Recently in Updates Category

Beginning about 5:30 PM this evening the Seton Hall University data center on the South Orange campus experienced a problem with the storage area network (SAN). Multiple systems were affected. Most critically, Piratenet, the SHU community portal, was down, so users were unable to access Webmail, Blackboard, or Banner Self Service. All services were restored by 8:00 PM.

Stephen Landry, CIO

Seton Hall University
South Orange, NJ 07079
Tel.: 973-761-7386
Email: stephen.landry@shu.edu
Web: pirate.shu.edu/~landryst/

For the latest news from SHU IT, see the IT News and Announcements blog at: http://tltc.shu.edu/blogs/projects/DoIT/
For the latest news on technology in teaching and learning, see the ePirate blog at: http://tltc.shu.edu/blogs/projects/epirate/

For the latest information and advice on using SHU's IT systems and services, see the IT Tech Tips blog at: http://blogs.shu.edu/projects/tech_tips/

PC Support Services and the Computer Training Center are working together to bring the University community the new "Tech Tips" blog. This blog discusses some of the most frequently asked questions to the Technology Help Desk, as well as more general advise on how to make the most of the technologies available at Seton Hall University.

Check out the Tech Tips blog at:
blogs.shu.edu/projects/tech_tips/

In Monsignor Sheeran's charge to the University Sustainability committee this past year, he asked the University community to determine ways to become better stewards of the Earth and the resources at our disposal. As a response to this charge the Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable created a committee on digital sustainability, charged with determining how technology can be used to conserve energy and limit waste. To date printing has been free and unlimited to students and we have printed 3 million pages in the last academic year alone. The current printing policy promotes excessive consumption of resources and a mind-set incompatible with the University's goals of conservation and sustainability.

The Digital Sustainability committee, chaired by Richard Stern and Michael Taylor, faculty in the University Library and in the deaprtment of Political Science, with the support of the Faculty Senate IT Committee, has recommended that the University alter its printing policy to reduce unnecessary printing by limiting the amount of free printing available in the computer labs and the University Library and by encouraging the use of digital alternatives where appropriate.

In accordance with this recommendation, beginning August 31, 2009 full-time students on the South Orange campus will be allotted 400 pages and part-time students will be allotted 200 pages, per semester, at no charge. Printing above this amount will result in a charge of $0.05/page that will be deducted from the student?s Pirates Gold account.

For frequently asked questions about printing on campus please click here.

To the University Community:

University IT Services (UITS) understands the importance of continued access to the University's IT systems and services. To minimize the impact of upgrades and repairs, UITS always attempts to schedule work affecting systems and services during off hours. To help the community plan for upgrades and outages, UITS has established regular maintenance periods. Weekly maintenance occurs every Sunday morning from 12:01 AM to 7:00 AM. For larger projects, UITS estblishes two annual extended maintenance periods that take place over the Christmas break and between the end of the second summer session and the start of Law School orientation.

This summer's IT maintenance window will begin Friday, August 7, at 5:00 PM EDT and will end on Monday, August 17, at 7:00 AM EDT.

Most IT systems and services will be available most of the time during that period, and UITS will always attempt to alert the University community whenever a system is expected to be down during this period. During this time, however, some systems may be brought down for extended periods and with short notice in order to facilitate major upgrades to UITS networks, systems, and services. Please plan your work accordingly.

Stephen G. Landry, Ph.D., CIO

Blackboard has informed the University that they need to perform an emergency repair in their data center early tomorrow morning (Wed., May 6) between 3:00 AM and 5:00 AM. Blackboard will not be available during this time.

This is a reminder to the University community that next week the email accounts for all adjunct faculty will be migrated from Lotus Notes to MS Exchange. The migration will begin Monday morning, May 11th. Adjunct faculty have received detailed information in an email regarding the migration process, including instructions on how to access their new MS Exchange email accounts.

A regional network problem in the area affected access to Blackboard and other systems earlier this morning. All services have been restored.

Steve Landry, CIO

This afternoon at approximately 1:30 PM a thunderstorm with multiple lightning strikes to campus buildings damaged some network and telephone equipment in President's Hall and Bayley Hall, creating brief telephone and network outages for parts of the campus. Most camus telephone and network services were restored by 3:30 PM. A few network switches servicing portions of President's Hall and Bayley Hall had to be repaired or replaced. Full service to these areas was restored around 5:00 PM this afternoon. Anyone experiencing continued access problems is advised to reboot thier computer and to call the Technology Help Desk at 973-275-2222 if this does not clear the problem.

University IT Services

This weekend University IT Services upgraded the DNS and DHCP servers on the campus network. These are critical services that enable your computer to access the Internet. Following this upgrade, the University now has redundant DNS and DHCP servers in different locations around campus, ensuring that members of the University community will have uninterrupted access to the Internet in the event one server or network link fails.

If you experience problems connecting to the Internet or to campus servers this morning, please reboot your computer, as you may have obsolete information about the campus Internet connection in your computer's memory.

Steve Landry, CIO

As previously reported, some Lotus Notes users receive attachments from MS Live that are unreadable. Microsoft has resolved this issue. This was traced to the way MS Live encoded MIME extensions (the character sets used in email attachments), and this was adjusted for all SHU MS Live accounts.

Please report any problems related to the new MS Active Directory login process, the new PirateNet portal, or the new MS Live student email system to the Technology Help Desk.

Stephen Landry, CIO