Transcript Implementing the Ellucian Portal at North Idaho College

NWEUG
2015
IMPLEMENTING THE ELLUCIAN
PORTAL AT NORTH IDAHO
COLLEGE
SHAREPOINT 2013/EP 4.1
Andreas Burger
North Idaho College
7/30/15
Track: Information Technology
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
SESSION RULES OF ETIQUETTE

Please turn off you cell phone/pager

If you must leave the session early, please do so as discreetly as
possible

Please avoid side conversation during the session
Thank you for your cooperation!
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
INTRODUCTION

SharePoint/Database Administrator here at

Over 10 years of experience in Information Technology and
Services, including hardware, web design, programming, IT
management, database and SharePoint administration, etc.

Microsoft Certified Professional


MCITP (x2)
Contact

[email protected]
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
INTRODUCTION

This presentation is aimed at IT professionals who implement and
maintain a Student portal using SharePoint and the Ellucian
Colleague portal software. It is giving a glimpse into the history of
the ACP/DP/EP here at NIC, the prevailing approach and
philosophy as well as challenges faced in the process.
The focus is on the current SharePoint 2013/EP 4.1
implementation.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
SESSION AGENDA
1.
History
2.
Philosophy and design
3.
Realized Benefits
4.
Setup and Architecture
5.
Challenges
6.
Conclusion
7.
Questions
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY
How it started and how we got here.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY: THE CHALLENGE
 How
to meet the demand for
increasing services?
 How
to simplify Student
interaction with NIC?
 How
to provide more services
without increasing personnel
and resources?
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY: THE ANSWER
por·tal1
/ˈpɔr tl, ˈpoʊr-/
Noun

The definition of a portal is a gateway or entry to something else.

An example of a portal is a door into a room.

An example of a portal is a website that takes you to many other
websites.
Definition source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/portal
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY: INITIAL IMPLEMENTATION
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Portal Version
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SharePoint Version
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
ACP 1.1
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server
2007 (enterprise edition)
Rollout: March 2010; soft rollout
starting in late 2009
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Features
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Web Advisor with SSO
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Colleague UI 2.3
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One site collection
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Datatel Team sites (org driven)
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MySites created but not used
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Three Audiences (Student, Faculty
and Staff)
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY: 1ST UPGRADE

Portal Version
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
SharePoint Version
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
DP 3.x
SharePoint Server 2010 (enterprise
edition)
Rollout: Sept. 2013
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Features

Web Advisor with SSO

Colleague UI 4.2 (SSO started
working with UI 4.1 on previous
installation)
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9 site collections
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SharePoint native Team sites
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No MySites

Three Audiences (Student, Faculty
and Staff)
NWEUG
2015
HISTORY: 2ND UPGRADE

Portal Version
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
SharePoint Version


EP 4.1
SharePoint Server 2013 (enterprise
edition)
Rollout: Oct. 2014
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Features

Web Advisor with SSO
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Colleague UI 4.5 with SSO
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13 site collections
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SharePoint native Team sites (>175)
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No MySites

Three Audiences (Student, Faculty
and Staff)
NWEUG
2015
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN
Why we did what we did when we did…
“Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum.” (Antoine Léonard Thomas)
Rough translation: “Because I wonder if this is going to work as advertised,
therefore I think, therefore I am.”
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

Branding

Achieve a look and feel that
conveys the importance of the
portal as an institutional tool.

Brand the MyNIC portal with our
colors and with our styling, and
extend this design to other site
collections

Encourage look and feel for all site
collections. Discourage use of OOTB
composed looks (replaced themes
from SP 2010)
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

SharePoint Designer
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Pros:


Cons:


Powerful with the correct skills and
knowledge
Powerful with the incorrect skills and
knowledge
Bottom Line: NO SharePoint
Designer at NIC
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

Site Collections


Root site collection
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Ellucian Portal
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Centrally managed
Path-based site collections
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Collaboration and publishing
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Distributed management
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Host-named site collections

They enable a company to use the
same structure in Office 365 and in
an on premise installation. We don’t
currently use them here at NIC.
They may come into play for the
SharePoint 2016 upgrade.
NWEUG
2015
PHILOSOPHY AND DESIGN

Features in use
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Features not used
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Student Email (SSO with ADFS/SP2013)
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MySites
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Fac/Staff Email w. SSO
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Social media features
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WebAdvisor w. SSO
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SharePoint 2013 workflows
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Colleague UI (SSO with v. 4.1)
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Outside (purchased) apps or web parts
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Team Sites (SP native)
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Blackboard w. SSO (Codeplex code basis,
augmented by NIC programmer)
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SSRS (native, linked through the Portal)
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SharePoint 2010 workflows
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Office Web Apps (currently in Test)

Access Apps (WIP)
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
EXPECTED BENEFITS
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Expected Benefits:

Many

SSO!!!
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
REALIZED BENEFITS
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Realized Benefits:

~85%
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
System components and setup
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE

Key Goals for build
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High availability through redundancy and
virtualization
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Resilience through geographically dispersed
host locations
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Availability on-site as well as off-site
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5 extension campuses
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Availability of resources 24/7
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Predictable backup and recovery terms (RPO
and RTO)
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Secure and compatible authentication that
allows for easy integration
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Identical Test and Production environments
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Technologies used
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VMWare hosts connected through fiber
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Hosts set up on opposite sides of campus
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Portal configured as extranet site
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Direct attached storage, multiple and
overlapping backup and recovery
technologies
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AD and ADFS authentication technology
Claims based authentication is native to
SharePoint 2013)
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Secured with https (http over TLS/SSL)
NWEUG
2015
SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
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Colleague Components
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Colleague R18 on Unix
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Unidata 7.1
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Servers (Test and Production combined)
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AIX server (2x)
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Two logical partitions each
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
SETUP AND ARCHITECTURE
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Portal Components



SharePoint Server 2013 Enterprise
Edition
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Servers (Test and Production each,
some overlap)
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SharePoint Web Front End (2x)
SQL Server 2012 with AlwaysOn
availability groups
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SharePoint Application Server
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SharePoint SQL (2x)
WS 2012 R2
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Web Advisor Web Server
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Colleague UI Web Server
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Load balancer (Application Request
Routing
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Office Web Apps server
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Access Apps server
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
CHALLENGES
Along the way, we have faced multiple challenges.
Here is a selection of the biggest ones, along with some recommended
remedies.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
CHALLENGES: THE TRIAD
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Challenge
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Institutional sponsorship(at the
highest level)
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Remedy
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Find/encourage/designate a
cabinet level sponsor who sees the
need and the possibilities

Create cross-campus governance
team that reaches into every
aspect of the institution. TAKE THE
TIME!

Understand and document who
you are as an institution, and reflect
that in your taxonomy
Time, effort, political clout, culture
change or adjustment
Governance


Tools need to reflect the business.
Taxonomy

A subset of Governance, reflects
culture of institution
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
CHALLENGES: THE BLACK BOX
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The “Black Box” challenge
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Consultants (Ellucian and other) will
perform work behind the scenes if
allowed to and create huge gaps
in your staff’s understanding of the
system(s).
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Remedy
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Get consulting to be on-site as
funds allow, and have designated
staff build the system(s) in
conjunction with the consultants.

If that is not possible, use WebEx
type sessions to get the work done.
NWEUG
2015
CHALLENGES: MISCELLANEOUS
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Challenge
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
Quality control
EP 4.1 rolled out a WebAdvisor web
part that kept timing out because
socket connections would “fill up”
and not be released.
Forms for SharePoint
Microsoft has officially deprecated
InfoPath, and the integration with
SharePoint is decreasing. FOSL was
cancelled.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
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Remedy

A subsection of EP 4.2 was released
ahead of time as a patch and fixed
the issue

No complete solution available
(please come see me if you have
one!)
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Third-party tools
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Access Apps
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SharePoint native list forms
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Office Forms/Workflows
NWEUG
2015
ONGOING INITIATIVES AND FUTURE
PROJECTS
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Office Web Apps (in Test)
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Access Apps
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Integrate SSRS into SharePoint natively
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Enable SharePoint 2013 workflows
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
IN CONCLUSION

The Ellucian Portal is a worth-while and rewarding system with
enormous potential!

If you are thinking about implementing it, make sure the entire
institution is on board.

Take the time to put appropriate governance in place

Map out what features you want to use and create a roadmap
for feature extensions and upgrades.
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015
THANK YOU!
Andreas Burger
[email protected]
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
NWEUG
2015