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Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 15. Going Production > Creating a Plan for Going Production

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Creating a Plan for Going Production

A good production plan covers a lot of ground. Unless the scope and audience for your directory service are extremely small, you should develop a detailed, written plan before going production. Everyone who will be involved in or directly affected by the rollout should participate in the creation and review of the plan.

A good plan for going production includes five major parts :

  • A list of resources needed for your rollout.

  • Prerequisite tasks that must be completed before the rollout.

  • A detailed service rollout plan that indicates what needs to be done, the order in which you will do it, and who will be responsible for completing each task.

  • Criteria used to measure the success of your service.

  • A publicity and marketing plan.

These five parts of the overall plan are discussed in greater detail in the sections that follow.

List the Resources Needed for Your Rollout

One key to a successful rollout is to make sure all the necessary pieces are in place before you bring up any services. Some of the resources you need to line up include:

  • Directory service software, including appropriate licenses and any necessary documentation. Refer to Chapter 12, "Choosing Directory Products," for more information on selecting directory software.

  • Hardware, operating system software, and third-party software that will be used to deploy your servers.

  • Other infrastructure elements, such as network drops , physical space for servers, uninterruptible power supplies , and systems to enforce physical security of your most important servers.

  • Directory management tools to meet the needs of those who manage the directory service. A combination of off-the-shelf products and custom tools developed in house are usually needed.

  • Committed administrative staff to perform backups , be on call to respond to service problems, and generally be responsible for the day-to-day care and feeding of the service.

Depending on the specifics of your own environment and the goals for your deployment, you may need additional resources. Create a checklist of all the required resources, and assign a responsible person to ensure that each is obtained before you expect the rollout to begin.

Create a List of Prerequisite Tasks

There are several important things you should do before you start installing servers and rolling out your service. These prerequisite tasks include the following:

  • Create a directory service testbed that you can use to simulate server load, try out new versions of directory software, try out design changes, and so on. This testbed should be completely separate from your production service if possible (i.e., locate it on a different part of the network, or use different server and client hardware).

  • Obtain the data you will use to populate your directory. Obtaining this data may be difficult and time-consuming if it comes from a source outside your immediate control. If you need to merge data from more than one source, the process of obtaining the data and preparing it for use in your directory service will be even more time-consuming . Hopefully you worked out some of the procedures during your directory service pilot; if not, now is the time to do so.

  • Obtain any permission needed to publish the data in your service. For example, you may need to ask your legal department to sign off on your plan for putting end user information in the directory service.

  • Coordinate the deployment of any directory applications that will use your directory service. Presumably, these applications will go production at the same time or shortly after your directory service. Alternatively, they may already be in production, but they'll switch to your service from a proprietary directory service or database. Either way, you will need to coordinate with the people who run the directory-enabled applications. Your own group may be responsible for some of the applications, of course.

  • Develop a complete set of well-documented, well- understood proceduresfor backing up and monitoring the directory service (see Chapter 18, "Monitoring," for more information).

  • Develop a disaster recovery plan (see Chapter 16, "Backups and Disaster Recovery," for more information).

  • Conduct appropriate training for support staff who may be asked to help users.

  • Conduct appropriate training for system administrators who may be asked to resolve directory- related problems.

  • Develop end user documentation and online help as needed.

Again, depending on your environment and your directory design, there may be additional things you need to do before beginning your production rollout. Create a checklist of everything that needs to be done and include a person responsible for each item. Consider dependencies among the tasks and make sure you prioritize your efforts accordingly .

Create a Detailed Service Rollout Plan

You should create a detailed service rollout plan that indicates what needs to be done, the order in which you will do it, and who will be responsible for completing each task. This plan should include the following information:

  • A list of the people who will be directly involved in the production directory service rollout, along with their primary tasks.

  • A list of the people who will be indirectly involved in the rollout. This list should include people responsible for directory-enabled applications, help desk staff, and so on.

  • A series of tasks for bringing up directory servers. This part of the plan should include the order in which you will bring up the servers and the person responsible for installing each one. For example, you might want to bring up a master server first, followed by three local replicas, followed later by seven remote replicas.

  • A series of tasks associated with bringing directory-enabled applications online. Do not plan to bring up all applications at once. A phased approach is safer and more likely to succeed.

  • A plan for increasing use of the service by applications and end users. If possible, gradually increase the service load so you can observe the system behavior and make appropriate adjustments before the service becomes overloaded.

  • A plan for distributing documentation to administrators, and then to end users.

  • A schedule for training end users and administrators.

  • Strategies for dealing with problems that might arise, such as unanticipated software or hardware bugs . This is typically documented in the form of an escalation plan that lists whom should be notified about which kinds of problems, and what procedures will be used if critical problems are not quickly resolved.

Depending on the scope of your service, there may be either very few or a large number of people involved in the production rollout. In either case, make sure each person is involved in creating the detailed rollout plan and understands his or her role.

Develop Criteria for Success

While you are lining up all the resources you need, tackling prerequisite tasks, and developing your detailed rollout plan, you also should create a document that lists certain criteria you can use to measure the success of your directory service rollout.

If you already have goals for your directory service (as discussed in Chapter 5, "Defining Your Directory Needs" ), use them to formulate criteria by which you can objectively evaluate the success of your production service. Don't be overly ambitious; it is probably sufficient to just jot down a few things you hope to accomplish. Here are some simple examples of production goals:

  • To support your most important directory-enabled application without causing any unplanned service outages

  • To respond to all directory-related questions from users within 24 hours of receiving them

  • To handle 100,000 searches per hour on your busiest server with no unexpected errors and an average response time of one second or less

  • To teach every administrative assistant in your organization how to use a new phonebook application powered by your directory service

  • To get 50% of the people you trained on the phonebook application to use it to make a change to an employee's entry within the first month of your production service

It is best to keep your success criteria simple. Share the criteria with the other members of your deployment team so that everyone is aware of the big picture. Make sure all the criteria are measurable; it is important to know if you are meeting or failing to meet your targets.

Create a Publicity and Marketing Plan

Before you begin your production rollout, you should develop a publicity and marketing plan for your new directory service. Your two major goals in this area should be to make people aware of the new service and encourage them to use it.

Publicity can take many forms. A few well-crafted articles for the company newsletter or postings to appropriate discussion groups may be all you need. On the other hand, you might want to make a bigger splash by hosting a directory service party. If your organization holds brown-bag meetings or any other type of training sessions on computing topics, you should sign up to lead a session or two to promote your new service and educate people about it.

Some of the topics you may want to cover when spreading the word about your directory service include

  • The basics of directory services and LDAP (for the uninitiated)

  • Quick-start information on how to use the service

  • How your directory service is being used now

  • How you expect usage to grow in the future

  • The extensive design and piloting work that was done by your team to prepare for a smooth production rollout

  • All the help your directory services team had from other groups within your organization (don't forget to say thanks!)

  • What a great new online service your team has created and how everyone benefits from it

It is important to tailor your publicity and marketing efforts to meet the needs of the intended audience. In practice, this means that you may need to develop separate materials for the end users, directory application developers, system administrators, executives, and so on.

If possible, enlist the marketing people who work for your organization to help draft your publicity plan and create appropriate materials. You should also consider whether you are willing to serve as a reference customer for any of your directory software suppliers. By doing so, you may be able to generate some external publicity about your organization and foster a better relationship with the supplier.

In summary, the deployment of a production-quality LDAP directory service is a major milestone for your organization. Make sure people know about it. There is nothing wrong with congratulating yourself and your team on a job well done while simultaneously raising awareness about your new service!



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services,  2002 New Riders Publishing
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Index terms contained in this section

applications
         deployment
                    production planning
backups
          production planning
data
          production planning
         publishing rights
                    production planning
deployment
         application
                    production planning
directories
         production
                    planning 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th
         software
                    production planning
disaster recovery plans
          production planning
documentation
         user
                    production planning
help
          production planning
marketing
          production planning 2nd 3rd 4th
monitoring
         directories
                    procuction planning
needs
          production planning 2nd
planning
          production rollouts 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
                    prerequisite tasks 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
                    publicity and marketing 2nd 3rd 4th
                    resource needs 2nd
                    success criteria 2nd 3rd
production directories
          planning
                    detailed rollout plans 2nd 3rd 4th
                    prerequisite tasks 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
                    publicity and marketing 2nd 3rd 4th
                    resource needs 2nd
                    success criteria 2nd 3rd
publicity
          production planning 2nd 3rd 4th
publishing
         data rights
                    production planning
resources
          production planning 2nd
rollouts
          detailed plans 2nd 3rd 4th
software
         directory
                    production planning
success criteria
          production planning 2nd 3rd
testbeds
          production planning
training
          production planning
users
         documentation for
                    production planning

2002, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.



Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services
Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services (2nd Edition)
ISBN: 0672323168
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1997
Pages: 245

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