Policy Agent roles

The Policy Agent runs in the z/OS® environment and can act in any of several roles, depending on configuration options:

• The Policy Agent can act as a self-contained Policy Decision Point (PDP) on a single system, installing policies in one or more z/OS Communications Server stacks on that z/OS image, as shown by system SYSA in Figure 1.
• The Policy Agent can act as a policy client, retrieving remote policies from the policy server, as shown by system SYSB in Figure 1. Each stack in a Common INET (CINET) environment that is configured to the Policy Agent acts as a separate policy client.
• The Policy Agent can act as a centralized policy server, providing PDP services for one or more remote policy clients, as shown by system SYSC in Figure 1.
• A single Policy Agent can act as a policy client or a policy server, but not both.

Figure 1. Policy Agent roles