Metadata Administration

This page is for metadata site administrators responsible for creating and maintaining SAML metadata on behalf of their organization. For a high-level overview of InCommon Federation metadata, please visit our web site.

Metadata Elements

Entity ID

The first step is to choose an entity ID for each of the SAML entities to be deployed. Please choose these names with care, because once you publish them, it will be difficult to change the names later on.

Scope

TBD

User Interface Elements

https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/InCCollaborate/UIInfo^{Image Removed}

Requested Attributes

https://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/InCCollaborate/RequestedAttributes^{Image Removed}

X.509 Certificates

A SAML entity uses public key cryptography to secure the data transmitted to trusted partners. Public keys are published in the form of X.509 Certificates in Metadata. The corresponding private keys are held securely by the SAML entity. These keys are used for message-level signing and encryption, and to create secure channels for transporting SAML messages.

Any certificates you want to use with your SAML software are uploaded via the administrative interface. You can upload multiple certificates for different purposes or to facilitate the controlled rollover of expired certificates. For detailed guidelines on the rollover process, refer to the Certificate Migration topic.

Discovery

(refer to the User Interface Elements for IdPs)

Discovery Endpoints at the SP

<idpdisc:DiscoveryResponse>

Service Endpoints

(address the namespace issue)

Service Endpoints at the IdP

<md:SingleSignOnService>

Service Endpoints at the SP

<md:AssertionConsumerService>

Contacts

.

The metadata submitted by the site administrator is vetted and approved by the InCommon Registration Authority (RA). Since the SAML protocol depends on the proper use of metadata, the RA checks the correctness and integrity of what is submitted by the site administrator. In particular, the RA checks that the entity ID and endpoints in metadata meet certain basic requirements.

InCommon also incorporates metadata administered by other federations.  See Interfederation and eduGAIN for more information.

Federation Manager

A web interface called the Federation Manager is used to administer InCommon metadata. The interface supports both IdP and SP metadata. The elements of each are referenced in the following sections.

IdP Metadata Elements

The following elements are called out in IdP metadata.

• Entity ID
  • Entity Attributes
• Scope
• X.509 Certificates
  • Key Usage
  • IdP Key Handling
  • Certificate Migration
    • Migrating a Certificate in IdP Metadata
• User Interface Elements
  • UI Elements in IdP Metadata
• Error Handling URL
• SAML Protocol Endpoints
  • Endpoints in IdP Metadata
• Contacts

For IdP deployments based on the Shibboleth software, there is valuable information in the Shibboleth wiki regarding metadata for the Shibboleth IdP.

For a discussion of the desirability of registering test IdPs in metadata, see Test IdPs in Metadata.

SP Metadata Elements

The following elements are called out in SP metadata.

• Entity ID
  • Entity Attributes
• X.509 Certificates
  • Key Usage
  • Certificate Migration
    • Migrating a Certificate in SP Metadata
• User Interface Elements
  • UI Elements in SP Metadata
• Requested Attributes
• SAML Protocol Endpoints
  • Endpoints in SP Metadata
• Contacts

For SP deployments based on the Shibboleth software, there is valuable information in the Shibboleth wiki regarding metadata for the Shibboleth SP.

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