DataBank Project Wiki

DataBank Project Wiki

Modern Campus/Databank move details

Site Overview

  • www site
    • forms - forms should be part of the ‘www’ site unless you aware of any custom (non-Omni CMS forms) that are not managed in Omni CMS and placed on your current On-Prem Prod Web Server? *I don’t believe there is anything like that but since you bring it up, best to clarify 100% with the UHCL Web team.
  • Blog site
  • Events site
    • Calendar – calendar is the events site

DataBank IP addresses:

  • Hosted Server IP: 209.43.57.235
  • UHCL Admin account: MCUI-U-CLadmin
  • Password: <see OIT SysAdmins>

9/28: Per Modern Campus:
•    https://wwwmigrations.uhcl.edu | 209.43.57.235
•    https://blogmigration.uhcl.edu | 209.43.57.236
•    https://eventmigration.uhcl.edu | 209.43.57.237

10/4: SysAdmins/Networks created Domains as "A" records in DNS.

10/4: The server IP range will be opened.  Note: MC only opens for their IP via VPN.

10/5: What is the TTL for www.uhcl.edu?  Per Gene: 60 minutes, both from our DNS and the DNS at UH.

10/15: Per Modern Campus: Bindings. I checked in the communication thread with the Databank team and the only lingering question is for the binding on the server which I just chimed in and addressed. So you are aware, I outlined:

IP | Testing Domain | Eventual Launch Domain

Schedule

SCHEDULE (tentative as of 10/11)

                Here is an overview/outline for the current, tentative schedule for “Website move to Hosted Server”: 

  • Prepare Hosted Server, Oct 4th - Oct 18th
    • Est. 2 weeks 
    • Modern Campus & DataBank are setting up the Hosted Server.
    • UHCL is providing requested/needed files, configuration documentation, and “wildcard” certificate
  • Publish & Test, Oct 18th - 25th
    • Est. 1 week (many variables)
    • MarComm will publish the site to a temporary domain on the Hosted Server.
      • Est. 4 hrs
    • MarComm will test site.
      • Est. 1 week
  • Go-live Meeting, TBD
    • Modern Campus, DataBank, & UHCL team members will meet to go over and plan out Website go-live.
  • Go-live, TBD
    • Based on time provided by MarComm and supported by Vendor and UHCL team members, the go-live process (TBD at the go-live meeting) will be performed. 
    • Per MarComm, 10/14, date's proposed:
      • Thursday or Friday the week of Nov. 18 and 19.
      • or if the timeline gets pushed back,
        Thursday and Friday the week of Dec. 2 and 3.

Based on these milestones, the current estimate Go-live is early mid-November; however, the schedule may shift into mid or late November early December based on some of the following possible factors:

  • Unknown issues discovered during testing on Hosted Server.
  • Team member engagement.
  • When MarComm will allow/recommend go-live. (MarComm input added to schedule outline, 10/15)
  • Vendor and UHCL team member availability for a proposed go-live time.

Rough Schedule to go-live (10/1)

Got some rough, best case, dates from the vendor. We "could" be ready to go-live in a month.

  • Two weeks to finish up server configuration.
  • One week for test publishing and validation.
  • A meeting to plan the go-live.
  • Go-live

Besides any surprises, some key factors that could influence the schedule:

  • When MarComm will allow go-live. They are reviewing analytics and academic calendar for minimal user impact. (The switch from on-prem to Host Server is expected to be seamless to the user...)

Proposed Dates for Cloud Move

Per MarComm (10/14):

We took a look at site traffic and Thursdays and Fridays seem to have less traffic than earlier in the work week

Dates we need to keep in mind:

  • Nov. 1-11, 2021 - Early Registration (This week will be busy with students using uhcl.edu to get to e-services)
  • Nov. 12, 2021 - Jan. 14, 2022 Open Registration (This week will be busy with students using uhcl.edu to get to e-services)
  • Nov. 13 - Discover UHCL open house (Prospective students will need to use the website to register leading up until this event)

We suggest:

Thursday or Friday the week of Nov. 18 and 19.

or if the timeline gets pushed back,
Thursday and Friday the week of Dec. 2 and 3.

Authen Conversion from LDAP to AZURE

Video recordings​​​​​​​

Calendar

QUESTION: Update Calendar?​​​​​​​

  • <COMPLETED 9/24> Task 9/20 (MarComm): New Calendar decision?
    • Modern Campus has a new calendar system and would like to know if UHCL would like to move forward with the New Calendar (for a cost) instead of moving the current calendar.
    • 09/21: Per Erin W. (MarComm):
      • A new online calendar will be a separate project and will take buy in from several areas around campus.
      • From the marcomm perspective, we just wanted to note that these two items (calendar and Dev envinroment) are not absolutely necessary at this time if they will cause further delay to the project. If it makes sense to tackle them both right now, for efficiency, let me know and I can relay to my leadership.
    • 9/24: Per Vendor:
      • As we will move the Helios calendar over for launch, there will be some additional coordination with our teams on when this will occur along with your launch over to the Databank server.
      • There will be some coordination that when the data is migrated, the UHCL team will not be able to create new events so the data does not diverge.
      • We will go into further details on this aspect in our next meeting.
    • 9/24: Decision made NOT to move to the new calendar as part of this project.  This task is COMPLETED.
    • Moving of the current calendar will be tracked in another task.

Needed files to provide DataBank

Files provided by SysAdmins to DataBank

For providing system files, my understanding is that we will need to gather the following from OMNIAuthTest for files and Production server(s) for specs:

  • web.config (OMNIAuthTest)
  • App_Code directory (OMNIAuthTest)
  • bin directory (OMNIAuthTest)
  • <possibly> Login.aspx & Logout.aspx.  (Check with Kurt L.)
  • Details on (OMNIAuthTest):
    • OS
    • Patches
    • IIS version
    • Redirect Module name(s)/version(s)
      • https://www.iis.net/downloads/microsoft/url-rewrite#additionalDownloads
  • Server Specs (Production)?
    • Mem
    • …

DataBank

DataBank Portal

https://support.databank.com/login/simplelogin

Development Sites

<DECISION MADE> 9/20​​​​​​​

  • Task : Development environment/site.
    • Modern Campus is proposing using the same Hosted Server as production for a www & blog dev site. MC is checking with Databank to confirm there would be no additional cost.  The current understanding is that it would NOT be an additional cost.
    • 09/21: Per Erin W. (MarComm):
      • A permanent dev site, although helpful, is not necessary as part of the initial move to the cloud.
    • 10/4: Per Modern Campus: Setting up dev sites on the DataBank Hosted Server is straightforward.  Configuring dev site on DB Hosted Server will be included in this project.

Failover

Discussion​​​​​​​

4/1/2021

  • What about Failover?  Mike stated in an earlier meeting that Dr. Gaskins said not to worry about that at the moment.  Focus on moving the website.

uhcl.edu not resolving on campus

Issue​​​​​​​

When using a device on the UHCL domain, if the user enters uhcl.edu in the browser url, the www.uhcl.edu site fails to load.  User only sees a blank screen.

Solution research.​​​​​​​

The on-prem domain controller could be configured to address this issue.

  • Direct 80 to 443
  • Per Mike, Mike is not in favor of making these configurations.
  • Per Mike, ISO needs to approve.
  • Multiple methods to implement this, but all are handled by the domain controller.
  • Per Mike, Mike has a diagram (unconfirmed).

Redirect Notes

Where to make redirects on DataBank

Redirect changes should go in the web.config file in the <rewriteMap name="Redir_File"> section​​​​​​​

Rule order​​​​​​​

The follow rules need to be place at the end of the <rules> section:

                <rule name="Redirect INDEX.ASPX" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="(.*)index.aspx$" ignoreCase="true" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false" />
                    <action type="Redirect" url="{​​​R:1}​​​" />
                </rule>
                <rule name="Redirect ASPX extension" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="(.*).aspx$" ignoreCase="true" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false">
                        <add input="{​​​REQUEST_FILENAME}​​​" pattern="Login\.aspx" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Redirect" url="{​​​R:1}​​​" redirectType="Permanent" />
                </rule>
                <rule name="Hide .ASPX extension" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
                    <match url="(.*)$" />
                    <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll" trackAllCaptures="false">
                        <add input="{​​​REQUEST_FILENAME}​​​" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                        <add input="{​​​REQUEST_FILENAME}​​​.aspx" matchType="IsFile" />
                        <add input="{​​​REQUEST_FILENAME}​​​" pattern="Login" negate="true" />
                    </conditions>
                    <action type="Rewrite" url="{​​​R:0}​​​.aspx" />
                </rule>

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