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, an entity may belong to no more than one affiliation. Service Providers share the Name ID definition across the affiliation. Identity Providers share the user disambiguation properties across the affiliation.

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

SiteMinder uses affiliations for the following use cases:

• Single sign-on
• Single logout

Affiliations are set up at the Identity Provider site. Service Providers are added to an affiliation at the Service Provider site.

Note: Configuring affiliations is optional.