Hotmail problem fixed 08/31 09:00 a.m.

Problem with MSN Hotmail rejecting our e-mails is fixed.

ITS

Hotmail rejecting our e-mails 08/31 7:30 a.m.

Our test of e-mail system shows that MSN Hotmail is rejecting to receive our e-mails for poor reputation. We are not aware of any other ISPs rejecting our e-mails, at this time. ITS is going to work on this problem to enable free flow of our messages to Microsoft owned domains.

We sorry for possible inconvenience.

ITS

Comcast Unblocked

Comcast should now be unblocked and messages should be able to go through.

Comcast and Hotmail

Yet again, we are blacklisted on these two services and possibly more as a result of people giving out their passwords.  We are working to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.

Blackboard in service 08/29 08:00 a.m.

Upgrade, important for stability and reliability of the system, is performed on Blackboard. Items, that were failing before, forcing us to install this upgrade, are working right, now. Thank you for your patience; this version of Blackboard is as new for us as it is for you, but we are confident that the end result will be well worth of all hard work invested.

Thank you,

ITS

Blackboard to be upgraded 08/29 6:30 a.m. - 2 hours outage

Blackboard Technical Support has supplied us with a new patch for our database that suppose to solve major problems reported. We now how inconvenient is it for you when we have to take system down for maintenance and we are trying to time this in the way that has the least possible impact. So, upgrade of the Blackboard is scheduled for Sunday, 08/29, 6:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m. We expect to get more reliable service after this upgrade. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

ITS

Blackboard in service 08/27 09:20 p.m.

For all Blackboard users, Blackboard is back in service. Unfortunately, the solution, suggested by Blackboard Tech Support didn't quite work out - we still wait for the one that will fix the problems which we are having right now. We sorry for leaving you out of service while you expect it to be there for you at any time, but we don't have a choice. We hope that we will have more successful run next time.

Thanks for bearing with us.

ITS

Blackboard upgrade scheduled for 08/27 8:00 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Sorry for the short notice, but we just received necessary software that should fix some of reported problems in Blackboard from Blackboard Tech Support. To make it most comfortable for our users, we decided to apply this upgrade today, Friday, Aug. 27 at 8:00 p.m. Please make sure that you close your work and log out Blackboard before 8:00 p.m. to prevent possible loss of data. Time needed for this upgrade is approximately 2 hours. Please check this blog for an update.

Thanks for your patience,

ITS

Blackboard outage - service restart cancelled 08/26 5:30 p.m.

Blackboard service had an outage 08/26 at 4:20 p.m. This unplanned event was used to perform Blackboard System configuration adjustment scheduled for 08/27 8:00 a.m. This scheduled system restart is, therefore, canceled.
At this time, we have report on number of problems with the new Blackboard and ITS together with the Blackboard Support team is working diligently on sorting out these issues.

Thank you for your understanding,

ITS

Blackboard restart required - 08/27 08:00 a.m.

Configuration of our new Blackboard system requires adjustment, which is applied by Blackboard application restart. This action is planned for Friday, 08/27, starting 8:00 a.m. Expected time needed to restart the system is up to 15 minutes. Users are advised to close their work and log out before that time, to avoid possible loss of data.
We apologize for this inconvenience.

ITS

Blackboard system is operational 08/24 11:30 a.m.

Good news for Blackboard users: Blackboard system is available and online. Please remember to use your TitanConnet user ID and password to log in. Change your Blackboard password to match your log in password.
If you see exact same graphical solution when you connect to knowledge.udmercy.edu as before, reload the page or, better yet, flush your browser cache.

Enjoy your new blackboard.

ITS

Blackboard - School year rotation 08/24 8:00 a.m.

As a part of preparation for the new school year and moving to the new HW/SW platform, Knowledge2 is taken offline. Bit later, main Blackboard system will be taken offline as well - users are advised to close and log off at this time to avoid possible loss of work.

Important Notice: When the new Blackboard system become available, users have to use TitanConnect login credentials (user ID and password). Once you log in, you are able to synchronize your Blackboard password with your TitanConnect password; please do so. While Blackboard is checking your credentials primarily against TC database, in certain circumstances (error in TC system) you still will be able to log in to Blackboard - in this exceptional situation Blackboard will allow log in using Blackboard own database - if your local Blackboard password is synchronized with your TC password.

We wish you smooth ride with the new Blackboard system and success in your work.

ITS

Hotmail bounce UDM e-mails 08/23 7:30 a.m.

Due to (yet again) hijacking user account credentials, our e-mail system was compromised and served as a vehicle for spam mail. That resulted in blacklisting of our outgoing server and MSN Hotmail domain (and most likely others) is rejecting our messages.

ITS is working on restoring normal e-mail services.

Again, do not reveal your user id and password to any inquiry you get in your e-mail. Don't ever send your credential using e-mail. Beside causing lot of grief for other members of our community you expose yourself to identity theft.

ITS

Knowledge2 Blackboard taken off-line 08/20 2:00 p.m.

We sorry, but we have discovered serious problem with new installation of Knowledge2. We are working hard to solve this problem, but we had to take Knowledge2 offline. Estimated time, before you will be able to use Knowledge2 again, is 2 hours. Check this blog to assure availability.

ITS

Knowledge2 Blackboard in service 08/20 9:40 a.m.

Users of Knowledge2 Blackboard system are welcome to start using its services.

We wish you pleasant ride with this new system.

ITS.

Knowledge2 Blackboard maintenance 08/20 8:00 a.m - 12:00 p.m.

As a part of switching over to Blackboard Enterprise version, Knowledge2 Blackboard system will be taken offline 08/20 at 8:00 a.m. Knowledge2 is moving to completely new hardware and software platform that will enable new and exciting features and content for Blackboard users. New platform is expected to improve overall performance and response time of Blackboard system, as well.

Estimated time, needed to transfer existing Knowledge2, is 4 hours.

Users are advised to finish their session and log out of Knowledge2 before 8 a.m. to avoid possible loss of work.

After this switch is done, new system will use authentication from Titan Connect and users will have to use their Titan Connect credentials for Blackboard Knowledge2, only. If existing password for your Knowledge2 account is different from your TC password, you will not be able to log in using your old Knowledge2 password.

We apologize for possible inconvenience during this outage, and we hope that our future experience with Blackboard will justify investment into this new system.

ITS

Nexus Application Server Online

All services have been restored.

Nexus Application Server Offline

The nexus application server is currently offline due to a drive failure. Affected services include the University catalog system, online inquiries and application processing.

E-mail bounce - Hotmail 08/18 7:30 a.m.

For compromised e-mail account of our e-mail system and consequent spammers abuse, MSN - Hotmail (and possibly other ISPs) is rejecting e-mail originated at University e-mail servers.

Again, users are not suppose to reveal their user ID and password in response to any (and especially unsolicited) e-mail correspondence. Not only that this causes abuse of our e-mail system and consequent troubles to deliver e-mail to our correspondents, this makes very sensitive personal data accessible and opens door to identity theft.

ITS is going to take steps to re-enable undisturbed e-mail flow.

TitanConnect Maintenance Completed

TitanConnect maintenance has been completed. All services are back online. The mail queue has been released. Mail that was received during the maintenance window has started to be delivered.

TitanConnect Maintenance Started

The maintenance scheduled for Saturday, August 14th has started.

TitanConnect Maintenace Complete

Maintenance of the TitanConnect portal has been completed. All services are back online. The mail queue has been released. Mail that was received during the maintenance window has started to be delivered.

TitanConnect Maintenance Started

The scheduled maintenance of the TitanConnect portal has started.

TitanConnect Email

TitanConnect web and imap access failed at approximately 12:12 p.m. Services have been restored.

Incoming E-mail Issue

Around 8:00 am, we began to experience an issue with incoming e-mail. E-mail is queuing up and will be delivered once the system is restarted in the morning.

TitanConnect Portal/Email Maintenance This Weekend

In an effort to have all systems ready to go for the start of the upcoming academic year, the ITS department will be performing several maintenance tasks this weekend that will result in down-time for all.

 

From Friday at 6:00 pm to midnight, the TitanConnect Portal/Email system will be down for a cold backup as well as implementation of several software patches.  All incoming e-mail will be queued and delivered once the system has been brought back online.

 

Then, on Saturday morning starting at 8:00 am and running to approximately 2:00 pm, the TitanConnect Portal/Email system will be down while necessary maintenance occurs on the hardware and additional e-mail storage space is added into the @udmercy.edu domain.  All incoming e-mail will be queued and delivered once the system has been brought back online.

 

During all of this time, access to the course evaluation, www, Cascade and the Blackboard servers will remain available.  On campus internet access for Web surfing will remain available for anyone on-site during this time.

 

For the latest information on the progress of these tasks, please visit the UDM ITS Blog at http://udm-its.blogspot.com

 

ITS

Knowledge 2 maintenance on 08/10 7:30 a.m. -7:40 a.m.

Knowledge 2 users will not be able to use the system on Wednesday 08/11 between 7:30 and 7:40 a.m. Defective piece of hardware has to replaced and that requires Knowledge 2 Blackboard system to be restarted. System will be down for a short time, but all users are advised to log out before 7:30 a.m. to prevent possible loss of data.

Thank you for your understanding,

ITS

E-mail to Hotmail accounts rejected 08/10 7:30 a.m.

Some of UDMERCY e-mail accounts were compromised caused by users revealing there e-mail account credentials to spammers, resulting in abuse of those accounts. As a result, MSN Hotmail (and possibly some other Internet Service Providers) is rejecting e-mail messages originated at University . ITS works to resolve the situation and we expect to have this problem solved soon.

Again: One should never reveal personal data as a response to an e-mail, no matter how convincing that e-mail may be. In this case, one "only" disturbed free e-mail flow and caused inconvenience for thousands of University e-mail users; negligent behavior like this may cause much more grave consequences.

ITS

TITANNET Planned Outage

The TITANNET domain will be down August 9th for approximately 30 minutes to address a hardware issue. We expect it to be back online without issue by 5:15PM.

Cascade Upgrade Update

The cascade software upgrade has been completed. Cascade is online and operational, but we remain in testing until tomorrow morning when the system will be released for production usage. We ask that users limit their activity to operations that are absolutely necessary at this time.

Thank you for your patience.

Casacde Upgrade Started

The cascade server upgrade has started. Cascade will not be available during the upgrade.

Nexus Web Application Server Online

The nexus web application server has been restored. All services including the university catalog are back online.

Nexus Web Application Server Offline

The nexus application server is currently offline due to a drive failure. Affected services include the University catalog system.

College/Departmental Web Server Back Online

The college/departmental web server is back in service. Thank you for your patience.

Number of UDM Web services down 08/04 7:30 a.m.

Due to hardware failure, number of University WEB pages are not accessible. ITS is working to fix this problem.

Sorry for your inconvenience.

ITS