About the External Security Facility (ESF)

The ESF operates for both Enterprise Server and Directory Server access.

The ESF relays application and resource access authorization request queries to the security manager or managers. It is responsible for:

• Loading and invoking security managers.
• Sending security queries to the security managers.
• Managing a cache of the modules and security access query results.
• Maintaining configuration information for itself and the security managers.

The ESF performs security checks by making API calls to the ESMs, and processing the result that is returned. You can use this API to develop your own security managers. You can then use these security managers to process authentication requests, and allow or deny access as appropriate. A security manager can be anything that can process ESF API calls.