Creating a Plan for Going Production

Understanding and Deploying LDAP Directory Services > 26. Case Study: An Enterprise with an Extranet > Deployment

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Deployment

After HugeCo completed the design of the extranet applications and directory, it embarked on the deployment phase of the project. HugeCo used a phased approach, similar to the intranet directory deployment: Products were chosen , an extranet pilot project was deployed, and then the production service was rolled out to all retailers.

Product Choice

Because HugeCo had already deployed the Netscape Directory Server for its corporate intranet, it made sense to continue to use it for the extranet applications. Nevertheless, HugeCo analyzed the requirements of the extranet directory to verify that the Netscape product was, in fact, suitable. This was accomplished by detailing the types of operations the extranet applications would perform against the directory. These included the following operations:

  • User authentication ”   Whenever a user requests a Web page or CGI from the order entry and tracking system, his or her user ID and password are sent to the Web server, which verifies it and looks up the corresponding entry in the directory. Although the Web servers cache the lookup results for five minutes, the directory server sees quite a bit of this type of lookup traffic ”typically one lookup every five minutes per user.

  • User start page generation ”   When a user displays his or her personalized start page, it includes a list of relevant product bulletins or announcements that the user has not yet viewed . To generate this list, two directory entries are retrieved. First, the user's entry is retrieved and its hcHrpRetailerID attribute examined. Then the corresponding retailer entry is retrieved from the directory and the hcHrpProductAuthorized attribute is extracted. When these pieces of information have been retrieved, the application has enough information to display the new product notices for only those products the retailer is authorized to sell.

    When a new order is placed, the order entry and tracking system consults the retailer's directory entry to verify that the retailer is authorized to sell the ordered product.

Because the extranet Web server resides outside HugeCo's corporate firewall, all traffic between the Web server and the directory should be encrypted. Because Netscape Directory Server supports LDAPS (LDAP over SSL) connections, this requirement is met.

The types of queries required by these applications are well within the capabilities of the Netscape Directory Server. Hence, HugeCo decided to simply install additional instances of the Netscape Server to support the extranet application.

Piloting

As with the original directory deployment, HugeCo rolled out the extranet applications and directory in an incremental fashion. The process began with a small-scale pilot that provided valuable feedback and validation of the directory design. The pilot involved three different types of retailers ”a home improvement superstore, a small-town hardware store, and a home builder ” in different parts of the United States. Selecting these three types of retailers provided a set of users with a wide range of computer experience. The large home improvement center, for example, has its own computer consultant (shared with the other stores in the region), whereas the home builder serves as his own computer consultant.

HugeCo staff visited each pilot site. They assisted the retailer at each site with hardware and software installation, created entries and issued passwords for the users, and then stayed for three days as the pilot users began to use the extranet system. During this time, any difficulties the users encountered while using the system were noted and fed back to the system developers at HugeCo. Of particular interest to the developers were the experiences of the local administrators as they created and removed accounts for their staff using the administration utility hosted on the extranet Web server.

Also of interest to the extranet developers was the quantity of directory load placed on the extranet directory servers. During the pilot, the developers kept logs for the extranet directory servers and observed how each individual retailer generated load on the directory. Extrapolating from the pilot usage data allowed the developers to validate their assumption that two directory servers (a writable master and a read-only slave) would be sufficient for the needs of the extranet applications. Of course, if any new applications are deployed in the future, the load on the directory might change significantly, so this assumption must be revisited periodically throughout the lifetime of the extranet.

After a pilot site was installed, the HugeCo staff moved on to the next pilot site but remained available by telephone for assistance. After all the pilot sites were installed and operational, the pilot staff returned to each pilot site in order and interviewed the pilot users. The collected feedback from all the pilot sites and the usage data from the extranet directory servers were reviewed by the developers, and changes were incorporated into the system. Most of these changes involved alterations to the user interface of the order entry system.

Based on the experiences with hardware and software installation, HugeCo staff decided to pre-install all the software on the kiosk hardware and produce a quick-start setup guide. All that a retailer needed to do was unpack the kiosk, connect the cables as pictured in the setup guide, and plug the modem into a phone line.

Going Production

After the pilot was completed and applications were updated to incorporate feedback, HugeCo planned its production rollout of the service. Although HugeCo believed that the kiosk kits would be easy to install and configure, it decided to be conservative in the number of sites to be brought online, just in case the retailers needed a lot of telephone support. To avoid swamping the help desk with calls, only 25 kiosk kits were shipped initially. One week after the kiosks were shipped, a follow-up call was placed to each retailer to make sure that they were installed successfully.

After several weeks of shipping 25 kits per week, HugeCo was confident that it could handle a larger volume. This conclusion was based on the frequency of support calls and the usage patterns on the extranet directory servers, which were increasing as expected but well within the capacity limits of the servers. Volume was increased to 100 kiosks per week, and all kits were shipped within 10 weeks.

To encourage usage of the new kiosks, HugeCo tracked the usage of the extranet applications and the telephone order center. Initial results were disappointing, as the call center volume actually increased for a period of time; but this eventually began to decline as retailers became more comfortable using the system.

Data was collected and analyzed during the entire process to determine if the directory was in danger of becoming overloaded. Based on the experience gained while deploying HugeCo's corporate intranet directory, staff members felt confident about the abilities to perform capacity planning for the new extranet applications. Basic performance metrics, such as average search response time, were developed and measured throughout the directory deployment phase; directory load remained well within expected levels.



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

case studies
         HugeCo
                    deployment 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
deployment
          HugeCo case study
                    piloting 2nd 3rd
                    product choice 2nd 3rd
                    production rollouts 2nd 3rd
directories
         case studies
                    HugeCo 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
directory
         software
                    HugeCo case study 2nd 3rd
extranets
         HugeCo case study
                    deployment 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th
HugeCo case study
          deployment
                    piloting 2nd 3rd
                    product choice 2nd 3rd
                    production rollouts 2nd 3rd
piloting
          HugeCo case study 2nd 3rd
production rollouts
          HugeCo case study 2nd 3rd
rollouts
          HugeCo case study 2nd 3rd
software
         directory
                    HugeCo case study 2nd 3rd

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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