Meteor

1
Meteor
Tim Cameron, NCHELP John Gill, Texas
Guaranteed NCHELP Summer Institute July 14-17,
2002
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Overview and Current Status
3
How does Meteor Work?

• Meteor uses the concepts of Access Providers and
  Data Providers.
• A Meteor Access Provider allows inquirers to
  obtain information through its web site by
  hosting a copy of the Meteor software, which
  generates the request to the Data Providers for
  the borrowers information. Access providers can
  be Schools, Guarantors, Lenders, Servicers, or
  Secondary Markets.

4
How does Meteor Work?

• A Meteor Data Provider hosts a copy of the Meteor
  software that enables them to respond to the
  Access Providers request for information,
  supplying data from their system. Data Providers
  are typically Lenders, Servicers, Guarantors, and
  Secondary Markets. In the future, the Dept. of
  ED, State Grant authorities, Schools, and others
  could become Data Providers.

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Simplified Meteor Process
Access Providers
Data Providers
One
Financial Aid Professional/Student
Two
Index Providers
Three
6
Meteor Maturity

• With the reference implementation IMM did a
  great job of proving the technology
• The past year has been spent gathering the
  business requirements and matching them to the
  appropriate architectural solution
• Usage scenarios
• Business rules
• Data/system security
• Authentication and authorization

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Meteor Standards

• Business messaging using XML
• Collaboration with the PESC XML Forum for
  Education
• Based on IFX Standards
• Consistent with the Department of Educations
  Common Record and the current NCHELP CommonLine
  XML initiative

8
Meteor Standards

• Transport
• Collaboration with the Electronic Exchange
  Advisory Team of the NCHELP Electronic Standards
  Committee
• High Performance Channel

9
Meteor Standards

• Authentication
• Based on SAML
• Collaborative effort with Shibboleth
• Industry standard doesnt currently exist, but
  will converge with standard when it is available

10
Meteor Architecture

• Meteor employs a web services architecture
• No central data repository
• Peer-to-peer communications
• Seamless aggregation of information for users

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Meteor is Cutting Edge

• In the world of web services applications, Meteor
  is leading the way
• Meteors open-source web service architecture can
  be the example for student aid services, as well
  as other education applications, and even growing
  into broader IT considerations

12
Meteor Implementation Phases

• Current Phase
• Multiple data providers
• Multiple access providers
• Loan Summary Detail Information
• Financial aid professional (school) access

13
Meteor Implementation Phases

• Next phase
• Financial aid professional and student/borrower
  access

14
The Current State of Meteor Affairs

• March 18-20, 2002 Tallahassee, FL (OSFA)
• Purpose was to finalize configuration and setup
  of the Meteor code and its counterpart, HPC
• Very successful, exceeded expectations of the
  testing team

15
The Current State of Meteor Affairs

• April 30 2002 - May 2, 2002 Meteor Security and
  Authentication Conference Calls
• Introduction
• Policy Review
• Model/Process Flow Review
• Technical Review

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The Current State of Meteor Affairs

• May 15-17, 2002 Chicago, IL (ISAC)
• Simulated Network of 24 Hubs
• Simulated Registry Server
• Tested the LDAP and Security
• Populated the Registry Information Including
  Public and Signed Keys
• Set Up Several Access Providers
• Set Up Several Data Providers
• Began Testing Business Cases
• Tested Connections, Data Retrieval and
  Information Display
• Tested Error Messages

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The Current State of Meteor Affairs

• Threat Analysis
• Finalizing the Access/Data Provider Agreement
• Finalizing development of the Implementation
  Guide

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The Current State of Meteor Affairs

• Estimated current phase public code release set
  for August 1, 2002
• Early adopter implementation begins at public
  release through the end of 2002

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Early Adopters

• AES
• Connecticut Student Loan Foundation - GA
• Connecticut Student Loan Foundation - Lender
• Florida Dept. of Education, OSFA
• Georgia Higher Education Assistance Corporation
• Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation

• Illinois Student Assistance Commission
• NELA
• National Student Loan Program
• Sallie Mae
• Student Loan Guarantee Foundation of Arkansas
• Texas Guaranteed
• USAFunds

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Meteor Technology
21
Meteor Foundation Technology

• SOAP, LDAP, XML, Java
• These tools are freely available
• Open Source, as well as
• Commercially Supported
• Can run many platforms
• Linux, Sun Solaris, Other Unices
• AS/400
• Microsoft Windows

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Meteor Architecture
Meteor System
Authenticate
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)
Access Provider
Portal or Web Site Request
HTTPS
XML Request
Index Provider
Authenticate
XML Response
Custom Code
Generic Rules Engine
XML Request
Data Provider
Authenticate
XSLT
XML Response
XML Response
Legacy Data
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Technology Requirements

• UML Uniform Modeling Language
• XML or Extensible Markup Language
• JSP or Java Server Pages ,XML, XSLT
• JDBC for connecting to SQL DBs
• Ability to build connections to non-SQL, legacy
  DBs
• TCP/IP SOAP

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Architectural Benefits

• Foundation for continued growth in collaborative
  student aid services
• Flexibility in implementation and deployment
• Low/no cost options for establishing this
  foundation

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Access Provider Requirements

• A web site that acts as a portal to launch the
  Meteor channel
• The ability to implement the Meteor software
• The ability to send Meteor request messages and
  deal with Meteor response messages (if building
  your own presentation)
• Abiding by the rules of the game

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Data Provider Requirements

• Ability to respond to Meteor data requests
• Connections to legacy data systems
• Gathering data and passing it back to the Meteor
  software
• Formatting or mapping the data to the Meteor XML
  message
• Abiding by the rules of the game

27
Meteors Foundation Principles

• Open Source
• Open Collaboration
• Freely Available
• Controlled Participation Network
• But, do the current IT trends support this model?
• Lets examine similar efforts

28
IT and Open Source

• Linux is the most successful open source effort
• "What's really happening in a nutshell is Linux
  is becoming a dominant force in the financial
  services industry" Michael Evans, Head of
  Business Development, Red Hat
• Investment bank Morgan Stanley called Linux an
  "important evolutionary platform" and said
  Reuters' decision to support the standard was
  "important to our efforts and ... strategic to
  Morgan Stanley."
• CSFB increased performance by 20 at a lower cost
  by using open technology

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The Meteor Network

• But what about the participatory network aspect
  of Meteor?
• There is no good current example
• That does not mean that the approach is flawed,
  but just that it is new

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Meteor is Cutting Edge

• In the world of web services applications, Meteor
  is leading the way
• Meteors open-source web service architecture can
  be the example for student aid services, as well
  as other education applications, and even growing
  into broader IT considerations

31
Leveraging Technology

• Meteor has a big upside
• This release will have a moderate impact
• Future releases will be big enhancements
• The infusion of new technology creates
  opportunity for individual agencies

32
Opportunity Knocks

• Meteor implementation should be viewed as an
  opportunity to enhance customer service
• Customers are demanding more real-time access to
  information
• Meteor can be the vehicle for providing that
  access

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Meteor Installation
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Meteor Out of the Box

• Whats on the Meteor CD?
• Installing Java or the JVM
• Installing the Application Server
• Installing the Access Provider Software
• Installing the Data Provider Software
• Installing MYSQL database
• Configuring the Access Provider
• Configuring the Data Provider

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Whats on the Meteor CD?

• Meteor installation and configuration
  instructions
• Windows platforms, Sun,IBM, Linux for
• Java
• Tomcat
• MySQL Database
• Meteor Software
• Access Provider
• Data Provider
• Index Provider
• Meteor source code
• Meteor Test Data
• High Performance Channel (HPC) software, code,
  and documentation

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Installing Java or the JVM

• The following examples are simulating a windows
  install.
• On the CD find the directory
• D\Windows\Java Sun
• Double click
• j2sdk-1_4_0-win.exe
• Set your Environment variables
• Go to your control panel and click the system
  icon
• When the dialog box appears. Select the
  Advanced tab.
• Click the Environment Variables button.
• Click the new button
• Add the following in the variable name Box
  JAVA_HOME
• Add the following in the variable value Box
  f\apps\java (Directory you installed java)
• Click the ok buttons until the dialogs are
  closed.

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Installing the Application Server

• On the CD find the directory
• D\Windows\Tomcat
• Double click
• jakarta-tomcat-4.0.4-b1.exe
• Set your Environment variables
• Go to your control panel and click the system
  icon
• When the dialog box appears. Select the
  Advanced tab.
• Click the Environment Variables button.
• Click the new button
• Add the following in the variable name Box
  TOMCAT_HOME
• Add the following in the variable value Box
  f\app_servers\Tomcat (Directory you installed
  tomcat)
• Click the ok buttons until the dialogs are closed.

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Testing the Application Server

• Start Tomcat from the menu.
• Execute a web browers like Internet Explorer.
• Enter a url like
• http//jdlr.com8080/index.html
• http//localhost8080/index.html
• You should see the Jakarta main page.

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Meteor Software Install

• Stop Tomcat from the menu.
• On the CD find the directorys and files
• D\Meteor\AccessProvider\dist
• AccessProvider.war
• D\Meteor\DataProvider\dist
• DataProvider.war
• Copy the war files to the Tomcat web-apps
  directory
• Start Tomcat
• Stop Tomcat (When you see that it created the
  Access Provider and Data Provider directories.
• You have just completed the meteor install.

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Installing MySQL Database

• On the CD find the directories and files
• mysql-3.23.49-win.zip
• Unzip to a temp directory
• From the temp directory. Execute setup.exe
• Go through the install.

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Creating a database

• Go to the mysql bin directory and execute
• Winmysqladmin.exe
• A dialog of my admin should appear
• Go to the Databases tab
• Right click and in the databases area. Dialog
  should appear.
• Enter Meteor
• Click Create Database
• Close all dialogs.
• You have just created the database

42
Creating your Meteor Tables

• On the cd find
• D\Meteor\DataProvider\etc
• meteor.mysql.ddl
• Go to the windows command prompt and type
• Mysql
• Connect meteor
• At the mysql prompt, type source
  meteor.mysql.ddl The database schema will be
  created. Verify this with the command show
  tables.
• You have just created the tables for meteor.

43
MySQL Setting Up a User Account

• From the mysql prompt
• mysql u root mysql
• UPDATE USER SET PasswordPASSWORD(new_password)
  WHERE USERroot
• FLUSH PRIVLEGES

44
Loading some test data

• At the MySQL prompt run
• source c/mysql/testdata/sbs/testcase500_load554.x
  ml.txt ltentergt
• To view data run
• select from person ltentergt

45
Configuring the Access Provider

• You must now make several changes to the settings
  files located in TOMCAT_HOME\webapps\AccessProvid
  er\WEB-INF\classes
• Accessprovider.properties
• Meteor.default.institution.id
• Some unique value that identifies your
  organization.
• Authentication.properties
• Authentication.signassertion
• Authentication.identifier
• Directory.properties
• Directory.providerurlLdap//x.x.x.x389
• (some URL for the directory provider LDAP server.
• Directory.basednDcdoe,dcorg

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Configuring a Data Provider

• Example of database connection
• Modify TOMCAT_HOME\webapps\DataProvider\WEB-INF\c
  lasses\dataprovider.properties
• Set the following keys to appropriate values for
  your particular JDBC Database.
• com.prioritytech.sample.JDBCClassorg.gjt.mm.mysql
  .Driver
• com.prioritytech.sample.JDBCURLjdbcmysql//local
  host3306/meteor
• com.prioritytech.sample.JDBCUserIDadmin
• com.prioritytech.sample.JDBCPasswordadmin

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Configuring a Data Provider

• Example of demographic information
•  Set the following keys to values appropriate for
  your organization.
• DataProvider.Data.NamePriority Technologies,
  Inc.
• DataProvider.Data.IDED.PTI
• DataProvider.Data.URLhttp//www.prioritytech.com/
  Meteor
• DataProvider.Data.TypeSBS
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.PhoneNum(402)
  292-1212
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.Emailmeteor_at_priorityte
  ch.com
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.Addr1508 J F Kennedy
  Dr.
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.Addr2Suite 101
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.CityBellevue
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.StateProvNE
• DataProvider.Data.Contacts.PostalCd68005

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Running Meteor Standalone

•  For running Meteor without LDAP (demo /
  stand-alone mode)in directory.properties change
  directory.classfrom LDAPDirectoryto Properti
  esDirectory Then populate (create file / get
  from CD) directorydata.propertiesThen change
  Authentication.SignedAssertionNo  

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Testing the Access Provider

• Start Tomcat from the menu.
• Go to http//localhost8080/AccessProvider/ and
  test the system using a known SSN. The system
  should return data (test SSN is often
  987-65-4321).
• Should see the Meteor screen.
• This completes the testing of a meteor setup
  standalone.

50
Getting Ready for Production

• Before you can test and go into production within
  the Meteor network you must obtain the following.
• A digital certificate from a CA, like Verisign.
• You must present it to MAT to be signed.
• MAT will gather information needed to add you to
  the LDAP registry.
• They will add you to the LDAP registry.
• They will provide you with information to load
  your properties files.
• You will have to comply with all Meteor
  agreements.

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Current Meteor Screens
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HELP ! Who can I call to get more information

• Until the RFP is awarded, you can contact the
  Meteor Technical team members. They are listed on
  a number of sites.
• Meteor will be holding an installation seminar
  soon after the final release.
• E-mail me directly or post a question to the
  Yahoo Tech site. All members of the technology
  team receive the e-mails.

65
Summary

• The past year has been spent in making
  cutting-edge technology address real business
  objectives
• The Meteor architecture is advanced
  technologynot only in FFELP, but in all of IT
• This advanced technology provides collateral
  opportunities to enhance customer service.

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Meteor Ongoing Status

• For current status and updates
• Meteor Project Info
  http//www.nchelp.org/Meteor/Meteor.htm
• Meteor Implementers Page
  http//www.nchelp.org/Meteor/MeteorImplementorsPag
  e.htm
• Meteor Tech Info
  http//groups.yahoo.com/group/
  meteor_tech

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Questions

• If you have additional questions. Please e-mail

tcameron_at_nchelp.org john.gill_at_tgslc.org