2025/05/20 - Scheduled maintenance, 20 May

During the Tuesday, 20 May maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Single Sign On service: the software which provides the single sign on service will be updated. There may be times when it will not be possible to login to services which use the single sign on service, such as RUconnected, Fincore, ROSS or library electronic resources, among others, at times during the evening. Storage systems: software on storage systems and, time permitting, switches will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected, though an unexpected failure during the upgrade would cause an outage affecting almost all services. This work is being conducted during a minor maintenance period. Should there be a compelling reason why this work should not go ahead as planned, please contact support@ru.ac.za before 3:00 PM on Tuesday.

2025/05/13 - Scheduled maintenance, 13 May

During the Tuesday, 13 May maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in the areas listed below.  All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) may be disrupted in those areas for up to 30 minutes. This work was previously announced for the maintenance windows on 29 April and 6 May but could not be completed then. Main campus: all buildings in the area within Prince Alfred St, Somerset St and Lucas Avenue, up to and including Biological Sciences Building, the Library and Psychology Access switch:software will be updated on the network switch in the Drostdy Barracks building. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted for 30 minutes. As above, this work was previously announced for the maintenance windows on 29 April and 6 May but could not be completed then. This work is being conducted during a minor maintenance period. Should there be a compelling reason why this work should not go ahead as planned, please contact support@ru.ac.za before 3:00 PM on Tuesday.

2025/05/06 - Scheduled maintenance, 6 May

During the Tuesday, 6 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: Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in the areas listed below. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) may be disrupted in those areas for up to 30 minutes. This work was previously announced for the maintenance window on 29 April but could not be completed then. Main campus: all buildings in the area within Prince Alfred St, Somerset St and Lucas Avenue, up to and including Biological Sciences Building, the Library and Psychology Hill campus: all buildings which are on the south side of Prince Alfred St and west of New House (inclusive). Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving the university data centres. All services hosted in data centres are likely to be affected for at least brief outages, possibly for as long as an hour in the event of an unexpected problem. As above, this work was previously announced for the maintenance window on 29 April but could not be completed then. 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 Mailing lists SMS Provisioning (web proxy autodiscovery) Wi-Fi and VPN authentication 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, studentfiles) PC login service for public labs Archibus Access switch: software will be updated on the network switch in the Drostdy Barracks building. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted for 30 minutes. As above, this work was previously announced for the maintenance window on 29 April but could not be completed then. 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.

2025/04/29 - Scheduled maintenance, 29 April

During the Tuesday, 29 April maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in the areas listed below. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) may be disrupted in those areas for up to 30 minutes. Main campus: all buildings in the area within Prince Alfred St, Somerset St and Lucas Avenue, up to and including Biological Sciences Building, the Library and Psychology Off campus: all buildings east of Somerset St Hill campus: all buildings which are on the south side of Prince Alfred St and west of New House (inclusive). Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving the university data centres. All services hosted in data centres are likely to be affected for at least brief outages, possibly for as long as an hour in the event of an unexpected problem. Access switches: software will be updated on the network switches in the buildings listed below. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted in those buildings. For smaller buildings, the work might be completed in 30 minutes, while larger buildings may take up to 90 minutes. Drostdy Barracks Hobson Kitchen Storage systems: software on storage switches will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected, though an unexpected failure during the upgrade would cause an outage affecting almost all services. This work is being conducted during a minor maintenance period. Should there be a compelling reason why this work should not go ahead as planned, please contact support@ru.ac.za before 3:00 PM on Tuesday.

2025/04/22 - Scheduled maintenance, 22 April

During the Tuesday, 22 April maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: IP Telephones: software will be updated on all Yealink IP telephones. Each phone will install the new software and reboot twice, a process which will take around 10 minutes to complete. Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in the areas listed below. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) may be disrupted in those areas for up to 30 minutes. St Peters campus: all buildings south of Lucas Avenue. Access switches: software will be updated on the network switches in the buildings listed below. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted in those buildings for around 30 minutes. 26a, 70, 73 and 74 African St 29 and 33 South St 3, 5 and 6 Gilbert St Adamson Annexe Allan Webb dining hall Building Maintenance headquarters Chessington flats Catering and Housekeeping headquarters Day Kaif Drostdy Barracks King Field club house College House Facilities and Infrastructure offices Founders dining hall Grounds and Gardens headquarters The Hangar Health Care Centre Health Suite Law Clinic Maintenance Stores New House annexes Politics PSAM Psychology Clinic The Retreat Salisbury House Stables Starling House Swimming pool office Internet edge routers: the software on one of the two edge routers will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected as all network traffic should be handled by the other edge router. 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. This work is being conducted during a minor maintenance period. Should there be a compelling reason why this work should not go ahead as planned, please contact support@ru.ac.za before 3:00 PM on Tuesday.