September 2008 Archives

What:  Important IT maintenance.  Everyone using a university-owned computer is asked to make sure their data is saved and log off their machine(s) before 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3.

When: From 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3 until noon on Saturday, Oct. 4

Why:    See explanation below.

Definition of terms:

• Roaming profile - A roaming profile is the stored data that allows customers to login to almost any computer on campus and still have access to My Documents folders, bookmarks and saved settings for computer software.

• Local profile - A local profile is the settings that are only stored on a single computer and do not follow you if you move to a computer elsewhere on campus.

What's involved in this update?
The current storage being used for roaming profiles is unable to meet the growing demand by our customers.  During this update, these roaming profiles will be moved to an improved storage technology with greater storage capacity.

How will this benefit me?
Many customers have experienced abnormally long login times when trying to login to computer labs, classroom computers and other machines on campus that are set up to use roaming profiles. Moving roaming profiles to a larger, more stable storage area will help alleviate this problem.

Help!  I'm running an important academic/administrative project on my computer and logging off would interrupt my work.
If you need to be logged into a campus computer during this outage, please contact the IT Help Desk at 573-341- HELP (4357) for further assistance.

To sum it all up
We've scheduled an outage to prevent potentially serious problems and help improve performance. Everyone using computers on campus is asked to log out during this outage.  We apologize for the inconvenience. We appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Over the next several weeks, each user will experience a 10 to 15-minute period in which their home directory (mapped network drives) will be unavailable.

This work will begin in the evenings, be temporarily suspended during work and class hours and resume again each evening (and on weekends)until all home directories have been updated.
These updates will be made one user at a time, so while the work may continue for several days, each user will only experience the 10 to 15-minute outage once. This maintenance will result in more reliable network storage for customer accounts.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact the It Help Desk at 573-341-HELP (4357).

On the evening of September 26, courses in Blackboard from Summer Semester 2008 will become unavailable to students. If they choose, instructors will be able to make courses available again on a course-by-course basis by using the course control panel.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact the IT Help Desk at 573-341-HELP.

EdTech and CERTI are hosting our first Blackboard Seminar Series for the semester on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 in the Carver / Turner Room of the Havener Center from noon to 1 p.m.

We will be discussing the new Grade Center features of Blackboard along with any other issues that anyone wants to bring up regarding Blackboard 8.

There have been quite a few changes in Blackboard, with the introduction of a host of new features (and, unfortunately, a host of new problems).

If you are unable to attend this one, we will be hosting another Blackboard Seminar Series in October. Stay tuned to IT Press, EdTech Connect, and the eConnection for more information!

The following service will be affected during tonight’s weekly IT maintenance window starting at 10 p.m. and lasting until 2 a.m.:

• DFS – All DFS services, including personal network file storage (S: drive), department volumes (Y: drive), non-Documentum web pages, research volumes and roaming profiles will be unavailable for up to two hours during this time.

If you have any questions about this issue, please contact the IT Help Desk at 341-HELP (4357).