[OpenID] Distributed ID Servers

[Johannes Ernst]

We already have that, at least to some extent.

First, you can load balance etc. and hide several physical servers  
behind the same domain name.
Second, you can specify N>=1 services supporting the same service  
type (e.g. OpenID Auth 1.1) at M>1 different domain names, by putting  
multiple entries into the Yadis/XRDS file, potentially with priorities.

What we don't have currently is many implementations that check the  
aliveness of an authentication server before redirecting the browser  
session there. But a simple HTTP HEAD on the service URL should suffice.

On Dec 20, 2006, at 20:05, Darryl wrote:

> Are there any ideas about making the OpenID system
> safe from ID server downtime? I'm thinking that if the
> ID's themselves were distributed around to various ID
> servers, while still associating each ID with an
> actual server, when that server goes down, the system
> could default to the ID server network to see if the
> ID is available elsewhere. All the data could be
> hashed like we would normally hash just passwords,
> this way noone could see who has access to what.
>
> There might also be a way to keep the primary ID
> server's information up-to-date after it goes down
> while still letting people authorize new sites during
> the down time. When the primary ID server goes down, a
> temporary ID server could be chosen and when the
> primary is back online, you could inform it of updates
> on that temp server, and then, when the primary is
> updated, the information propagates. Ofcourse, if the
> information on the temp server is not genuine it
> wouldn't propagate because the primary would refuse
> it.
>
> Just some ideas. I'm sure they couuld be improved upon
> or something.
>
> - Darryl McAdams
>
> -------------------------------
>
> o///
> Be seeing you...
>
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