OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. Sept 23 from 3:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 09/23/2021 from 3:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Pay-for-print upgrade
Description of change: OIT will upgrade the Pay-for-Print server (Papercut) to the newest version.
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 4:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: Pay-for-print
​Expected End-user impact: Pay-for-print services will be unavailable during the maintenance window.

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Storage configuration modification
Description of change: OIT will enable a configuration option for the storage supporting the virtualization environment.
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 6:05 AM
Affected services: N/A
​Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected​.

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Application modification
Description of change: OIT will enable Automatic Upgrades of Malwarebytes cloud clients.
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 6:15 AM
Affected services: ​Malwarebytes cloud clients, though the clients will not notice anything.
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected​.

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Canvas Tool Updates
Description of change: OIT will update the following Canvas tools to fix bugs and add new features:
​User Management, Course Management, Observer Management
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 5:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: UserManagement, ObserverManagement, and CourseManagement​
Expected End-user impact: The tools mentioned above will be momentarily unavailable when updates are being performed.

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Spam Filter Configuration Change
Description of change: OIT will be changing a setting related to email disclaimers on our spam filters.​
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 4:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 4:00 AM
Affected services: ​Inbound FAU email
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected​.

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: ​OIT will be applying updates to one of its mail servers.
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: ​On-Premises Exchange
Expected End-user impact: ​On-Premises Exchange is primarily used for 365 email management by the Help Desk. During this time mailboxes and distribution groups will not be able to be created/changed/deleted.

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Virtualization Upgrade
Description of change: Research Computing will upgrade the research computing private cloud to the latest version.
Downtime window start 9/23/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/23/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: HPC Cluster, Storage, Senior Design Projects
Expected End-user impact: No users should not be affected by this upgrade; however, ​there is a chance the machines could fail.

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Posted in Canvas / LMS, Educational Technologies, Email, Research Computing, Systems

OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. from 2:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 09/16/2021 from 2:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Banner Maintenance
Description of change: Banner will be under maintenance and will be unavailable from 2:00am to 7:00am on Thursday 16th September.
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 2:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: ​BANNER 8X/XE
Expected End-user impact: The Banner system will be brought down during the actual installation of the new release code.

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: OIT will be upgrading the operating system of the List server (Sympa).​
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 5:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: ​Sympa mailing list
Expected End-user impact: No email will be going out from the mailing lists until the OS upgrade has been completed.​

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Active Directory Maintenance
Description of change: OIT will be removing groups from Active Directory that were previously used to assign Microsoft 356 licenses. These groups were replaced by a new process and have not been synchronized since October 2020.
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 6:30 AM
Affected services: Active Directory​
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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Microsoft 365 License Maintenance
Description of change: OIT will be performing maintenance to the Microsoft 365 license assignment process.​
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 5:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: No services impacted.​
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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Single Sign-on Maintenance
Description of change: OIT will be performing maintenance to the Single-Sign-On (SSO) web services to disable certain ciphers and TLS versions in the SSL policy.
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: Single-Sign On (SSO)​
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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User Manager Maintenance
Description of change: OIT will be performing maintenance on our User Manager application. ​These changes are needed to retire a server.
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: User Manager/ OIM​
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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Server Maintenance
Description of change: OIT is making a change to enhance the security of the main FAU website
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 6:30 AM
Affected services: FAU website
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: OIT will be performing upgrades to its authentication servers.​
Downtime window start 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Downtime window end 9/16/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: Active Directory (ad.fau.edu)
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

Posted in Banner and Admin Systems, Educational Technologies, Email, Research Computing, Systems

Some Office 365 users may be unable to access their mailbox via Outlook Web App

Some Office 365 users may be unable to access their mailbox via Outlook Web App: Outlook.fau.edu
If you experience an issue accessing your email via the web browser, please access your email via the Outlook application, or Mobile application.

We will continue to monitor the Microsoft advisory and post any updates.
OIT
Posted in Email, Systems

Forms.fau.edu is offline

[7:30 pm] The Form service is online! All forms should be working as expected.
[6:10 pm] The Form service is online! Many forms will show a yellow bar on the top and bottom indicating it is not a production form. Please report these to https://helpDesk.fau.edu, we are currently updating them as quickly as possible.
[4:50 pm] The Form service is still offline but we have corrected most issues and the form developers are testing to make sure everything is working. More information will follow when we have verified the fix was applied correctly.
[1:30 pm] The Form service is still offline but we are making progress on correcting the issue. More information will follow when we have tested the fix.
[9:00 am] The Form server has been taken offline as a precaution. We are making progress with the vendor and will know more soon.
[8:24 am] The Form server is back online but historic submissions are not accessible. A support ticket has been open with the vendor and more information will follow.
* We did confirm that the submissions appear to be in the System but not visible.
[7:50 am] The University Form Server forms.fau.edu is currently offline due to a failure of the service. We will update this post regularly with updated information.

Posted in Banner and Admin Systems, Canvas / LMS, Educational Technologies, Email, Instructional Technologies, Lecture Capture, Network and Telecom, Research Computing, Systems, Workday

OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. July 22 from 3:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 07/22/2021 from 3:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: OIT will be upgrading print services on the Jupiter campus from server 2016 to server 2019.
Downtime window start: 7/22/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end: 7/22/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: Print services on the Jupiter campus.​
Expected End-user impact: Printing will be unavailable during this time

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: OIT will be performing upgrades to its authentication servers.​
Downtime window start: 7/22/2021 5:00 AM
Downtime window end: 7/22/2021 5:00 AM
Affected services: ​​Active Directory
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected

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Server Upgrade
Description of change: OIT will be upgrading a mail server.​
Downtime window start: 7/22/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end: 7/22/2021 4:00 AM
Affected services: ​Qualtrics
Expected End-user impact: ​Users will not be able to send emails through flashgordon during the window.

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Posted in Email, Systems

OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. July 1 from 3:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 07/01/2021 from 3:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Voice Server Maintenance
Description of change: ​OIT will be performing maintenance on the voice servers between 9:00 PM on June 30th to 2:00 AM July 1st. Phones may have brief connectivity issues.
Downtime window start 6/30/2021 9:00 PM
Downtime window end 7/1/2021 12:00 AM
Affected services: Cisco phones
Expected End-user impact: ​Cisco Phones will experience a brief 30 second outage during the maintenance window.

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Server Maintenance
Description of change: ​OIT will be performing maintenance on its spam filters on July 1st between 3am and 4am. Mail delivery may be impacted during this window.
Downtime window start 7/1/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end 7/1/2021 4:00 AM
Affected services: Inbound email for fau.edu, outbound email via smtp.fau.edu
Expected End-user impact: ​Sending email using smtp.fau.edu during the maintenance window may fail.

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AppWorx Upgrade
Description of change: ​The AppWorx automation application will be upgraded from version 9.1.3 to version 9.3.5.
Downtime window start 7/1/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end 7/1/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: None expected since this is being done during our maintenance window.
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected.

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Posted in Banner and Admin Systems, Email, Network and Telecom, Systems

Current issues/fixes for changes to staff/faculty email authentication

OIT has received reports of Outlook and iOS native mail issues related to the multi-factor authentication changes that took place earlier this morning.

Below are some steps that should resolve the issues:

  • Outlook constantly prompting for password – This should resolve with a complete close of outlook and restart. If issues persist, deleting outlook saved credentials and waiting a moment to restart outlook may help.
  • iOS native mail prompting for password – If an iOS account was setup before iOS 11 or if the account was setup manually on 11 or later (rather than automatically), a user may receive a password prompt. Deleting and re-adding the account to iOS mail will resolve this.

If these steps did not resolve the issue and you need further assistance, please contact the FAU Help Desk 561.297.3999 or submit a help desk ticket.

Posted in Email, Systems

[REMINDER] Duo Authentication for Faculty, Staff, and Health Email Tomorrow

As previously announced in the HR Weekly emails, FAU will be enabling Duo authentication on Faculty, Staff, and Health email accounts tomorrow. Users of the Faculty, Staff, and Health email systems will receive a new authentication prompt the first time they check their email after the overnight maintenance. This prompt will appear similar to other FAU NetID login prompts. The original communication is provided below:

 

The University is in the process of enhancing the security of University faculty/staff email accounts as part of our overall project to implement multi-factor authentication across University services. As of May 20, 2021, users will be asked to authenticate via Duo when connecting to their faculty/staff email accounts.  

If you are already signed in on an email client or mobile device, you may be asked to authenticate again using Duo. The prompt for Duo will look like prompts for other University services, and there will be green buttons for various options as usual. While you may be asked for Duo authentication every time you access your email via Outlook Web Access, mobile phone clients and desktop Outlook clients should not prompt you in the future unless an extended period has elapsed since the last authentication. 

Posted in Email

OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. May 20 from 3:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 05/20/2021 from 3:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Faculty/Staff Email System Maintenance
Description of change: ​OIT will be performing maintenance on the faculty/staff email system from 3:00 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. on Thursday May 20th. Following this change, users may get prompted for Duo authentication when accessing email and legacy protocols including POP3 and IMAP will no longer work for connecting to the Faculty/Staff email system.
Downtime window start: 5/20/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end: 5/20/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: Office 365 / Exchange Email​
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected during maintenance.
After the maintenance, users of the Office 365 mail system will be prompted for two factor authentication when signing into email for the first time or upon changing password. In addition, users will no longer be alble to use legacy protocols including IMAP, POP3, or SMTP for sending/receiving email.​

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Server Upgrades
Description of change: OIT will be performing maintenance on integration servers that affect Single Sign On, and Forms.
Downtime window start: 5/20/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end: 5/20/2021 6:00 AM
Affected services: Single Sign On Prompting Engine​, Forms (Frevvo), MyInfo
Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected. The updates to the BigIP will make this process seamless. However should things fail Single Sign On may slow down and many university forms may stop working. ​

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Student Information System (Banner) Maintenance
Description of change
OIT will be performing maintenance on the Student Information System. No end-user impact is expected.
Downtime window start: 5/20/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end: 5/20/2021 5:00 AM
Affected services: Student Information System (Banner)
​Expected End-user impact: No end-user impact is expected

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Posted in Banner and Admin Systems, Email, Systems

OIT Systems Maintenance, Thurs. April 15 from 12:00AM to 7:00AM

Office of Information Technology will be performing routine systems maintenance which includes but is not limited to rebooting Windows servers as deemed necessary, installing critical patches and other health checks on Thursday, 04/15/2021 from 12:00 AM to 7:00 AM during OIT maintenance window. In addition, the following systems will be specifically impacted:

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Student Information System (Banner) Financial Aid Upgrade
Downtime window start 4/15/2021 12:00 AM
Downtime window end 4/16/2021 7:00 AM
Affected services: ​BANNER 8X/XE
Expected End-user impact: The Banner system will be unavailable during the installation of the new codes/patches.

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Email Server Upgrade
Downtime window start 4/15/2021 3:00 AM
Downtime window end 4/15/2021 4:00 AM
Affected services: Inbound FAU email, smtp.fau.edu
Expected End-user impact: Email delivery may be delayed for inbound mail. Clients may receive an error when sending mail to smtp.fau.edu during the change window.

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Posted in Banner and Admin Systems, Email