Grouper Developers Forum

[Emily Eisbruch <>]

Notes: Grouper Call of Wed. Dec. 17, 2014

Attending

Tom Barton, U. Chicago, chair
Chris Hyzer, U. Penn
Shilen Patel, Duke
Jim Fox, U. Washington
Misagh Moayyed, Unicon
David Langenberg, U. Chicago
Emily Eisbruch, Internet2, scribe

Action Items

[AI] (Shilen) will put his Java and Config changes into the patch framework (zip file, meta file and new and old directory)

[AI] (Jim) will redo the upgrade and log the time when Shilen’s code has been added to the new patch framework

Carry Over Action Items

[AI] (Emily) look into providing better, easier to find, documentation on deployment experiences with Grouper and AD, Grouper and Google Groups, etc. perhaps using Confluence tags (not done yet as of Dec 17, 2014. Internet2 is currently upgrading its Confluence version by Jan 2015. We hope that using Confluence tags will be effective for this purpose of indexing Grouper Adopter Stories)

[AI] (Shilen) create a Grouper training video on the new Grouper UI

 [AI] (Tom) follow up on Pen testing of Grouper 2.2

Discussion

Grouper UI Development for v 2.3

Chris created a list of possible updates to the new UI for Grouper 2.3 https://spaces.internet2.edu/display/Grouper/Grouper+UI+development+v2.3

The goal is to identify what the community wants to add to the Grouper UI for 2.3. Chris will start to “stock” the wiki page with items for the UI for 2.3. Then Chris will do outreach asking for additional input.

Upgrade performance

Shilen implemented threads in the upgrade process to reduce time required.
Shilen: running the post script has 7 steps.
4 of the 7 steps were taking a while
Shilen added threads, and this seemed to help in 3 of the 4 steps.

 Q: Should we consider backing out the threads where they did not help? A: Maybe after Jim’s test of upgrade time is redone with the new code. Shilen tested on Oracle Database. The thread that did not help in Oracle might help in another database. Might depend on whether the database supports batching.

 Testing of upgrade time

Jim did the 2.1 to 2.2 upgrade and reported log times. https://lists.internet2.edu/sympa/arc/grouper-dev/2014-12/msg00005.html
Q: was that based on current release?
A: yes

Might be useful to do testing again with Shilen’s code that incorporates threads.
First Shilen will put his code into the new patch framework: http://software.internet2.edu/grouper/release/2.2.1/patches/
Then Jim will do testing of the upgrade on the improved code that incorporatees threads.

[AI] (Shilen) will put his Java and Config changes into the patch framework (zip file, meta file and new and old directory)

[AI] (Jim) will redo the upgrade and log the time when Shilen’s code has been added to the new patch framework

TIER and Grouper

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzRHp0xie6WFUVRqQXBwd3VSa1U&usp=sharing

TIER is a set of activities that Internet2 and the HE community will undertake to address the problem that CIFER wanted to address: the need for a more complete open source set of tools for campuses to use to address IAM needs. TIER has received support from many campus CIOs. RUCC (Research University CIO Conclave) has signed on to support TIER.

 There is a strawman roadmap and a process for the CIOs to review the roadmap.

A TIER v1.0 roadmap is expected in Feb or March 2015. The Internet2 board decided there will be sustaining funding (possibly thru fees to Internet2 or InCommon). All this is very good news.

Q: How does TIER relate to KUALI?
A: Kuali focused on big administrative systems (Financials, HR, student, library,). Primarily funded by a few (4-6) large schools.
Governance is always important in such efforts. TIER will have closer to 40 schools funding the effort.

Grouper’s role in TIER

CIO’s are concerned that there is a lot of piecemeal open source work. This can lead to duplication and overlap.Big decision: what to keep and what to build in TIER? The community agrees that keeping Grouper and Shib is important. There will be new connections between Grouper and other pieces. Must be easier to integrate, better packaging, so Grouper works better in the TIER context.

There was a TIER workshop in Chicago in Dec. 2014, where 23 campuses were represented. TIER will involve project management and quality assurance.

There will be a technical architecture process to look at use cases and requirements and resolve what should be built. A Technical Architecture Group will develop and maintain the technical roadmap for TIER. Tom is interested in suggestions for individuals to be on the Technical Architecture Group

Q: Will TIER software be open source?
A; yes

Q: Why are CIO’s investing?
A: They may have specific current needs or may expect to in the future
Campuses are committing 25K per year for 3 years

Q: will new code and documentation replace the current Grouper ?
A: not sure, we will know more as the technical architecture group starts to work
It is recognized that TIER should have modular parts, since each campus has unique needs

Q: Will TIER leverage work already done by the CIFER project?
A: yes, the CIFER API work will most likely be used

Creating TIER is like when campus leaders gathered 19 years ago to create the Internet2 Network.

SCIM, interfaces, & IETF

It has been mentioned that not a large number of Service Providers are embracing SCIM. Yet a standard is needed.http://www.simplecloud.info/
How to deal with this issue moving forward?

Next Grouper Call: Wed. Jan. 14, 2014 at noon ET
(Grouper call cancelled for Wed. Dec. 31, 2014)

Emily Eisbruch, Technology Transfer Analyst
Internet2

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