What is a web director and how does it work?
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What is a web director and how does it work?

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Article ID: 54483

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Updated On:

Products

CA IT Asset Manager CA Software Asset Manager (CA SAM) ASSET PORTFOLIO MGMT- SERVER SUPPORT AUTOMATION- SERVER CA Service Desk Manager - Unified Self Service CA Service Desk Manager CA Service Management - Asset Portfolio Management CA Service Management - Service Desk Manager

Issue/Introduction

This article briefly describes how a web directory works and when it can be used.

Environment

CA Service Desk Manager - 17.x

Resolution

A program provided with Service Desk that acts as a load balancer for multiple web engines and/or web servers running the USD web interface.

It is possible to dedicate specific engines to handle only logons, only requests from already logged in users, or both.

This is specified in the <Host_Name>-web[#].cfg file for a host using the variable "Use Director".

When a director is being used, web engines will forward requests directly from clients to the director, if they are not setup to handle those types of requests.

A web engine may only work with a single director since it will need to forward requests back to the director to reassign.

Must have at least 2 web engines to use the director and the director must be run from a machine with USD installed on to it.

It Will be listed as WebDirector.exe in "Task Manager". There will be one for each web director running on the machine.

There will also be a WebEngine.exe for each Web Engine running on the computer.

The basic way of using a web director is for simple load balancing. The initial URL from a new user goes to the web director.

The web director selects the web engine with the greatest willingness, and responds to the user with an HTML page containing an on load event handler that redirects the user to the desired web engine. The web engine handles subsequent user requests directly, without involving the web director.

As web sessions start and stop, the web engine updates the willingness value held by the web director.

This ensures that sessions are distributed among web engines in accordance with their capacity to handle them.

It is also possible to use the web director to provide enhanced security for login while allowing most user interactions to use a higher performance standard connection.

The system administrator can configure the web director to direct login requests to a specific web engine that uses the SSL (secure socket) protocol.

Once a user has been authenticated, subsequent requests are redirected to a different web engine using a standard protocol

For information and documentation on how to configure the Web Director, please consult the NX_ROOT\samples\pdmconf\pdm_edit_usage_notes.html and the Administrator Guide.

Additional Information

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