Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get access to eVA?
Your organization needs to be a participant in the Canadian Access Federation (CAF) and have both Federated Identity Management (FIM) and eduroam services implemented.
- If you are not currently a CAF participant, you can apply to join here: Join CAF
- If you have not yet implemented FIM or eduroam, you may need to update your Participation Agreement. Please see: Administrative Support
- If you have any technical questions or if you would like to get started on your implementation of FIM, eduroam or eVA, please contact tickets@canarie.ca.
How much does the eVA service cost?
There is no additional cost for the eVA service for CAF participants.
How much time does it take to implement eVA?
The eVA service is hosted by CANARIE, so there is nothing technical to implement. Once your organization has been granted access or configured to access the eVA portal, your Primary Technical Contact will be sent an invitation to access the service via FIM. He/she can then immediately start creating accounts (profiles) for staff and faculty at your organization.
What should my organization’s central IT consider before rolling out eVA?
Each organization is unique; however, we have a few recommendations based on the experience of our pilot participants:
- Start by creating an inventory of use cases for guest access
- Have eVA Administrators sign in and do localized testing to fully understand the service and to help “right size” your planning
- Establish policies for who can issue guest credentials
- Examine current eduroam security practices against CANARIE security recommendations
- Plan communications
What is the difference between regular eduroam accounts and eVA accounts?
From a technical perspective, there is no difference between regular eduroam accounts and eVA accounts. The only difference is that eVA accounts are time-limited, whereas regular eduroam accounts are valid if the individual’s credentials can be validated by their organization.
I have been invited as an eVA Organization Administrator; however, I cannot create guest accounts or SMS Events – why?
For eVA Administrators to be able to create guest accounts and SMS Events, they need to be included in an eVA profile (either “Group”, “Role” or “Individual”). Even as eVA Administrators, they are users of the system and their ability to use these functions is limited to the rights assigned to the profile(s) in which they belong. Only users with the eVA Administrator role can create profiles.
Note: Once your “profile” has been created, you will need to log out and back in to update your permissions.
Click here to see how to create an eVA profile.
How would a user self-provision their account if they don’t have a phone?
Our recommendation is to leverage the “group” model for credentials. This offers you the ability to print handouts with credentials for a finite period of use. You can then make these handouts available at key locations on your campus.
Click here to see how to create guest accounts and set their validity period.
As an eVA Organization Administrator, how do I modify SMS events or guest accounts that have been created by others?
Currently, only the original creator of an SMS event can modify it. We will be releasing an enhancement in a future release to allow eVA Administrators access to modify these events.
If you have been provided “CERT” access by your organization’s Primary Technical Contact, you will have access to modify or delete individual eVA accounts that are currently active.
Click here to see how to do this using the CERT “All Visitors” function.
When I go to the “My SMS Events” section of the Portal, why can I see SMS Events that I did not create?
All SMS Events created by users at your organization are viewable by all users with permission to create and manage SMS Events. However, you are only able to modify and/or delete the SMS Events that you created.
When I attempt to print the HTML (narrowcast) page/poster for my SMS Event, it is not properly formatted. Why?
The SMS Event HTML (narrowcast) page/poster for my SMS Event is not printable in its current format. We will be releasing an enhancement in a future release to allow users to easily print this screen. In the interim, we recommend you take a screen capture or “snip” of the page/poster and then print it.
I have created group accounts with a validity period from the 1st login, but I am unable to delete or modify these accounts. Why?
There is a known issue in the current release of eVA that prevents users from deleting or modifying visitor accounts created with the group function, which have a validity period from the 1st login.
We will be releasing a fix in a future release to allow users to delete/modify these accounts. In the interim, you will need to contact your organization’s IT department to delete these users. Your organization’s eVA CERT Administrators will be able to do this on your behalf.