By Albert Wu, InCommon Federation Manager, Internet2 Trust & Identity
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
In the spring, the InCommon Federation announced a series of long-awaited enhancements to Federation services. We are nearing the finish line for two of the projects, and we’d like to share an update so that you’re able to take full advantage of federated access to the Federation Manager Portal and the InCommon Metadata Query (MDQ) Service.
Enabling Federated Access to Federation Manager Portal
Impact: Site Administrators will sign into Federation Manager via federated access.
In July 2024, Federation Manager, InCommon’s metadata registration tool, turned on federated access for Site Admins. Federation Manager already supported federated access for eduroam administrators and InCommon Delegated Administrators. This move marks the final step in the Federation Manager’s migration to 100% federated access.
We are currently in a voluntary migration phase. More than 60% of active Site Administrators have migrated to login via federated access.
Starting January 15, 2025, Site Administrators must access Federation Manager using federated access. Visit the Internet2 Identity Services FAQ to learn how to begin logging into Federation Manager via federated access.
Moving to the InCommon MDQ Service
Impact: All InCommon-registered services transition to the new MDQ Service by January 2025.
InCommon first launched its latest Metadata Service (mdq.incommon.org, or the MDQ service) based on the Per-Entity Metadata Query protocol in 2020. Since then, we have operated it, in parallel with the legacy InCommon metadata aggregate (md.incommon.org).
We announced in April 2024 that the InCommon Federation will retire the legacy metadata aggregate at the end of 2024. That date is quickly approaching.
InCommon will retire the legacy aggregate on January 20, 2025. Please work with your administrators to update your system to retrieve metadata from the MDQ service.
To begin using the MDQ service, visit: InCommon Metadata Query (MDQ) Service
We are excited about these service enhancements and look forward to working with the community to implement them.
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About the InCommon Federation
The InCommon Federation provides secure single sign-on access to cloud and local services, and global collaboration tools. It connects millions of users and hundreds of educational institutions, research organizations, and commercial resource providers. The InCommon Federation and its practices are governed and built by an open community to meet the specific needs of higher education, research organizations, and their corporate partners: we value individual’s right to privacy; we believe in open, transparent, and equal sharing of information and knowledge; we encourage the ubiquitous adoption of online digital resources to accelerate research and discovery.
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