Transition arrangements for SDSS Federation members
Transition arrangements for current members of the SDSS Federation who wish to become members of the UK Access Management Federation for Education and Research are described here.
A four-month transitional period will run from the launch of the UK Federation in 30 November 2006 until the closure of the SDSS Federation on 30 March 2007. Both federations will operate in parallel during this period.
Transition plan
- All existing members of the SDSS Federation will be regarded as temporary members of the UK Federation during the transitional phase. Their entity metadata will be published by both federations, and any changes submitted to existing entities will be visible to both federations.
- The UK Federation metadata will initially be identical to that of the SDSS Federation; all entities present in the SDSS Federation at the start of the transitional phase will be available to users of the UK Federation metadata.
- Existing members of the SDSS Federation who wish to remain in the UK Federation after 30 March 2007 must make a new application as described in the UK Federation website.
- Members transferring from the SDSS Federation need not make new registration requests for currently registered identity providers or service providers. You will be asked to confirm that information held about these entities is still accurate.
- Applications for membership in the SDSS Federation will no longer be accepted. Instead, all new applications should be made to the UK Federation. All applicants are required to sign up to the UK Federation's rules of membership before being accepted.
- New entities will be added only to the UK Federation metadata during the transitional phase; they will not be visible in the SDSS Federation metadata.
- The UK Federation WAYF and metadata publication will be made available as described in the UK Federation documentation.
After 30 March 2007
- Any organisations who have not signed up to the rules of membership for the UK Federation will have their entities removed from the UK Federation metadata.
- The SDSS Federation WAYF will cease operation.
- Publication of metadata for the SDSS Federation will cease.
Steps you need to take before 30 March 2007
We hope that these arrangements will allow all SDSS Federation members who wish to make the transition to the UK Federation to do so with the minimum of disruption. Each organisation wishing to make the transition must perform the following actions at some time during the transitional phase:
- Sign up to the rules of membership for the UK Federation.
- Change any references in service provider configurations to the SDSS WAYF to reference the UK Federation WAYF instead.
- Begin downloading the UK Federation metadata instead of the SDSS Federation metadata.
- Change configuration files to refer to the new metadata files.
- Change configuration files to refer to the UK Federation's URI wherever they currently refer to the SDSS Federation's URI.
These steps can be taken at any time during the transitional phase; there is no dependency between members.
If you have questions or comments about the transition process, please contact the SDSS team.