Grouper Developers Forum

[Jim Fox <>]

> > Will the Target Federated Grouper's Grouper Connector make SPML requests
> > (a pull model), or will the source Grouper (gsh) make the SPML requests
> > for the Target Federated Grouper?
>
> I think there are three options:
>
> 1. Diffs, sent via push, based on the change log
> 2. Periodic refreshes of groups, pushed by the source
> 3. Periodic refreshes of groups, pulled by the target
>
> I think we need diffs for real time, and we also need full refreshes.  If we 
> already have the authn etc for #1, then we might as well do #2 instead of #3, 
> though it shouldn't really matter we can support all if people want it...  
> Note, I think we had discussed it before, but there is currently no way to 
> pull diffs from WS...

We have something of a similar issue here at UW, where we need to
keep up-to-date several remote group systems, google groups, Windows
AD, and etc.  We chose to send updates (diffs) via JMS messaging
-- implemented with ActiveMQ.  This has several advantages over,
say, sending to a RESTful WS, which would be our other choice.
Most notably the remote site doesn't have to be up all the time,
so our change log processor can keep running whithout worrying what
to do with dropped notices.

Haven't decided yet how to do the reconciliation.  It's not as
simple as a periodic refresh.  These are large and dynamic things.
There will necessarily be a lot of activity between the start and
end of a refresh operation.  One possibility we're considering
is a background, continuous reconciliation pushed by the source.
It would be appropriately throttled so as not to overload anyone.

Jim