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Middleware Implementation Case Studies Tom Barton, The University of Memphis Renee Woodten Frost, Internet2 & UMich Louise Miller-Finn, Johns Hopkins University
Middleware Implementation Case Studies
Tom Barton, The University of Memphis
Renee Woodten Frost, Internet2 & UMich
Louise Miller-Finn, Johns Hopkins University
28 June 2001 2
Outline of Presentation
• Renee will introduce the concept of Core Middleware and the reasons for implementation
• Tom will give an overview of the structure of an Enterprise Directory Service and identify some issues currently facing the U of Memphis.
• Louise will detail the Johns Hopkins model for an Enterprise Directory Service.
• Renee will summarize some additional related Internet2 Middleware Initiative activities.
28 June 2001 3
Core MiddlewareIdentity - unique markers of who you (person, machine, service, group) are
Authentication - how you prove or establish that you are that identity
Directories - where an identity’s basic characteristics are kept
Authorization - what an identity is permitted to do
PKI - emerging tools for security services
28 June 2001 4
Organizational Drivers
• Federal government
• E-enterprise functions
• Service expectations
• Resource allocation pressures
• Collaboration
28 June 2001 5
Benefits to the Institution• Economies for central IT - reduced account management,
better web site access controls, tighter network security...• Economies for distributed IT - reduced administration,
access to better information feeds, easier integration of departmental applications into campus-wide use...
• Improved services for students and faculty - access to scholarly information, control of personal data, reduced legal exposures...
• Participation in future research environments - Grids, videoconferencing, etc.
• Participation in new collaborative initiatives - DoD, Shibboleth, etc.
28 June 2001 6
Costs to the Institution
• Modest increases in capital equipment and staffing requirements for central IT
• Considerable time and effort to conduct campus wide planning and vetting processes
• One-time costs to retrofit some applications to new central infrastructure
• One-time costs to build feeds from legacy source systems to central directory services
• The political wounds from the reduction of duchies in data and policies
28 June 2001 7
Nature of the Work
• Technology
– Establish campus-wide services: name space,
authentication
– Build an enterprise directory service
– Populate the directory from source systems
– Enable applications to use the directory
28 June 2001 8
Nature of the Work
• Policies and Politics– Clarify relationships between individuals and
institution– Determine who manages, who can update and
who can see common data – Structure information access and use rules
between departments and central administrative units
– Reconcile business rules and practices
28 June 2001 9
Enterprise Directory Service: What Is It?
• Anti-stovepipe architecture that can provide authentication, attribute, & group services to applications.
• Adds value by improving cost/benefit of online services and by improving security.
• A new & visible flow of administrative data. When someone finally begins to understand what you’re talking about, they react to the prospect of change.
28 June 2001 10
Managed Objects• Objects that describe:
–People–Groups–Aliases, Roles, Affiliations–Network devices–Security policies–Network services–Org structure
• The object classes and source data to populate them are determined by the applications to be directory enabled.
28 June 2001 11
Enterprise Directory Service: How To Build One
• Determine application-driven requirements for authentication, attribute, and group services and then design these four stages to meet the requirements:
1. Data Sources
2. Metadirectory Processes
3. Directory Services
4. Applications
28 June 2001 12
UoM Core Middleware Stages
HRS
SIS
IDs
1
Ph Rebuild& AMP
BuildUser
cardswipe
2
qi-operutils
mailrouting
RADIUS
tigerlan
addressbooks
webauthN
webauthZ
IMAP/POPmail
webmail
calendar
qiSynch
NDS
LDAP DSPh
SMTPAUTH
whitepages
massmessaging
3
UMDI
dialupwirelessFRS
miscactions
Data sources Metadirectory processes Directories Applications
28 June 2001 13
Notes re: UoM Core Middleware Stages• Data Sources: Attribute selection; negotiation for access;
determination of data access policy; familiarity with semantics of desired data elements & business processes that maintain them.
• Metadirectory Processes: Management of identity; transformational & business logic (resource provisioning); derived attributes & structures (eg, uid’s, email attributes, state variables, org structure groups & attributes, …).
• Directory Services: Loading & replicating; access controls for directory information; schema extensions to support applications; indexing & performance management; synchronizing other consumers of directory info.
28 June 2001 14
Notes re: UoM Core Middleware StagesApplications. Some boxes represent classes of apps. Tigerlan (800 seats of computer labs); white pages (people search); Library proxy access; postoffice & calendar account building; manage mail account (vacation, quota, …); various web-based utilities for LSPs; ResNet autoregistration; secure discussion groups; campus pipeline; UoM “address book” integrated into email clients; IMAP/POP/web accessible emailboxes; calendar; email routing; off-campus email relay provided only to authenticated users; mass email; dialup & wireless authentication & authorization; card swipe facilitated account self-maintenance; automated account & resource management (“misc actions” in the slide).
28 June 2001 15
Notes re: UoM Core Middleware Stages
Applications - upcoming: WebCT; data warehouse; suite of applications directly managed by AD; shell account, home directory & personal web page access; FASTLane (Faculty & Staff LAN); storage & distribution of digital certificates, a key element of PKI; PIN synchronization??; new UoM ID card based applications??; authentication of Library patrons??
28 June 2001 16
Issues With Current Data SourcesHRS:• All accounts paid from, not
just primary department.SIS:• Select students from
current, future, and previous term and add’l data elements to support 2nd generation group messaging.
• Pull instructor data too.
ADS (Alumni): initiate
DRA (Library): initiate
Async (Clientele):
• New web based account self-maintenance to replace card swipes.
• “Challenge” Qs & As for identification in non face-to-face circumstances.
28 June 2001 17
Issues With the Current Metadirectory
• NDS update channel is too slow
• Ancient, frozen technology (especially Ph)
• Anticipate new policy regarding account & resource management, especially to handle off-campus students & alumni.
• 9 years of spaghetti
• Tightly bound to particular source and directory technologies.
28 June 2001 18
Issues With Current Directories
• Must bring Active Directory into this infrastructure.
• Need better representations & procedures for non-people objects: static groups; dynamic groups; org structure related groups, roles, and people attributes; affiliations & other “correlated” info.
• Need to include new types of metadirectory consumers such as list processors
28 June 2001 19
MetaDirectory Data Flow Overview
• Provide complete SOR data-to-directory path;
• Push the data through one cycle to kickoff development process; (prime the pump)
– Review first iteration, and prepare next iteration with updates;
• Each iteration flushes more detail to the requirements in a rapid application development process adding data, business rules and/or policy changes;
• Document and store standard deployment procedure;
• Each iteration provides intense unit testing followed by QC test cycle, then move to production
28 June 2001 20
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 21
Stage 1 – Analyze Data Sources
• Identify Data Sources– Where do the data feeds originate; what data
fields are required; Provide Standard Data Collection Model
– What is the frequency of the data feed; require fixed length fields and records;
• Define database load procedure and produce audit log
28 June 2001 22
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
DatabaseLoad
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 23
Stage 2 – Database Requirements
• Define the input tables to represent the clients’ data; define
key fields to tie tables together;
• Document and store common database procedures;
• Provide data model using Entity Relationship tool (e.g.
ERWin);
• Provide standard database templates for reuse;
• Provide audit log
28 June 2001 24
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back EndBusiness Rulesand Processing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 25
Stage 3 – Back End Processing (BEP)
• Develop procedures (PLSQL) to process high
level business rules;
• Create intermediate tables with directory records;
• Implement ER diagrams that define table fields;
• Store common procedure templates for reuse;
• Provide audit log;
28 June 2001 26
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare andexport datafor directory
DirectoryFiles
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 27
Stage 4 – Database Table Export
• Provide export file in fixed field, fixed record format;
• Develop status field processing using eye catcher (e.g.
‘ADD’, ‘DELETE’, ‘UPDATE’, ‘NOCHANGE’)
• Document export procedure and standard field values;
• Create and store common export procedure template;
• Produce activity log
28 June 2001 28
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
DirectoryFiles
DirectoryLoading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 29
Stage 5 – Directory Import
• Process export files using generic (PERL) script to import/update enterprise directory;– Keep code free of business rules;
• Create and store common script template for reuse;
• Provide web base report interface to track activity and status;
• Provide audit log
28 June 2001 30
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 31
Stage 6 – Directory Status
• Provide audit log of directory activity;
– Create and store common report template;
– Generate standard web based activity report;
• Provide backup/recovery procedure;
• Provide replication service;
28 June 2001 32
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web EnabledFront End
Authen
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 33
Stage 7 – Front End Processing (FEP)
• Define and deploy access control (ACL); – Define JHI policy for the global user, the person, and the
administrator;– Develop and document scope and visibility to the directory
attributes;
• Develop and deploy common web enabled directory access (a common ‘look and feel’ to the front end);– Use a common set of development tools (e.g. ColdFusion);
• Apply front end application level business rules (more specific rules than the back end process);
28 June 2001 34
Payroll (5)
SIS
Alumni
Badging
Libraries
Database Load
OracleRepository
Back End BusinessRules andProcessing
Prepare and exportdata for directory
Directory Files(Add, Change,
Delete)
Directory Loading
EnterrpiseDirectory
ApplicationDatabase
Web Enabled FrontEnd Authentication
Directory UpdateLog to Data
Sources
Directory UpdateHolding Area
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5
Directory StatusView
Stage 6
Stage 8
Stage 7
MetaDirectoryData Flow
28 June 2001 35
Stage 8 – Directory Updates
• Provide a log dataset of directory activity
(updates, deletes, etc.);
• Provide standard procedure for data owners to pull
the activity log;
• Design and implement a standard record layout
using a status field and a audit trailer record;
28 June 2001 36
Summary•Don’t underestimate the need to keep repeating the message
•Support from the top is critical
•Continual auditing: data feeds will disappear or show up corrupted
•Hire the best, otherwise you will waste much time and $$$
•Maintain KISS principle
28 June 2001 37
Questions and Answers
28 June 2001 38
Related I2 Directory Activities• Early Harvest / Early Adopters - http://middleware.internet2.edu/earlyharvest/ http://middleware.internet2.edu/earlyadopters/• LDAP Recipe -
http://www.georgetown.edu/giia/internet2/ldap-recipe/
• eduPerson – http://www.educause.edu/eduperson• Directory of Directories –
http://middleware.internet2.edu/dodhe
28 June 2001 39
Related I2 Middleware Activities
• Shibboleth –
http://middleware.internet2.edu/shibboleth/• PKI – HEPKI-PAG, HEPKI-TAG
http://www.educause.edu/hepki/• PKI Labs
http://middleware.internet2.edu/pkilabs/• Vidmid –
http://middleware.internet2.edu/video/
28 June 2001 40
For More Information
• Tom Barton
• Renee Woodten Frost
• Louise Miller-Finn
