re automating the installation of Shibboleth service provider

[Cantor, Scott]

> We at ALK Technologies are using shibboleth service provider and want to
> automate the provisioning of the instance using Chef. Currently the
> installation says that it requires a reboot after installation. I would like to
> know if the reboot is necessary or optional ?

I don't think there's any way to consistently answer it, it varies by machine. Usually it's required, the system path has to be modified, and to the extent that it doesn't work if you don't reboot, well, that's why.

> Does the order of installation matter ? (like installing service provider before
> the iis etc)

If IIS is involved, it's somewhat unlikely that any automation will even work, but it probably depends what you expect to get out of the result. Installing the SP first would mean none of the IIS integration is configured, so you're leaving that to a manual process or some other script.

But installing the SP last doesn't generally guarantee a working IIS integration anyway, it depends on the box. Most IIS integrations are manual, tricky, and take a lot of fiddling around. Once it works, it tends to stay working, but getting it to that point can be a chore.

-- Scott

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