SCIM WG P. Hunt
Internet-Draft Oracle
Intended status: Informational B. Khasnabish
Expires: April 02, 2013 ZTE USA, Inc.
A. Nadalin
Microsoft
Z. Zeltsan
Alcatel-Lucent
October 2012

SCIM Use Cases
draft-zeltsan-scim-use-cases-00

Abstract

This document lists the use cases of System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM).

Status of This Memo

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

This document describes the SCIM use cases. It also provides a list of the requirements derived from the use cases. The document's objective is to help with understanding of the design and applicability of SCIM schema [I-D.ietf-scim-core-schema] and SCIM protocol [I-D.ietf-scim-api].

The following section provides the abbreviated descriptions of the use cases.

2. SCIM use cases

This section lists the SCIM use cases.

2.1. Change of the ownership of a file


Description:

Bob - an employee of the company SomeEnterprise - creates a file, which is located at the cloud provided by SomeCSP. After Bob leaves SomeEnterprise, SomeCSP on a request from SomeEnterprise terminates Bob's rights to the file and transfers his former rights to Bill - another employee of SomeEnterprise.

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Requirements:

2.2. Migration of the identities


Description:

A company SomeEnterprise runs an application ManageThem that relies on the identity information about its employees (e.g., identifiers, attributes). The identity information is stored at the cloud provided by SomeCSP. SomeEnterprise has decided to move identity information to the cloud of a different provider - AnotherCSP. In addition, SomeEnterprise has purchased a second application ManageThemMore, which also relies on the identity information. SomeEnterprise is able to move identity information to AnotherCSP without changing the format of identity information. The application ManageThemMore is able to use the identity information.

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Requirements:

2.3. Single Sign-On (SSO) Service


Description:

Bob has an account with application hosted by a cloud service provider SomeCSP. SomeCSP has federated its user identities with a cloud service provider AnotherCSP. Bob requests a service from an application running on AnotherCSP. The application running on AnotherCSP, relying on Bob's authentication by SomeCSP and using identity information provided by SomeCSP, serves Bob's request.

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Bob has received the requested service from an application running on AnotherCSP without having to authenticate to that application explicitly.

Requirements:

2.4. Provisioning of the user accounts for a Community of Interest (CoI)


Description:

Organization YourHR provides Human Resources (HR) services to a Community of Interest (CoI) YourCoI. The HR services are offered as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) on public and private clouds. YourCoI's offices are located all over the world. Their Information Technology (IT) systems may be composed of the combinations of the applications running on Private and Public clouds along with the traditional IT systems. The local YourCoI offices are responsible for establishing personal information and (i.e., setting the user identities and attributes). YourHR services provide means for provisioning and distributing the employee identity information across all YourCoI offices. YourHR also enables the individual users (e.g., employees) to manage their personal information that they are responsible for (e.g., update of an address or a telephone number).

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Requirements:

2.5. Update attributes of a user who had previously interacted with a relying party web site


Description:

An end user has an account in a directory service A with one or more attributes. That user then visits relying party web site B, and through a federation protocol (e.g., WS-Federation, SAML, OAuth), selected attributes of the user are transferred from the user's account in directory service A to the web site B at the time of the user's first visit to that site.

The attributes of the user change later in directory service A. For example, the attributes might change if the user changes their name, has their account disabled, or terminates their relationship with directory service A. The directory service A then wishes to notify relying party web site B of these changes, as relying party B might (or might not) have a cache of those attributes, and if the relying party B were aware of these changes to their cached copy, would potentially cause a state change in relying party B. (E.g., if the user's account were disabled in A, then the relying party B might wish to also change their access control policies as well).

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Selected attributes of the user are transferred from the user's account in directory service A to the web site B at the time of the user's first visit to that site.

Requirements:

Relying parties have to be aware of changes to their cached copy, as these would potentially cause a state change in other relying parties.

2.6. Change notification


Description:

An end user has an account in a directory service A with one or more attributes. That user then visits relying party web site B. Relying party web site B queries directory service A for attributes associated with that user, and related resources.

The attributes of the user change later in directory service A. For example, the attributes might change if the user changes their name, has their account disabled, or terminates their relationship with directory service A. Furthermore, other resources and their attributes might also change. The directory service A then wishes to notify relying party web site B of these changes, as relying party B might (or might not) have a cache of those attributes, and if the relying party B were aware of these changes to their cached copy, would potentially cause a state change in relying party B.

The volume of changes, however, might be substantial, and only some of the changes may be of interest to relying party B, so directory service A does not wish to "push" all the changes to B. Instead, directory service A wishes to notify B that there are changes potentially of interest, such that B can at an appropriate time subsequently contact directory service A and retrieve just the subset of changes of interest to B.

Pre-conditions:

Post-conditions:

Service A is able to notify B that there are changes potentially of interest.

Requirements:

B must be able at an appropriate time to subsequently contact directory service A and retrieve just the subset of changes of interest to B.

3. Security considerations

TBD

4. IANA considerations

This Internet Draft includes no request to IANA.

5. Acknowledgements

TBD

6. References

[I-D.ietf-scim-api] Drake, T, Mortimore, C, Ansari, M, Grizzle, K and E Wahlstroem, "System for Cross-Domain Identity Management:Protocol", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-scim-api-00, August 2012.
[I-D.ietf-scim-core-schema] Mortimore, C, Harding, P, Madsen, P and T Drake, "System for Cross-Domain Identity Management: Core Schema", Internet-Draft draft-ietf-scim-core-schema-00, August 2012.

Authors' Addresses

Phil Hunt Oracle EMail: phil.hunt@oracle.com
Bhumip Khasnabish ZTE USA, Inc. Phone: +001-781-752-8003 EMail: vumip1@gmail.com, bhumip.khasnabish@zteusa.com
Anthony Nadalin Microsoft EMail: tonynad@microsoft.com
Zachary Zeltsan Alcatel-Lucent 600 Mountain Avenue Murray Hill, New Jersey USA Phone: +1 908 582 2359 EMail: Zachary.Zeltsan@alcatel-lucent.com