Using shibboleth to create SP metadata file on development server machine

[Goldberg, Arthur P]

Hello Shib users

I am upgrading the software on a production system. Two software installations and machines are involved: release 1 of x running on VM prod at x.mssm.edu, and release 2 of x running on VM dev at dev.mssm.edu.

On Tues Aug 9 we plan DNS changes which will map VM dev’s IP addresses to x.mssm.edu (and map VM prod’s IP addresses to another domain name). Before then, I need to configure and test release 2 of x running on a machine with domain name x.mssm.edu. I’m doing this by altering my local /etc/hosts file to map the IP address of VM dev to x.mssm.edu.

To configure release 2 of x on VM dev to run at x.mssm.edu we need to configure a new SAML single sign-on that connects x on VM dev running at x.mssm.edu to the SAML IdP in our Azure Active Directory service.

To configure that I’m using shibboleth to create an SP metadata file for release 2 of x on VM dev running at x.mssm.edu. I’m doing that by running release 2 of x with its web server configured to run at x.mssm.edu and accessing https://x.mssm.edu/Shibboleth.sso/Metadata in my browser to create and download a metadata description of the SP. However, this metadata file has an entityID in the EntityDescriptor that uses the dev.mssm.edu domain name for VM dev which is running release 2 of x. (All other domain names in the metadata file are x.mssm.edu.) I’m concerned that this entityID will be treated as a fatal metadata error when VM dev is at x.mssm.edu.

Do you have a recommended approach for handling this situation? Only one idea comes to mind: Alter the /etc/hosts file on VM dev to map its IP address to x.mssm.edu and then create the SP metadata file.

Regards
Arthur

--
Arthur Goldberg, PhD
Mount Sinai Data Warehouse<https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/msdw/>
Scientific Computing and Data<https://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/minervalab/scientific-computing-and-data>
Associate Professor of Genetics and Genomic Sciences
Institute for Data Science and Genomic Technology
Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Arthur.Goldberg at mssm.edu<mailto:Arthur.Goldberg at mssm.edu>
646 526 5020
Zoom<https://mssm.zoom.us/my/arthur.goldberg?pwd=LzByMGJOZC9wM3A2aHV6OU94eUtSQT09>

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