During the Tuesday, 4 May maintenance window, maintenance work affecting a number of services will occur, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned:
Storage systems: storage area network switches will be replaced. No noticeable outage is expected, though unexpected problems during the upgrade would cause an outage affecting almost all services.
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
IMAP e-mail mailboxes
Webmail
Mailing lists
SMS
Provisioning (web proxy autodiscovery)
Wi-Fi and VPN authentication
CHERTL Evaluation Assistant
Network graphs
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)
File servers/home directories (gnu, serval)
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.
Update, 30 April, 10:52. Maintenance work will also be undertaken on the PBX.
PBX: software on the university telephone system will be updated. We expect that all phones (IP telephones and emergency phones) will be unable to make or receive calls for a period of up to an hour. Phones will likely show a message reading "Discover 146.231.128.90" during that time. The phones themselves will also need to install new software, which takes 10-15 minutes.