What is the function of the Context Directory Agent?

Explanation

Cisco Context Directory Agent (CDA) is a mechanism that maps IP Addresses to usernames in order to allow

security gateways to understand which user is using which IP Address in the network, so those security

gateways can now make decisions based on those users (or the groups to which the users belong to).

CDA runs on a Cisco Linux machine; monitors in real time a collection of Active Directory domain controller (DC) machines for authentication-related events that generally indicate user logins; learns, analyzes, and caches mappings of IP Addresses and user identities in its database; and makes the latest mappings available to its consumer devices.