This Sunday morning between 7 and 8:30 am we will be upgrade MiddFiles, there will be a less than 15 minute interruption of all connectivity to MiddFiles during this window.  We have been continuing to work intensively with our vendor to isolate intermittent disconnects of all client computers to MiddFiles that are occurring due to unexpected and abnormal termination (core dump) of the smb service.  When the smb service crashes, all of the client lose their connection to middfiles and need to reconnect, while this process doesn’t take long, it is noticeable and frustrating and particularly so if it is happening often, this is especially the case for database applications that are most sensitive to loss of their access to their underling storage environment.  We have been making steady progress working with our vendor to apply patches and tune settings in order to reduce the frequency of these service interruptions, from as many as 40 a day a couple of weeks ago to 15 a day earlier this week to 6 yesterday.  While we’re not out of the woods yet, we do believe that we are getting closer to putting this issue behind us.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or updates, in particular if we haven’t already touched base related to the impact this is having in your work groups area.