Controlling Volume Usage with the VTA > Overview of Managing Subscriber Accounts with VTA Portals

Overview of Managing Subscriber Accounts with VTA Portals

We provide two sample portals that manage subscriber accounts. One is an administrator portal that administrators can use to manage VTA subscriber accounts. The second is a subscriber portal that subscribers can use to manage their own accounts. Before you can use these portals, you need to configure the Web applications for the VTA.

The sample portals run inside the J2EE application server and use the VTA core's NIC proxy.

To customize the portals to operate outside the VTA's J2EE application server, you must:

• Develop a way to connect them to the VTA's remote account and session manager interfaces.
• If the software automatically logs in subscribers with their current IP addresses (JUNOSe only), configure NIC proxies for the client (see Using NICs with the VTA).

Automatic Login of Subscribers

By using a NIC with the VTA, you can enable subscribers who connect to the SDX network through a JUNOSe router to log in through the VTA Web portals. The NIC must map the subscriber's IP address to one of the following values:

• Subscriber's login name
• Subscriber's DN
• Name of the interface and VR to which the subscriber connects

The value to which this NIC maps the subscriber's IP address depends on the information that identifies subscribers in your SDX configuration.

If subscribers connect to the network through a JUNOS routing platform or you choose not implement this NIC with a JUNOSe router, you can provide subscribers with access to this information through another method, such as a central login page where subscribers can enter their usernames and passwords.

Configuring Web Applications for the VTA

To configure Web applications for the VTA:

1. If you have not already done so, create a folder for the VTA on a host, and copy the EAR file for the VTA from the webapp folder on the application library CD to the VTA folder.

mkdir vta

cp /cdrom/cdrom0/webapp/quotavta.ear vta

2. From the EAR file, extract the file <vtaName>CustCare.war into the folder you created in Step 1.

cd vta

jar xvf quotavta.ear quotaCustCare.war

3. From the file <vtaName>CustCare.war, extract the file CONSTANTS.incl.

jar xvf quotaCustCare.war CONSTANTS.incl

4. Edit the properties in the file CONSTANTS.incl.

See Properties for VTA Portals for a description of the properties in the CONSTANTS.incl file.

5. Replace the file CONSTANTS.incl into the file <vtaName>CustCare.war.

jar uvf quotaCustCare.war CONSTANTS.incl

6. Replace the file <vtaName>CustCare.war into the EAR file.

jar uvf quotavta.ear quotaCustCare.war

Properties for VTA Portals

This section describes the properties in the CONSTANTS.incl file.

PERIODIC_QUOTA

• Quota initially deposited into a subscriber's periodic account when the subscriber activates the account through the subscriber portal. This value must match the value that the administrator specifies when replenishing periodic accounts. (See Replenishing Periodic Accounts).
• Value—Integer in the range 1-9223372036854775807 followed by the letter L or calculation in Java code
• Default—5000000000L

SUBSCRIBER_ACTIVATE_DESCRIPTION

• Description recorded for a balance change in the periodic account when the subscriber activates the account through the subscriber portal. This description records the change in the account status; however, the actual change in the balance is zero.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Activated by subscriber

PERIODIC_QUOTA_INITIAL_TOP_UP_DESCRIPTION

• Description recorded for a balance change in the periodic account when the subscriber activates the account through the subscriber's portal. This change in the balance is the value of the PERIODIC_QUOTA property.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Periodic replenishment to 5,000 MB

SUBSCRIBER_DEACTIVATE_DESCRIPTION

• Description for a balance change in the periodic account when the subscriber deactivates the account through the subscriber's portal. This description records the change in the account status; however, the actual change in the balance is zero. When the periodic account is inactive but the balance is nonzero, the VTA continues to use the account until the administrator invalidates inactive accounts through the administrator's portal.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Deactivated by subscriber

PERIODIC_QUOTA_INACTIVE_TOP_UP_DESCRIPTION

• Description for a balance change in inactive periodic accounts when the administrator replenishes periodic accounts through the administrator's portal. This action sets the balance of inactive periodic accounts to zero.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Expiration of deactivated periodic account's balance

SUBSCRIBER_PURCHASE_DESCRIPTION

• Description recorded for a balance change in the bought account when the subscriber buys bandwidth through the subscriber portal.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Subscriber purchased bandwidth

NIC_PROXY_NAMESPACE

• Namespace of the NIC proxy. This NIC proxy maps the subscriber's IP address to the identifier that the VTA uses as the key to the subscriber's records in the VTA database. See Using NICs with the VTA for information about how to configure the NIC proxy that this configuration property identifies.
• Value—Path, relative to the root of the static configuration properties, that defines where the NIC proxy configuration is stored.
• Default—/NicProxies/IpToIdNicProxy

BOUGHT_QUOTA_ACCOUNT_NAME

• Name of account that stores bought quota.
• Value—Text string
• Default—BoughtQuota
• Guidelines—If you change this value from the default, you must also update the sample Quota VTA configuration to use the same account names and statuses.

PERIODIC_QUOTA_ACCOUNT_NAME

• Name of account that stores periodic quota.
• Value—Text string
• Default—PeriodicQuota
• Guidelines—If you change this value from the default, you must also update the sample Quota VTA configuration to use the same account names and statuses.

ACTIVE_STATUS

• Status string.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Active
• Guidelines—If you change this value from the default, you must also update the sample Quota VTA configuration to use the same account names and statuses.

INACTIVE_STATUS

• Status string.
• Value—Text string
• Default—Inactive
• Guidelines—If you change this value from the default, you must also update the sample Quota VTA configuration to use the same account names and statuses.

SSPORTAL_SIGNIN_URL

• URL of the portal login page for the Quota VTA to authenticate users, primarily users with addresses that are assigned externally whose sessions are not detected automatically by the SAE.
• Value

• <URL>—URL in the format "http://<server>:<port>/"
• null—Keyword not enclosed in quotation marks

• Guidelines—If the URL is specified, the VTA redirects the subscriber to the portal login page when the VTA cannot resolve a subscriber by IP address. If the value is null and the VTA cannot resolve the subscriber by IP address, an unknown subscriber message appears.
• Default—null