Understanding Carleton College's Enterprise Directory Service (EDS) and Its Applications

1. Richard Goerwitz Carleton College Carleton's Enterprise Directory Service (EDS)

2. What's an EDS? • It's an easily accessible 'people' info repository • Houses things like • Names, titles, departments • Phones, address, faxes • Physical locations (e.g., offices, dorms) • AND primary keys to other databases on campus • Many EDSs (ours, too) contain info on • courses, groups (same thing at Carleton) • organizational units

3. How is an EDS Implemented? • Three main strategies: • Extended NOS • where you extend eDirectory or AD to hold enterprise data • 'Fat' EDS • where you set up an RDBMS to hold a superset of data held in other campus DBs [e.g., the ERP system, OPAC, dev/AR system], and provision from there • 'Thin' EDS (NB: Carleton's strategy) • where you pool and merge your most important 'people' data then vend that data using a simple LDAP service

4. So What's LDAP? • LDAP=Lightweight Directory Access Protocol • A protocol for talking with a lightweight database • LDAP-enabled databases allow for: • Access via many platforms, OSs, and languages: • Java, PHP, Perl, Python, C++, etc. • MS ADSI, JNDI, Net::LDAP, etc. • LDAP is a fast, easy way to access EDS data • Offers one-stop shopping for most applications

5. Where Does Our EDS Get Its Data? • Colleague/Unidata • students, staff, faculty, courses • Advance/Oracle • alumni, parents, trustees, 'friends' • Card-access system/Informix • pictures • Recruitment Plus/SQL Server • prospects • Telecomm/SQL Server • departmental phone #s • NetWare/eDirectory • some NetIDs, all passwords*

6. carlAffiliation: EX homePhone: +1 507 645 xxxx homePostalAddress: Union St... carlLibraryPIN: 20118000000000 carlColleagueID: 0100000 carlSpouse: John J. Doe mail: mjohnson@acs.carleton.edu eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation: staff eduPersonAffiliation: staff eduPersonAffiliation: alum eduPersonAffiliation: parent carlAdvanceID: 0100000000 carlCohortYear: 1970 jpegPhoto: (raw picture data) Red = Advance Yellow = Card-Access Blue = Colleague What's an EDS Entry Look Like? dn: carlnetid=mjohnson,ou=people appleUserHomeURL: (XML string) uidNumber: 15375 carlNetId: mjohnson userPassword: (not visible) commonName: Margit C. Johnson title: Assoc Dir Off Campus Studies ou: Off Campus Studies Office carlOfficeLocation: Laird Hall 131 carlCampusPostalAddress: 3-OCS postalAddress: One N College St... telephoneNumber: +1 507 646 4031 fax: +1 507 646 5614 carlPrimaryAffiliation: EX Black = LDAP Green = NetWare Blue = Colleague

7. HomePhone: +1 507 646 xxxx homePostalAddress: Burton Hall... carlLibraryPIN: 20118010000000 carlColleagueID: 1000000 mail: bergmans@carleton.edu eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation: student eduPersonAffiliation: student carlCohortYear: 2007 jpegPhoto: (raw picture data) Yellow = Card-Access Blue = Colleague What's a Student Entry Look Like? dn: carlnetid=bergmans,ou=people appleUserHomeURL: (XML string) uidNumber: 15979 carlNetId: bergmans userPassword: (not visible) commonName: Sarah C. Bergman postalAddress: 300 N College St... carlStudentCampusAddress: Burton... carlStudentPermanentAddress: ...USA carlPrimaryAffiliation: UG carlAffiliation: UG Black = LDAP Green = NetWare Blue = Colleague

8. carlCourseCredits: 6 carlCourseMaxSlots: 25 carlCourseAvailableSlots: 22 carlCourseMeetingInfo: LDC 203 TTH 01:15PM 03:00PM carlCourseTerm: 04/WI carlCourseStartDate: 01/05/04 carlCourseEndDate: 03/15/04 carlCourseInstructor: carlnetid=ntomonar,ou=people uniqueMember: carlnetid=swansonm,ou=people carlnetid=cervonea,ou=people carlnetid=gohg,ou=people What's a Course Entry Look Like? dn: carlcolleagueid=0014331,ou=group carlObjectExpires: 2004-04-14 gidNumber: 50655 carlColleagueID: 0014331 carlCourseSynonym: 07744 ou: Asian Languages & Literatures cn: JAPN.343.00 carlCoursePrimaryName: JAPN.343.00 carlCourseSubject: JAPN carlCourseNumber: 343 carlCourseSection: 00 carlCourseTitle: Adv Japanese-Film & Fiction carlCourseStatus: Open Black = LDAP Blue = Colleague

9. VEMS2 front end Login services Core Linux servers Lab machines NetReg Luminis (SCT) Illiad (in the Library) Others! Where is EDS Data Used? • Web systems • LDAP auth, authz • Whitepages • Online phone book • Departmental pages • Prospect pages • Admissions systems • Prospect usernames

10. What Apps Are On the Horizon? • Library OPAC (vendor issues) • HEAT (version 8; ask Julie M.) • Course Management • Auto-populate photos, class membership rosters • Auto-generate 'my courses' page for students/teachers • OS/X 'dynamic local user' • ARTstor • Shibboleth (NMI distributed authentication)

11. Conclusion • Our EDS saves ITS time • Relieves us of having to maintain user accounts • Makes it easier to write apps • Apps only have to go to one place to get most information • Apps usually can get away with a single, simple API • EDS makes ITS customers happy, e.g.: • Admissions • Library • Students; all our external constituencies

12. Afterward: Why Doesn't Everyone Have an EDS? • Management doesn't always understand the need • Vendors want their products to serve as the EDS • Data owners don't always want to share data • Fear loss of control • Programmers lack skills • Fail to respect data owners' concerns • Lack integration experience; experience with APIs • Aim too high; fail to achieve usable results