Creating a Metadata File for Your SP

If you've gotten this far, you have probably already chosen an Entity ID. If you have not, please see the Choosing your Shibboleth Entity ID topic.

What you Should have Finished So Far

Before you continue with this page, you should have your shibboleth2.xml file created and configured.

You should also have your application server Apache or IIS configured for Shibboleth.

Downloading the Metadata Template for your Server

When creating your metadata file, it's best to start with the SP-generated Metadata and then customize it with your settings. The SP auto-generated metadata file will not work as-is. You must customize this.

To get a copy of the file, you can use wget, curl, or a browser. Be sure that you use the protocol (http or https) and server name that browsers will access. The Shibboleth SP uses these values when generating the endpoint URLs in the metadata.

Download with wget

To download the generated metadata from apache using wget, use wget -O metadata.xml https://www.servername.umn.edu/Shibboleth.sso/Metadata

Download with curl

To download the generated metadata using curl, use https://www.servername.umn.edu/Shibboleth.sso/Metadata > metadata.xml

Download with a browser

To download the generated metadata using a browser, type in the URL in the location bar, and choose File -> Save as... to save the file.

 If downloading the metadata fails, the SP and/or web server is not yet properly configured. Please go back over the installation guides.

Customizing the Metadata File by Adding Contact Information

To customize the metadata XML file, add the following information after the <md:SPSSODescriptor> section. Usually this is right before the second to the last line.

NOTE: If your organization contains reserved XML characters such as ampersand (&), greater than (>), or less than (<), be sure to escape them (&amp; &gt; or &lt; respectively).

  <md:Organization> 
    <md:OrganizationName xml:lang="en">University of Minnesota, Department of Long Nomenclature</md:OrganizationName> 
    <md:OrganizationDisplayName xml:lang="en">Department of Long Nomenclature</md:OrganizationDisplayName> 
    <md:OrganizationURL xml:lang="en">http://www.dept.umn.edu/</md:OrganizationURL> 
 </md:Organization> 

 <md:ContactPerson contactType="support"> 
    <md:GivenName>Authentication Support</md:GivenName> 
    <md:EmailAddress>[email protected]</md:EmailAddress> 
 </md:ContactPerson> 
 <md:ContactPerson contactType="administrative"> 
    <md:GivenName>FirstName</md:GivenName> 
    <md:SurName>LastName</md:SurName> 
    <md:EmailAddress>[email protected]</md:EmailAddress> 
 </md:ContactPerson> 

Adding Additional Servers

If you have more than one virtual (or physical) host sharing this entityID, you'll need to either enable request signing or add endpoints for the other hostnames to the metadata. See Add Additional Servers To Metadata for details.

Publishing your Metadata

After you have your metadata file created, you may want to publish it to the Entity ID URL that you chose at the beginning of this process.

To Have your Metadata installed in Test 

Complete the SSO/Shibboleth Service Registration Request. 

Move Your Metadata to Production

Once you have verified that the metadata works in the Test Environment, you can reply back in the SSO/Shibboleth Request form to say you have completed your verification and to move to Production.