shibd.log is blank when testing IdP at sp.testshib.org

[Peter Schober]

* Khawer Masood <shehzada at gwu.edu> [2015-06-16 20:39]:
> Unfortunately, setting up our on SP is not in our plans and would a
> long process for us. Besides, we’re looking to upgrade our IdP well
> before then, but we'll certainly take the suggestion under
> consideration. 

Wiping up a CentOS box, adding the shib repo, running "yum install
shibboleth" and exchanging SAML metadata with the IDP should't take
more than 30 min, and most of that will be spent on setting up the
system.

> I want to be respectful of people’s time, but should we not rely on
> the Test Shib any more … ? What purpose does it serve if other than
> to validate installs before we role out vital services in
> production?

"Rely" and "vital" to me sound like something very different from the
service level testshib is intended to offer, but YMMV.

> It was a key part of the training I attended recently, so I’m
> surprised to hear that we should outright forget about it.

This mailing list is run for and is open to users of he Free / Libre /
Open Source software the Shibboleth project makes available. As such
you'll encouter opinions from people who have no idea what you've
heard at "the training event" (I'm assuming some InCommon event).

> If we are not to rely on Test Shib, how do we validate our installs
> in the interim (other than our own SP)?

You can (and should) continue to ask that someone fixes testshib and
can continue waiting for that to happen. I have no influence on any of
that (incl testshib operations).
What I did is offer some insight from many years of use of the
software (If running an IDP also running an SP is easy and pays off
quickly) that also has the side effect of potentially helping you to
avoid waiting on others, for the "vital" things you "rely" on to
function.
-peter