Gateway

A gateway is a component of the SCOM architecture acting as a relay between a Management Server and an agent. It is typically used in complex network scenarios where authentication and firewalls are involved.

Description
A gateway is fundamentally a Management Server without an access to the Operational Database. Its role consists in gathering the data from agents and monitored objects and pass them to a regular Management Server.

Usage
There are several situations justifying the use of a gateway:
 * To simplify the monitoring of agents located in an Active Directory forest where there is no trust configured with the forest where the SCOM platform is located. Normally each agent would require a x.509 certificate. Using a gateway reduce the number of of certificates to issue to only one for the gateway. in an environment where Active Directory authentication is not available.
 * To reduce the number of firewall ports to open when agents are located in a restricted network segment such as a DMZ.
 * To reduce bandwidth traffic of agents located on a remote site with limited internet connection. A gateway can compress the traffic by 50%.