Why RATS V2?
The need for RATS V2 was
born from two major classes of problems. The first type of problems are
those of functionality.
RATS V1 was primarily designed as a replacement for "Makeclass", the
previous account management system used at Rutgers University. As such,
the priority list was based on the need to replace exiting functionality
with a newer system, based on the PDB. While RATS V1 accomplished its goal,
the development process and the suggestions made by the community, indicated
that a number of new features and capabilities would also be highly desirable.
Some of these features were implemented in RATS V1, but the majority where
only recorded for future versions.
The second type of problems,
which have plagued previous account management systems and continue to
be present in RATS, are related to performance issues on some of the larger
computer installations. The University, by its cyclic nature imposed
by
academic semesters, places high strains on the account management systems
of main servers at various times of the year. This creates
periods of instability and high loads on account management, and software
which performs just fine the rest of year is occasionally
overwhelmed. RATS V2 will try to eliminate this kind of problems
by offering an optional, more complex, high performance mode of
operations specifically designed to deal with the requirements of large
installations.
When will RATS V2 be available?
The release of RATS V1 in January of 2000, was a sufficient replacement for the lower loads experienced during the second semester of the the academic year. However, a more robust system is anticipated to be required for the peak usage times normally associated with the beginning of the fall academic semester. Thus, RATS V2 is planned to be released during the summer of 2000.
How will RATS V2 be different?
The demands of a high performance
system are expected to be met by the addition of an optional client based
database. This
database will store all the data conventionally included the main account
related files such as /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and so forth.
This implies that a number of tools currently used would need to be
modified to be able to properly communicate with the new database. However,
the gains in account creation speed and update performance are deemed to
offset the effort required to implement this mode of operations.
In addition, a number of
new functionalities will be added. For example, improved quota handling,
better account creation control,
a new account expiration model, and few other features are scheduled.
What else will happen?
In parallel with the modifications
of the RATS client, we also plan to make a number of improvements to the
account management environment as a whole. Over the years a large amount
of cruft was accumulated in the username space and other such stores of
data, and some of this cruft found its way in the new People Database.
We plan to develop a number of tools which would help with the cleanup
of these artifacts and the general management of such data in the future.
We also plan to add some extra functionality regarding the support of accounts
not directly associated with a real person. Some of that functionality
is dependent on policy issues which remain to be resolved. However this
set if tasks is not directly related to the RATS interfaces visible to
the world at large,
and they will not be addressed in this document.
Anything else?
Please note that this design
document may not be complete and that some of the implementation details
may differ in the actual
product. Also, please note that not all the described features are
guaranteed to be implemented. New functionality which follows out of some
of the major changes, may not be fully implemented for all modes of operation.
For example, not all new functionality spawned by the use of the new client
DB will be supported for the classical flat file mode. This is not to say
that we won't try to support all features in all modes, but time constrains
may push some of them into future minor releases of RATS V2 or even RATS
V3.