Monthly Archives: December 2003

Student Novell Server (ST) Failed, Reboot Required

File Server

About 9:00pm some students began to experience inconsistent responses from the Novell server (i.e. accessing the P: drive). Info Systems began investigating the problem about 9:40pm and by 10:40pm it was determined that some type of process was consuming excessive CPU cycles and that reboot would be required to stabilize the ST server.

The ST Novell server was rebooted with some unexplained error messages but the reboot seemed to be successful. There is the possibility that some files are in a corrupted state. If students receive errors while accessing any data on their P: drive indicating a corrupt file exists they should notify the Helpdesk, giving the particulars of their Novell userid, the text of the error message and the name of file and the directory path where it exists on the P: drive.

If corrupt data is found the ST server will need to be taken off-line on Monday, 12/8, to run a repair utility.

If students encounter Novell network file problems before 8:00am Monday, 12/8, and they are convinced that Info Systems should consider bringing a technician to campus to investigate during weekend hours, please call the Info Systems emergency number (from an on-campus phone, x4541).

ALL Novell Servers – Off Line for 90 Min, Early Saturday

File Server

Info Systems will take ALL Novell servers off-line early Saturday morning, 12/6, to make system images to enable recovery from any future catastrophic failures. Details:

DATE: Sat, December 6, 2003
BEG-TIME: About 7:00am
END-TIME: About 8:30am

IMPACT: All Novell services, including network files (P:, G:, Z: drives), network printing will NOT be available during the outage period.

Also, because the EMU email server and Oracle calendar server login authentications are provided by the Novell directory service, access to the EMU email services, including WebMail, will NOT be available during the outage period.

Users WILL be able to access the Internet, Blackboard, CampusWeb and the Sadie (library catalog).

All Novell servers, except FSAPPS, should be returned to service by 8:30am. FSAPPS will remain off-line while it hardware for it is upgraded. See FSAPPS details described in a separate outage report for 12/06/03.
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All Novell servers used by students, faculty and staff (except FSAPPS) were returned to service at 8:25am, 12/06/03. The system images are now complete and up-to-date.

Upgrade for Novell Faculty/Staff Apps Server (FSAPPS)

File Server

Info Systems will be migrating the contents of the FSAPPS server to an upgraded set of hardware. This is not a new server, but has more power and capacity than the current FSAPPS server.

The applications on FSAPPS are:

-Goldmine Contact Mgmt (Admiss, ADCP, Seminary)
-TMA (Phys Plant)
-Past Perfect Museum Software (Museum)
-Survey Pro (Institutional Research)

No other systems should be affected by this outage. All users should be able to login to Novell during the outage. Faculty and Staff who login will likely see messages indicating that attempts to map drives on FSAPPS have failed.

Faculty/Staff users will have complete access to P:, G: and Z: drives.

The upgrade will begin shortly after 6:00am. If all goes well we believe the FSAPPS server will be returned to service by noon.

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FSAPPS upgrade completed at 11:15am, 45 minutes ahead of projected completion time.