Portal Server supports multiple portals using a single user repository. Administrators can design, deploy, and administer each portal independently. Setting up multiple portals for single end users allows administrators to do the following:
Deploy multiple portals and Portal Server instances on one or more hosts
Use Access Manager software to manage users for all portals
Provide different content for different portals
Offer single sign-on (SSO) between portals
Enable end users to personalize their Desktops for each portal
To manage end users, portal administrators use tools provided by Access Manager. End-user data in LDAP directories do not need to be synchronized with any other repository.
A portal is a collection of one or more Portal Server instances that deliver the same content and are mapped to a single URL. The content and services delivered by a portal are common to all of its instances.
A Portal Server instance is a web application deployed into a web container, using a particular portal context URI and serving requests on a specific network port. Each Portal Server instance is associated with a single portal.
Multiple portals share the same user repository, or Access Manager. These portals can be deployed on one host or on two or more hosts. Using the same user ID and the same session, a single end user can access more than one portal.