Grouper Developers Forum

[Emily Eisbruch <>]

Draft Minutes: Grouper call of March 12, 2014

Attending

Tom Barton, U. Chicago (chair)

Chris Hyzer, Penn

Dave L., U.  Chicago

Jim Fox, University of Chicago

Scott Koranda, Spherical Cow Consulting

Emily Eisbruch, Internet2, scribe

New Action items  

[AI] (Chris) respond to the Maven Pubic repo issue on the list.  (DONE)

https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-03/msg00000.html

[AI) (DaveL) look at PSP ChangeLogDataConnector Inconsistency issue

 https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-02/msg00047.html

[AI] (Scott) review the Grouper wiki documentation on handling error messages and statuses and make improvements if needed.

[AI] (Chris) investigate adding a status servlet for the new Grouper 2.2 UI

Carry Over Action items

[AI] (Chris) follow up again with CMU on search terms issue 

[AI] (Chris) remove from the Grouper distribution the code for the uPortal connector, since it's now included with uPortal

[AI] (DaveL) write up the doc related to the Shib Grouper question.

https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-02/msg00004.htmlhttps://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-02/msg00044.html

[AI] (Chris) look at POST and GET parameter issues, identified as a flawed design pattern from the PEN testing 

[AI] (DaveL) work on the PSP aspect of GRP 914.  

DISCUSSION

Issues from the Grouper Users List

[AI) (DaveL) look at PSP ChangeLogDataConnector Inconsistency issue

 https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-02/msg00047.html

Maven question on the list: We have some Grouper modules in  Maven, including the Grouper Client and PSP and Grouper API. The UI and the web services are not in Maven yet. UCLA has a standard where everything they deploy must be in Maven.  But they have a workaround. The Grouper project should eventually put everything in Maven but it's not urgent in light of other current project priorities.

[AI] (Chris) respond to the Maven Pubic repo issue on the list. (DONE)

https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-users/2014-03/msg00000.html

Grouper Error Messages

Scott has been working with a group at Boston College on their Grouper deployment.  They are interested in knowing what error messages might come from Grouper. The idea is that they will be putting Grouper error messages in log files that get  monitored, and action will be triggered for critical errors.

Jim: at University of Washington we watch the log files for messages that we recognize. It's always difficult because when error messages are formatted

it's some verbiage that a programmer thinks of at the time and there is not a lot of consistency. We have learned from experience of what to look for and how to fix it. We don't provide an alert without providing instructions on what to do. Once you've learned some lesson you can tell it and have it be automated. but at first it's ad hoc.

Chris suggested using the status servlet for Grouper web services as described on this wiki page:

https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/Grouper/Grouper+diagnostics

Penn uses the approach of having Nagios monitor the diagnostic output every 5 minutes or so. If it does not returns a 200,  then an alters goes out.  Chris noted that one problem with using logs of error messages is that If the system is down then there will be no logs. Also it's a challenge to distinguish between the various error messages.

Scott: the plan was to use the servlet, but also to monitor log files of error messages. Based  on this discussion, Scott will propose to use only the web services status servlet and make a project to study the log files over time.

Scott: For the new Grouper UI being developed for v2.2, has thought been put into levels that can be used for that logging?

Chris: The UI does not have a status servlet. Will look into this. 

[AI] (Chris) investigate adding a status servlet for the new Grouper 2.2 UI

[AI] (Scott) review the Grouper wiki documentation on handling error messages and statuses and make improvements if needed.

Jim: Is the status page available on the UI to browsers? Sometimes our customers (technical users) have problems w their own applications. It is helpful if they have a page where they can see if the group service is running.

Grouper v2.2

Grouper UI (https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/Grouper/Grouper+UI+v2.2+tasks)

Chris is making good progress on the new Grouper UI, working on the import screen.

Upgrade Process 

Scott has volunteered to help Shilen by reviewing the upgrade documentation for Grouper 2.2. 

Chris: Eventually (after the new Grouper UI is finished) the installer could potentially be used to help with upgrades.

Grouper BOF at Internet2 Global Summit

 Wed, April 9, 7:30am-8:30am

  https://meetings.internet2.edu/2014-global-summit/detail/10003190/

Emily Eisbruch, Technology Transfer Analyst

Internet2

office: +1-734-352-4996 | mobile +1-734-730-5749