Redundancy

Help | V-Series Appliance | Version 8.0.x

Internet usage management requires interaction between several Websense software components:

User requests for Internet access are proxied by Content Gateway.

User requests for Internet access may also be monitored by Network Agent.

The requests are sent to Websense Filtering Service for processing.

Filtering Service communicates with Policy Broker to apply the appropriate policy in response to the request.

In some networks, additional machines may be used to deploy additional instances of Content Gateway, Filtering Service, Network Agent, or other components. For example, in a large, segmented network, you may need a separate Network Agent for each segment. Or, you might deploy Logon Agent on a separate computer, to enable transparent identification of users logging on to Windows domains.

Websense Policy Broker (the component that controls access to global configuration information and security policy data consumed by other components) can be deployed in a standalone configuration or in a replicated configuration.

In a standalone configuration, there is one Policy Broker for the entire deployment. All Policy Servers connect to the same Policy Broker.
In a standalone deployment, Policy Broker can reside on a Windows or Linux server, or a Websense appliance.

In a replicated configuration, there is one primary Policy Broker, to which configuration and policy changes are saved, and one or more replica instances, each with its own read-only copy of the configuration and policy data. Each Policy Server can be configured to determine whether it attempts to connect to the primary Policy Broker or a replica instance at startup.

In a replicated configuration, Policy Broker cannot reside on a Websense appliance. Both the primary and replica instances must be hosted by a Windows or Linux server.

Check the Websense Deployment and Installation Center for component distribution options. Contact your Websense Sales Engineer, or your authorized Websense reseller, for assistance in planning a more complex deployment.