- 2025/02/18 - Scheduled maintenance, 17 and 18 February
- On Monday, 17 February, maintenance work affecting SEALS Library services will occur, starting at 10:30 AM. Catalogue, issuing and WAM proxy services will be unavailable for some hours while software is updated on the servers that provide those services.
During the Tuesday, 18 February maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned:
VPN service: software on the router which provides VPN services will be updated. An outage of ten minutes is expected.
Wi-Fi and VPN authentication: the software that authenticates all requests for connection to Wi-Fi and VPN services will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected, though unforeseen problems could result in a longer outage.
Firewalls: software will be updated on the firewalls which connect the Internet to the campus, SEALS and public networks. As the firewalls operate as a redundant pair, no noticeable outage is expected during this maintenance.
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.
- 2025/02/11 - Scheduled maintenance, 11 February
- On Tuesday, 11 February, maintenance work will affect certain services. The following work is planned:
Printing services: from 1 to 2 PM, software that handles accounting of print jobs will be updated. It will not be possible to print to any iPrint queues which use print job accounting/charging during the upgrade. This work is being conducted over lunch time to allow testing of all printing scenarios to be completed during the afternoon.
Access switches: from 5:30 PM, 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. It is expected that each building will have an outage of around 15 minutes.
Courtenay Latimer dining hall
CSSR House
Drostdy dining hall
Fineart Annexe (St Peters campus)
John Kotze House
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.
- 2025/02/04 - Scheduled maintenance, 3 and 4 February
- On Monday, 3 February, maintenance work affecting SEALS Library services will occur, starting at 4:00 PM. Catalogue, issuing and WAM proxy services will be unavailable for some hours while software is updated on the servers that provide those services.
During the Tuesday, 4 February 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:
Access switches: software will be updated on the network switches in almost all buildings on campus. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted in those buildings. It is expected that each building will have an outage of around 15 minutes.
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 (Vital repository only)
Network printing services (iPrint/PaperCut)
File servers/home directories (gnu, serval, studentfiles)
PC login service for public labs
Archibus
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.
- 2025/01/28 - Scheduled maintenance, 28 January
- During the Tuesday, 28 January maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned:
Server software updates: software on the servers which provide the following services will be updated, resulting in outages of up to an hour per server:
Network printing services (iPrint/PaperCut)
File servers/home directories (gnu, serval, studentfiles)
PC login service for public labs
Archibus
Employee self service
FileDirector
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 up to 30 minutes.
Biological Sciences Building
Botany Building
Confucius Institute
Drostdy Dining Hall
PBX: software on the university telephone system will be updated. We expect that Yealink phones will be unable to make or receive calls for a period of around 15 minutes.
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.
- 2025/01/14 - Scheduled maintenance, 14 January
- During the Tuesday, 14 January maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned:
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.
IP Telephones: software will be updated on certain Yealink IP telephones. Only phones which are used in common areas rather than on individual desks will be upgraded. Each phone will install the new software and reboot twice, a process which will take around 10 minutes to complete.
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.