An understanding of the following entities is essential to use Provisioning with
BillMax.
- Hook
- An executable that is run when a specific table is updated. BillMax sets the
environment and will run the executable immediately or create an entry in the
asyncprov table for asynchronous execution.
- Network Access Server
- A RADIUS client device that consults a RADIUS server to determine whether or not a
connection to a service should be granted an under what conditions. The case of an
internet service, the NAS may consult the RADIUS server to determine if the customer
should be allowed to use the network and if so, under what conditions. An example of a
condition is to what speed is a customer entitled. BillMax uses RADIUS reply groups
defined in the RADIUS server to communicate the conditions to the NAS.
- Product/Service Definition
- See Package Definition, Service Definition
- Provisioning Variables
- Specified in the Product Definition that is used to provision a Service of that type.
While all variables in a Service can be used in provisioning, these variables are
typically limited to the fields: d01, d02, d03 … d10.
- RADIUS
- Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS) refers to protocols, standards,
clients and servers used to provide central Authentication, Authorization and Accounting
(AAA) services for computer networks. Authentication verifies a user’s identify whereas
Authorization determine what rights, actions or service are allowed for a user. In order
to utilize RADIUS, devices in a network must support RADIUS (i.e. include a RADIUS
client). This is most often done in customer premise equipment (CPE) or in the case of
wireless Internet, at the Access Point (AP). See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RADIUS for more
details.
- RADIUS Attribute
- RADIUS attributes are informational items used to define specific authentication,
authorization, and accounting elements stored on a RADIUS server.
- RADIUS Reply Groups
- Groups of reply attributes with the primary use to specify settings that tell the NAS
what speeds or bandwidth the user is entitled to. Groups may be thought of as Plans. To
sell different levels of internet access, multiple groups or plans are created in RADIUS
server, then the appropriate product definition in BillMax is configured to use that
RADIUS plan.
- Resources
- Settings in the Product Definition and Service used to identify which systems are
provisioned by BillMax. Resources are also used in name spaces to ensure uniqueness of
Service names. The Resources are managed a bit-wise integer field where every bit
specifies a potential system to be provisioned or name space to be checked. Resources is
an example of a field whose value is copied to the Service from the Service Definition
when the Service is created. See also Resources
- Service Hook
- The general name for the executable used for provisioning Services. Its actual path is
/usr/local/billmax/local/service_hook
- SERVICES Hash
- This is a data structure used in
/usr/local/billmax/local/service_hook. It is used to specify
systems, data, and actions to provision. Typically, it is the only code that needs to
customized in /usr/local/billmax/local/service_hook.
