To connect to a Broker, a client program must declare the name of the client group to which it belongs. Conceptually, a client group represents a particular group or category of client (e.g., administrators, customers, Integration Server processes). On the Broker, a client group is represented by a client group object. This object has a name and a set of properties. The Broker applies these properties to clients that declare themselves to be members of that group.

A client states its group membership when it initially connects to a Broker. Once a client connects to a Broker and its client state object is created, the client cannot change its client group membership.

Some of the properties in a client group determine how the Broker interacts with a client. For example, the Lifecycle property determines whether the Broker maintains state information for a client after it disconnects. Other properties determine which document types a client is permitted to publish and to which document types it can subscribe. Additional properties specify which document types the client can log to the audit subsystem.

Client groups also play a key role in Broker security. If you enable SSL or basic authentication and require clients to authenticate themselves, the access control list in the client group determines which clients are authorized to connect as members of that particular group.

As an administrator, you will create and configure client groups using the Broker user interface. (You can also create client groups using the Broker admin API.) For more information about managing client groups, see Managing Client Groups.