World Wide Web at 1999 Computing Advisory Committee
World Wide Web at 1999 Computing Advisory Committee Review Ruth Mc. Dunn Web Information Manager Dennis Wisinski The Applications Group (TAG) Manager
Topics u. A bit of web history u Review progress against our strategic plan Vision l Goals l n Progress n Needs u Summary u Resource Issues 9/17/2020 2
Our Role in the WWW u In December 1991, SLAC installed the first web server outside of Europe u SLAC’s early web presence: l Reflects in established, legacy procedures n Some l good, some bad, difficult to change Has led to a very large and tangled web n Couldn’t plan for the technology advancements n We can’t start from scratch like those entering the web today 9/17/2020 3
How Big Are We? u As l of June 27, 1999 Central SLAC web n Unix and most of the NT servers n 415, 162 documents and 1, 010, 688 URLs l Ba. Bar web n 15, 068 l documents and 26, 354 URLs Figures do not include n www-user and defined development spaces n slaconly and other areas with access controls 9/17/2020 4
Main Unix Server Current Statistics u June 15 -25, 1999 u Average total hits l l 132, 413 149, 841 (weekdays) u Total l l KB transferred 1, 607, 429 1, 802, 599 (weekdays) 9/17/2020 5
Vision u To provide a ubiquitous and efficient communication system enabling SLAC’s internal and external community to share information. In turn, allowing SLAC to perform collaborative, scientific, and technical work without constraints imposed by locations, hardware, software platforms, or unwarranted administrative obstacles. l Strategic Plan for Computing n Section 18, World Wide Web at SLAC 9/17/2020 6
Goals u Provide highly available access to information u Provide high quality and accurate information u Provide easy-to-use access to information u Draw in WWW support and expertise from across the lab u Provide appropriately secure access to information 9/17/2020 7
Provide Highly Available Access to Information u Central web servers Unix (Netscape/Apache) and NT (Microsoft IIS 4) l Uninterruptible power supply l Nightly incremental backups l Network monitoring every 15 minutes, daily heartbeat l Long term logs show very high availability l n Slowdowns usually involve local and remote robots indexing the site, script or AFS problems, or excessive network traffic 9/17/2020 8
Provide Highly Available Access to Information u Need Move problem services (such as ASP scripts) to their own server l Establish fault-tolerance, mirroring, and load balancing for Unix web severs and clustering techniques for the NT servers l Develop scripts to monitor and possibly restart critical services, as necessary l 9/17/2020 9
Provide High Quality and Accurate Information u Many aspects of web policy, procedures, and resources are documented and advertised u Standard software with defined support l Front. Page, FTP, browsers u Web Information Manager appointed u Web. Analyzer Professional purchased u Web interface to retrieve People. Soft data l Purchasing, Property Control, Stores, Financials 9/17/2020 10
Provide High Quality and Accurate Information u Need l Continued development of web interface to People. Soft and other institutional data n Input l data, change data, and query More author friendly tools n Considering Front. Page extensions and ASP on Unix and PERL CGI for NT servers l QA program to spot review web sites n Link analysis, outdated materials, meet page requirements 9/17/2020 11
Provide High Quality and Accurate Information u Need l Better log analysis tools n Unix logs range from 10– 40 M daily and growing n Consistent format on all six real and “virtual” servers (production space) 9/17/2020 12
Provide Easy-to-use Access to Information u Year long meetings to revise home pages Redesign implemented August 1998 l Phonebook search l u Show l Index script Dynamically generates alphabetical list of links on a page u Info. Seek l search engine/indexer SLAC-specific index started late 1998 u Web space requests go through WIM 9/17/2020 13
Provide Easy-to-use Access to Information u Need l More active review of current products n Web interface to database n Server technologies l Reorganization and maintenance of lower level pages 9/17/2020 14
Draw in WWW Support and Expertise From Across the Lab u Central Support -- 3. 8 FTE Web Information Manager (. 5 FTE) l Infrastructure in TAG (2. 3 FTE) l n Unix Web Admin (1 FTE) n NT Web Admin (1 FTE) n Direction, policy, programming (admin), security (. 3 FTE) l Content in TAG (1 FTE) n Documentation/computing web maintenance (1 FTE, vacant) 9/17/2020 15
Draw in WWW Support and Expertise From Across the Lab u Distributed Support Web Coordinating Committee (12) l Web Technical Committee (33, informal) l Welcome Page Committee (4) l Web Support Coordinators (40) l Computer Coordinating Committee (13) l 102 people on these combined lists l 9/17/2020 16
Web Management Laboratory Director Associate Directors' Committee on Computing Computer Coordinating Committee Chair R. Mount Web Server Registrar C. Hee Web Technical Committee Chair T. Johnson Web Support Coordinators Chair - J. Masek Divisional Web Management Web Coordinating Committee Chair P. Kreitz SCS The Applications Group (TAG) Head D. Wisinski Web Information Manager Welcome Page Committee R. Mc. Dunn Chair- R. Mc. Dunn 9/17/2020 17
Distributed Web Support (71 people) 9/17/2020 18
Draw in WWW Support and Expertise From Across the Lab u Presentations l Searching and Being Searched, Java Overview, Introduction to Java. Script, About the New SLAC Home Pages, Web Management at SLAC, Front. Page at SLAC, Server Tricks, Cascading Style Sheets u Training l Courses So You Want (Need) to Be a Web Author, Front. Page 98, Introduction, Forms in Front. Page 98 9/17/2020 19
Draw in WWW Support and Expertise From Across the Lab u Need Appointment of WSCs to remaining departments l Immediate supervisor support for WSC and web author activities l n Full day classes n Meeting participation l More staff n Develop and provide training n Develop materials related to our science n Review commercial products 9/17/2020 20
Provide Appropriately Secure Access to Information u Security l l issues driven by People. Soft project Needed encrypted transport of passwords and data SLAC only, group only, password protected access via SSL on NT web server u Computer l l l Security Officer/TAG Computer security and web security policies web pages Servers updated as fixes are issued Server configuration changes restricted to a short list Eliminated FTP access to NT web servers Blocked non-approved port 80 web servers 9/17/2020 21
Provide Appropriately Secure Access to Information u CGI wrapper CGI script authors are tutored in security issues l Only Bebo, Dennis, or Les can add screened scripts to the wrapper l Simple checking on the input to the user's CGI script l Allows “authorized” UNIX commands l Specifies the server (test or production) it runs on and if it is “slaconly” l 9/17/2020 22
Provide Appropriately Secure Access to Information u Need SSL on Unix (testing Apache) l Move the Unix and NT test servers to separate physical machines l Scripts to check and correct insecure directories l Explore JAVA servlets and CORBA technologies l n Reduce l dependence on CGI for legacy systems Implement method to detect web server compromise 9/17/2020 23
Summary u Needs Server Issues l Content Analysis l Content Interface l Content Development l u Implementation Human Resources l Other Resources l 9/17/2020 24
Server Issues Summary u Move problem services to their own machine u Move test servers to separate physical machines u Establish server redundancy, mirroring, balancing u Establish SSL capabilities on the Unix server u Develop scripts to monitor (restart) critical services u Develop scripts to check and correct insecure directories u Explore alternatives to CGI and evaluate new web technologies for strategic use applications 9/17/2020 25
Content Analysis Summary u Purchase a robust log analysis tool u Collect log data in a consistent format on all servers u Create a QA program to spot review selected web sites within the SLAC web u Obtain appointments of WSCs to remaining departments (who have, should have, or want a web presence) 9/17/2020 26
Content Interface Summary u Continued development of web interface to People. Soft and other institutional data u Develop interface to non-institutional data u Evaluate Front. Page extensions and ASP for Unix, PERL CGI for NT servers, Office and Front. Page 2000 9/17/2020 27
Content Development Summary u Perform more reviews of current web authoring and website management products u Assist authors with reorganization and maintenance of lower level pages u Request immediate supervisor support for WSC and web authoring activities u Provide/develop more and deeper author training u Develop more web pages to present our science to the public 9/17/2020 28
Human Resource Needs u Infrastructure l (TAG) 1 to 2 FTE - Backup administrator, web tool and technology evaluation u Intellectual Content/Structure Support 1 FTE - Web site design and (re)organization, training, log analysis, content review below the top level l. 5 FTE - Writer to explain our science to the public (not just for the web) l 9/17/2020 29
Other Resource Needs u Cisco Local Director Router to provide server redundancy, mirroring, and load balancing for Unix servers l Need to find an equivalent system for NT servers l Continuing upgrade of server hardware l u Net. Analysis Site traffic analysis tool that works across all servers l Looks at packet traffic, not web logs l 9/17/2020 30
More Information u Snapshot review of the Strategic Plan on Computing, Section 18 l http: //www. slac. stanford. edu/slac/wwwcc /wim/1999 review. html u Questions 9/17/2020 31
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