Service provider

[Peter Schober]

* Andrew McInnes <AMcInnes at themanchestercollege.ac.uk> [2012-12-19 17:59]:
> Thanks peter, so there is no restriction from UK federation in terms
> of communicating with an entity such as the one I described?

I said nothing to that regard. You'd have to ask the UK Federation
support people whether the SP joining the UK Federation is an option
(and then ask the SP to do it). If that is workable it's the best for
you as an IdP admin.

* Andrew McInnes <AMcInnes at themanchestercollege.ac.uk> [2012-12-19 18:07]:
> Hi the SP is UK based and are just a software house that produce an
> eLearning system for ROSPa accredited health and safety
> courses. They have no direct relation to HE or FE education other
> than we are using them to meet our health and safety compliance as a
> college.
> 
> Should they register with any other organisation or are they able to
> simply setup as a service provider and we trust them to authenticate
> against us as and IdP?

You can always set up things bilaterally but it's best for you to move
as much as possible  to the federation, if possible.
You'd then have to exchange metadata (and public keys therein).
Sometimes the SP cannot or will not produce SAML 2.0 metadata for
their entity (for your IdP to consume) in which case you'd have to
construct that yourself based on specific names (entityID), endpoints
(ACS URLs) and certificates they provide you with -- and keep that up
to date if the SP changes them.
If the SP cannot consume the SAML2.0 metadata you provide they should
at least be able to pick the relevant parts from the SAML.
So all of that depends and most of your questions are best either
directed at the federation, or, if that route fails, the SP.
Feel free to ask specific software configuration questions here, of
course, once they arise.
-peter