During the Tuesday, November 6th 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.
  • Proxy servers: some tests will be done on the web proxy servers to help diagnose a long standing issue. Whilst no outage is expected during these tests, it is possible that users who are near or over the Internet quota will experience erratic behaviour (odd errors, etc) while they are underway.
  • 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. As it operates within a redundant pair, no noticeable outage is expected during this maintenance.
Whilst 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.