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Notices and Alerts07/23/08, Don't Take The Bait A 'phishing' scam is an insidious type of e-mail spam. Such scams take
the form of an official-looking message from a bank, IT office or
vendor, and tries to get you to divulge some personal information "in
order to keep your account open" or "to verify your identity." If you reply, your information can be
used to perpetrate other frauds in your name, or even get access to your
bank accounts, medical records, etc. You should never reply to a
phishing scam, but simply delete the message.
07/17/08, Server Upgrades This Weekend
We must perform some critical maintenance and upgrades to our Novell
servers this coming weekend. Among other improvements, the upgrades
will make more storage space available to our clients, and will also
make it easier to add more storage space as needed.
06/25/08, Google EMail and Time Zone Problem (cross-posted on our Google Apps page)
The time zone glitch that we have previously notified you about affects you even if you are only using Google Apps e-mail. Google EMail and Calendar are tightly integrated. Therefore, you need to check the time zone in your Calendar settings. Why? Because you probably don't want to be an hour early to meetings.
06/25/08, OCS Nightly Outages
The completion of the migration of email from OCS to Google is beginning this evening. OCS will be unavailable between the hours of 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM to do this migration. This downtime will continue every day until the mail migration is completed.
06/20/08, OCS down
OCS, our former e-mail system, has been temporarily taken down for UPS maintenance.
We will bring it back up tomorrow morning. Sorry for the inconvenience!
06/11/08, Server Room Power Maintenance Friday 6/20
Our data center, the "server room" on third floor Humanities, normally
falls back on a temporary uninterruptible power supply (UPS) in the
event of an electrical outage. Periodically the UPS needs maintenance
work. We have scheduled maintenance for the UPS on Friday June 20,
beginning at 1:00 PM. The maintenance should be complete and the
UPS turned back on by 6:00 PM that same afternoon.
05/29/08, Banner/1600grand Maintenance This Weekend
Attention Banner/1600grand users:
05/27/08, Banner/1600grand Memory Upgrade Wednesday 5/28
This is a gentle reminder that tomorrow, Wednesday May 28, we will be
taking Banner and 1600grand offline to add additional memory to the
Banner server. The downtime will begin at 5:00 PM; the upgrade should
take approximately two hours.
05/23/08, Banner Memory Upgrade
In preparation for the installation of ORACLE 10gR2 in Banner's
production environment we need to add additional memory to the Banner
Server.
05/23/08, 1600grand Server Problem Fixed (10:30 AM)
The problem with 1600grand not displaying the Banner channels has been
fixed. Additionally, there was a problem with logging into Moodle and
that problem has also been fixed. The problems were unrelated to the
issues we experienced yesterday. If you are still experiencing any
difficulty with 1600grand or Moodle, please call or e-mail the Help
Desk (x.6525, helpdesk@macalester.edu) for assistance.
05/23/08, 1600grand Server Problem (8:55 AM)
There is currently a problem with 1600grand not displaying the Banner
channels. This causes a SQL error to be displayed, blocking access to
those channels. We suspect this may be a remaining problem from
yesterday's network issues. Our Network and Enterprise staff are
currently working to resolve this issue. Thank you for your continued
patience.
05/22/08, Sporadic Group Access Problems (4:32 PM)
Some staff members are experiencing sporadic blockages when trying to
access shared (group) directories on the G: drive. We are working to
identify and fix the cause of the problem. In the meantime, a process is
running that should restore full normal access for everyone to all
appropriate group directories. This process will finish later this
afternoon. If you find that you cannot access a shared folder on the G:
drive tomorrow morning, Friday May 23, please call or e-mail the Help
Desk (x.6525, helpdesk@macalester.edu) with your name, your office and
the name of the directory you cannot access.
05/22/08, Admin Server Problem Solved (12:25 PM)
Earlier this morning, accounts were erroneously disabled for 35
students, 438 staff members and 125 faculty members. All accounts have
been re-enabled. No passwords have been reset, changed or stolen.
Windows users, you can now log into your account as usual with full
access to your G: drives (the 'Groups' directory to you Macintosh
users).
05/22/08, Admin Server Problem (11:05 AM)
As of approximately 10:00 AM today, Thursday May 22, many people have
received e-mail messages saying "your password has been changed."
Further, some who try to login to the Admin server are seeing error
messages noting that "your account is disabled." We are aware of the problems,
are actively investigating and working to fix them, and will send out more
information as soon as it is available. If you use a Windows PC, log in
with "workstation only" checked. You won't be able to access files
saved on the network, but you will be able to access your e-mail and the
Web.
05/21/08, Voice Mailboxes Going "Good-Bye"
Voice mailboxes for faculty members and language instructors (native
speakers) whose contracts expire May 31 (per Human Resources) will be
deleted on June 1. Please contact Telecommunications, x6566, before that
date if you will be remaining on campus after June 1. Student voice
mailboxes will be deleted starting May 22. Students remaining on campus
for the summer will retain their voice mailboxes.
05/20/08, Upcoming Banner/1600grand Maintenance
Attention, Banner and 1600grand users!
05/01/08, E-Mail and Voice Mail for Seniors
Congratulations to the Class of 2008! As you prepare to make the
transition from students to young alumni, you may have questions about
your e-mail, network and voice mail accounts. Here's the information
you need.
4/24/08, Students: Who's Got Your Back(up)?
Students, you're incredibly busy as finals draw near - particularly
seniors working on honors theses and capstone presentations. Now
imagine losing all that work in an instant, with no hope of recovery.
Does that scare you? It should.
04/21/08, OCS Offline For Repairs Tuesday 4/22
We must take the OCS system offline in order to make further repairs.
These repairs are a necessary step toward our critical goal of moving
old e-mail out of OCS and into Google. OCS will be taken down starting
at 6:00 PM on Tuesday April 22. The repairs may take up to 48 hours, or
they could be complete much sooner. In any event, OCS will be brought
back up by 6:00 PM Thursday, April 24 at the latest. Since a definitive end time cannot be accurately
predicted, we will notify the community immediately, via Notification
and on the ITS Web page's 'Notices and Alerts' column, when OCS service
is restored.
04/21/08, Outbound Traffic Slowdown Fixed
Several people reported significant slowdowns in outbound e-mail traffic
this morning, Monday April 21. For example, if you sent a message
off-campus with a file attached, it may have taken a few minutes
(instead of a few seconds) for the attachment to upload and the file to
be sent. Our Network staff responded and this problem has been fixed.
It has nothing to do with Google, but with our Internet connection. If
you notice what you believe to be unnaturally slow sending times in your
Google Email, please call the Help Desk at x.6525.
04/18/08, Is Outbound E-Mail Slow, Or Is It Just Me?
It's not just you. There is a problem with our outbound Internet
connection; it is not clear exactly what is going on, and we continue to
investigate. During peak times of day, you may notice that Google
attachments upload slowly or that access from off-campus performs more
slowly than normal. The slowdown is noticeable but not crippling, and
has been evident since the beginning of March. Be assured that the
problem is NOT with Google, but with our Internet provider (and may be
affecting other customers in addition to Macalester). We will post more
information as it becomes available.
04/17/08, 1600grand/INB Error Corrected
Sometime last night a component of the 1600grand system went down.
Because of this, no Banner channels - including Internet Native Banner
(INB) - were accessible. The problem has been corrected and full access
to 1600grand and INB have been restored. Enterprise Services staff are
working to determine what happened and prevent a recurrence.
04/11/08, More OCS Repairs Saturday and Sunday.
Same work, different weekend. As we work to recover everyone's stored
OCS mail for migration into Google, more troubleshooting needs to be
done on OCS. OCS will be undergoing a period of testing, analysis and
repair beginning at 8:00 PM Saturday, April 12. This period will end at
10:00 AM Sunday April 13. During this period, OCS will not be accessible
at all to end-users. We're working toward a goal of restoring OCS to
the point where mail can be moved, and this repair period will move us
toward that goal.
04/02/08, OCS Repairs Saturday and Sunday.
Now that we have all moved to Google Apps, it becomes possible to
extensively troubleshoot the OCS system without interrupting e-mail
service. We realize that everyone has valuable old mail on OCS, and we
need to work on the system so that this mail can be recovered and
migrated into Google. OCS will be undergoing a period of testing,
analysis and repair beginning at 8:00 PM Saturday, April 5. This period
will end at 10:00 AM Sunday April 6. During this period, OCS will not
be accessible at all to end-users. We're working toward a goal of
restoring OCS to the point where mail can be moved, and this repair
period will move us toward that goal.
03/26/08, OCS is Up (9:30 PM).
The OCS e-mail system is up again. Get in while the getting's good. Really, we regret the inconvenience the OCS downtime has caused. If you haven't yet felt drawn to Google Apps, now is as good a time as any to switch yourself to that entirely better system.
03/26/08, OCS is Down (8:15 AM).
The OCS e-mail system is down. We are aware of the problem and are working to restore
service as quickly as possible. If you have already switched to Google Apps,
your e-mail will not be affected.
03/25/08, OCS Service Restored (1:30 PM).
The OCS e-mail system is back in service. We continue to monitor the situation and will
react swiftly if further problems arise. If you have not already done so, this would be a great time to make the switch away from
OCS and onto Google Apps!
03/25/08, OCS is Down (12:50 PM).
The OCS e-mail system is down. We are aware of the problem and are working to restore
service as quickly as possible. If you have already switched to Google Apps,
your e-mail will not be affected.
03/19/08, Google Apps Updates Redirect
This Notices and Alerts column has been a busy place since March 3. Now that
we have begun to roll out Google Apps, we will return to posting only system-wide
maintenance and downtime notices here. Our Google Apps rollout pages are being updated constantly, and
contain an increasing amount of useful information as we begin using this exciting
new suite of tools. Please start checking that page for updates, at the following location:
www.macalester.edu/its/googleapps/.
03/17/08, Banner/1600grand Maintenance 03/19/08
Attention all Banner and 1600grand users. Both Banner and 1600grand
will be taken offline for preventive maintenance on Wednesday, March 19
at 5:00 PM. These applications will be unavailable for approximately
two (2) hours. If you have any questions about this scheduled
maintenance period, please call Tim Friemann at 696-6879 or send e-mail
to friemann@macalester.edu.
03/14/08, We're Moving to Google Apps! (Posted 5:30 PM)
We're bringing a great new e-mail system to Macalester! As of today,
March 14 2008, everyone in the Macalester community is welcome to sign
up for Google Apps for Education. Google Apps is a reliable,
feature-rich suite of communication and collaboration tools - beginning
with e-mail. We are tremendously excited about this opportunity and we
are eager to share it with you! More information, plus a link for signing up, may be found at www.macalester.edu/its/googleapps/
03/14/08, E-Mail Service (Updated 4:15 PM)
OCS e-mail service has been restored. There have been two brief outages in the last hour and a half, but our
vendor partner has looked at the problems and things seem to be working again.
03/14/08, E-Mail Service (Updated 2:50 PM)
OCS has gone down without warning. We are working with our vendors to restore service as quickly
as possible. We will post more information here as soon as we have it.
03/13/08, E-Mail Service: Google Apps Progress (Updated 5:00 PM)
As Spring Break approaches, we want to update you on our progress toward
rolling out Google Apps for Education. It's going very well. We are
working hard to make it possible for you to switch to Google Apps.
We will have
more information for you at this location tomorrow, Friday March 14.
03/12/08, E-Mail Service: What About IMAP? (Updated 2:30 PM)
Several people have asked "When is Thunderbird/IMAP service going to be
restored?" (IMAP is the protocol that permits OCS, our current e-mail
system, to work with the Thunderbird client.) It is true that the OCS Webmail
interface is clunky and awkward, particularly for those accustomed to
using Thunderbird. However, we regret that it is not feasible to turn
IMAP back on at this time. We have found that with IMAP off, our OCS
e-mail works, albeit at lower performance levels. With IMAP on, OCS
becomes highly unstable and is prone to repeated, lengthy crashes.
Faced with a choice between a clunky e-mail system that works OK versus
an elegant system that does not work at all, we have chosen the former.
03/11/08, E-Mail Service: Progress Toward Google Apps for Education (Updated 4:18 PM)
E-mail service through OCS has been restored, and is running as well as
it was before this afternoon's downtime. We continue to monitor OCS and
will do what is necessary to keep this service running, but we cannot
predict when it might go down again, however briefly. Please read on
for our plans about quickly moving to a better solution.
03/11/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 3:06 PM.
E-mail service through OCS Webmail has just gone down without warning. We are contacting our vendors and
will post further information here as soon as we have it.
03/11/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 8:30 AM.
E-mail service through Webmail is working. IMAP service, through Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. remains
turned off. We continue to accelerate our planning process to roll out Google Apps for Education. We are closely monitoring Webmail's
performance and will post any new information at this location. Regular updates will still be made, but at less frequent intervals
unless the situation changes.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update and Evening Plans, 5:00 PM.
E-mail service through Webmail is working, but is not performing at a
normal level. IMAP service, through Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. remains
turned off. This evening, Monday March 10, ITS staff and Oracle
database engineers will be making some further adjustments in hopes of
bringing e-mail performance back up to normal levels. You will
encounter slower e-mail performance between approximately 11:00 PM
tonight and 6:00 AM tomorrow, Tuesday March 11. If you can avoid using
e-mail at all during this period, please do so. Because making these
adjustments and monitoring progress will take time, we will not be
putting out any more scheduled updates until tomorrow. (We will
certainly post updates in the event of unplanned events.)
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: FAKE WARNING, 4:00 PM.
Many Macalester individuals have received a notice threatening closure
of e-mail accounts unless you respond with personal information within
two days. Because of recent e-mail problems, we worry that you may take
this message more seriously than you otherwise would. This warning is a
FAKE. It is a 'phishing' attempt, originating from a German spammer.
Do not reply to it and do not provide any of the sensitive information
it requests.
If you have doubts or concerns about any e-mail message and want
to get a second opinion, please call the ITS Help Desk at x.6525 immediately.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 3:00 PM.
E-mail service through Webmail has been restored.
Thunderbird (IMAP) remains off. We are closely monitoring the situation
and will post further updates in this location.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 1:35 PM.
E-mail service is down once more, apparently due to a problem in the
Oracle database. We do not have more information at this time but we
continue to work hard on repairing e-mail. Keep checking this location
for updates. As below, we will post a new notification
immediately when service is restored.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 1:25 PM.
E-mail service through Webmail has been restored.
Thunderbird (IMAP) remains off. Oracle's takedown and reboot procedure
has been completed. Keep checking here for updates.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 12:00 noon.
It is taking our Oracle database engineers much longer to accomplish the
takedown and reboot procedure than was originally estimated. Until this
process is complete, e-mail service through Webmail remains unavailable. We do
not know how long the downtime will last. Rest assured that we will
immediately post a notice in this location when the server is back up
and Webmail is accessible once more. Further notices will give more
information as we know it.
03/10/08, E-mail Service Restoration: Status Update, 11:10 AM.
Oracle database engineers have brought our e-mail system down as of
11:05. This unplanned action was necessary to resolve a problem which,
if left uncorrected, would have created more significant problems later
today. If you are currently running Webmail (accessible at webmail.macalester.edu), please
log out of it. Service should be restored at approximately 11:45 AM. We
will post more information as it becomes available, in this location.
03/10/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Monday Update, 8:15 AM.
Currently only Webmail is available. Access webmail here.
IMAP service (Thunderbird) remains disabled Monday morning. After the meeting this morning another update will be posted. Please use webmail, and continue to monitor this page for additional updates. Thank you for your continued patience.
03/09/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Sunday Update, 11:30 PM.
Currently only Webmail is available. Access webmail here.
The change to webmail-only has helped, in that webmail works better than it had been while running along with Thunderbird e-mail. However, the underlying problem is still there, causing the system to become overloaded. We will be meeting Monday morning to decide the best next step. Please use webmail, and continue to monitor this page for additional updates. Thank you for your continued patience.
03/09/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Sunday Update, 7:15 PM.
Currently only Webmail is available. Access webmail here.
Last night the e-mail system was restarted with only Webmail available. This was done as Thunderbird access was clearly working much worse (not because of Thunderbird). Our hope is that doing this will allow users improved access to e-mail while we work this out. Please use webmail, and continue to monitor this page for additional updates. Thank you for your continued patience.
03/08/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Saturday Update, 5:40 PM.
E-mail service will be down later than planned, until 8:00pm. Thank you for your continued patience.
03/08/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Saturday Update, 2:30 PM.
E-mail service will be intermittently down between 3:00pm and 6:00pm today, while additional attempts are made to restore system functionality. If you find the e-mail system down during that time, please try again after 6:00pm.
03/08/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Saturday Update, 1:30 PM.
E-mail service has been stable through the night and there are no new updates at this time. There are no more scheduled updates until tomorrow afternoon. 03/07/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Evening Update, 7:10 PM.
IMAP service (Thunderbird) was has been re-enabled as of 6 PM. There was no significant improvement in service with IMAP down so we are continuing to explore other options to increase performance. ITS staff will continue to work thru the weekend but has no plans to take e-mail down again. This will be the last update of the evening but we will post status reports midafternoon Saturday and Sunday or as new developments arise. 03/07/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 4:45 PM.
As reported in our last update, IMAP service (accessible with
Thunderbird) has been disabled as of 3:55 PM. IMAP was running poorly,
generating errors for end-users while running slowly on the back end. If
Webmail access performs better, IMAP will remain disabled into
the coming weekend. If there is little difference between e-mail
service with Webmail and with IMAP, then IMAP will be re-enabled at 6:00
PM today, Friday March 7. In either case, look for a further update
around 7:00 PM this evening. As a reminder, Webmail may be accessed at
webmail.macalester.edu and also ocs.macalester.edu.
03/07/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 3:45 PM.
E-mail service through Thunderbird is not functioning well. Users are
encountering a high number of errors and failures. The tool that runs
Thunderbird - IMAP - needs investigation and possible repair. For this
reason IMAP will be turned off at 3:55 PM today, Friday March 7.
IMAP/Thunderbird will stay off for at least the remainder of today, and
possibly through the coming weekend.
03/07/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 10:00 AM.
Some reports are coming in about difficulties users are encountering.
These include occasional problems logging into Thunderbird, changing
from one folder to another while using Thunderbird, and getting various
error notices when attempting to send, delete or forward messages.
Webmail (accessible at
webmail.macalester.edu and also ocs.macalester.edu) seems
to be working slightly more efficiently than Thunderbird, so if you see such errors, Webmail may offer an
alternative. We will continue monitoring the system closely and will
post updated information here. 03/07/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 8:30 AM.
E-mail service is up and working. Performance levels are incrementally returning to
normal. The backlog of messages that were held ("queued") during the
downtime have all been delivered. We are closely monitoring the system
and will continue to post updates at this location regularly,
particularly if we have new information. Please note that while
performance is still improving, you may still encounter some errors or
unexpected glitches. 03/06/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 10:15 PM.
The scheduled service on the e-mail system was completed at just before 10:00 PM. The system will be monitored during the night to see if the maintenace improves the state of the e-mail server. Our next regular update will be tomorrow
morning, Friday March 7, by 8:30 AM CST. 03/06/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 5:00 PM. As we continue restoring normal e-mail service, it will be necessary to take the system down for further repairs. This downtime will take place tonight, Thursday March 6, beginning at 8:30 PM CST. We expect to bring the system back up by midnight - 12:00 PM - at the latest, and possibly earlier. Because of this scheduled downtime, we will post an update when the server comes back up. Our next regular update will be tomorrow morning, Friday March 7, by 8:30 AM CST. 03/06/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 1:25 PM.
We have no new information to report at this time. E-mail service
continues to run slowly as the backlog of accumulated messages is
delivered to your mailboxes. Anecdotally, Webmail (accessible at
webmail.macalester.edu and also ocs.macalester.edu) seems
to be working slightly more efficiently than Thunderbird. Our staff are
monitoring the situation closely. Further updates will be posted in
this location. 03/06/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 11:05 AM.
E-mail service continues to run very slowly as the backlog of
accumulated messages is delivered to your mailboxes. Oracle staff have
recommended some changes that they believe would improve performance.
If we do not see an increase in speed shortly, we will consider
implementing these recommendations. Such an implementation would
require us to take e-mail down long enough to make the recommended
changes. Rest assured that if we need to go this route, we will
immediately communicate that with the campus community at this location. 03/06/08, E-mail Server Restoration: Status Update, 8:15 AM.
We are cautiously optimistic that the problems with our e-mail service
have been resolved. Oracle's database team has given us the green light
to bring e-mail back up; we are doing so incrementally and closely
monitoring the process.
03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Evening Update, 10:00 PM.
Oracle is still testing the E-Mail system so regrettably there is no new information tonight. This will be the last update this evening but we will start again first thing in the morning. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Status Update, 7:00 PM.
ITS and Oracle are performing backups on the E-Mail database before continuing further testing. We will report again at 10:00 PM or as new information is available. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Status Update, 5:00 PM.
We have received encouraging news from the Oracle team working on our
e-mail database problem. Later this evening we will implement and test
the actions they are recommending to us. We will post updates here at
7:00 and 10:00 PM CST. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Status Update, 4:00 PM.
Oracle has identified the file that was damaged during the power outage
Sunday evening 3/2, and Oracle technicians are now working to repair
that file. When they have finished their work, we will begin testing the
service to determine whether this repair has resolved the e-mail
problem. The process will take place over the next few hours. We will
continue to post new information here as soon as we have it. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Status Update, 1:30 PM.
E-mail service remains down, and Oracle and ITS staff continue working
together to restore it. As noted, we will continue to post regular
updates at this location, as well as any new information we have to
share with the community. Several people have asked questions about this
outage, and we want to answer those questions here.
03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: STATUS UPDATE (Updated 11:00 AM).
ITS and Oracle staff continue to work on restoring e-mail service. We regret there are no new updates at this time. We will continue to post updates at
this location regularly, and further at any time that we have more information to share with the community. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: STATUS UPDATE (Updated 10:00 AM).
ITS and Oracle are still working on e-mail. We regret there are no new updates at this time. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: STATUS UPDATE (Updated 8:45 AM).
Based on the latest information from Oracle, we don't expect e-mail service to be available until early this afternoon. We will continue to give updates as they occur. 03/05/08, E-mail Server Outage: Morning Update (Updated 8:00 AM).
OCS e-mail was brought down at 6AM this morning to make changes to the system recommended by Oracle's tests last night. We will bring the system back up shortly to test these changes. Again, please be advised that we do not have confidence that email is currently stable, and so you may experience problems if you choose to access OCS. We will post an update within that time frame. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage: Evening Update (Updated 10:00 PM).
OCS email will be up intermittantly this evening as ITS and Oracle monitor it with problem detection software. We hope to detect and resolve any remaining problems associated with the power failure Sunday evening. Please be advised that we do not have confidence that email is currently stable, and so you may experience problems if you choose to access OCS. The problems would likely be limited to slowness, and it is likely that we will have to shut OCS down at some point to resolve problems that we expect will be detected. This will be the last update for the evening but we will have more information first thing in the morning. Thank you for your patience as we work through this. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage: Current Status (Updated 7:10 PM).
ITS staff members are continuing to work with our e-mail vendors. There are no new updates at this time but we will continue to inform the campus community with status. If you would like us to
call you back when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at
x.6525 (if you call after 7:00 PM, please leave your name and extension). 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage: Evening Plans (Updated 4:45 PM).
ITS staff members will be on campus this evening, and through the night
if necessary, working with our vendors to restore e-mail (OCS). As of
5:00 PM, Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. remain
unavailable. Currently we are in constant communication with Oracle's
head of OCS for America. As a result of extended conversations with
her and with Oracle's lead database consultants, we are pursuing
a strategy that we hope will bear fruit within the next three hours.
03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 4:01 PM).
ITS staff members are working with our vendors to restore
e-mail (OCS) - currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
remain unavailable. We are working to bring the system back up as
soon as possible. We will continue to issue updates at this location
until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back
when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 3:00 PM).
ITS staff members are continuing to work with our vendors to restore e-mail
service (OCS). Currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook,
etc. remain unavailable. We aim to bring the system back up as soon
as possible. We will issue further updates at this location until the
problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back when service
is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 2:00 PM).
ITS staff members are still working with our vendors to restore e-mail
service (OCS) - currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook,
etc. remain unavailable. We aim to bring the system back up as quickly
as possible. We will issue further updates at this location until the
problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back when service
is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 1:00 PM).
ITS staff members are working with vendors to restore e-mail service
(OCS); currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
remain unavailable. We are continuing to work to bring the system back
up as quickly as possible. We will issue further updates at this
location until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call
you back when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at
x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 12:01 PM).
ITS staff members are working with our vendors to restore
e-mail service (OCS) - currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
remain unavailable. We are working to bring the system back up as
quickly as possible. We will continue to issue updates at this location
until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back
when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 11:00 AM).
ITS staff members continue collaborating with our vendors to restore
e-mail (OCS) - currently Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
remain unavailable. We are working to bring the system back up as
quickly as possible. We will keep issuing updates at this location
until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back
when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 10:05 AM).
ITS staff members continue working collaboratively with vendors to restore
e-mail (OCS) - however, Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc.
remain unavailable. We are working to bring the system back up as
quickly as possible. We will keep issuing updates at this location
until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back
when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x.6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 9:10 AM).
ITS staff continues to work with our vendor to repair e-mail (OCS) - however, both Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. remain unavailable. We are still working to bring the system back up as soon as possible. We will issue updates at this location until the problem is resolved. If you would like us to call you back when service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x6525. 03/04/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 7:30 AM). ITS staff worked through the night with our vendor to repair e-mail (OCS) - both we and the vendor are taking this outage very seriously. Both Webmail and e-mail with Thunderbird, Outlook, etc. remain unavailable. We are still working to bring the system back up as soon as possible. Keep checking back for updates or, if you would like a callback during business hours after service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x6525. 03/03/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 10:00 PM). ITS networking is still working with our vendor to repair E-Mail. You may have noticed you could access your e-mail but the database is still not stable and the system will continue to go up and down as needed to repair the problem. Keep checking back for updates or if you would like a callback during business hours after service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x6525. 03/03/08, E-mail Server Outage continues (Updated 7:30 PM). ITS networking continues to work with our vendor to repair E-Mail. If you would like a callback during business hours after service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x6525. A problem ocurred with our e-mail server as a result of last night's campus-wide power outage. The server was rebooted, but there are still significant database errors. As of 4:30 PM, our network staff is still working closely with the vendor to get e-mail back up and working. This Web note will be updated further when we have more information to share. If you would like a callback during business hours after service is restored, please contact the Help Desk at x6525. NOTICE for 1600grand and Banner users:
02/21/08, Incoming Mail Delivery Delay
Due to a hardware problem overnight, there is a delay in delivering
e-mail messages coming from off-campus. No messages have been lost, and
all delayed messages will be delivered over the next few hours. We are
working with the hardware vendor to prevent a recurrence of this problem.
01/29/08, File Server Reboot Tonight
It has become necessary to reboot the Academic and Admin file servers
tonight, Tuesday January 29, beginning at 10:00 PM. Both servers will
be down for approximately thirty minutes, during which we will increase
the amount of storage space on them available for our community. During
the downtime, all files stored on these servers (on G: and H: drives)
will not be accessible. E-mail, Web services, 1600grand, Banner and
Internet service will not be affected. 01/24/08, E-Mail Downtime: Resolved
E-mail service went down at approximately 4:00 AM today. Networking Services staff have restored service
as of 9:10 AM. Incoming and outgoing messages sent or received during the outage are NOT lost, but have been 'queued' and are now being delivered. 01/07/08, 1600grand Portal Problem: Resolved We had been experiencing technical difficulties with the 1600grand portal.
ITS staff has resolved
the issue, and the portal is working normally as of 2:40 PM. Please contact Tim Friemann (friemann@macalester.edu) at
(651) 696-6879 or Rabin Bajracharya (bajracharya@macalester.edu") at
(651) 696-6632 with any questions. 12/19/07, Network Maintenance Sunday 01/06/08 On Sunday January 6th 2008, from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM, we will be performing
some preventative maintenance on the Macalester network. Most services
will be offline for periods of time during the maintenance window,
including networked file access, e-mail, and all Macalester Web sites.
External Web browsing (Chat, IM, gaming) will not be affected. If you
have any questions or comments about the maintenance, please send an
e-mail to fines@macalester.edu. For full details and status updates that morning please check back on this page. 12/06/07 Novell Servers Rebooted 5:30 AM, Friday December 7 It will be necessary to reboot two of our Novell servers, beginning at 5:30 AM Friday December 7. It will take approximately
fifteen minutes for the servers to be brought back online. During that interval, no one will be able to log into e-mail or access Novell file
servers (e.g. the G:\ drive). In addition, Windows PC users will not be able to print to network printers. 11/11/07 10am, OCS needs disk replacement OCS will be down for about 1 1/2 hours starting at 10am to replace a disk. 10/11/07 The Password Change Page is back up. Sorry for the delay but the Password Change Page is back up and running. 10/11/07 The Password Change Page is unavailable. If you want to change your password please call the Help Desk at ext.6525. 9/28/2007 9/25/07 Spam surge causes e-mail delays. An unusually high amount of incoming spam today caused e-mail delivery
delays. Message delivery times returned to normal by the afternoon. View daily
e-mail stats here. 07/9/07 Self Service Password Page &New Password Format Announcement A recent news item: "At the time, Tufts officials saw no reason to warn
alumni, as the school found no evidence that any personal data had been
accessed. But then came news of the alumni computer breach at Boston
College, as well as thefts of personal information at California State 06/30/07 System Outage Due to Power Issues As of 9:15 all services are back up and running. We apologize for the inconvenience. Saturday morning a power breaker blew out in the server room causing several systems, including E-Mail, to go down. ITS Staff is working on the problem now and as of 8:40AM systems are still down but should be up shortly. 05/30/07 E-Mail Outage Update & Explanation E-mail service over the Memorial Day weekend was interrupted due to a
hardware failure within a physical server, not to problems with OCS
itself. Network staff have made changes to our infrastructure so as to
prevent a recurrence. 05/28/07, 9:30 am. Disk Maintenance on E-mail
server Four of the disks on the e-mail server are being replaced.
To do this, a large quantity of data (196GB) needs to be moved
on to new disks.While it is being moved, e-mail will be unavailable.
We thank you for your patience during this very inconvenient
outage. 05/25/07 E-mail Service Restored E-mail service was restored at about 11:00 PM on Friday night.
There will be a planned outage on Sunday morning from 6:00 AM
to 9:00 AM in order to make a permanent fix for the problem
that caused this extended downtime.We thank you for your patience
during this very inconvenient outage. 05/25/07 E-mail Outage 10:00
PM update A firmware conflict caused our e-mail server to crash Friday
morning at 9:15 AM. E-mail service has been down since that
time. While our support vendor has recovered several files necessary
to bring the server back up, there was significant data corruption
caused by the initial crash. Fixing these corrupt files requires
much work. This work has been in progress since the files were
recovered Friday afternoon and is still continuing. Unfortunately,
it has been difficult to estimate the amount of time this outage
would take to resolve, because the extent of the damage could
only be discovered as the files were fixed. We now expect the
outage to continue into the morning hours on Saturday. We will
update this page as more information is available and as soon
as e-mail service is restored. We regret the great inconvenience
this service interruption has caused. We are working with our
vendor to restore e-mail as soon as possible. 05/01/07, Student Voicemail Boxes On Monday April 16th at about 12:00pm, our Internet connection
speed was increased from 25 Mbps to 35 Mbps, a 40% increase.
We are hoping this bandwidth increase will get everyone at Macalester
through the end of the semester! Attention all 1600grand and Banner users: Both 1600grand and Banner will be taken offline this evening,
Monday April 16 2007, at 8:00 PM for approximately one hour
in order to perform preventative maintenance. 1600grand and
Banner are scheduled to be available again at 9:00 PM this evening. Please contact Tim Friemann (x.6879 or friemann@macalester.edu)
if you have any questions pertaining to this notice. Thank you. |
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Macalester College · 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105 USA · 651-696-6000 |