Federation Guides › Partnership Federation Guide › Storing User Session, Assertion, and Expiry Data › Federation Data Stored in the Session Store

Federation Data Stored in the Session Store

The session store stores data for the following federation features:

• HTTP-Artifact single sign-on (SAML 1.x or 2.x)

  A SAML assertion and the associated artifact are generated at the asserting party. The artifact identifies the generated assertion. The asserting party returns the artifact to the relying party. The relying party uses the artifact to retrieve the assertion, which the asserting party stores in the session store.

  A persistent session is required for this process to work.

  Note: SAML POST profile authentication does not store assertions in the session store.

• HTTP-POST single use policy (SAML 2.0)

  The single use policy feature prevents assertions (POST binding) from being reused at the relying party to establish a second session. The relying party stores time-based data about the assertion, which is known as expiry data, in its session store. Expiry data helps ensure that the assertion is only used one time.

  A session store is required at the relying party, but a persistent session is not required.

• Single logout (SAML 2.0)

  If single logout is enabled, either partner can stores information about the user session. The session information is kept in the session store. When a single logout request is completed, the session information for the user is removed, invalidating the session.

  A persistent session is required at the Identity Provider and Service Provider.

• Authentication Session Variables Persistence (SAML 1.x and SAML 2.0)

  You can select the option Persist Authentication Session Variables when configuring federation at a relying party. This option instructs the Policy Server to save authentication context data in the session store as session variables. The Policy Server has access to these variables for use in authentication decisions.

• Assertion Attributes Persistence (SAML 1.x and SAML 2.0)

  You can select Persist Attributes as a redirect mode at the relying party. The redirect mode determines how a user is redirected to the target application. This mode instructs the Policy Server to store attributes that are extracted from an assertion in the session store so they can be supplied as HTTP header variables.

Enable the Session Store

Enable the session store to hold data when using SAML artifact for single sign-on, single logout, and enabling the single use of a policy.

Enable the session store from the Policy Server Management Console.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Policy Server Management Console.
2. Select the Data tab.
3. Select Session Store from the drop-down list in the Database field.
4. Select an available storage type from the drop-down list in the Storage field.
5. Select the Session Store enabled check box.

   If you are going to use persistent sessions in one or more realms, enable the Session Server. When enabled, the Session Server impacts Policy Server performance.

   Note: The Use Policy Store database option is disabled. For performance reasons, the session server cannot be run on the same database as the policy store.

6. Specify Data Source Information appropriate for the chosen storage type.
7. Click OK to save the settings and exit the Console.
8. Stop and restart the Policy Server.