Ranbir,
UK implementors of Shibboleth for Education applications should also use the JISC-SHIBBOLETH list on JISCmail (homepage at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=JISC-SHIBBOLETH - but it's pretty empty as yet!).
JISC is funding various support services, including a Middleware Assisted Takeup Service, operated by Eduserv. I'm sure they're mnitoring both JISC-SHIBBOLETH and SHIBBOLETH-USERS, and can offer help with all the questions you're asking.
John
--
John Paschoud
Projects Manager & InfoSystems Engineer
LSE Library
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Carmody [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thu 21/04/2005 02:35
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Article to be approved for shibboleth-announce
go here:
https://mail.internet2.edu/wws/lists/middleware
join the shibboleth-users mailing list, and post your question to that list.
[log in to unmask] wrote:
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> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Subject:
> Shibboleth Questions, from a programmer not a Network Administrator
> From:
> [log in to unmask]
> Date:
> Wed, 20 Apr 2005 17:44:42 -0400 (EDT)
> To:
> [log in to unmask]
>
> To:
> [log in to unmask]
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>
>>Dear Shibboleth'ier
>>
>>I am only just beginning to get to grips with the Shibboleth architecture and wish to set-up demo Origin, WAYF and Target servers in order to better understand the technology and, depending on my success, to deploy Shibboleth to manage access to the educational resources held by us. However, the more I read, the more I seem to realise that implementation of Shibboleth does not seem a trivial task. Following my initial research I have grasped the basic ideas behind Shibboleth but there are a series of questions to which I seem unable to find answers to. I have listed these questions below, and hope you can answer them for me before I proceed to implement my own test Origin, WAYF and Target servers.
>>
>>Questions.
>>
>>1) Can Shibboleth be set-up as part of an internal network? or do I have to set-up public facing servers for Shibboleth to work correctly?
>>
>>2) Are the Origin server, WAYF server and Target server all web servers? and if so, can I use IIS as the platform web-server for all three, as this would be our preferred choice?
>>
>>3) Is it possible to configure the Target/Resource server such that only an authorised user can see parts of lists of resources? E.g. Lets say we have a list of 100 resources of which 25 are for staff only. Can the list of resources be displayed such that after a user has logged in as a member of staff, their list only contains the 25 items they have access to, with the remaining 75 items not shown to them at all.
>>
>>4) How do I authenticate a user at the Origin? Is it done by querying a database of authorised users, a CSV, a spreadsheet, reading a text file or an internal xml file... etc? Does the Shibboleth Origin have its own database, or user list, so that an external database is not required?. Once authorisation has taken place, in what format do I send the information back to Target site; xml, csv, url variable?
>>
>>5) Does the Shibboleth Target require a database/CSV/spreadsheet etc of the files we wish to protect, together with their 'access level'? Can Shibboleth protect individual files or does Shibboleth protect the contents of individual folders?
>>
>>6) Do the Shibboleth Origin and Target contain their own internal databases for storage of user authentication details (origin) and file access information (target).
>>
>>7) Can a Shibboleth system be set up without the need for a WAYF server?, If so, how do I bypass the WAYF?
>>
>>8) Does Shibboleth require at least 3 separate servers; one each for the Origin, Target and WAYF respectively or can the Target, Origin and WAYF (if required) be set up to run on the same server so that user authentication prior access to our resources can be done on one IIS web server.
>>
>>9) Are there any Shibboleth GUI's to help with the Origin and Target server configurations? If so, where can I obtain them?
>>
>>Regards
>>
>>Ranbir Sagoo
>>
>>Development Team
>>Netmedia Education
>>Oldbury
>>West Midlands
>>England
>>UK
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