NOAA Active Directory Federation

Lara Petze
NOAA Active Directory Federation

Over the last three years NOAA's Active Directory Working Group has looked at a broad range of designs and implementations of Microsoft's Active Directory technology for NOAA.

NOAA's goals for Active Directory are threefold:

1) Achieve a unified standard to allow cross Line Office communication and collaboration.

2) Provide a framework for Line Offices to implement Active Directory with out adversely affecting each other's designs.

3) Develop minimum security standards for localized Active Directory implementations to ensure the confidentiality, availability, and integrity of information shared through Active Directory networks.

With these three goals in mind, the NOAA Active Directory Working Group developed a model for Active Directory implementation in NOAA. This implementation consists of a "federated" approach to Active Directory networking.

This Federation of Active Directories would be comprised of a set of top-level Active Directory servers deployed by each Line Office that would allow intercommunication between the Line Offices at the highest level. Local offices below the top tier Line Office servers would be able to connect to these top level servers to communicate with other Line Offices or remain separate if they had no need for inter-line office communication. This Active Directory design was approved by the NOAA CIOs Council on July 24th.

This proposed demonstration is intended to show the architecture of this multi-tiered collaborative design and outline the collaborative capabilities that this design provides. Line Office representatives for the NOAA Active Directory Working Group will also be on hand to answer questions.

NOAA Active Directory Working Group Contact Information NOAA’s Active Directory Federation NOAA’s Active Directory Working group was formed in 2001 to begin to address the issues facing NOAA as Microsoft phased out Windows NT and moved to Server 2000/2003 with Active Directory (AD). The group addressed the most efficient and cost effective possibilities of implementing AD within NOAA. Although it was recommended NOAA implement AD as an organization, the NOAA CIO Council rejected the recommendation. As a result, the ADWG continues to work together as we implement the Line Office implementation of AD at NOAA. The group is developing a minimum requirements document outlining requirements for LO AD’s to establish a trust with each other. The group members also share experiences of LO AD implementation as each migrates and continue to work together to implement the most efficient NOAA AD as possible. Lara Petze, Chair Lara Petze works for the National Ocean Service’s Office of Coast Survey. Lara has previously worked as a Cisco consultant and is a Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). Lara has a background in WAN and LAN network administration and web development and has participated on several committees/working groups within NOAA and NOS. Office of Chief Information Officer, Thomas Taylor Tom is a 1990 graduate of St. Lawrence University. He is a contractor with RGII Technologies and has been working with NOAA for over 3 1/2 years. Tom currently is the Network Administrator for NOAA's Office of High Performance Computing and Communications, which is part of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. National Weather Service, Terrence S. Nesfield Terence S. Nesfield is the lead System Administrator for Think Tank, supporting the NWS Administrative Network. Terry previously worked for SAIC at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as a senior system administrator supporting a Windows NT enterprise network for the WRAMC North Atlantic Region. Terry retired from the US Army in 1997 after 20 years of working as a Programmer/ System Analyst/ System Administrator with many hardware and software systems. Terry has 24 years of Information Management/Technology experience National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, John Grimm John is a contractor with RGII Technologies and has been working with NOAA for over 1 1/2 years. John currently is the Network Administrator for NOAA's National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service Headquarters. National Ocean Service, Thomas K. Murphy Tom Murphy is an Information Technology Specialist with the National Ocean Service, Information Management Division. He is responsible for enterprise messaging and collaborative applications in NOS and is currently leading a project to implement a single, consolidated Active Directory forest throughout NOS. Prior to joining NOS, Tom worked with the NOAA IT Security Office, Computer Incident Response Team (N-CIRT) where he helped enhance NOAA’s intrusion detection capabilities. While with the Office of Finance and Administration, Tom was a primary designer and implementer of the NOAA Enterprise Messaging System and NEMS Certificate Authority. In a previous life, Tom developed and maintained NOAA’s financial management systems and was the architect of the NOAA Interactive FIMA Web Gateway. NOAA Fisheries, Rick Rubio Rick Rubio is a System Administrator for NOAA Fisheries Headquarters. Rick started working at NOAA in 1996 with what was know as NOAA Corps as a system administrator. He transferred to NOAA Fisheries in 1998 supporting a Windows NT network and its infrastructure. Rick has 22 years of Information Management/Technology experience. NOAA Office of Finance and Administration, Milton L. Hamiel Milton Hamiel is an Information Technology Specialist with the NOAA, Office of Finance and Administration, Systems Support Division. Milton is currently an Alternate IT Security Officer for the Director, Information Systems Management Office. Milton background is in WAN/LAN network administration. Milton has over 15 years of networking experience for the Systems Support Division working at the HCHB building and the Silver Springs Metro Complex locations. With eight years of Team Leader duties, Milton L. Hamiel lead a variety of networking projects for the Information Systems Office. Office of Atmospheric Research, Jeremy Warren Jeremy Warren is the NOAA Research Enterprise Network Manager. He represents OAR on many NOAA level committees including the IT Security Committee, the Silver Spring Network Council, and the NOAA Active Directory Working Group. Jeremy has worked with NOAA Research CIO's Office for the last four years after obtaining his degree in Computer Science Engineering from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. National Marine and Aviations Office, Dennis Shields Dennis Shields has worked with NOAA and NMAO for several years. As well as being responsible for AD at Headquarters, Dennis is planning the roll-out of Active Directory on NOAA’s ships as well.