University Of Miami's New E Mail System example essay topic

Problem On November 9, 2001, web published a case study regarding the University of Miami's messaging future. The current e-mail messaging system for the University of Miami at that time included a UNIX-based e-mail system utilized by the students, and a completely separate Microsoft Exchange e-mail server utilized by the faculty and staff. The University of Miami is requesting a unified e-mail system for all students, faculty, and staff possibly by implementing lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP). Other issues that need to be addressed when implementing the new messaging system are keeping bandwidth priorities intact for business and educational purposes, interoperability such that the new messaging system consistently talks with the other messaging systems, and as the new system is implemented, security must keep hackers out, but must not invade the privacy of students, faculty and staff all while reducing the cost of licensing fees which are currently seen with Microsoft Exchange. Purpose The executive summary to follow will dictate a tactical plan to implementing a new e-mail messaging system at the University of Miami. This tactical plan is an intermediate-range plan, which will depict a less than one-year approximate time-line of the systems implementation and measurement performance.

Included in this executive summary is the tactical plan that will provide progress reports towards long-term goals at the University of Miami. A solution to the problem will be created, which ultimately includes how this solution will be implemented, how the new system will be tested, how security will be maintained, how bandwidth will be maintained, how interoperability will be accomplished, and how the new system will floor current high licensing fees. A whole new system will be implemented, which in the future will allow for a web-based system as well. The University of Miami has chosen to utilize a LDAP for the new e-mail messaging system.

Introduction to LDAP at the University of Miami As stated in the problem section, the current e-mail system includes a UNIX-based system for the students, and a Microsoft Exchange system for the faculty and staff. The University of Miami has chosen to implement LDAP to centralize their new e-mail messaging system. LDAP provides the University of Miami with open solutions, a secure and extensible format, it is programmable from a set of standard, it provides gateway services, and provides vendor support (Wilcox). LDAP is a client-server system where a client connects to the actual LDAP server and has options to query the server for information or updates information into a directory on the server. The server then will answer the query, refer to another LDAP server, or accept the updated information into the directory given specific permission capabilities. The LDAP directory for the University of Miami will consist of information of students, faculty, and staff.

The LDAP will consolidate student, faculty, and staff information for all of the universities network applications. This will provide the University of Miami with security through facilitated security methods, which will be described in detail below. The implementation of LDAP will also allow all applications and services to communicate and work with one another, creating interoperability through a stable system with the server as the backbone. The machine that will act as the server and control the University of Miami's new e-mail system is already intact at the university. This machine has properly configured network connections for clients that are not local.

All client machines on the campus also have properly configured network connections, and those that are outdated will be properly configured to the current network. The IT department will oversee this task of the tactical plan, and it is estimated that minimal time and money will be spent. A time frame of approximately one week will be given to this task. The only cost factored into this task is the wages of the employees. The remaining tasks will be essential in determining the success of this project. Overview of OpenLDAP There are many options of LDAP, such as Netscape, Novell, Sun Microsystems, Inno soft OpenLDAP, Microsoft and finally the University of Michigan.

The University of Miami will utilize OpenLDAP software to centralize the e-mail system. OpenLDAP software is an open source implementation of LDAP, meaning that the software and all future upgrades are free of charge. The backbone of the new system will be the LDAP server in which clients will interact with to obtain information. The actual data being queried will be stored in a backend database, which defines how the actual data is organized while communicating with the server and clients (web). The common language spoken by both clients and servers will be handled through the LDAP protocol, an X. 500 server (web). This server is necessary for clients to access the directories.

Figure 1. LDAP Directory Systems at the University of Miami Finally the LDAP clients will be using an array of vendor API's and platforms. The API tools are able to connect to the LDAP server, speaking through the protocol and handle data through the format necessary by the LDAP (Wilcox). The next section, how the server will be initialized for running OpenLDAP, describes the most important task in the tactical plan for the University of Miami. Server Tactical Plan The following tasks will describe setting up the server, which is the driving force of the new system as described by web The IT department will oversee these tasks, no licensing costs are applicable, and a time frame of one month is estimated. The first task of the tactical plan is to download pre-required packages.

These pre-required packages include OpenSSL TLS libraries, Kerberos authentication services, Cyrus's Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) libraries, database software, threads, and finally TCP wrappers. Following the pre-required packages installation, the OpenLDAP package will be downloaded onto the server. The software will be obtained from web After the software has been successfully downloaded, unpacking the software will begin and a directory will be designated to house the LDAP source. All documentation will be reviewed to ensure that the University of Miami has all prerequisite software necessary to properly run OpenLDAP. The next task will be to run the "configure" command.

This configuration script will set up options for the installation of new directories, compilers and linker flags. After the software has been configured, building the software is the next step using the "make depend" command, followed by the "make" command to build the server as configured. As a precautionary step, the "make test" command will also utilized to ensure that the server has been correctly built and configured. The next task will be installing the software. This task will install the binary and man pages under super-user privileges. With the software properly installed, a time consuming task follows, editing the configuration file.

By editing the configuration file, a backend database is defined and the University of Miami's domain, web will be set into place for Internet access. Once the configuration file has been edited, the LDAP server is ready for running. The LDAP daemon, "slapd", was intended to be run as a stand-alone server so that the server has options of caching, administrating concurrency issues with primary databases, and finally conserving system resources (web). Figure 2. LDAP Directory Systems at the University of Miami With the server running, database creation and maintenance will begin.

The University of Miami will create an off-line database considering the number of entries, approximately 20,000. The "slap add" and "slap cat" commands will be used to dump existing databases with student, faculty and staff information into database files where LDIF represents every entry. The next task will be to verify the entries in the database. This task can be handled in two ways. The first is utilizing the "ldap search" tool, which will search for and retrieve all entries in the backend database.

The second method is to use any LDAP client to verify, search and retrieve all entries in the backend database. Once verification is proven, specific controls and access restrictions will be set in place to prevent security issues. Security is a very important issue for the University of Miami. The following tactical measures will be set into place to prevent any hacking or vandalism of the new system. Security Tactical Plan Security is the most prominent issue concerning the success of the new e-mail system at the University of Miami. The security of the new system determines both the short-term and long-term success of the new system.

To ensure security of the university's network and e-mail system, 128 Bit SSL encryption will be utilized for all incoming and outgoing e-mail, and automatic virus checking will be utilized for all incoming e-mail (web). Also SMTP authentication will be put into place so that only valid users will be able to send e-mail. Cram-MD 5 will be used for encrypted username and passwords. The University of Miami will also install and configure the Linux firewall Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG). MRTG is a popular monitoring and statistics tool for use on Linux platforms. MRTG utilizes List Open Files (LSOF), which is a Linux utility that allows you to view current network connections and the files associated with them (web ).

This firewall offers a forceful, secure, and extremely flexible solution to the security issue at the University of Miami. This task concerning security will take approximately one month to put into place and test and no licensing fees are applicable. After security measures are in tact, the system will need to ensure that the networks bandwidth is maintained to ensure that business and scholastic issues are top priority. Bandwidth Tactical Plan Another prominent issue at the University of Miami is bandwidth maintenance. The university has chosen to partner with Allot Communications to maintain bandwidth, which will ensure that the network has adequate capacity where it is required for both education and business purposes. The University of Miami will install an Allot Communications NetEnforcer (R) AC-402 (web).

This NetEnforcer (R) will be placed before the Universities Internet Access router to successfully free network resources. Figure 3. AC-402 NetEnforcer With the NetEnforcer (R), each student will receive a guaranteed amount of bandwidth, 256 Kbps for both incoming and outgoing directions. This ensures that a handful of students are not able to monopolize the Internet connection.

Also, this method will enable all students, faculty and staff to access bandwidth for any use without being monitored about content, and more importantly, bandwidth is guaranteed for more critical business purposes. Another feature of the NetEnforcer (R) is that when more bandwidth is available outside of the guaranteed amount given to each student, it will be available to anyone for use in addition to the guaranteed amount. The 256 Kbps is an adequate amount of bandwidth during high-peak times for every student to accomplish academically orientated activities. The task for implementing the NetEnforcer (R) will take approximately one month to put into place, create accounts, and test. The cost of this task is $12,000 and further specifications on the AC-402 NetEnforcer (R) are 100 Mbps, 1,024 pipes, 4,096 policies, and finally 64,000 connections. The University of Miami, as previously stated, is currently at approximately 20,000 connections.

The NetEnforcer (R) is also a secure device management such that it offers a dedicated management port that is physically separate from all other ports carrying network traffic. This device then prohibits unauthorized access to the NetEnforcer (R). Conclusion In conclusion, by utilizing the OpenLDAP software to unify the University of Miami's e-mail system, the long-term goal of centralizing the universities e-mail system and having all applications communicating with one another, creating interoperability, is accomplished. By using the NetEnforcer (R), supporting education and business purposes on the network is guaranteed, and the university is able to monitor system usage without monitoring or invading user's privacy.

Also, by utilizing 128 bit SSL encryption for all incoming and outgoing e-mail, automatic virus checking for all incoming e-mail, SMTP authentication, and encrypted username and passwords, completely ensures that the new system is secure from hackers and cyber vandalism. Finally, the OpenLDAP software, the University of Miami is freed of any licensing costs. Allot Communications, web CNET Recommends: Hotmail web Components of LDAP, Wrox Press, February 8, 2002, web Dan off, David, New LSAP Directory Provides Email Addresses web Definitions Addendum: Computer Security and Usage Guidelines, Data Security and Classification Guidelines, Electronic Mail Guidelines, web Installing the LDAP Server: LDAP Linux HOWTO web Linux Firewalls: IT Managers Top Picks web ZDNet Australia Morgan, Cynthia, Case Study: Security, interoperability challenge University of Miami's messaging future, web November 9, 2001 Nadeau, Michael, Your E-Mail is Obsolete web OpenLDAP 2.1 Administrator's Guide web Red Hat Linux 7.2: The Official Red Hat Linux Reference Guide web search WebServices. com: Definitions, web Webopedia, web Wilcox, Mark, Implementing LDAP, Wrox Press, Inc., 1999..