Registering an OpenAthens Service Provider

Before applying to register an OpenAthens service provider entity with the UK Federation, you need to:

  • Install and configure the OpenAthens SP software according to Eduserv's instructions.
  • Obtain an X.509 certificate.
  • Once the software has been installed and a certificate obtained, a Management Liaison should email the registration request to the UK Federation Helpdesk and include the information listed below. This information will be verified and placed in an <EntityDescriptor> entry in the federation metadata.
  • Administrative contact: A name and email address for the Administrative contact.
  • Technical contact: A name and email address for the Technical contact.
  • Support contact: A name and email address for the Support contact.
  • Entity ID: The entity ID is a URI identifying your service provider. It must be different from the entity ID of any existing identity provider or service provider you may already have in the UK federation. If your service provider is already a member of another federation please give its existing entity ID, even if it appears to be federation-specific. If it is not already a member of another federation, please consult our entity ID policy.
  • Service display name: A short name (a few words at most) to identify your site.
  • Organization URL: The URL of a web page providing a description of the organisation providing the service.
  • Service description URL: The URL of a web page providing a description of the service itself. If omitted, this defaults to the Organization URL.
  • Software: (optional) The type and release number of the software you have chosen to deploy for your SP; e.g. OpenAthens 1.2. This information is optional, but providing it enables us to gauge appropriate support levels for software in use within the federation.
  • Automatically generated metadata: The OpenAthens software generates metadata matching your configuration. Please see Eduserv's documentation for the URL pointing to that metadata.
    Please include that URL in your registration.

We will let you know by email once the UK Federation metadata has been updated to include the information you have supplied.