Australian Access Federation and other Middleware Initiatives Presented

Australian Access Federation and other Middleware Initiatives Presented at TF-EMC 2, Prague 4 Sep 2007 Patty Mc. Millan, The University of Queensland

Content • Context and drivers • Pre-federation projects • AAF current status and issues – Operation and governance – Attributes – Communications and outreach • AAF roadmap • Other middleware initiatives in Australia Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 2

Australian environment • 38 publicly funded universities • CAUDIT: Very strong coordination among Aus/NZ CIOs for higher ed and research • Government policy encouraging more: – – – Collaboration and shared infrastructure Diversification and specialisation Global engagement Research quality metrics Operational efficiency Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 3

NCRIS • NCRIS = National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy • AUD 550 M over 5 years for shared research infrastructure –physical facilities, instruments, technology • Includes AUD 75 M over 5 years for collaboration technology infrastructure: access management, data management, middleware, collaboration tools • Australian Access Federation (AAF) seen as critical piece in enabling shared research infrastructure and research collaboration Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 4

Pre-federation projects • MAMS Project – Runs testbed Shibboleth federation – Contributes tools such as Sh. ARPE: Shibboleth Attribute Release Policy Editor • CAUDIT PKI Pilot Project – Investigated PKI architecture model for HE & Research – Deployed pilot infrastructure • e. Security Framework Project – Brought Shibboleth and PKI components together into a common trust infrastructure for the higher education and research sector. Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 5

AAF implementation project • AUD 4. 8 M funded by Department of Education, Science, and Training • Introduce production federation early 2008 building on work done by previous projects • University of Queensland leads project, partnered by Aus. CERT and Macquarie University (MAMS) • Steering Committee with representation across sector • Transition from implementation project to ongoing production federation service in 2008 Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 6

AAF current status • Draft policies: https: //wiki. esecurity. edu. au/display/esecurity/Draft+Policy+Frame work • MAMS Testbed Fed now has Level 2 with 21 Id. Ps, 21 SPs as pre-production to be transitioned to AAF • Popular hands-on Shibboleth and PKI workshops • Working groups for attributes, grid, and Lo. A • Very good awareness among CIOs and nearly all report undertaking major identity management projects • Less awareness among other parts of the community Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 7

AAF operation and governance Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 8

Attributes! • Working group to recommend schemas and attributes for AAF. • Have canvassed community on core attributes from – edu. Person, person, organizational. Person, inet. Org. Person – Recommendations at: http: //www. aaf. edu. au/casp • Recent workshop looked at further attribute needs – SCHAC: including several as recommended attributes – au. Edu. Person: deprecating several attributes from 2002 schema; creating a few more – for IDs and Lo. As – DISCLAIMER: Still to be canvassed with community and approved by AAF Steering Committee Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 9

AAF communications and outreach • Draft communications plan to reach: – – – – DVCs-Research and other senior management CIOs Librarians Technical staff e-Research support providers Service providers HR and student admin staff End-users • Developing communication and outreach roles Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 10

AAF roadmap highlights PKI • Pre-Release Activities – Implementing architecture and finalising certificate profiles • Release 1 – Core Infrastructure deployment • Release 2 – Web. Trust audit – Vendors to process the Aus. CERT Root Certificate to be included in Browsers and release update – Additional Services • Hosted CA/RA • Virtual Home Organisation (VHO) Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 11

AAF roadmap highlights Shibboleth • Pre-release activities – MAMS testbed federations (Levels 1 and 2) • Release 1 – – – Federation Manager & Federation Website WAYF agent Shared Services (Federated Directory Search) Integration with Aus. CERT PKI MAMS Shib-based “IAMSuite” for VOs and collaboration • Wiki eg. Confluence, Action tracking eg. JIRA, Repository eg. Fedora/DSpace • Release 2 – Integration of IAMSuite and VOMS – Shibboleth Identity Provider (Id. P) Member Audits Information provided by MAMS Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 12

AAF roadmap highlights Diagram developed by MAMS Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 13

Other middleware initiatives • MAPS Project: Middleware Action Plan & Strategy – Report and action plan: http: //www. middleware. edu. au/roadmap – Developing reference architectures for institutions on: • • • Identity and access management Data management VO management and collaboration tools Real-time communications Secure campus network design Grid services Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 14

Other middleware initiatives • ICI: Interoperability and Collaboration Infrastructure – AUD 20 M funded as part of NCRIS – Focus will be on Grid interoperability – Joint venture of service providers led by VPAC (Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing) Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 15

Thank you! Copyright © 2007 Aus. CERT 16