1. OpenAthensLA 2.0:
An introduction
OpenAthens workshops, February/March 2009
David Orrell, Eduserv
david.orrell@eduserv.org.uk
www.eduserv.org.uk

2. Product goals and rationale
Architecture
Demo of administration tools
2

3. What is OpenAthens LA?
Software to enable federated access to
internal and external Web resources

4. Federated identity
Identity Provider Service Providers
(resources)
Control
Policy
Subscriptions
Management

5. Federated identity
Identity Provider Service Providers
(resources)
Control
Policy
Subscriptions
Management

6. OpenAthens LA 1.0
• You know it as Athens DA
• 'Semi' federated
– depends on central service
• Not fully standards compliant
– only via central service

7. Since 1.0, a lot has changed...

8. 1) Formation of The UK Access Management
Federation, and other federations

9. 2) Changing user behaviour
• Web 2.0
• User-centric identity
• Social networks

10. 3) Multiple identity standards
• SAML
• OpenID
• Information Cards

11. That's all very well... but...

12. But...
• We've lost control and flexibility!
• We can't meet students expectations
• Athens also...
– hid much of the complexity
– provided web-based administration
→ distributed control
– provided statistics

13. Shibboleth administration
System
IT Services administrator
Shibboleth server
Librarian
Configuration
User-repository

14. Our top 3 priorities for OpenAthens LA 2.0...

15. Priorities
1) Ease of installation, configuration &
maintenance
• Web-based administration
• Built-in diagnostics and statistics

16. Priorities
2) Support for multiple, Open Standards

17. Priorities
3) Extendable
• Modular architecture
• Open APIs – write your own extensions

18. OpenAthens LA 2.0
• Greater control...

19. OpenAthens LA 2.0: administration
System
administrator
Administration
Runtime server(s) server
Model
Runtime
Librarian
User-repository
Staff / students

20. Administration interface
Administration
server
Admin application(s) Model

21. Administration interface
Administration
server
Model history
Admin application(s) Model

22. OpenAthens LA 2.0
More flexibility...
•

23. OpenAthens 'Atacama' platform
Protocol modules

24. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
OpenAthens LA runtime
Platform
Webserver

25. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
• Authentication
OpenAthens LA runtime
Platform
Webserver

26. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
• Authentication
• Data-store
connectors
OpenAthens LA runtime
Platform
Webserver

27. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
• Authentication
• Data-store
connectors
OpenAthens LA runtime • Identity
protocols
(SAML, OpenID
Platform
etc)
Webserver

28. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
• Authentication
• Data-store
connectors
OpenAthens LA runtime • Identity
protocols
(SAML, OpenID
Platform
etc)
• Attribute
Webserver
release policies

29. OpenAthens LA 2.0: modules
• Authentication
• Data-store
connectors
OpenAthens LA runtime • Identity
protocols
(SAML, OpenID
Platform
etc)
• Attribute
Webserver
release policies
• Custom
attributes
• …

30. Open APIs: write your own modules
• OpenAthens platform is multi-language
– C/C++, C#/.NET, Java, PHP, Ruby
• Can write in-line 'scriptlets'
– JavaScript, Ruby
OpenAthens LA runtime

31. OpenAthens LA 2.0: release schedule
June 2009:
April 2009: End of Beta
Beta release programme
2009
July 2009:
March 2009:
OpenAthens LA 2.0
Initial Alpha
General Availability

32. Thank you!
david.orrell@eduserv.org.uk