AcIS ID System Deployment: Phase 2

Summary

The second phase of the AcIS ID System deployment replaces our unix account and group system.

Most notably, this system includes the applications that enable students, faculty and staff to create unix accounts, as well as the applications that the AcIS support center uses to assist users with their accounts. It also includes the behind-the-scenes services that make unix accounts work.

Motivation

The new system increases the timeliness and accuracy of the unix account/group database that is the foundation for all unix-based AcIS services, including email, Columbia web sites and cunix access.

Furthermore, this new application significantly reduces the complexity of the unix account/group system, thus making the new system significantly more maintainable.

Specific improvements include:

Turnaround time for unix account and group creation and changes reduced from roughly 100 minutes to a few seconds.
New faster and more informative support tools enable AcIS to better support users.
Automated unix account creation and upgrade/downgrade works for wider audience.
Previous errors in user disk quota magnitudes eliminated.
New ability to distribute maintenance of cunix groups to multiple people.
Reduced load on old system enables more timely processing of feed data.

Details and Timeline

Saturday, July 17th, 2004

Name Who is Affected When Change Description
Webcreate All users When creating a unix account for the first time, or when buying an extended account online. Modifies the internals of webcreate, the program by which users create and manage their unix accounts, to perform its changes on the AcIS Oracle database instead of the AcIS Ingres database.
Disk Quotas All users When requesting temporary or permanent changes to their disk quotas Replaces the current mechanism for enforcing quotas with a far simpler program. Turnaround time for quota changes remains 10 minutes.
group All users When modifying unix groups Replaces the current group program; includes revised syntax and features. [documentation]
chsh All users When changing unix shell Replaces the current chsh program; no noteworthy visible changes.
uniedit AcIS Staff When modifying user accounts Replaces the current programs me and cid; includes many feature additions/changes. [documentation]

Name	Who is Affected	When	Change Description
Webcreate	All users	When creating a unix account for the first time, or when buying an extended account online.	Modifies the internals of webcreate, the program by which users create and manage their unix accounts, to perform its changes on the AcIS Oracle database instead of the AcIS Ingres database.
Disk Quotas	All users	When requesting temporary or permanent changes to their disk quotas	Replaces the current mechanism for enforcing quotas with a far simpler program. Turnaround time for quota changes remains 10 minutes.
`group`	All users	When modifying unix groups	Replaces the current `group` program; includes revised syntax and features. [documentation]
`chsh`	All users	When changing unix shell	Replaces the current `chsh` program; no noteworthy visible changes.
`uniedit`	AcIS Staff	When modifying user accounts	Replaces the current programs `me` and `cid`; includes many feature additions/changes. [documentation]

Week of July 19th, 2004

Name Who is Affected When Change Description
precreate New Students When they first enter our database Replaces old precreate program, the program responsible for creating unix accounts for students before they show up on campus (so they can receive official email). Bug fixes allow precreation for certain classes of students not previously precreated.
expire All unix users When they leave the university Replaces old expire program, the program responsible for removing the unix accounts of all students, staff and faculty who leave the university. New features allow more correct assignment of unix account privileges.

Name	Who is Affected	When	Change Description
precreate	New Students	When they first enter our database	Replaces old precreate program, the program responsible for creating unix accounts for students before they show up on campus (so they can receive official email). Bug fixes allow precreation for certain classes of students not previously precreated.
expire	All unix users	When they leave the university	Replaces old expire program, the program responsible for removing the unix accounts of all students, staff and faculty who leave the university. New features allow more correct assignment of unix account privileges.

August 1st - August 15th 2004

Name Who is Affected When Change Description
LDAPv3 Phase-In All users When sending or receiving email;
when logging into cunix Replaces the LDAP database that provides unix account and group data to all AcIS unix machines; new database supports realtime updates.