noticeboard - summary

2022/06/14 - Scheduled maintenance, 14 June: During the Tuesday, 14 June maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Access switches: the stacking connections of the switches which make up the switch stacks in the following buildings will be reconfigured. This will involve reconfiguring at least some units from scratch. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be unavailable, possibly for as long as two hours. Africa Media Matrix (AMM) Biological Sciences (only if maintenance in AMM can be completed with enough time remaining) 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.
2022/06/07 - Scheduled maintenance, 7 June: During the Tuesday, 7 June 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: TENET router replacement: TENET staff will be replacing the Makhanda router in the SANReN network. This router connects RU and other Makhanda research/education sites to the SANReN network and in turn to international research and education networks and the Internet. Brief interruptions in Internet connectivity are expected. Unforeseen issues may result in longer interruptions. 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, studentfiles) 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.
2022/05/31 - Scheduled maintenance, 31 May: During the Tuesday, 31 May maintenance window, maintenance work may affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Core router: one of the two core routers in the campus network will be replaced. No noticeable outage is expected as all network traffic should be handled by the other core router. In the event of unforeseen problems with the new router, there may be disruptions; potentially affecting all network services on campus. Internet edge routers: software on one of the two routers which connect the campus, public and SEALS networks to the university's upstream ISPs will be updated. No noticeable outage is expected as all network traffic should be handled by the other core router. In the event of unforeseen problems with the new software, there could be Internet outages. 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.
2022/05/17 - Scheduled maintenance, 17 May: During the Tuesday, 17 May maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 5:30 PM and being completed before 8:00 AM Wednesday. The following work is planned: PBX: the software that provides the university telephone system will be upgraded. We expect that all phones (IP telephones and emergency phones) will be unable to make or receive calls for around an hour. Phones will likely show a message reading "Discover 146.231.128.90" during that time. Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in the hill campus area. This includes all buildings on the southern side of Prince Alfred St which are west of New House (including New House itself). All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted for, at a minimum, two periods of around five minutes. In the event of unforeseen problems with the new software, there will be longer disruptions while we revert to the previous software. The final stages of this update will only be completed early on Wednesday morning. 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.
2022/05/10 - Scheduled maintenance, 10 May: During the Tuesday, 10 May maintenance window, maintenance work will affect certain services, starting at 7:30 PM and being completed before midnight. The following work is planned: Distribution routers: software will be updated on the routers serving all buildings in main campus. Main campus is the area within Prince Alfred St, Somerset St and Lucas Avenue, as far as and including Biological Sciences, Main Library and Psychology Buildings. All network services (including Wi-Fi and IP telephones) will be disrupted for, at a minimum, two periods of around five minutes. In the event of unforeseen problems with the new software, there will be longer disruptions while we revert to the previous software. 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.