HCO Configuration: Cluster vs. Legacy failover/Load Balance

Products

• CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On SOA Security Manager (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign-On

Issue/Introduction

Question: 

If legacy/traditional failover/load balance Policy Server hosts are configured in a Host Configuration Object (HCO) along with one or more Clusters, which host configuration will take precedence?

Environment:  

All supported versions of CA Single Sign-On/Siteminder

 

Answer: 

Although the Web Agent error log will show both the Clustered hosts and the legacy/traditional ones when loading an HCO which contains both, the Web Agent will only use the Clustered hosts.  

 

Additional Information:

In early releases of Single Sign-On (Siteminder), Clusters were not available and thus only a single set of Policy Server hosts could be listed in an HCO in either failover only, or load balance plus failover configuration.  This is what is being referred to as legacy/traditional failover/load balance above.  Clusters refer to the newer functionality available in HCOs where multiple groups, or clusters, of hosts can be specified.  This allows load balancing within a Cluster, and failover between Clusters if the number of available servers in the primary Cluster falls below the configured threshold.

Environment

Release: ESPSTM99000-12.51-Single Sign On-Extended Support Plus
Component: