School Identity Manager

This page describes the identity manager, one of many services provided by the XS School server software.

Installation and Configuration

The Identity Manager is part of the normal school server software, as of build 128 (Sept. 2, 2007). Earlier build may simply update ( yum update ).

The configuration of the Identity Manager is relatively static. It resides at a well-known port (8080), and uses a database at a fixed location ( /home/idmgr/identity.db ).

Implementation

The Identity Manager is a server which accepts requests for registration from laptops. If the registration request is from a new laptop, the server creates a user account for that laptop on a school server.

The server is started and stopped using a script located in /etc/init.d/idmgr. This script may be run using the service command:

service idmgr status

The database of laptops registered with a school is maintained in a SQL database. This database, built and maintained using SQLite (v3), is located at: /home/idmgr/identity.db.

The identity manager is written in Python, using SQLAlchemy to painlessly integrate the SQL database. It is located in /home/idmgr/idmgr/server.py.

Manipulation of the Registration Database

A summary of the contents of the registration database is provided by:

/home/idmgr/list_registration

Before manually altering the database, you should shut down the identity manager:

service idmgr stop

The database of users in a school is cleared upon initial installation of the school server software. The database may be copied to back it up.

Although not recommended, the database may be deleted to clear the registration database (although this leaves user accounts on the server) --- a new database may be created using the /home/idmgr/create_registration script.

Later versions will provide a web-base interface for moving students between laptops and removing laptops from a school's database.