The following high-level tasks describe the process required to set up the trust model between an identity provider and a service provider. Although these tasks assume that both providers are Identity Servers provided with Access Manager, similar tasks must be performed when one of the providers is a third-party application.
Administrators at each company install and configure Identity Server.
Administrators must exchange Identity Server metadata with the trusted partner.
Metadata is generated by Identity Server and can be obtained via a URL or an XML document, then entered in the system when you create the reference. This step is not applicable if you are referencing an ESP. When you reference an ESP, the system lists the installed ESPs for you to choose, and no metadata entry is required.
Create the reference to the trusted identity provider and the service provider.
This procedure associates the metadata with the new provider. See Creating a Trusted Service Provider.
Configure user authentication.
This procedure defines how your Identity Server interacts with the trusted provider during user authentication. Access Manager comes with default basic authentication settings already enabled.
See Section 2.8.8, Configuring User Identification Methods for Federation.
Additional important steps for enabling authentication between trusted providers include:
Setting up the necessary authentication contracts. See Section 5.1.4, Configuring Authentication Contracts.
Enabling the profiles that you are using. See Managing Web Services and Profiles.
Enabling the Always Allow Interaction option on the Web Service Consumer page. See Configuring the Web Service Consumer.
(Conditional) If you are setting up SAML 1.1 federation, the protocol does not allow the target link after federation to be automatically configured. You must manually configure this setting.
See Specifying the Intersite Transfer Service URL for the Login URL Option.