WebSphere brand IBM WebSphere Telecom Web Services Server, Version 7.1

Service Policy Manager

The Service Policy Manager provides management, storage, and retrieval functions for the policy configuration data, and the runtime data used to customize service delivery for a given requester. An enterprise-level administrator can use the Service Policy Manager to manage definitions of third-party requesters, service definitions, and service relationships. Using policy management capabilities, administrators can personalize the services that are provided to groups and to individual requesters in a way that is scalable.

Structure and function of the Service Policy Manager

The Service Policy Manager is split into two parts: the runtime subcomponent and the console.

The runtime subcomponent provides the actual storage, management, and policy resolution capabilities. Its functions can be accessed through two sets of interfaces, both of which are available either through Web services or through Jython scripting (using the WebSphere® Application Server wsadmin tool), or through MBeans that can be accessed within wsadmin. The wsadmin tool now supports the Jython scripting for advanced automation capabilities.
  • The policy access interface is used by non-administrative applications to lookup policies.
  • A set of administrative interfaces through which requesters, services, subscriptions, data types, and policy values can be managed

The Service Policy Manager resolves policy values using a hierarchical algorithm. The requester and service information can be organized into a tree hierarchy that allows for groupings of requesters and services. The subscriptions can be set within the requester tree scope, and policies can be set within the requester and service tree scopes. The lookup process is hierarchical, allowing requesters and services that are lower in the tree to inherit subscriptions and policy values from their parents.

Each service represents an interface that is managed within the Service Policy Manager. Multiple service implementations, or backend implementations, can be registered within the Service Policy Manager, and policies can be administered across the service as a whole or within the context of each unique backend.

A special value of ALL can be used to apply the policy across one element of the scoping. For example, defining a policy at a scope of (ALL, myservice, ALL), will define an attribute or value pair for the service myservice across all requesters and operations. The Service Policy Manager uses a hierarchical resolution algorithm to determine the final set of policy attribute or value pairs for a given service context.

The Service Policy Manager console provides a graphical Web interface for using the runtime subcomponent to manage various entities. You can deploy the console either in standalone fashion or within a full portal runtime environment.

Benefits of the Service Policy Manager

The Service Policy Manager component provides the following benefits:
  • Centralized repository and management capability: The Service Policy Manager is intended to be the focal point for managing runtime configuration for all TWSS Web service implementations. Service policy values can be updated dynamically, taking effect for subsequent message processing. In a large scale deployment, a single Service Policy Manager cluster can be shared by multiple Access Gateway clusters. When a centralized policy management system already exists, policy data can be pushed to the Service Policy Manager system through integration with Web services.
  • Grouping requester policies and subscriptions: An arbitrary requester hierarchy is supported for managing requesters. This hierarchy allows the administrator to create subscriptions and set policies across groups of requesters by creating these entities higher up in the hierarchy. This allows use cases where all members of a gold class of service can be subscribed to and inherited by all members of the requester group. Requester groups are internal administration constructs only and are not accessible to fetchers of policy information. The requester tree can be organized according your needs.
  • Grouping services: An arbitrary service hierarchy is supported for managing services. This hierarchy allows administrators to set policy values at shared scopes across all or a subset of services. Service groups are internal administration constructs only and are not accessible to fetchers of policy information. The service tree can be organized according to your own management structure.
  • Associating multiple backend implementations with an individual service: The Service Policy Manager allows for registering multiple backend implementations for a given service that may be deployed in the environment simultaneously. The exact backend implementation to use for each request is chosen based on the requester subscription.
  • Hierarchical resolution of policies: The Service Policy Manager supports setting policy information at three different scopes: requester, service (including backend implementations), and operation. To resolve policies, the Service Policy Manager uses a hierarchical algorithm based on the requester and service tree, which combines subscriptions and policy scopes by having entities lower in the tree overriding ones higher in the tree. The intention of this capability is to support management of large sets of requesters and services, while enabling evolution of the set of deployed services within the environment.



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