Shibboleth Deployment Checklist
The checklist below provides a list of the policy, process, and technical steps for each deployment stage. Use this list as a guide, not a requirement; you may need to work through only a subset of these actions.
Stage 1: Intra-campus Web Single Sign-on - Central Identity Provider
Policy Steps
  Define who establishes various policies related to single sign-on (SSO) and authentication
  Have basic identity management policies in place, including data and service stewardship responsibilities and use of the system
  Have policy in place specifying whether NONE/SOME/ALL campus authenticated web sites are REQUIRED to use the central single sign-on system
Business Practice Steps
  Create Help desk support for users encountering problems accessing central web sites protected by SSO
  Reliably issue credentials to on-campus faculty/staff/students
  Create Help desk support for users encountering problems accessing department web sites protected by SSO
Technical - Basic Identity and Access Management Steps
  Provision/de-provision accounts for and authenticate on-campus faculty, staff, and students
  Provision/de-provision accounts for and authenticate other constituencies (e.g. applicants, alums, affiliates)
Technical - Shibboleth Software Steps
  Install/operate/manage Shibboleth identity provider software
Stage 1: Intra-campus Web Single Sign-on - Central and Department Service Providers
Policy Steps
  Define how often department service providers should refresh their metadata
  Promulgate policy describing process and constraints when the service provider is compromised
  Define minimum operational and environmental requirements for the remote server/application
  Define policies on log retention at service providers
Business Practice Steps
  Create process to register a new service providers (e.g. site inspection requirements)
  Create problem resolution process for when users cannot access department-supported service provider
  Create process for service providers to report abuse of their site (e.g. such as by anonymous users)
Technical - Basic Identity and Access Management Steps
  Provide tech support to department service provider sites, including documentation describing the web SSO service (description, process to participate, etc)
Technical - Shibboleth Software Steps
  Manage the metadata describing department service providers and provide mechanism for distribution
  Choose approach to PKI trust within the campus federation (rooted, self-signed)
  Provide installation instructions, configuration files and other local files (e.g. error pages, logos ) customized to the campus for the department sysadmins
Stage 2: Attribute Delivery - Central Identity Provider
Policy Steps
  Identify attribute source systems and define and describe the set of attributes that are available
  Identify who governs the decision to release attribute X to service provider Y
  Develop policy defining, in a general way, which services are eligible to receive which attributes
  Achieve buy in to attribute release process from Identity stakeholders
Business Practice Steps
  Define problem escalation procedure, such as when the wrong attributes are sent to a service provider
  Define process to follow when n service provider requests an attribute that is not currently available as defined by the policy above
Technical - Basic Identity and Access Management Steps
  Maintain a minimal set of attributes describing each user
  Populate eduPerson attributes for each user
  Manage entitlement values on user objects
  Provide support for groups in the local directory and configure Shibboleth to use them
Technical - Shibboleth Software Steps
  Configure the identity provider attribute resolver for the appropriate sources
  Identify who is responsible for editing/implementing the attribute release policies
Stage 2: Attribute Delivery - Central and Department Service Providers
Policy Steps
  Develop policy governing use of attributes by service providers such as attribute retention, sharing, etc.
Business Practice Steps
  Define process an service provider would use to request attributes and the process used to respond to the request
Technical - Shibboleth Software Steps
  Document how a service provider's web server could authorize users given the provided attributes
  Document how an application could use the supplied attributes in alternative ways, such as for customization or form completion
Stage 3: Inter-campus Federation - Central Identity Provider
Policy Steps
  Ensure compliance with federation policies
  Publish identity management and identification and authentication practice, if required
Business Practice Steps
  Define process for a) a department requesting an attribute release policy referring to a remote site, and b) central IT reviewing, creating, and managing the attribute release policy
  Define help desk process for when user encounters a problem accessing remote sites
Technical - Basic Identity and Access Management Steps
  Ensure compliance with federation attribute practice
Technical - Shibboleth Software and Federation Requirements Steps
  Follow technical steps to join the desired federation
  Configure identity provider software to use federation metadata and credentials and refresh when required
Stage 3: Inter-campus Federation - Central and Department Service Providers
Policy Steps
  Ensure SP is compliant with federation policies
Business Practice Steps
  Ensure service provider has defined problem resolution process for remote users
  Create process for department service provider to ask to be added to federation metadata
Technical - Shibboleth Software and Federation Requirements Steps
  Add service provider information to the federation metadata
  Configure serviceprovider software to use federation metadata and credentials and refresh when required