Whad’ya Node ? Mentoring Conference
New Orleans, LA
March 1, 2005
Node Building 101
Presenters
Dennis Burling
Nebraska Dept. of Environmental Quality
Glen Carr
Oregon Dept. of Environmental Quality
Kevin Jeffery
Windsor Solutions, Inc
30 Minute GuideAudience
• Partners who are yet to implement a Node
• Partners who have implemented a Node, but are interested in alternative approaches
• Partners looking to advance their Node implementation
ContributorsAlesia Whitney-Knight Iowa Department of Natural Resources
Cheryl Franklin Indiana Department of Environmental Management
David Blocher Maine Department of Environmental Protection
David H. Ellis Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Dennis Burling Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality
Glen Carr Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Leslie Brennan New York Department of Conservation
Mary Blakeslee Environmental Council of States
Mitch West Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Robert E. Williams Maine Department of Environmental Protection
Tom Aten Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
What is a Network Node ?
“A simple environmental information Web service that initiates requests for information, processes authorized queries, and sends/receives the requested information in a standard format.”
Getting Started• Research the Network
– Exchange Network Web Site (www.exchangenetwork.net)– CDX Web Site (www.epa.gov/cdx)– EDSC Web Site (www.envdatastandards.net)– ECOS Web Site (www.ecos.org)
• Consult Mentoring States• Planning what data to exchange
– Current systems– Maturity of flow– Data sharing priorities
• Securing agency commitment– Making the business case– Securing sponsorship
Don’t Reinvent the Wheel • Early implementers invested significant effort in creating
and troubleshooting the technology required to implement a Node and exchange data.
• Exchange Network goal to reuse research and development work wherever possible.
• Demonstrated Node Configurations (www.exchangenetwork.net).
• Reuse of existing solutions can accelerate Node deployment and reduce the up front investment.
• Where possible use existing applications to streamline development but be prepared to adapt to your environment.
Implementing Your Node
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Implementing Your Node
Review existing agency architecture standards.
Define the physical environment including hardware, hosting platform and network components.
Establish appropriate network security architecture.
Identify the logical components including middleware, applications and frameworks.
Select development, management and support tools.
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Implementing Your Node
Minimum functionality per Network Node specifications.
Consider more advanced Node capabilities.
Ability to troubleshoot an exchange.Monitoring use of the Node by other
partners.Administering security (NAAS and local).Scheduling data exchanges.Email notifications for Node functions.Request costing.
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Implementing Your Node
Develop basic Node Web service interface to process incoming requests.
Develop Node administration functions (user accounts, transactions, logs, etc).
Install security identification certificates on host server to support SSL (EPA can provide).
Establish “master” and “operator” NAAS accounts (Exchange Network Security Policy).
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Implementing Your Node
If possible use a dedicated test environment.Test using the EPA CDX test client and/or
other testing applications (www.exchangenetwork.net/node/dev_toolbox).
Ask CDX Help Desk to assist with testing connectivity and functionality.
Test with parallel data flow development.Perhaps use another partner’s Node for
added validation of interoperability.
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Determine theTechnical Architecture
DetermineNode Capabilities Implement Node For Test
Test Node Components
Deploy Node in Production
Implementing Your Node
If possible, maintain separate production and test Node implementations.
Dedicate support staff time to monitor Node operation (between ¼ and 1½ FTE).
Training on use and operation of the Node.
Common Testing Issues
Compatibility with the Network Node specifications • Lack of physical connectivity to the Internet• Incorrect implementation of the WSDL• Incorrect configuration or lack of support for NAAS security.
Capability to respond to and process predefined data queries
• Inappropriate configuration of the Node to support a particular query.
• Data request exceeds server capacity.• Incompatibilities between heterogeneous Node platforms.
Deciding on Your Technical Architecture
• Physical Components of Node Architecture• Logical Components of the Node
Architecture• Management, Support and Extensibility Tools• Node Functional Capabilities
Physical and Logical Components
• Network Topology• Dedicated vs. Shared Server• Separate Testing Environment• Staged RDBMS • Application architecture (e.g., .Net, Java,
XAware)
Node Functional Capabilities
• Administration interface.• Separation of the Node and the individual data exchange
or flow implementations.• Support for the Exchange Network XML Document Header
File on an exchange-by-exchange basis.• Support of authentication and authorization through both
NAAS and Local Security.• Persistent attachment management.• Support for both incoming and outgoing data flows. • Support Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) through the use of
recognized certificate authorities.
Discussion