Fri, 27 Sep 2013 11:32:06 +0200
During the Tuesday, October 1st maintenance window, maintenance work affecting a number of services will occur, starting at 5:30 PM:
- Inbound mail server software updates: software on the server which receives incoming mail for Rhodes @ru.ac.za and @campus.ru.ac.za e-mail addresses will be updated. No incoming mail will be received for a period of approximately an hour. Once that maintenance is completed, messages which have been sent to Rhodes addresses will be delivered, but it may take some time for external mail servers to being delivering to Rhodes again. Outbound messages (from Rhodes staff/students to other addresses) will not be affected.
- WiFi controller software updates: software on the WiFi controllers controlling the access points which have been installed as part of the 2013 WiFi renewal project will be updated. WiFi access will be unavailable for two outages of approximately five minutes in the following buildings:
- Eden Grove
- Main Admin
- Barratt Lecture Theatre Complex
- Alumni House
- Struben Building
- 35/37 South St
- Day Kaif
- The Provost
- Oppidan common room
- Hamilton Building
- Continuing Education Centre
- DNS/DHCP/NTP server software updates: software on the two servers which provide the DNS resolution, DHCP and NTP services will be updated. You may notice that network applications respond slower than usual during those times when the DNS server which is your PC's primary DNS resolver is unavailable. DNS queries will be answered by the secondary DNS resolver, but only once the request to your PC's primary DNS resolver has timed-out.
- RU Single Sign-On service software updates: software on the server which operates the RU Single Sign-On service will be updated, which will have the effect that staff/students will be unable to log in to services using the Single Sign-On service (such as RUconnected) for approximately five minutes.
- Registration system software updates: software on a server involved in the network registration system will be updated, resulting in network registration being unavailable for approximately five minutes.
- Internet routing topology change: a routing change will be made that slightly alters the way all traffic between the campus network and the Internet is routed. No noticeable outage is expected.
- Core router software update: the software on one of the two core routers will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected as all network traffic should be handled by the other core router.
- Distribution router software updates: the software on the distribution routers serving the data centres will be updated. This is likely to cause all WiFi access across campus to be unavailable for between five and 15 minutes, and the scifac.ru.ac.za web server to be unavailable for approximately 15 minutes, but access to all other services should be unaffected.
- Access switch software update: the software on an access switch in the Struben data centre will be updated, resulting in a further outage affecting the scifac.ru.ac.za web server of approximately five minutes.
This maintenance work is being undertaken in the ITSC-approved scheduled maintenance window, and should be completed before midnight.
More information about maintenance windows and maintenance periods.