During the Tuesday, December 1st maintenance window, maintenance work affecting a number of services will occur, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following will occur:
  • Wi-Fi controllers: software on the controllers managing Wi-Fi access points on campus will be updated. Wi-Fi access across campus will be unavailable for at least two periods of ten minutes, possibly as long as an hour. This work could not be completed in November due to a software licensing problem so has had to be held over to this month.
  • Server software updates: software on the servers which provide the following services will be updated, resulting in outages of up to 15 minutes per server:
    • DNS
    • DHCP
    • NTP
    • RT
    • Web proxies
    • Registration system
    • Incoming e-mail
    • Outgoing e-mail
    • E-mail mailboxes
    • Webmail
    • Mailing lists
    • SMS
    • Apple Software Update Server
    • Provisioning (web proxy autodiscovery, telephone provisioning)
    • Wi-Fi and VPN authentication
    • CHERTL Evaluation Assistant
    • Network graphs
    • Guest network access
    • Network monitoring
    • Terminal Four content management system
    • RU Single Sign-On system
    • Main web server (www.ru.ac.za, etc)
    • University administration and meal booking systems
    • SEALS Library consortium services
    • Network printing services (iPrint / PaperCut)
    • Home directories (Gnu, Jackal)
  • Edge router: software on one of the edge routers will be updated. An Internet outage of less than five minutes is expected.
  • Firewalls: software on the firewalls which connect the Internet to the campus, SEALS and public networks will be updated. As the firewalls operate as a redundant pair, no noticeable outages are expected during this maintenance.
  • VPN service: software on the router which provides VPN services will be updated. An outage of up to an hour is expected.
While we try to publish a list of all service-affecting work here in advance, the list should not be considered exhaustive and other low impact work may also be undertaken during the maintenance window.

This maintenance work is being undertaken in the ITSC-approved scheduled maintenance window. More information about maintenance windows and maintenance periods.