US Federations Discussion

On the last couple of calls, some sites that use a Windows 
infrastructure mentioned that they were looking for an easier way to 
install the Shibboleth IdP software into their AD environment. I'm 
forwarding a recent announcement that may be of interest. Rod is a 
member of the Shibboleth core team. He developed a previous version 
of this QuickStart, based on Shibboleth v1.3. That package was quite 
popular and very successful. This announcement describes an updating 
of that effort, to use the current Shibboleth release.

If you're interested in trying this package, contact Rod, and he'll 
pass along the instructions.

And -- just to be absolutely clear -- at this point, please do NOT 
install this package on a production server.

> Date: Sat, 02 May 2009 11:54:59 +0100
> From: Rod Widdowson <>
> Subject: Volunteers needed to test the Shibboleth 2 IdP installer for Active
>  Directory.
> To: 
>
> Folks,
>
> You will all be aware that the Shibboleth 1.3 versions will become
> "Unsupported" on the 30th of June 2010
> (http://www.ukfederation.org.uk/content/News/2009-02-17-1p3-end-of-life)
> this means that from that time on there will be no more security fixes.
>
> We are therefore expecting that all Shibboleth sites will be upgrading over
> the coming months.
>
> To help Windows Server users with this transition, I have developed an MSI
> installation package which installs and configures a Shibboleth 2 IdP to run
> against a Microsoft Active Directory and I am looking for volunteers 
> to help me test it before I announce a full beta test on the 
> Internet2 mailing lists.
>
> The installer is similar to the one I developed for Shibboleth 1.3, but
> benefits from the experiences we gained with it.  I should add that although
> the installer is in test, the product it is installing is not and so any IdP
> set up using this installer will be ready to join the UK Federation, indeed
> one such IdP is already in place.
>
> So, if you run Active Directory, would like to help, and have time *over the
> next 4-6 weeks* to download and install the IdP please get in touch with me
> .
>
> What we will get out of this is a higher confidence in the installer prior
> to announcing a world wide test (I have done multiple installs with it, but
> there is nothing like real world experience).  What you will get out of this
> is a Shibboleth 2  IdP which you can then consider using in the UK
> Federation.
>
> Thanks
>
> Rod
>
> SDSS, EDINA, Edinburgh University