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Federation Security Services and its Components

Federation Security Services lets business partners exchange user identity information in a secure fashion. This exchange enables single sign-on across partner Web sites in multiple domains.

Federation Security Services is separately-licensed from SiteMinder and supports the following features:

SAML 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 and WS-Federation

SAML and WS-Federation are standards that define the exchange of authentication and authorization information between entities in a network using assertions. The Policy Server Option Pack provides the ability to generate SAML assertions. The Web Agent Option Pack supports the consumption of SAML assertions.

Federation Web Services (FWS)

Federation Web Services is an application that enables the consumption of SAML assertions. FWS is installed by the Web Agent Option Pack on a server that is connected to the Policy Server.

SAML Affiliate Agent

The SAML Affiliate Agent is a stand-alone component that provides authentication and session management for a consumer site or affiliate that does not have a SiteMinder Policy Server and Web Agent to protect its resources. The Web Agent Option Pack installs Federation Web Services, which allows the SAML Affiliate Agent to communicate with the Policy Server.

For more information about Federation Security Services, see the Federation Security Services Guide.