Minutes from Quilt / InCommon Pilot Tech Call
2:00 PM Eastern Time Friday March 29, 2013
Notes taken by Steve Thorpe, thorpe@mcnc.org
Recording of the call is available at https://edial.internet2.edu/call/0199118
Reminder on Group Logistics:
Email list is inc-quilt-pilottech@incommon.org
Box folder is https://www.box.com/files/0/f/680471824/InC-Quilt_Pilot_Tech
Standing meeting is Fridays at 2:00 PM Eastern
Dial-in numbers for our standing meeting are: +1-734-615-7474 (English I2, Please use if you do not pay for Long Distance), +1-866-411-0013 (English I2, toll free US/Canada Only) Access code: 0110688#
Attendees:
Bernie A'cs, NCSA
Paul Caskey, University of Texas System
Chris Giordano, MOREnet
Keith Hazelton, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Tom Scavo, InCommon/Internet2
Mark Scheible, MCNC (chair)
Steve Thorpe, MCNC
Shel Waggener, Internet2
Action Items From Today's Meeting:
[AI] Steve T: Publish these minutes around to the various lists / box folder. DONE: See "20130329.InCommon.Quilt.Pilot.Tech.Call.Notes.docx" in the "Minutes of Pilot Tech Calls" box folder.
[AI] ALL: Send your glossary feedback to Mark Scheible (see the Quilt-Federation-Pilot-Questions-v02-mas document on box)
[AI] Bernie: post MDA document link….
Discussion:
1. Updates from Admin & Pilot WG meetings
[AI] Steve T: Publish these minutes around to the various lists / box folder. DONE: See "20130322.InCommon.Quilt.Pilot.Tech.Call.Notes.docx" in the "Minutes of Pilot Tech Calls" box folder.
[AI] TBD: Review the documents, notes, questions, glossary.
New/Updated Documents: MDA Scenarios v2 (new slide describing usage),
Quilt-Federation-Pilot-Questions-v02-mas (added question on InC benefits & Glossary) - in Pilot Planning folder
Tom would like to add to the reference list, the work outputs of the Inter-Federation working group of the TAC (some of those outputs are still TBD)
[AI] Chris G: Possible update from Chris on MDA?
Chris has checked over the documentation. There's a nice overview page. He's downloaded it but hasn't tried it yet. Hopes to make some progress next week.
Tom: Steven Carmody went through the same process that we're talking about here. Not sure if he wrote anything on it, however perhaps he would have something to add to our notes. This was regarding UK / InCommon metadata combinations.
Bernie: Remembers a nice document he found on the MDA.
2. Updates from Admin & Pilot WGs
The key point from the Admin group was they plan on combining that group with the Pilot Definition group. Some highlights from yesterday's PD call include:
- SteveO will work with Dean on getting a web site set up
- George will solicit interest in attending an April webinar
- Admin + Pilot Def groups will merge. Standing time will be Thursday afternoons at 4 PM eastern time.
- Jack put together a suggested pilot process that is listed in the notes.
- Webinar / community call (hope to schedule it 1st week of April)
- Would like to simplify the process, find out who might be ready soon, and try to launch pilots in the fall. Additional stage in the spring timeframe.
- Establish an MOU that both participant and InCommon would fill out their responsibilities
- Take advantage of the 1st phase / lessons learned to inform the 2nd phase
- Remember that call is open so you are welcome to participate
- Shel offered that he'd negotiate to continue to provide the service after the pilot, at the I2 wholesale price – for 1 year after the pilot. During the pilot itself it would be free.
- Want to address the membership benefits and costs.
- Perhaps the MOU could help cover the concern about longevity beyond the 1st 2 years.
3. Discuss Future Schedule
Mark is not sure how much further we can go right now – perhaps could cut back (or stop) the calls, then hold a call when we have something to discuss. Depends on the pilot process and how it goes.
Steve T is OK to push it out for 2 weeks.
Tom S is hoping to get this time slot back. If the probability is low that its actually going to get used, he'd like to reallocate it.
Conclusion: For now, we'll leave this call on our weekly calendars but either cancel or confirm a couple days in advance.
4. If interest - Discuss WHEN an IdP Proxy is the right choice for a Regional/State System (vs. using MDA)
Proxy does have capability of being multi-protocol – this is when it may may the most sense, if there are other protocols besides SAML.
Yes the proxy is less time-consuming, say if you wanted to connect in with CAS, AD or something else. With David's case in Alaska, he wanted one IdP in InCommon.
Statewide IdP that acts as a proxy is one case. But also in that case, there also might be a need to propagate some of the info back to InCommon, and that information could be aggregated and propagated back using something like the MetaData aggregator.
If you don't want to stand up an IdP for every district, and you simply want the back-end of the proxy to be tied into their AD for example, that could be a use case.
MDA and a Proxy isn't black-and-white. There's no reason you couldn't have a hybrid.
Perhaps could simplify by using templates.
If you already have SAML available, MDA is definitely the simplest. Proxy actually has a bunch of little gotchas associated with it – it is not straightforward.
Understand your use cases thoroughly before choosing one path or another.
K12 might have a lot of benefits with a proxy IdP. However it is a single point of failure. Of course would need to make that a robust / failover solution to mitigate the risk.
If a proxy is in your future, simpleSAMLphp is definitely something to look at, because this mode of operation is supported out of the box.
5. Your Item Here…
Shel: Two-stage scaling of the project will have some impact on amount of investment in the 1st piece. We wanted to get some early participants that are not at broad scale, but would give some quick visibility. Later there would be a broader offering. Shel wants VISIBILITY and LEARNINGS first. So want to right size it.
Mark would appreciate glossary feedback.
Ignore the Admin list from now on, since those members have been merged into the Pilot list.
6. Adjourn