Aspen3 E-mail Server Unavailable
Aspen3 is currently unavailable for Faculty/Staff use. Users should connect to their alternate server of Oak3. For assistance, please contact the Helpdesk at 828-2227.
Aspen3 is currently unavailable for Faculty/Staff use. Users should connect to their alternate server of Oak3. For assistance, please contact the Helpdesk at 828-2227.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the Sametime instant messaging server - Spruce - on Saturday, May 3, 2008, from 8 a.m. - 10 a.m. During this time instant messaging will be unavailable.
E-mail Services will be performing special maintenance to Faculty Staff e-mail servers Oak, Oak2, Oak3, and Oak4 between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Saturday, April 26, 2008. During this maintenance window, users may access their mail via VCU Mail Anywhere automatically, via their alternate Aspen server via IMAP clients, or by switching to their alternate Aspen server via the Notes client.
Maintenance has been completed on VRAM1C-6C and VRAM7-12 and these servers are now available to users.
The ePhones e911 system is being upgraded beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 25. e911 calls will continue to work during the upgrade, however, ePhones IP stations should not be moved between 6 p.m. on Friday and 7 a.m. on Monday, April 28, as the e911 database will reference the old location during the upgrade process. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk should you have any questions or need assistance.
04/24/2008 - Server maintenance has been completed
UCC will be performing some critical maintenance on the LANDesk VCUnet core server on Thursday, April 24th starting at 6:30 AM. All LANDesk services should be restored on this server by 7:30 AM.
E-mail Services is working to bring VRAM10C back on-line. Students should connect to their alternate server, VRAMIMAP10.VCU.EDU via imap or automatically via the web.
The myVCU portal has experienced a failure of the main database server and most features of the portal are currently unavailable. A temporary portal is in place at https://my.vcu.edu with links to the major applications. You will need to sign into each application separately, using your eId and password.
Due to the seriousness of the problem, we expect that it may take up to 24 hours to fully restore service.
Thanks,
The myVCU Portal Team
Some members of the VCU community may have received an email with the subject line of "Tax Refund". This is not a legitimate email from the IRS. Form the IRS website:
"The IRS does not initiate taxpayer communications through e-mail. In addition, the IRS does not request detailed personal information through e-mail or ask taxpayers for the PIN numbers, passwords or similar secret access information for their credit card, bank or other financial accounts."
If you did receive this email, delete it immediately and do not open or view any attachments. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk with any questions or concerns about phishing scams such as this one. Thank you.
Special maintenance to upgrade VRAM 1-6 to Solaris 10 in preparation for the upgrade to Domino 8 has been completed. These servers are now available for access.
Vram5 is now available. Thank you for your patience.
The schedule for this month's server maintenance is April 10 and April 15. All services should be restored by 7am.
For your planning purposes, we would like to alert you that on Sunday, April 13, 2008, from 7:30 a.m. to approximately 8:00 a.m., the UCC will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow servers. ImageNow will not be available during this scheduled maintenance window.
04/08/2008 5:10pm - System maintenance is complete.
We will be performing LANDesk System Maintenance Tuesday, April 8, 2008 from 4pm until 5pm. We will be applying a fix to the servers to improve system performance. Inventory and Security scans and Software deployments will be interrupted during this time.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, April 5, between 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. This is an extended maintenance period as part of the preparation to upgrade to Domino 8. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
Student e-mail server VRAM5 is now available. All pending mail has been delivered.
The construction crew working on the new School of Dentistry addition have cut the network cable to Lyons Dental Building. Network Services is working to implement a solution but this may take days to finalize. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk with any questions or concerns at 828-2227. Thank you.
Blackboard Maintenance was completed on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 10:15pm. If you experience any problems please report them to blackboard@vcu.edu.
Thank you,
Blackboard Team
blackboard@vcu.edu
A Blackboard downtime will be observed from 4PM to Midnight, March 28, 2008.
Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.
NOTE: Blackboard maintenance dates for MAY will be modified
The downtime schedule for the month of May will NOT be the second and fourth Friday due to finals and the end of the spring semester for the majority of VCU.
Start Date/Time:
Friday, May 16 at 4:00 PM.
End Date/Time:
Saturday, May 17 – we will have an estimate of the end time by the end of April.
Regards,
Blackboard Team
For further assistance contact:
Technology Services Help Desk Contact Information
Phone: 828-2227
Email: blackboard@vcu.edu
Help ticket: http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/
Blackboard FAQ: http://faq.vcu.edu/ts/
Bb Training/Instructional Assistance
http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp (enter Keyword: Blackboard)
Center for Teaching Excellence - http://www.vcu.edu/cte/
Access to the LANDesk servers and database may be temporarily interrupted Friday, March 28 from 5AM to 6AM while Networking Service's hardware at UCC is being upgraded.
All systems should be back online by 6AM.
There will be database maintenance performed on Wednesday, March 26 between 6am and 7am. Access to LANDesk may be interrupted during this time.
All systems should be back online by 7am.
There will be maintenance performed on some of the LANDesk servers on Tuesday, March 25 between 8am and 9am.
Service should be restored by 9:00 AM at the latest.
There will be maintenance performed on some of the LANDesk servers on Wednesday, March 19 between 8am and 9am.
Service should be restored by 9:00 AM at the latest.
Network Services is reporting an issue with a router on the VCU network. Two cards in this router need to be swapped out to ensure network operation. This has been scheduled for 5 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18, and should be completed by 6 a.m. Should these router cards fail before the scheduled work in the morning the University will lose internet access as well as access to internal systems such as Blackboard, VCU MailAnywhere, and the myVCU portal. If a failure does take place the cards will be replaced immediately. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 with any questions or concerns.
Blackboard Maintenance was completed on Saturday, March 15, 2008 at 9:45am. The Blackboard application was not changed and the user interface was not changed. The back-end database was updated and patched. If you experience any problems please report them to blackboard@vcu.edu.
Thank you,
Blackboard Team
blackboard@vcu.edu
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, March 15, between 6:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server until 9 a.m. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client. Access to the archive server (Cypress), Sametime instant messaging server (Spruce), and group account servers (Sycamore-Mimosa) will be unavailable from 8 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Bb problem resolved - March 11 - 10:25am
Due to an unexpected problem, the Bb system was taken down on Tuesday, March 11 at 10:00am it was back up at 10:25am.
Sorry for the inconvenience,
The Blackboard Team
blackboard@vcu.edu
Due to an unexpected problem with the Blackboard system it needs to be taken down. We will post another message when we have an estimate of how long the fix will take.
Sorry for the inconvenience,
The Blackboard Team
blackboard@vcu.edu
The Remedy Help Desk Ticketing System is operational again. Note, the Help Desk Online Support link in the myVCU portal is not operational at this time. The Remedy System Administrator is troubleshooting this issue. If you have any problems, please let the Help Desk know by calling 828-2227 or email us. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you.
The portal will be down for maintenance from 4pm - 8pm on Friday March 14, 2008. During this time, links will be provided to the main VCU applications, but customized content (favorites, etc.) will not be available.
Topics covered in this blog entry:
• Blackboard Downtime Reminder – Friday, March 14, 4pm to noon on Saturday, March 15
• NOTE: Blackboard maintenance dates for MAY will be modified
Blackboard Downtime Reminder – Friday, March 14, 4pm to noon on Saturday, March 15
Blackboard will be down for maintenance this Friday evening and Saturday morning:
Start Date/Time:
Friday, March 14 at 4:00 PM.
End Date/Time:
Saturday, March 15 at 12:00 PM.
Scheduled maintenance is observed on the 2nd and 4th Friday of the month.
Note the exception in May.
NOTE: Blackboard maintenance dates for MAY will be modified
The downtime schedule for the month of May will NOT be the second and fourth Friday due to finals and the end of the spring semester for the majority of VCU.
Start Date/Time:
Friday, May 16 at 4:00 PM.
End Date/Time:
Saturday, May 17 – we will have an estimate of the end time by the end of April.
During the May 16 downtime we will upgrade the system from the current version of 7.1 to 7.3. This upgrade WILL NOT take a week, like last year!
The latest information we have from the Registrar’s office is the ‘tentative’ date grades will be due in Banner is May 13, 2008.
Regards,
Blackboard Team
For further assistance contact:
Technology Services Help Desk Contact Information
Phone: 828-2227
Email: blackboard@vcu.edu
Help ticket: http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/
Blackboard FAQ: http://faq.vcu.edu/ts/
Bb Training/Instructional Assistance
http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/training/it/search.asp (enter Keyword: Blackboard)
Center for Teaching Excellence - http://www.vcu.edu/cte/
On Sunday, March 9, 2008, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., we will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow system. ImageNow will not be available during this maintenance window.
The Sametime Instant Messaging server is now available.
UPDATE (3/3/08): A second phishing scam aimed at the VCU community with the subject of "UPGRADE YOUR VCU MAIL ACCOUNT NOW" has appeared. As with the phishing scam email from late last week (See Below), this email is not an official VCU message and should be deleted immediately. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 with any questions or if you have responded to this email with personal information for assistance.
Many members of the VCU community have received a phishing scam email with the subject line of "Verify And Update Your Vcu Email". Please do not respond to this email and delete it immediately from your account. This is not an official email from VCU. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 with any questions or if you have responded to this email with personal information for assistance. Thank you.
For your planning purposes, we would like to alert you that on Sunday, March 2, 2008, from 10:00 a.m. to approximately 1:00 p.m., we will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow system.
ImageNow will not be available during this maintenance window.
An upgrade to the VCU Technology Services Help Desk Ticket system will take place beginning Friday, March 7th at 6:30 am and should be completed by early Monday morning, March 10th. While the server is being upgraded, the ticket system will not be available for use. If you have a technology problem to report during that time, please email help@vcu.edu or call the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, March 1, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
For your planning purposes, we would like to alert you that on Wednesday, February 20, 2008, we will need to stop ImageNow services from 4:00 p.m. until Midnight. ImageNow will be unavailable during this window.
Inbound and outbound e-mails are that were queueing at the university's Ironport appliances are now arriving and going outbound as expected. Ironport acts as the spam/virus filter system for the university's e-mail traffic. VCU Computer Center staff continue to investigate the issue that caused e-mail delays earlier today.
Blackboard Downtime Maintenance - Friday, February 22, 2008 – 4pm to midnight. Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.
Regards,
The Blackboard Team
For further assistance contact:
Technology Services Help Desk Contact Information
Phone: 828-2227
Email: blackboard@vcu.edu
Help ticket: http://www.ts.vcu.edu/helpdesk/
Blackboard FAQ: http://faq.vcu.edu/ts/
E-mail Services is aware of and working on an issue related to replies and attachments using a Firefox web browser. As an alternative, please use Internet Explorer to access VCU Mail Anywhere until this issue is resolved.
The University Computer Center and Imagenow Support are working to bring the production Imagenow server back online. As a result, we are operating under our failover ImageNow system. If any issues should arise, please contact Eric Doersch at 828-0377.
Banner Forms (INB) as well as the employee and student Self-Service modules will not be available from midnight Friday, February 15 until Sunday, February 17. The main Banner database will be upgraded to a new version of Oracle during this time. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 or help@vcu.edu with any questions. Thank you.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, February 16, between 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
Earlier issues with nationwide Blackberry service have been resolved. Pending mail should have arrived on Blackberries. Mail sent from Blackberries that failed can be resent at this time.
There is an issue with the nationwide Blackberry network at the present time. Some users may experience delays in mail delivery. Any mail sent to your Notes account will be queued on the VCU Blackberry Enterprise Server for delivery to your Blackberry handheld as soon as the Blackberry network is available.
From RIM Blackberry Support:
Symptoms you MAY experience: Blackberry users may be unable to send/receive messages or may have difficulty connecting to the network.
Estimated time of repair: Unknown
RIM Technicians are working towards resolution as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause. Thank you for your patience as we work towards resolving this issue.
The Blackboard maintenance was completed Saturday, Feb 9, at 8 am. This maintenance did not change any features in Blackboard. The database was moved to a newer disk storage device. If you see any problems please report them to blackboard@vcu.edu or call the Help Desk at 828-2227.
Regards,
The Blackboard Team
The Blackboard maintenance has not completed. This message will be updated at approximately 8am.
Sorry for any inconvenience,
The Blackboard Team
The portal downtime scheduled for this Friday, February 8 has been postponed. It will be rescheduled at a future time.
Thanks,
myVCU Portal Team
The portal will be down for maintenance from 4pm to 6pm on Friday February 8. During this time, a page will be available at http://my.vcu.edu with links to the main applications, but you will need to login to each application manually using your eID and password.
For your planning purposes, we would like to alert you that on Sunday, February 17, 2008, from 8:00 a.m. to approximately Noon, we will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow system. ImageNow will not be available during this maintenance window.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, February 2, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
VCU email customers may see an email from the "EDU ACCOUNT TEAM" in their email inbox this morning. The Subject line is "VERIFY YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW". This is a phishing attempt to harvest your email username and password. In many cases this is a person's eID information which can give someone access to various systems in your name with access to your data. DO NOT respond to this email. Please delete it immediately. Technology Services staff is working to resolve this issue on a system level but the easiest way to deal with this email is to just delete it from you inbox. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk with any questions at 828-2227.
Research in Motion (RIM) - the manager of the global Blackberry wireless networks - will be performing disaster recovery testing Saturday, January 26, 2008, between 2 AM and 6 AM. RIM expects Blackberry service will be minimally impacted by this test, but e-mail delivery during this time may be delayed.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, January 26, between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
Network Services will be performing network upgrades this Sunday & Monday, Jan. 20 & 21, on the Monroe Park campus. This may cause a momentary lost of network connectivity and it is possible that computers will not connect to the network and will need to be rebooted. An extended outage is not expected during these upgrades. This should not affect VoIP phones. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 with any questions.
UPDATE2 (1/18/08-10 a.m.): Network Services stabilized the Theater Row connection about 7 p.m. last night but the connection became unstable again this morning. Staff is continuing to work to resolve the situation. As a result, there will be network disruptions between 12:00 noon and 1:00 p.m. today as work on the laser devices that provide network connectivity for Theater Row are re-aligned again.
UPDATE: There will be network disruptions to Basement and floors 1 through 4 of Theater Row Building while the laser network connections are realigned. It is hoped that this will solve the problem.
The departments located in Theater Row have been experiencing network connectivity issues since earlier this morning. Network Services is aware of the problem and is investigating the problem. This may be a weather related issue but we will not know for sure until it is safe to put staff on the roof of the facility. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk with any questions at 828-2227.
E-mail Services is working to bring Oak2 back on-line. Users may connect to their alternate server, Aspen2, via the Notes client or their IMAP client. For further assistance, please contact the Technology Services Helpdesk at 828-2227.
VCU email customers may see an email from the "VCUTEAM" in their email inbox this morning. The Subject line is "VERIFY YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT NOW". This is a phishing attempt to harvest your email username and password. In many cases this is a person's eID information which can give someone access to various systems in your name with access to your data. DO NOT respond to this email. Please delete it immediately. Technology Sewrvices staff is working to resolve this issue on a system level but the easiest way to deal with this email is to just delete it from you inbox. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk with any questions at 828-2227.
The Blackboard system is back up at running as of 4:20 PM.
For your planning purposes, we would like to alert you that on Sunday, January 13, 2008, from 7:30 a.m. to approximately 8:00 a.m., the UCC will be performing maintenance on the ImageNow server. ImageNow will not be available during this scheduled maintenance window.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, January 12, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
A Blackboard downtime will be observed from 4PM to Midnight, January 11, 2008.
Blackboard Maintenance is the second and fourth Friday of the month.
E-mail Services is working to resolve an IMAP issue on Aspen3. Users may connect via VCU Mail Anywhere or on their alternate server, Oak3.
Scheduled maintenance will be performed on the E-mail system Saturday, January 5, between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. During this maintenance window, access to e-mail may be unavailable on your primary server. Access to your e-mail via your alternate server should be available automatically when accessing through VCU Mail Anywhere, or via your alternate server using an IMAP connection or the Notes client.
The Banner system will not be available this Saturday, Jan. 5th, from noon until 8 p.m. due to system upgrades. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at 828-2227 with any questions. Thank you.
The Blackboard Maintenance Downtime started at midnight and the system was back up by 03:20pm on Wednesday, 12/26/07.
The Blackboard Team
The Technology Services Help Desk will be available during the Winter Break. The hours of availability are as follows:
Wed 12/19 7:30-6:30
Thurs 12/20 7:30-6:30
Fri 12/21 CLOSED
Sat 12/22 CLOSED
Sun 12/23 CLOSED
Mon 12/24 CLOSED
Tue 12/25 CLOSED
Wed 12/26 8:30-5:30
Thurs 12/27 8:30-5:30
Fri 12/28 8:30-5:30
Sat 12/29 10-2
Sun 12/30 1-4
Mon 12/31 8:30-5:30
Tues 1/1 CLOSED
Happy Holidays!
On December 31, 2007, the VCU Symantec update server will be shut down. This means that anyone still running the Symantec anti-virus application that was previously provided by VCU will no long receive virus definition updates. VCU Technology Services now provides the Sophos anti-virus software that is available from the software downloads page. The Sophos product also provides anti-spyware protection as well. Please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at (804) 828-2227 with any questions.
Network Services will be taking advantage of the Winter Break to perform various updates and other work on the VCU network. This work will help provide additional security and reliability for VCU resources. If you experience any problems with the network over the break please contact the Technology Services Help Desk at (804) 828-2227. Thanks and Happy Holidays!
The Blackboard system will NOT be available all day (12:01am to 11:59pm) on Wednesday, December 26 2007 for hardware maintenance. The software is not changing.
Access to e-mail via IMAP is currently unavailable on Aspen3. Aspen3 users can connect to their alternate server, Oak3, or via the Notes client or VCU Mail Anywhere. Please call the Technology Services Helpdesk for further assistance at 828-2227.
Access to all e-mail servers should now be available. If you experience difficulty accessing e-mail, please call the Technology Services Helpdesk at 828-2227.
E-mail Services is working to bring Aspen and Oak Faculty Staff e-mail servers back on line. A status will be posted here when the servers are available.
There have been reports of problems connecting to the VCU network from some areas of the Monroe Park campus. This outage seems to be affecting voice over