Monitoring an MDQ Server

This document shows how to use a library of bash scripts to monitor a metadata query (MDQ) server.

Getting Started

Skim some related documentation on GitHub: Monitoring an HTTP Resource
Install the bash library (see the bash library project page for details)
Configure the bash environment (see the bash library project page for details)

Testing a Single Entity

Experiment 1: Given an IdP entityID, test a single metadata resource on the MDQ server.

Required info:

An IdP entityID
An MDQ base URL

An MDQ base URL is needed to configure a Shibboleth DynamicHTTPMetadataProvider as well.

The following values are for illustration only:

Initialize parameters

$ entityID=https://webauth.umass.edu/idp/shibboleth
$ mdq_base_url=http://mdq-beta.incommon.org/global

Compute the corresponding MDQ protocol request URL:

Compute the MDQ protocol URL

$ location=$( $BIN_DIR/mdq_url.bash $mdq_base_url $entityID )
$ echo $location
http://mdq-beta.incommon.org/global/entities/https%3A%2F%2Fwebauth.umass.edu%2Fidp%2Fshibboleth

Test the MDQ server by requesting entity metadata:

Run the test

$ $BIN_DIR/http_response_stats.bash -n 1 $location

The previous command outputs the following JSON file on stdout:

Default output

Limit the size of the JSON array to one object but output all available timing data:

Run the test again

The previous command outputs the following JSON file on stdout:

All output

For more information, consult the script’s inline help message:

Display help message

Monitoring the MDQ Server

Set up a cron job for the previous test.

Identity Provider 4