in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. The property that controls the notification mechanism, com.sun.am.notification.enable, is set to false for this agent. Do not set this property to true for this agent as it might result in unexpected behavior. The two following properties can also affect notifications for most agents:

com.sun.am.notification.url
override_notification.url

However, you can ignore these properties for this agent.

Log Rotation

The multi-process environment of Apache HTTP Server impairs the agent's ability to obtain the correct size of the log file. Without a correct reading of the log file size, the agent cannot rotate the file as intended.

While most web agents have log rotation turned on by default, this agent has log rotation turned off by default. Log rotation is controlled by a property in the web agent AMAgent.properties configuration file. The following example illustrates the default setting of this property for this agent:

com.sun.am.policy.agents.config.local.log.rotate = false

Do not change the value of this property to true for this agent. A setting of true results in log rotation that is inconsistent and unpredictable.

SUSE Linux Enterprise 9: Libraries Needed

Agent for Apache HTTP Server is dependent upon a variety of libraries that are not included with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. Therefore, if you are using a SUSE Linux system, you must perform a post-installation task to make these libraries available. See Agent for Apache HTTP Server on SUSE Linux: Obtaining the Required Libraries.