implementing the ellucian portal at north idaho college sharepoint 2013/ep 4.1 andreas burger north...

NWEUG2015

IMPLEMENTING THE ELLUCIAN PORTAL AT

NORTH IDAHO COLLEGESHAREPOINT 2013/EP 4.1

Andreas Burger

North Idaho College

7/30/15Track: Information Technology

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

NWEUG2015

SESSION RULES OF ETIQUETTE

Please turn off you cell phone/pager

If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as possible

Please avoid side conversation during the session

Thank you for your cooperation!


NWEUG2015

INTRODUCTION

SharePoint/Database Administrator here at

Over 10 years of experience in Information Technology and Services, including hardware, web design, programming, IT management, database and SharePoint administration, etc.

Microsoft Certified Professional MCITP (x2)

Contact [email protected]


NWEUG2015

INTRODUCTION

This presentation is aimed at IT professionals who implement and maintain a Student portal using SharePoint and the Ellucian Colleague portal software. It is giving a glimpse into the history of the ACP/DP/EP here at NIC, the prevailing approach and philosophy as well as challenges faced in the process.The focus is on the current SharePoint 2013/EP 4.1 implementation.


NWEUG2015

SESSION AGENDA

1. History

2. Philosophy and design

3. Realized Benefits

4. Setup and Architecture

5. Challenges

6. Conclusion

7. Questions


NWEUG2015

HISTORY

How it started and how we got here.


NWEUG2015

HISTORY: THE CHALLENGE

How to meet the demand for increasing services?

How to simplify Student interaction with NIC?

How to provide more services without increasing personnel and resources?


NWEUG2015

HISTORY: THE ANSWER

por·tal1

/ˈpɔr tl, ˈpoʊr-/ Noun

The definition of a portal is a gateway or entry to something else. An example of a portal is a door into a room.

An example of a portal is a website that takes you to many other websites.

Definition source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/portal


NWEUG2015

HISTORY: INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION

Portal Version ACP 1.1

SharePoint Version Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

2007 (enterprise edition)

Rollout: March 2010; soft rollout starting in late 2009

Features Web Advisor with SSO

Colleague UI 2.3

One site collection

Datatel Team sites (org driven)

MySites created but not used

Three Audiences (Student, Faculty and Staff)


NWEUG2015

HISTORY: 1ST UPGRADE

Portal Version DP 3.x

SharePoint Version SharePoint Server 2010

(enterprise edition)

Rollout: Sept. 2013


Colleague UI 4.2 (SSO started working with UI 4.1 on previous installation)

9 site collections

SharePoint native Team sites

No MySites



NWEUG2015

HISTORY: 2ND UPGRADE

Portal Version EP 4.1

SharePoint Version SharePoint Server 2013

(enterprise edition)

Rollout: Oct. 2014


Colleague UI 4.5 with SSO

13 site collections

SharePoint native Team sites (>175)

No MySites



NWEUG2015

PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

Why we did what we did when we did…“Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.” (Antoine Léonard Thomas)

Rough translation: “Because I wonder if this is going to work as advertised, therefore I think, therefore I am.”


NWEUG2015


Branding Achieve a look and feel that

conveys the importance of the portal as an institutional tool.

Brand the MyNIC portal with ourcolors and with our styling, and extend this design to other site collections

Encourage look and feel for all site collections. Discourage use of OOTB composed looks (replaced themes from SP 2010)


NWEUG2015


SharePoint Designer Pros:

Powerful with the correct skills and knowledge

Cons: Powerful with the incorrect skills

and knowledge

Bottom Line: NO SharePoint Designer at NIC


NWEUG2015


Site Collections Root site collection

Ellucian Portal

Centrally managed

Path-based site collections Collaboration and publishing

Distributed management

Host-named site collections They enable a company to use the

same structure in Office 365 and in an on premise installation. We don’t currently use them here at NIC. They may come into play for the SharePoint 2016 upgrade.


NWEUG2015


Features in use Student Email (SSO with ADFS/SP2013)

Fac/Staff Email w. SSO

WebAdvisor w. SSO

Colleague UI (SSO with v. 4.1)

Team Sites (SP native)

Blackboard w. SSO (Codeplex code basis, augmented by NIC programmer)

SSRS (native, linked through the Portal)

SharePoint 2010 workflows

Office Web Apps (currently in Test)

Access Apps (WIP)

Features not used MySites

Social media features

SharePoint 2013 workflows

Outside (purchased) apps or web parts


NWEUG2015

EXPECTED BENEFITS

Expected Benefits: Many

SSO!!!


NWEUG2015

REALIZED BENEFITS

Realized Benefits: ~85%


NWEUG2015

SETUP AND ARCHITECTURESystem components and setup


NWEUG2015

SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE

Key Goals for build High availability through redundancy and

virtualization

Resilience through geographically dispersed host locations

Availability on-site as well as off-site 5 extension campuses

Availability of resources 24/7

Predictable backup and recovery terms (RPO and RTO)

Secure and compatible authentication that allows for easy integration

Identical Test and Production environments

Technologies used VMWare hosts connected through fiber

Hosts set up on opposite sides of campus

Portal configured as extranet site

Direct attached storage, multiple and overlapping backup and recovery technologies

AD and ADFS authentication technology Claims based authentication is native to SharePoint 2013)

Secured with https (http over TLS/SSL)


NWEUG2015


Colleague Components Colleague R18 on Unix

Unidata 7.1

Servers (Test and Production combined) AIX server (2x)

Two logical partitions each


NWEUG2015


Portal Components SharePoint Server 2013

Enterprise Edition

SQL Server 2012 with AlwaysOn availability groups

WS 2012 R2

Servers (Test and Production each, some overlap)

SharePoint Web Front End (2x)

SharePoint Application Server

SharePoint SQL (2x)

Web Advisor Web Server

Colleague UI Web Server

Load balancer (Application Request Routing

Office Web Apps server

Access Apps server


NWEUG2015

CHALLENGESAlong the way, we have faced multiple challenges.Here is a selection of the biggest ones, along with some recommended remedies.


NWEUG2015

CHALLENGES: THE TRIAD

Challenge Institutional sponsorship(at the

highest level) Time, effort, political clout, culture

change or adjustment

Governance Tools need to reflect the business.

Taxonomy A subset of Governance, reflects

culture of institution

Remedy Find/encourage/designate a cabinet

level sponsor who sees the need and the possibilities

Create cross-campus governance team that reaches into every aspect of the institution. TAKE THE TIME!

Understand and document who you are as an institution, and reflect that in your taxonomy


NWEUG2015

CHALLENGES: THE BLACK BOX

The “Black Box” challenge Consultants (Ellucian and other)

will perform work behind the scenes if allowed to and create huge gaps in your staff’s understanding of the system(s).

Remedy Get consulting to be on-site as

funds allow, and have designated staff build the system(s) in conjunction with the consultants.

If that is not possible, use WebEx type sessions to get the work done.


NWEUG2015

CHALLENGES: MISCELLANEOUS

Challenge Quality control

EP 4.1 rolled out a WebAdvisor web part that kept timing out because socket connections would “fill up” and not be released.

Forms for SharePointMicrosoft has officially deprecated InfoPath, and the integration with SharePoint is decreasing. FOSL was cancelled.

Remedy A subsection of EP 4.2 was released

ahead of time as a patch and fixed the issue

No complete solution available (please come see me if you have one!)

Third-party tools

Access Apps

SharePoint native list forms

Office Forms/Workflows


NWEUG2015

ONGOING INITIATIVES AND FUTURE PROJECTS

Office Web Apps (in Test)

Access Apps

Integrate SSRS into SharePoint natively

Enable SharePoint 2013 workflows


NWEUG2015

IN CONCLUSION

The Ellucian Portal is a worth-while and rewarding system with enormous potential!

If you are thinking about implementing it, make sure the entire institution is on board.

Take the time to put appropriate governance in place

Map out what features you want to use and create a roadmap for feature extensions and upgrades.


NWEUG2015

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS


NWEUG2015

THANK YOU!Andreas Burger

[email protected]


implementing the ellucian portal at north idaho college sharepoint 2013/ep 4.1 andreas burger north...

Documents

idaho slide

staff coeur dalene

questions coeur dalene

student portal

north idaho college

sharepoint administration

current sharepoint

ellucian portal