Identity Management

Welcome to the NSF SAGE Identity Management Landing Page

Here you will find explanations and the latest updates on our identity-enhanced data access methods that allow us to better serve you…with a personal touch. Please read below for more information on what we are doing and what you can do to connect as an identified user to our seismic data web services. Please keep in mind that this system is a work in progress, so keep checking back here to follow up on the latest changes and additions.

Shortcut to examples

Please refer to the Web Service Authentication Examples page for command line examples of use.

What is Identity Management

Identity Management is a system that provides login facilities to track user activity and permit authorized access to restricted data sets and other privileged features. Working in partnership with NSF GAGE, NSF SAGE intends to place all forms of data access under user identification; and all you have to do is bring some form of ID, whether that is an account you create with us or one you bring from another institution.

Why is NSF SAGE Making Use of Identity Management?

As awardees of a substantial NSF Large Facility grant, both NSF SAGE and NSF GAGE been given a charge to Record and Report:

• WHO is requesting data
• WHAT data is being requested, and
• FOR WHAT purpose

NSF SAGE and NSF GAGE have jointly developed a system for capturing better information about how our services are being used. The downstream benefits for identified users can be summed up as:

• Personalized access
• Security through login credentials
• Permissions to special resources and services
• Customized assistance with access issues
• Consistency in identified representation in system
• Interoperability with other systems requiring identification

Constraints for Implementation

Our solutions must:

• Remain easily accessible to users and existing applications
• Remain compliant to community access standards
• Require very little change to existing software
• Continue to support existing restricted data protections
• Provide a definable path for implementation in the NSF SAGE/GAGE joint data system.

What NSF SAGE is Currently Doing

Users of NSF SAGE services will find:

• A Single Sign-On (SSO) Gateway to Federated Identity Providers (IdPs)
  • We are using a shared Auth0 Login Portal with NSF GAGE.
  • Users register in the Auth0 Login Portal prior to first login.
• Features supporting your login identity such as:
  • Your NSF SAGE Web Page User Profile
  • Access to restricted data sets
  • Self-service updates of networks and experiments for PIs.
  • Subscriptions to mailing lists
  • Identified data access via web services

Bring Your Own Identity

The Auth0 login portal allows users to log in to NSF SAGE by way of CILogon, Google, or a custom account you create with Auth0. It’s your choice what to use. NSF SAGE and NSF GAGE both follow the Single Sign On model for access sessions.

Logging in to NSF SAGE

For more than a decade, NSF SAGE has offered a login option for users to permit access to certain features on the web, including mailing lists. This means that many of our users have an existing account with NSF SAGE that they want to preserve.

To do so with our new identity system, please register using the same email address for your Auth0 login. All other users can start fresh with new login credentials. You only have to use a valid email address for your username.

Logging into NSF SAGE starts the top of the NSF SAGE Data Services home page https://ds.iris.edu where you find the ‘Sign In’ link. You are presented with a page providing three options.

• Log in via the new Auth0 Portal.
• Log in using a Google Account.
• Log in using the legacy NSF SAGE path.

The Auth0 portal is to become the new login point of access, and the other two options may go away in the near future.

In order to carry your old NSF SAGE account to Auth0, simply login with the same email address as you used on the old NSF SAGE login. You can also select the identity provider from CILogon that matches your NSF SAGE login email if you can locate it. So long as your new email address matches to the old, your original account and settings will be found.

Because your login is treated as Single Sign On (SSO), you will only need to login once for an acceptable period of time. As is normal with web browsers, your credentials will be saved in a cookie on the browser so that each of your activities will remember your logged in state. For this reason, we ask that you enable cookies when accessing NSF SAGE web sites.

Logging in through Auth0

When selecting the Auth0 login portal, you will be offered the choice of using a (email) username and password if you have a NSF SAGE account through Auth0. You also have alternative forms of login for accounts you may have elsewhere, including Google, many popular educational institutions, and ORCID.

If you do not already have a pre-existing account to choose from, you can create a new account in Auth0 by selecting the ‘Sign Up’ link below the red ‘Continue’ button. Remember, to keep a linkage to your existing NSF SAGE account, you want to register using that same email address. You can use a new address, but your current settings and subscriptions at NSF SAGE will not be automatically linked.

Registering Your New Login

The first time you log in to the Auth0 EarthScope portal, you will need to register information about your account. This account will be used jointly by NSF GAGE and NSF SAGE data services to authenticate and authorize your access to our mutual offerings. These are two key terms that we use when referring to identity management:

• Authentication = we have verified you are who you say you are.
• Authorization = we have verified that you have access or permission.

You will be presented with a registration page that asks you for some simple descriptive information about you. NSF GAGE and NSF SAGE will keep this information confidential, as its only use is to supply key demographic information in its performance reports. Once your registration is complete, your account is ready for use.

Your Login Profile

When you log in to NSF SAGE through the Auth0 portal, you will be returned to the Data Services page you started on. Once logged in, you can see your username at the top of the web page. This is a link to your personal profile at NSF SAGE.

Here, you will find a summary of your account allowances and basic profile information. This is also the place where you can establish your data access credentials (click on the ‘Data Access’ tab to view).

Data Access Controls

The Data Access view in your profile shows three different sections. Which we will cover below.

Service Password

In this section, you will find a key generator that is used for authenticating your account with NSF SAGE Web Services. In the past, NSF SAGE allowed users to have a fixed password for their accounts, but we are moving to a system that makes use of a time-limited password token for data access. In the future, NSF SAGE will require nearly all data access to be authenticated and we will provide updates on what that timeline looks like down the road.

If a password does not already exist in your profile, click the Refresh Web Service Password button and a 16-character code will be generated for you. There is a selection dropdown that allows you to specify how long you would like this token to be effective. Shorter time windows are considered more secure. When a token expires, you can Refresh to get a new one.

For convenience, a .netrc file generator has been provided here. Since many of the web service clients recognize the .netrc file as a reasonably secure alternative to entering your credentials on the command line, we generate the file entry for you.

Examples of using these credentials are provided on the Web Service Authentication Examples page.

SSL Password

The SSL Password is a special token for batch data file deliveries that have been encrypted for you. The primary example of this is a BREQ_FAST data delivery for restricted data. This is your key to unlock the data once you have downloaded it.

More information on using the SSL Password can be found on the Encrypted Data page.

Restricted Data Access

Here, you will find the section highlighting networks for which you are a Principal Investigator or are an Authorized User.

To apply for access to a data set that you are not yet authorized, find the name of the experiment in the dropdown listing and select the Request Access button.

Traditional NSF SAGE Data Access

• NSF SAGE offers access to data through a few different web services.
  • FDSNWS and PH5 Dataselect (for Level 1 data)
  • IRISWS Timeseries (for transformation tools on Level 1 miniSEED)
  • Timeseriesplot (for plotting traces to a downloadable image)
• Each of these services offers the oft-used ‘query’ endpoint.
  service.iris.washington.edu/fdsnws/dataselect/1/query?net=IU&sta=ANMO……
• This endpoint is anonymous, as in the user does not identify themselves.
• Each of these services also offers a ‘queryauth’ endpoint.
  http://service.adc1.iris.edu/fdsnws/dataselect/1/queryauth?net=US&sta=OXF…
• This endpoint requires Digest Authentication.
• NSF SAGE uses this to authorize access to specific restricted datasets.

Your Privacy

• Your personal information is kept confidential.
• We count the number of unique users that visit our services.
• We tabulate the geographic locations of our visitors.
• We attribute usage rates to sector of work.
• We tie restricted data allowances to your credentials.

NSF SAGE also has general privacy policies that are shared with the public. You can find this in the footer of all major NSF SAGE web pages. Privacy Policy link

The Latest Updates

You can find the latest updates to this page in the text boxes below.