How to use eduGAIN

  For Identity Federations

Identity federations can join eduGAIN service as a member. If an identity federation meets the requirements for joining eduGAIN, it can initiate the joining process described in Section 3.2 of the eduGAIN Constitution.

The process to join eduGAIN is as follows:

  1. To apply for membership, the applicant federation signs the eduGAIN Policy Declaration and presents it to the eduGAIN Operations Team (OT).
  2. The OT confirms that the applicant federation fulfils the requirements in Section 3.1 of the eduGAIN Constitution.
  3. Unless the eduGAIN Steering Group (eSG) has decided that the applicant federation does not need further approvals, the OT prepares and presents a proposal to the eSG to approve or reject the application.
  4. When an applicant is approved, the OT takes the necessary technical steps to register the federation to eduGAIN.

Besides the points mentioned in that section, a more technical description of what information has to be sent to the eduGAIN operations team in order to join eduGAIN is listed on the eduGAIN Technical website and best practices are described on the eduGAIN wiki.

  For Service Providers 

Joining eduGAIN means joining an eduGAIN member federation. But which one to join? There is no strict rule, but one reasonable option should be to contact the national federation of the country where the your organisation is located or where the service is geographically operated.

  • How to offer a service in eduGAIN provides a general overview about the aspects relevant for adding a service to eduGAIN. This is a good preparation for the following guide, which goes more into more detail.
  • How to join eduGAIN as Service Provider includes more concrete step-by-step instructions on what has to be done to legally and technically add a service to eduGAIN.

If you are interested to see which services are already eduGAIN-enabled, have a look at the eduGAIN Services page.

  For Identity Providers

Joining eduGAIN means joining an eduGAIN member federation. You should contact the national federation of the country where the your organisation is located and check the rules and procedures for joining.

Different supporting tools for identity and service providers are available at the eduGAIN technical site under the Tools section.

  For Users

For users, eduGAIN couldn’t be simpler. When you want to log into a service, you should click on ‘login’ and then select your institution from the list from all the institutions that have been granted access to the service. Sometimes, services will label this as a “Federated Login”.

Once you have selected your institution, you’ll be shown the standard login page from your organisation. This means that your username and password are NOT being shared with the service provider.

You might also be asked by your institution to approve the sharing of your details with the service provider. This page would list the attributes being shared (usually name and email address) so that you can be certain what information about you is being requested.

After this,  you’ll be logged in to the service provider.