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Information Technology Services staff continue will wrap up maintenance activities this week which have resulted in early-morning outages of some systems.
IT Services has employed the daily service windows, 6 to 8 a.m., to perform maintenance and make required system configuration changes. So far, the team has been able to meet its target of restoring access by 8 a.m. each day, reports lead hand Kevin Macnaughton.
Still outstanding are upgrades to:
- Networks across campus, May 3
- Wireless networks across campus, May 3
- Networks in the Leddy Library, May 4
- Cross-campus firewall security, May 4
Macnaughton anticipates these processes should also be completed by 8 a.m. each day.
In addition, the server team will reboot the University’s internet connection sometime between 5:30 and 6 a.m. on Friday, May 4. The move is required after an upgrade to software outside the firewall. It will result in an outage of Internet service for about five minutes — 15 minutes in a worst-case scenario, says Macnaughton.
Direct any concerns about this process to the ServiceDesk at 519-253-3000, ext. 4440.
Maintenance of Information Technology systems will result in outages to some services in the early-morning hours from April 27 to May 4. IT Services selected this period as a time of reduced student activity to minimize the impact of service outages.
IT Services will use daily service windows, 6 to 8 a.m., to perform maintenance and make required system configuration changes. The maintenance activities and affected systems will be announced via the IT Services HotNews feed — and, if needed, targeted email messages to affected parties.
All services will be fully available each day by 8 a.m. unless specifically noted; however, some users may need to reboot their workstations if they have any persistent connections to services such as Novell.
Here is a list of currently planned maintenance activities, along with the buildings and users affected:
- April 27, wireless security upgrades, Welcome Centre
- April 30, network upgrades, Medical Education Building
- April 30, wireless network upgrades, Welcome Centre
- May 1, network upgrades, Chrysler Hall
- May 1 (until noon), Blackboard upgrades, cross-campus
- May 2 (all day), Raiser’s Edge upgrades, various
- May 2 and 3, network upgrades, Essex Hall
- May 3, network upgrades, cross-campus
- May 4, network upgrades, Leddy Library
- May 4, campus firewall security upgrades, cross-campus
Anyone who has a special event scheduled during this break requiring the affected services to be operational before 8 a.m. must contact the ServiceDesk at 519-253-3000, ext. 4440, so that IT Services can conduct maintenance activity around the event.
UWindsor’s 11th Campus Technology Day — Thursday, June 7, in the CAW Student Centre — will be themed “Taking U Forward.”
Campus Technology Day is an interactive conference that brings together faculty, staff, and students to exchange ideas about the ways technology impacts and enhances learning, teaching, research, and community.
“Technology can make many aspects of our university more effective,” says Marcin Pulcer, assistant director for client services in Information Technology Services and chair of the Campus Technology Day 2018 organizing committee. “Campus Technology Day is an opportunity for faculty, staff, and student to share how they are using technology in innovative ways with the broader campus community.”
Organizers are now accepting proposals for Campus Technology Day 2018 presentations. They can be submitted online at https://uwindsor.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2lSWxyT9qyBOZOl.
On Thursday, February 22, the UWin Gmail system used by all students at the University of Windsor will switch to a different authentication service to recognize and verify a user’s identity.
All users of the UWin Gmail system are required to provide their UWin ID and password on the login page before they can access the system. The credentials provided are then compared to those stored in the central directory.
The biggest impact on users will be a change to the appearance of the login page. The current login page looks like this:
The new login page will look like this:
The change will take place around 7:30 a.m. Any issues related to this change should be reported to the Service Desk by opening a ticket at uwindsor.ca/help or calling 519-253-3000, ext. 4440.