The NAAS Backwards Compatibility Layer (BCL) has been deployed in the Development environment for the past week and is very stable. Thanks to the development teams that have helped test things so far. There are a few remaining small issues we need to verify and potentially work through with our teams. In an abundance of caution, we are delaying the cutover of the TEST NAAS one week to make the NAAS as fully ready for partners as possible.

• NAAS Test Environment Cutover – Is now planned to happen on Monday night, 6pm on April 5^th. We expect roughly two hours of downtime. At this point we will be asking teams to test the NAAS BCL, let us know if things are working for them, and work with us to help troubleshoot and resolve any issues that they may encounter.
• NAAS Production Environment Cutover – is still planned to occur the weekend of April 18^th , assuming testing can be verified by partners. If partners are having trouble pinpointing issues or resolving them after the test cutover, we may fall back to the following weekend, April 25th IF NECESSARY. 

Again, please work with the node help desk if you have any questions or concerns. Reminders:

• The node help desk can provide new Secure Authentication Keys if you need one for TEST or PRODUCTION.
• New TEST and PRODUCTION IPs are listed below. If you have outbound firewall rules to the NAAS, please make sure you enable access to these IPs:
  • TEST: 204.47.254.135
  • PRODUCTION: 204.47.254.197

NODE HELP DESK:
Phone: 888.890.1995
Email: [email protected]
https://www.exchangenetwork.net/about/contacts/network-help-desk/

**This message contains important new details about forthcoming changes to the Exchange Network Authentication and Authorization Service (NAAS). The new information includes the migration date for the NAAS TEST environment.** 

As previously reported on March 8 and March 17, U.S. EPA is updating the Exchange Network’s security infrastructure known as the Network Authentication and Authorization Service (NAAS). The current NAAS application will be migrated to a new platform. The system will retain all existing functionality and the re-platforming should be transparent to most users.  

EPA will perform the cutover for the TEST version of the NAAS at 6:00 PM EDT on Monday March 29, 2021. At that time, EPA will decommission the existing TEST NAAS and deploy the new TEST NAAS in its place.

Here is what to expect:

• Beginning at 6:00 PM EDT on March 29, EPA anticipates approximately 2 hours of downtime before the new TEST NAAS becomes available. The actual timing may vary so please plan accordingly.
• The new TEST NAAS should be fully available for testing beginning on the morning of March 30, 2021. 
• As previously reported, the URL for the TEST NAAS will not change. After the deployment completes, you will still be able to access the TEST NAAS at https://naas.epacdxnode.net. 
• The IP address for the new TEST NAAS will change to: 204.47.254.135. If your agency has firewall rules that allow traffic only with specific IP addresses, you will need to update your settings to allow access to this new IP address. 

Beginning on the morning of March 30, partner agencies should begin testing their Nodes and data flows against the new TEST NAAS environment. Please report any anomalies, questions, or errors to the Node Help Desk at:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 1-888-890-1995 (Select Option 1 and then Option 5 from the menu) 
  Available 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern

EPA tentatively plans to deploy the new Production NAAS on April 19, 2021. Please begin making any necessary firewall adjustments and plan to adjust your data flow schedule to accommodate that timing. More details on precise migration date will be announced as soon as they are available.

• New Production NAAS IP Address: 204.47.254.197
• Production NAAS URL: https://cdxnodenaas.epa.gov

The application deadline for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Exchange Network (EN) Grant Program is quickly approaching! Applications are due to U.S. EPA by 11:59 PM Eastern Time, Wednesday, March 31, 2021.

Applicants can find a copy of the Solicitation Notice (SN) on the Grants.gov website at: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=331293. You can find additional guidance tools, including optional fillable templates, on both Grants.gov and on the EPA Exchange Network website. Remember to review the FY21 SN in full, as significant updates have been made since the FY20 version. 

For more information, please contact:

Erika Beasley
EN Grants Program Manager
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
E: [email protected]

**This message contains important new details about forthcoming changes to the Exchange Network Authentication and Authorization Service (NAAS). The new information includes tentative migration dates and the new NAAS IP addresses. Please read this message in its entirety to understand if your agency or organization will be affected.** 

As previously reported on March 8, U.S. EPA is planning updates to the Exchange Network’s security infrastructure known as the Network Authentication and Authorization Service (NAAS). The current NAAS application will be migrated to a new platform in the coming weeks. The system will retain all existing functionality and the re-platforming should be transparent to most users. Here are some important highlights about this upcoming change:  

• The current URLs for the NAAS will not change. 
• The IP addresses for the NAAS will be changing, so agencies with strict firewall rules will need to update them for the new IP addresses. See below for details. 
• Server security certificates will not be changing during this migration, so agencies will not need to adjust for new certificates.

Please see below for more information about anticipated timing and other considerations. If you have any questions or comments please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk (see contact information below).

Schedule and Downtime 
The anticipated schedule for re-platforming the NAAS is:

• New NAAS Test Environment
  Tentatively available on March 29, 2021
  Deployment planned for weekend of March 27-28 (expect service downtime during the weekend)
   
• New NAAS Production Environment 
  Tentatively available on April 19, 2021
  Deployment planned for weekend of April 17-18 (expect service downtime during the weekend)

EPA anticipates that the NAAS will be unavailable for part of the deployment weekends. EPA will communicate more specifics about the amount of downtime anticipated as that information becomes available. Watch for more details in a future EN Alert email. Please take note of this anticipated downtime and inform your agency’s Exchange Network users that they will not be able to connect to the Exchange Network or NAAS-supported applications during the NAAS platform change.

Testing
Once the NAAS Test environment has been migrated to the new platform, EPA will notify the Exchange Network community in an EN Alert email. This will open an opportunity for the community to help verify that the re-platformed NAAS services are continuing to operate normally. During this testing period, partner agencies should:

• Verify that your nodes / dataflows remain operational and are working normally. Unless your agency is covered by one of the exceptional situations below, the NAAS services in the TEST environment should continue to work normally for you without any need for intervention on your part.
• Please report any anomalies, questions, or errors to the Node Help Desk (see information below).

Exceptional Situations
In most cases, the NAAS re-platforming will be completely transparent and users will not need to take any action. The exceptions to that rule are listed below. Please read on to determine if your organization will be impacted by one of these situations. If you have questions, please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk (see below).

• Firewall Rules – After the migration, the IP addresses for the Test and Production NAAS will change. If you have an outbound firewall rule from your system to the current NAAS IP addresses, your agency will need to update your firewall rules to allow access to the new NAAS IP addresses below:

  
  Test NAAS
  New IP Address: 204.47.254.135
  URL: https://naas.epacdxnode.net
  Planned Effective Date: March 29, 2021

  Production NAAS
  New IP Address: 204.47.254.197
  URL: https://cdxnodenaas.epa.gov 
  Planned Effective Date: April 19, 2021
   

• Secure Authentication Key (SAK) – If your system communicates with the Exchange Network using a SAK, you will need to contact the Node Help Desk to obtain a new SAK.

Exchange Network Help Desk 
For any questions or comments, or to report testing issues, please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk at:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 1-888-890-1995 (Select Option 1 and then Option 5 from the menu) 
  Available 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern

**This message contains important information about forthcoming changes to the Exchange Network Authentication and Authorization Service. Please read this message in its entirety to understand if your agency or organization will be affected.** 

U.S. EPA is planning updates to the Exchange Network’s security infrastructure known as the Network Authentication and Authorization Service (NAAS). As part of a longer-term modernization effort, the current NAAS application will be migrated to a new platform in the coming weeks. The system will retain all existing functionality and the re-platforming should be transparent to most users. Here are some important highlights about this upcoming change:  

• The current URLs for the NAAS will not change. 
• The IP addresses for the NAAS will be changing, so agencies with strict firewall rules will need to update them for the new IP addresses. 
• Server security certificates will not be changing during this migration, so agencies will not need to adjust for new certificates.

Please see below for more information about anticipated timing and other considerations. Some details are still forthcoming, so watch for more information in future EN Alert emails. If you have any questions or comments please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk (see contact information below).

Timeline and Downtime 
The tentative schedule for re-platforming the NAAS is:

• NAAS Test Environment –  March 2021 (exact weekend dates TBA) 
• NAAS Production Environment – April 2021 (exact weekend dates TBA)

EPA anticipates that the NAAS will be unavailable for part of the cutover weekend. EPA will communicate more specifics about the dates and the amount of downtime anticipated as that information becomes available. Watch for more details in a future EN Alert email. Please take note of this weekend downtime and inform your agency’s Exchange Network users that they will not be able to connect to the Exchange Network or NAAS-supported applications during the NAAS platform change.

Testing
Once the NAAS Test environment has been migrated to the new platform, EPA will notify the Exchange Network community in an EN Alert email. This will open an opportunity for the community to help verify that the re-platformed NAAS services are continuing to operate normally. During this testing period, partner agencies should:

• Verify that your nodes / dataflows remain operational and are working normally. Unless your agency is covered by one of the exceptional situations below, the NAAS services in the TEST environment should continue to work normally for you without any need for intervention on your part.
• Please report any anomalies, questions, or errors to the Node Help Desk (see information below).

Exceptional Situations
In most cases, the NAAS re-platforming will be completely transparent and users will not need to take any action. The exceptions to that rule are listed below. Please read on to determine if your organization will be impacted by one of these situations. If you have questions, please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk (see below).

• Firewall Rules – After the migration, the IP addresses for the Test and Production NAAS will change. If you have an outbound firewall rule from your system to the current NAAS IP address, your agency will need to update your firewall rules to allow access to the new NAAS IP addresses. EPA will announce the new NAAS IP addresses in an EN Alert as soon as they are available. EPA will make every effort to provide this information at least 3 weeks prior to the cutover to allow time for partner agencies to adjust their firewall rules.
   
• Secure Authentication Key (SAK) – If your system communicates with the Exchange Network using a SAK, you will need to contact the Node Help Desk to obtain a new SAK.

Exchange Network Help Desk 
For any questions or comments, or to report testing issues, please contact the Exchange Network Help Desk at:

• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 1-888-890-1995 (Select Option 1 and then Option 5 from the menu) 
  Available 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM Eastern