Tim Poe & Steve Thorpe {tpoe, thorpe}@mcnc.org MCNC All-Staff Meeting March 19, 2009 What is...

Tim Poe & Steve Thorpe{tpoe, thorpe}@mcnc.org

MCNC All-Staff MeetingMarch 19, 2009

What is Federated ID Management and Why Should You Care?

What is Federated ID Management and Why Should You Care?

{tpoe,thorpe}@mcnc.org Connecting North Carolina’s Future Today3/19/09

OutlineOutline

Motivation

Example Services

Requirements

Underlying Technology

NCTrust Federation Pilot

Demo

2


MotivationMotivation Many NC institutions desire access to remote protected

web-based services

17 UNC system institutions

115 LEAs, thousands of K-12 schools

58 community colleges

36 independent colleges / universities

Plus many other government / educational / commercial organizations

Desire is for access to be efficient, cost effective, quick, secure, and user-friendly. Federated ID Management technologies enable such access

3


ATM machines - An Early Example of Federated ID Management

ATM machines - An Early Example of Federated ID Management

Thousands of banks - Federated

Millions of users (bank customers)

User login (ATM card) and password (PIN) maintained by the user’s home institution (Bank)

Other institutions give service ($) access to remote users, based on trusting the login and password that’s maintained by the home institution

Today we’re doing something similar, only we’re serving Web-based services rather than $

4


Example – Confluence Example – Confluence

Confluence is a web-based wiki service that fosters collaboration among multiple institutions

Federated ID Management technologies can alleviate MCNC’s current need for in-house management of accounts for outside users

Each home institution would manage their *own* accounts

5


Example - NCLiveExample - NCLive

NCLive provides access to eJournals, etc. for libraries, higher-ed and increasingly K-12

Want ease of resource accessibility yet must adhere to licenses of various products being distributed, e.g. certain content might be allowed only for:

Students K-20 staff Chemistry teachers etc.

6


Examples - VCLExamples - VCL

NCSU’s Virtual Computing Lab (VCL) is a web service that allows reservations of a computer with a desired set of applications, then remote access over the Internet

You can use applications such as Matlab, Maple, SAS, Solidworks, and many others. Linux, Solaris and numerous Windows environments are available

Due to licensing and resource limitations, access must be limited to certain user communities

7


Other ExamplesOther Examples

How about a service to enable cross-institutional course registration for access to distance learning from a different university in the UNC system?

Federated ID Management technologies can facilitate resource utilization across NCREN by enabling these and other web-based services much more efficiently, saving $ for MCNC and the NCREN community

8

How about a service for elementary school kids to access privately licensed PBS, CSPAN, and History Channel video content through the internet?


RequirementsRequirements Prevent users having to know yet-another password

Prevent system administrators having to add yet-another account

Avoid logins becoming out of date

Enable easier scaling of web-based applications to include multiple additional users/organizations

Must know people are who they say they are, with up-to-date accuracy

With potentially hundreds of thousands of people involved, need the home institutions to be responsible for account administration

9


Underlying Technology: ShibbolethUnderlying Technology: Shibboleth

10

Shibboleth is open source software for web single sign-on across or within organizational boundaries

Allows informed authorization decisions for protected web service access in a privacy-preserving manner

Uses Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) to provide federated single sign-on and attribute exchange framework

Provides extended privacy functionality allowing the browser user and their home site to control the attributes released to each application


11

Shibboleth Identity Provider (IdP) Shibboleth Service Provider (SP)

(IdP is a J2EE app) (shibd daemon maintains state)

(mod_shib gets attributes from

shibd and protects web apps)

Access to protected service (web app) is controlled by shib gatekeeper

LDAP Server

Obligatory Geek Diagram - Simplified(the only one, we promise ! )

Obligatory Geek Diagram - Simplified(the only one, we promise ! )

1. Student is at Starbucks

2. IdP is at

his school

3. Protected Web Service is at a university

4. IdP/SP communication via SAML attributes exchanged through the browser session


NCTrust Federation PilotNCTrust Federation Pilot

MCNC and partners have convened the NC Trust Pilot

Goal: create a Federation to test web resource sharing among several K-20 organizations within NC

Adding K-12 into the mix is a unique aspect

NCTrust utilizes the national InCommon Federation infrastructure

Provides a trust mechanism allowing each organization to certify its operational practices

MCNC is helping partners with tech / installation support 12

NCDPI

North CarolinaLearning Object Repository ? (tbd)


Shibboleth Training WorkshopsShibboleth Training Workshops

1.5 day workshops were hosted by MCNC in October 2008 and February 2009

Instructors: Shilen Patel and Rob Carter (Duke), Gonz Guzman (MCNC)

Approximately 45 participants total

There’s an excellent video archive of the workshop, thanks to Bryon and Chad

13


MOU and InCommon Paperwork in Various Stages of Completion…

MOU and InCommon Paperwork in Various Stages of Completion…

First demos starting now!

Paperwork is MUCH harder / slower than technical work!

(though the technical parts are certainly not trivial)


As [email protected]: Log onto test service, to see some attributes

Access Internet2’s Confluence site

As [email protected]: Log onto NCSU’s VCL site, check for images

As [email protected]: Log onto NCSU’s VCL site, check for images and see

a different list based on my NCSU status

15

DemoDemo


Future StepsFuture Steps

Connect services among the NCTrust community VCL

NCLive

MCNC’s confluence site is a likely candidate

Others?

Recommendations on best model of state-wide federation to meet the needs of the K-20 educational community in North Carolina

To cover funding, operations, governance, etc.

Pilot runs through December 2009

16


Key TakeawaysKey Takeaways

We believe Federated ID Management can enable more effective resource sharing among the NCREN community Secure

Efficient

Scalable

Accessible

Saves $

Not to mention it’s a GREEN technology

Fostering adoption of FIM technologies is another way of Connecting North Carolina’s Future Today

17


Thank YouThank You

Special thanks to MCNC’s Gonz Guzman, Tom Throckmorton, Kambiz Aghaiepour, Neal Bullins, Carole Bruhn, Keith Venters, Chris Caswell, Bryon Coltrane, and Chad Pritchard who all helped this effort

Also thanks to the many Federated ID Task Force members from throughout the NCREN community that are participating with us in the NCTrust pilot project

Questions?

18

Tim Poe & Steve Thorpe {tpoe, thorpe}@mcnc.org MCNC All-Staff Meeting March 19, 2009 What is...

Documents

Transcript of Tim Poe & Steve Thorpe {tpoe, thorpe}@mcnc.org MCNC All-Staff Meeting March 19, 2009 What is...