Configuration Guides › Federation Security Services Guide › Configure SAML 2.0 Affiliations At the Identity Provider › Affiliation Overview

Affiliation Overview

A SAML affiliation is a group of SAML entities that share a name identifier for a single principal.

Both Service Providers and Identity Providers can belong to an affiliation. However, a single entity can belong to only one affiliation. Service Providers share the Name ID definition across the affiliation. Identity Providers share the user disambiguation properties across the affiliation.

Using affiliations reduce the configuration required at each Service Provider. Additionally, using one name ID for a principal saves storage space at the Identity Provider.

SOA Security Manager uses affiliations for the following functions:

• Single sign-on
• Single logout

Note: Configuring affiliations is optional.