Users and the Helmholtz Data Federation (HDF)#

For using a service in HDF, you simply choose one of the offered Services.

Most services will require you to be member of a Virtual Organisation(VO). To become member, you need to be invited/added by the PI (=Administrator) of the VO. This list of VOs may help to find the appropriate contact.

For testing purposes, you are automatically member of the “HDF” VO. This allows you to test those services that allow it. From the HDF-AAI side we ask all services to support the HDF VO with a small quota to make your life easier ;)

Unity#

When you click your service, you will then be redirected to the HDF community proxy, powered by unity. For using unity you have to choose your home identity provider (see below) at which you log in.

First time login#

On the first use you may need to verify your email address. Just follow the procedures, it will work. Note that you need to click on “remember choice” at several places to make login work much smoother in subsequent logins.

During the registration the first part of your email address is stored as preferred username. You can update it in home interface

Identity Providers#

HDF does not manage identities by itself. For identities it trusts so called Identity Providers (IdPs). As a user you must have an account in such an identity provider. Different classes of identity providers exist, with pros and cons:

  • “Home”-IdP: This is typically provided by your research centre or university. This is the place to which you get redirected in order to log in to a service.

  • Social IdP: The “social” networks like google or github also provide identities. However, these do not verify user-passports and do not have a work contract with their users. The services accessible with such identities may be limited.