pan european portal conference 2003, geneva april 25, 2003 elements of successful uportal...
TRANSCRIPT
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Elements of Successful uPortal Implementations
Implementing uPortal to Guarantee Performance and Reduce Risk
Adam Rybicki
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Agenda
• Introduction• Project Planning• Risk Management• Training• Integration• Development Best Practices• Change Control• Capacity Planning• Production Rollout• Our Customers Are Our Partners• Questions?
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Introduction
• IBS was a founding member of JA-SIG• IBS helped develop uPortal• IBS developed many uPortal channels• IBS partnered with Sun Microsystems to assure
uPortal’s scalability• IBS Merged with UNICON in January, 2003• UNICON/IBS provides technical support for uPortal• UNICON/IBS has provided assistance with many
custom implementations of uPortal• UNICON/IBS developed 2 uPortal products:
Academus Portal and Academus CMS
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Project Planning
• Start early• Collect requirements• Prioritize requirements• Determine whether the timeline or features are of higher priority• Identify dependencies• Identify required skills• Obtain the required training• Develop an iterative release schedule• Analyze existing infrastructure and install the new servers• Establish a development environment• Implement a change control system• Use existing usernames
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Risk Management
• Secure a budget for:– New staff– Hardware– Software– Consulting– Training
• Avoid large releases• Document requirements and obtain approval• Identify problem areas and reassign resources• Eliminate dependencies• Get more hardware rather than less• Write a custom Java channel only if:
– A generic uPortal channel (RSS, Web Proxy, Inline Frame, or XML Transformation) cannot handle the job, and
– Your staff is qualified
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Budget Example
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Training
• J2EE is object-oriented—get OO training• uPortal is J2EE—get J2EE training• XML/XSLT is required• uPortal uses LDAP/eduPerson• UNICON/IBS uPortal development training (2 levels)• Web services for backend integration (SOAP, WSDL,
UDDI, WSRP)
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Integration
• Directory (LDAP) integration is essential• Use eduPerson
– uPortal uses it for person attributes– It has the eduPersonAffiliation (for groups) and
eduPersonPrimaryAffiliation (for default layout) attributes
• Use Web services where possible• Monitor the new OpenEAI project
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Development Best Practices
• Define phases shorter than six-month• Allow for incremental iterations within each phase• Decentralize development• Make code reviews mandatory• Designate developer mentors (J2EE best practices)• Centralize integration• Implement regular (weekly) builds• Promote from integration to QA• Implement a bug tracking system• Development manager, not QA, assigns bug fixes• uPortal’s groups are infinitely flexible, but be aware that their
administration will create additional cost
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Change Control
Developer
Developer
Developer
File Server
CVS ServerIntegration Server
QA Server
Production Server
Bug Database
Development Manager
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Capacity Planning
• Define target audience size• Peak number of users of enterprise portals is 8% of
the entire user population• Use many smaller servers rather than one large• Use load balancing software or hardware• Allow for SSL encryption• Today’s servers can handle 100-300 concurrent
users per CPU
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Sun iForce Center Test Results
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Production Rollout
• Allow at least 2 weeks for load testing• Use load generation software (OpenSTA, JMeter)• Perform (and survive!) a stress test• Monitor production closely (vmstat, top, Orca, etc.)• Use well designed default portal layouts (only 10% of
students modify them)• Implement a user feedback system
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Our Customers Are Our Partners
• University of British Columbia
• Illinois State University• Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo• Columbia University• University of Nottingham• University of Virginia• Villanova University• University of Delaware• Arizona State University• Iowa State University• University of New Mexico
• Deakin University• Rutgers University• University of Kansas• University of Saskatchewan• Abilene Christian University• Roanoke College• University of Colorado• New Teacher Center• El Camino College• University of California,
Merced• Western Kentucky University
Pan European Portal Conference 2003, GenevaApril 25, 2003
Questions?
• [email protected]• http://www.uportal.biz• http://www.unicon.net/academus• http://java.sun.com/blueprints/corej2eepatterns/