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P4 Server Administration Documentation | 2025.2

# P4 Broker

This topic assumes you have read the Guidelines for setting up multi-server services

The broker A P4 component that can apply rules and scripts based on incoming commands before passing them to a designated P4 Server. is transparent to end users because they connect to a P4 Broker in the same way they would connect to any other P4 Server.

Historically, brokers were the only means to offload 'read only' traffic from a central server The one server that is innermost in a multi-server deployment. In the server specification form field for Services, the central server might be specified as “standard” or “commit-server”. If edge servers are part of the multi-server deployment, the central server must be a commit server. See also 'upstream server'. to a replica. We now recommend using forwarding-replica or forwarding-standby servers for such offloading because they handle it automatically. See Standby and forwarding-standby.

You do not need to back up the broker. If the broker fails, restart it and make sure that its configuration file has not been corrupted.

## Broker configuration and protections

The work needed to install and configure a broker is minimal: the administrator needs to configure the broker and configure the users to access the P4 Server through the broker. Broker configuration involves the use of a configuration file that contains rules for specifying which commands individual users can execute and how commands are to be redirected to the appropriate Perforce service. For details, see Configure the broker.

When a user is accessing P4 Server through a P4 Broker or P4 Proxy, the string `proxy-` is automatically prepended to the user's IP address used by the P4 Server. That string can be used in the protections table to define whether a user must connect by means of a proxy or broker, or can connect directly to the P4 Server. For details and an example, see Proxy and broker protections.

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