Siteminder WA vs ASA - WebSphere.

Products

• CA Single Sign On Agents (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On Federation (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On SOA Security Manager (SiteMinder)
• SITEMINDER

Issue/Introduction

Siteminder WA - WebAgent vs ASA agent - WebSphere (Application Server Agent)

some important points for WA Vs ASA

Environment

ANY OS

ANY PS version

Resolution

SiteMinder Web Agent For HTTP Server		SiteMinder Application Server Agent For Application Server
1	Will not protect WAS directly	Protects WAS directly
2	No direct support for WebSphere SSO unless WebSphere is configured to same LDAP repository as SiteMinder User Directories	Bi-directional support for WebSphere SSO
3	No protection for EJB container and Web container	SiteMinder AppServer Agent protects WebSphere Web container and EJB container
4	No integration with WebSphere Application Server	Integrates with WebSphere Application Server Security Mechanism
5	Supportability is easy	Supporting WebSphere Application Server Agent is difficult when compared to the SiteMinder Web Agents
6	Security Integration is loosely coupled between Web Server and Application Server	Provides tight security integration for WebSphere Application Server
7	Provides advanced Authentication mechanisms – Form based, Certificate based, RSA token authentication etc, It doesn't require a dedicated web server with web agent; you can point to any existing web server with web agent. It just uses that web agent to create a cookie. Most of the enterprise may have  centralized login server which can also be used.	Provides basic Authentication scheme only; Needs another Web Server with SiteMinder Web Agent for Advanced Authentication Schemes
8	No Audit/logs are generated for WebSphere Application Server. Logs are generated only at IBM HTTP Server	Audit/Logs are generated at WebSphere Application Server level
9	Easy to troubleshoot	Support and troubleshoot needs higher level of experience with SiteMinder Application Server Agent and WebSphere Application Server
10	No need to restart Application Server when changes are made to SiteMinder Web Agent; The Web Server needs a restart.	Application Server needs a restart when changes are made to the SiteMinder Application Server Agent Not all the changes in ASA require WebSphere restart. WebSphere requires a restart only if you change policy domain objects and some ACO parameters.