October 13, 2009

Serious Snow Leopard Bug Could Delete All Your Data!

ITS has learned about a serious bug in the Apple Snow Leopard (OS 10.6) upgrade process.

Essentially, if the computer has a “Guest” account enabled (this is on by default on most Macs), there is a chance that ALL DATA in the user’s regular account will be deleted. This includes everything in the Home folder–pictures, iTunes music, documents, etc. The ONLY way to restore this data is from an existing backup, otherwise the data is permanently lost.

For more information on this bug, please visit http://www.tuaw.com/2009/10/12/bug-tracker-snow-leopard-guest-account-deleting-files/

Performing an operating system upgrade such as the one to Snow Leopard is a significantly complex process that can result in many problems, such as the one outlined above. For this reason, PSU-owned computers should NOT be upgraded by faculty or staff members themselves, as this constitutes a significant risk to data, in addition to being a violation of PSU’s Acceptable Use Policy.

Faculty, staff, and students who wish to upgrade their personal Mac computers to Snow Leopard should perform a backup of all data and remove any Guest accounts prior to upgrading.

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October 7, 2009

Banner 8 Upgrade and What it means to you . . . .

On October 16th at 5:00PM, Banner will be taken offline to perform an upgrade from Banner 7 to Banner 8.  The upgrade will be complete, and Banner will be made available by 8:00AM on Tuesday, October 20th.

What does this upgrade mean?

Banner is a software application written by SungardHE that uses an Oracle database to gather, store and present information through forms (Banner INB), reports and web self service (Self Service Banner). Every 18-24 months the vendor (SungardHE) releases a new major version to deliver functional and technical improvements to Banner. Plymouth State must implement these versions to retain support from the vendor and to remain in compliance with Federal Regulations (i.e. Financial Aid, Tax Laws).  On September 10, 2010, SunGardHE will stop supporting our current version (Banner 7).

Why does Banner need to be down for so long?

Banner has a number of modules, General, Student, Financial Aid, Accounts Receivable, and Advancement. Each of these modules contains 100’s of forms (screens) that store data in 100’s of tables. With the change from Banner 7 to Banner 8, the underlying Oracle Database moves to a new “character set”. This requires that over 100 million of rows of data in thousands of tables be converted to the new “character set”. A number of forms are changing, and a number of other tables and programs are being updated. This work must be performed while no one is logged into the system.

By taking Banner down at 5:00PM on Friday, IT staff can work around the clock over the weekend to implement the changes and run the character set conversion. Then IT staff must verify that a number of related systems properly re-connect to the updated environment. These systems include:  myPlymouth, Blackboard, Workflow, Document Imaging, InfiNET Payment Gateway and more.

All of this work over the weekend is to prepare the system for Client Acceptance Testing on Monday by a designated set of client representatives. Once they verify that all critical aspects of Banner 8 are functioning, Banner (and Banner based services) will be made available to the campus by 8am Tuesday morning.

Will Blackboard/myPlymouth/myMail be down during this time?

No.  Blackboard, myPlymouth, and myMail (Zimbra) will all remain available during the Banner upgrade.  Some integrations and components presented through myPlymouth will be unavailable or limited in use, including: myProfile, Self Service, registration, grades, course query, and student query.

If you experience difficulty with a service during the upgrade window that is not listed, please contact the Help Desk at 535-2929 for assistance.

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September 30, 2009

Wireless Printing comes to Plymouth!

PrintNomad enables users to print wireless from their laptop computers from many locations around  PSU campus. Please follow the links below to learn how to achieve this.

NOTE: PrintNomad is currently beta software. This means there may be bugs that cause it to crash or not operate correctly. We need your help to improve the software, so please feel free to send your feedback, suggestions and comments via email to helpdesk@plymouth.edu.

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September 30, 2009

ClarITy Newsletter – Autumn 2009

Information Technology Services is happy to provide you with the Autumn 2009  issue of our newsletter  ClarITy.

Follow the link to read the ClarITy Newsletter – Autumn 2009

We hope you will find ClarITy informative, educational and fun.   Please feel free to send your feedback, suggestions and comments to us via email at helpdesk@plymouth.edu.

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September 25, 2009

Microsoft offers college students a deal on their new Windows 7 operating system

On October 22nd Microsoft will officially release their new operating system, Windows 7.  Just last week they announced that they will be making the Windows 7 Home Premium version available to US College students for the greatly discounted price of $29.99.

This offer is only valid for students – defined by Microsoft as having an .edu email address; be actively enrolled in at least 0.5 credits; and be able to provide proof of enrollment upon request.

Interested?  Visit http://www.win741.com/ from your home machine to see of your computer is able to run Windows 7 and to see if you qualify for this special offer!

———————–

PSU owned computers are NOT eligible for this offer.  It is important to note that ITS is currently testing Windows 7 as well as Snow Leopard (the new Apple  operating system) to ensure that all PSU systems and applications will run as expected.  Once this testing is complete, the new operating systems will be made available to the campus in a systematic way.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact the ITS HelpDesk at 603-535-2929 or via email at helpdesk@plymouth.edu

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August 11, 2009

Wireless Internet Connectivity 8/11/2009

Wireless Internet Connectivity – RESOLVED – 9:00am 8/11/2009
The wireless internet issue has been resolved. Please call the Help Desk at 603-535-2929 if you have any difficulty accessing the internet.

Wireless Internet Connectivity – 8:00am 8/11/2009
Computers accessing the internet via Plymouth State’s Wi-Fi are unable to  access certain websites.  The Networking team is investigating the issue.

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August 1, 2009

Phone system and voice mail upgrade is complete

Friday night, PSU Telecom performed a major upgrade to the campus telephone system, including the voice mail system.  This upgrade will allow Telecom to offer several customer-requested feature enhancements in the near future.

Offices with digital telephones (gray or black handsets) may see their phones “lit up like a Christmas tree” when they return to work this morning.  This sometimes occurs when there is a loss of communication between the phone and the telephone switch.  This is easily cleared by unplugging the telephone line form the back of the phone and then plugging it back in again.

Voice mail users should notice very little difference to their service.  Voice mail greetings and existing messages were carried over to the new system.  However, voice mail passwords could not be ported over into the new system.   Instructions for initial log-on into the new voice mail system are as follows:

Instructions for Initial Voice Mail Log-on

Dial into voicemail 5-2700 from campus, or 535-2700 from off-campus.

The system will ask for your initial password.  Enter the number “one” (1) followed by the pound key (#).

The System will request that you enter a NEW password, and then press the pound key (#).

Passwords must met the following requirements:

  • cannot begin with a zero
  • cannot match your voicemail/telephone extension number
  • cannot be an ascending sequence of digits (12345)
  • cannot be a descending sequence of digits (54321)
  • cannot be repeating digits (1111)

If the password you entered meets the requirements above, the System will then ask you to confirm you new password by re-entering it, and then pressing the pound key (#).

Existing voice mail names and greetings will be migrated over from the old system. However, if your old voice mail mailbox did not have a recorded name you will be prompted to record one.

The System will then ask you to record your name. At the tone, clearly state your name and then press pound key (#).

The System will ask you confirm that you wish to use this recording by requesting –  “To accept this name press 1;  to re-record press 2”

You have now logged onto your mailbox

You have now initialized your Mailbox

For Help, press *4

To exit the voice mail system, press **9 or Hang-up

If you are experiencing any problems with your telephone or your voicemail on the new system ,please contact Telecom Office at 535-2222 or via email at networking@plymouth.edu

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July 30, 2009

July 29, 2009- PSC1 experiences a database failure

On Wednesday, July 29th at approximately 4:50 pm the PSC1 database suffered a critical failure which forced the MIS team to attempt a full backup recovery on the database. During this time, PSC1 and related Banner services were unavailable.  At 9:38 pm PSC1 was back on-line and operational.  However, the latest point of recoverable data was a backup time-stamped at 3:52PM.

This means there was 58 minutes where PSC1 was up and people were actively entering data that we were unable to recover.  In short, anything done in Banner after 3:52pm and the end of the business day on 7/29/09 is lost.

We will notify again if anything is discovered related to that problem.  Other areas should do a quick/random verification of their data and processes to ensure they are not impacted.

A postmortem and root cause analysis report is forth coming and will be made available as an attachment to this post.

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July 30, 2009

July 28, 2009 – Network connectivity down on the South end of Campus

On Tuesday, July 28th the south end of campus experienced a network outage which affected Lamson Library, Highland Hall, Boyd Hall, Holmes House, and the Hall, Pemi and Belknap Residential halls.

The outage began shortly after midnight and was at first intermittent.  At approximately 6 am the outage became widespread and affected all buildings on the Lamson segment of the network.    The problem was diagnosed as a hardware failure on the Core network router and workaround was put in place which allowed network connectivity to be restored at 10:00 am.

A postmortem and root cause analysis report is forth coming and will be made available as an attachment to this post.

PostMortem_july28_NetworkOutage

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July 27, 2009

Major upgrade to the PSU phone system scheduled for Friday night, July 31st

The Telecom team will be replacing Plymouth State University’s telephone switch and voice mail system on the evening of Friday, July 31, 2009.  Work will begin 5:00pm, and will take a total of 8 hours.  During that time, dial tone will go out, then come back gradually as we bring each sector of the campus on-line.

During the upgrade, all telephone and voice mail services will be unavailable.  Therefore no calls will be coming into campus or going out.  The emergency telephones (blue phones outside, red phones in the residence halls, and elevator telephones) will not be operational.  This includes the ability to make emergency 911 calls.

The outage period has been carefully selected to minimize the impact on the campus.  However, for safety and emergency purposes, Telecom advises anyone who will be on campus during this planned telephone service outage to carry a cell phone, as cellular services will still be available.

This upgrade will allow Telecom to offer several customer-requested feature enhancements in the near future.  After the upgrade is complete:

1)       Voicemail users will notice very little difference to their service.  Voicemail greetings and existing messages will be carried over to the new system.  However, the upgrade will go quicker if unwanted saved voice mail messages are deleted from accounts before the 31st.

2)      Voicemail passwords cannot be ported over into the new system.  The first time you access your voice mail after the upgrade you will need to use “1” as your voice mail password.  Upon log-in you will be prompted to reset the password to something with 5 digits.  If you like, you may change the password back to your old voicemail password.

3)      Offices with digital telephones (gray or black handsets) may see their phones “lit up like a Christmas tree” when they return to work.  This sometimes occurs when there is a loss of communication between the phone and the telephone switch.  This is easily cleared by unplugging the telephone line and then plugging it back in.

4)      Offices with complex automatic call distribution services will be contacted by Telecom in advance with information specific to their operations.  We are fully cognizant that your system of handing incoming calls is vital to the way your office functions and while we do not anticipate any problems, we will make every effort to minimize the impact on these critical systems.

Telecom anticipates a smooth transition to the new telephone switch.  However, as with changes to any system, minor problems may occur.  If they do, they will be addressed immediately.  Members of the Telecom Team will be on site until the upgrade is complete.

After the upgrade is complete, if you experience trouble with your telephone or voice mail, please report it to 535-2222 or via email to networking@plymouth.edu .  We appreciate your patience and understanding during this upgrade.

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