Tags » Helpdesk Alert

This Sunday morning we’re planning the following activities:

(1)    Between 6:30 and 7:30 we’ll be applying some security patches to the Library server “zeppo”.  We expect a less than 10 minute outage of the following services:  MiddCat, My MiddCat, Ilsley cataglog, Sheldon catalog, the Millennium client used by library staff.

(2)    Between 6:30 and 7:30 we’ll upgrade the Service Building network connection to 10 Gbps from 1 Gbps .  This will interrupt all network services to the Service Building for less than 20 minutes.

(3)    Between 7:00 and 8:30 we’ll re-route the network fiber connections for Stewart.  This will interrupt all network services Stewart for less than 10 minutes.

(4)    Between 7:00 and 9:00 we’ll re-route the network fiber connections and switch out some associated infrastructure for McCullough.  This will interrupt all network services to McCullough for 2 less than 10 minute periods.

(5)    Between 7:30 and 9:30 we’ll re-route the network fiber connections that provide connectivity to the large dorms on the north side of campus.  This will interruption all network connections to these buildings 2-3 times for less than 2 minutes each.

(6)    Between 7:30 and 9:30 we’ll re-route the network fiber connections that provide connectivity to BiHall.  This will interrupt all network connections to BiHall for less than 2 minutes.

We appreciate your patience as we continue to enhance the performance and reliability of our IT infrastructure.

This Sunday Sept 2 we will finalize our work on the new network architecture. This will result in a planned  15-30 minute outage that is scheduled for approx. 6:30-7:00 am EST. Please remember during this time, nobody on or off campus will have access to network services (this means all systems will be unavailable – Email, Banner, middfiles, everything including our websites middlebury.edu & miis.edu.)   The Snow Bowl will also have no phone service during the outage.  

In addition Ellucian will be performing some work on the Banner systems to improve some of the recent performance issues we have experienced in the past few weeks.   Banner will be offline from approx. 8am-10am while this maintenance is performed.

Schedule:

6:30 –  approx. 7:00am EST – network maintenance – all systems unavailable

8:00- approx. 10:00 am EST Banner systems will be unavailable

 We will send around a message once all systems are back up and available – we approximate this to be around 10am.

 Thank you again for your continued patience and cooperation while we perform this important work.

Notice of Network upgrade & planned outage:

Dear colleagues,
Since this planned network maintenance affects everyone, we want to give you an advance head’s up on what will be happening so your area can let us know of any complications that we may have missed or make alternate arrangements during the outage periods that will take place this Sunday August 19^th.

When:
We will perform this work on Sunday, August 19, beginning at 6:00am – approx. 12:00 noon EST.   There will be (2) 15-20 minute network outage periods. The first will occur at approx. 6:15am, the second sometime between 9-11am, with a 15min notification preceding the outage.

How this affects you: 
During the two brief 15 min intervals when we are switching core function from the primary network core to the replacement network core, and back from the replacement core to the primary, nobody on or off campus will have access to network services (this means all systems will be unavailable – Email, Banner, middfiles, everything including our websites middlebury.edu & miis.edu.)   The Snow Bowl will also have no phone service during the 15 min intervals.

In addition, during the entire maintenance period (6am – approx. noon), network performance may be slower than normal as we will be running on a temporary network setup while we perform the work.

What & Why:
Network core routing functionality and high-speed connectivity for our campus internet is provided by a pair of routing switches, one in Voter, the other in the Library.   Currently these two switches function independently, with no overlap or redundancy in their function.  Any particular sub-network is routed on a single switch.   Any campus building is ultimately connected to the rest of the campus internet at a single switch.   Thus a failure of either switch would cause a total loss of network connectivity for a significant portion of the campus, even if the other switch were working. 

This project will  improve our redundancy and network availability by eliminating either switch as a “single point of failure” adding redundant links in a way that the functions currently provided only by the Voter switch can be duplicated by the Library’s and reduce risk of a total loss of connectivity.

 If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Regards,
Helpdesk@middlebury.edu
X2200

We are pleased to announce the new middfiles structure is now up and available for use!
Please note the following changes:

You can now access middfiles at:

-for Windows/PC users – PLEASE RESTART/REBOOT your computer first – then you should not have to make any changes, but the new path is \\middlebury.edu\middfiles

-For Apple/Mac users – you will have to use the new server names & paths listed below.

afp://myhome.middlebury.edu (for home directories- your personal folders)

afp://orgs.middlebury.edu (for ORGS – your department folders)

afp://classes.middlebury.edu (for classfolders and curricular resources)

afp://shed.middlebury.edu (for software, studentorgs, committees, specialprojects, and others not mentioned above)

For more information on file servers and connections contact the helpdesk. helpdesk@middlebury.edu

Middfiles will be unavailable this Sunday June 3 from 7am- noon EST for maintenance. During this time we will be re-architecting middfiles into 4 separate servers to minimize future disruptions and speed up future recovery processes.

PC/Windows users should not experience any changes.

Apple/Mac users who have drives mapped to middfiles will need to know the names of the new servers to re-connect. We will send out the changes in a future message and we will also post them to our outage/alerts page at http://www.middlebury.edu/offices/technology/help/alerts