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.
4 Comments
October 17, 2009 at 3:08 pm
why did you have to do this when first year student midterm grades were published?
November 4, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Hello,
I was wondering if you might be able to post a follow-up article or comment about how the upgrade from Banner 7 to Banner 8 worked out for your organization.
Did you need to re-write/modify any of your custom code due to the new “character set”?
Thanks,
Kirk
(UNH – Durham)
November 5, 2009 at 9:00 am
Unfortunately there are no times during the semester when absolutely nothing is occurring. This was a weekend that was thoroughly vetted in many committees across campus starting in April.
November 5, 2009 at 9:04 am
Kirk – I’ll have our lead developer follow up with you on specifics, but overall, the upgrade was extremely successful with no unforeseen major issues. However, it should be noted that Plymouth State has no Oracle Forms/Internet Native Banner modifications. This greatly simplifies what we need to maintain and test through these major upgrades.