Network outage Thursday May 26 due to installation
of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)
The Armstrong Data Center, home to over 40 servers
and other important network devices, is getting an important upgrade. As a consequence,
there will be an all-campus network outage on THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2005,
from 10:00 A.M. until about 6:00 P.M. Please mark your calendars,
as all major network services (Web, data storage, etc.) will be unavailable
for that day. It will be a grand opportunity to make and
return telephone calls, organize your office, or do other creative,
non-network based activities!
We know that there is never an "ideal" time to take the
network down, but this upgrade is mission critical and will truly
enhance the data center. Many departmental servers are awaiting
their better home in the data center, but have been put on hold until
we can schedule this upgrade. ITS has coordinated with many
departments on campus in order to solidify this post-Commencement,
pre-Memorial Day and Summer Session, date.
What is this very important enhancement, and what is
this device that we call a UPS? Simply put, it is an Uninterruptible Power
Supply (UPS) that will protect our server fleet and network devices
in the event of an unanticipated power loss. If the electricity
goes out, the UPS goes on! It provides clean, redundant power
for roughly 30 minutes. If electricity service returns fairly
quickly, then our network gear sees no interruption of service. If
electricity service cannot be returned within the generous battery
span, then the UPS can be programmed to shut down the servers automatically
before the batteries expire, thereby preserving them from nasty
computer problems and power surges.
As an added benefit, the old UPS will be moved from
Armstrong to the Barnes Data Center at a later point in time, providing
some backup to the smaller server fleet stored there. Thanks to the entire
Network & Systems Group for their great efforts at planning this
installation, and we look forward to providing the campus with increased
capacity “on the backbone” of our network.
New email addresses coming soon!
The purpose of this message is to inform the campus
community about an exciting change that will begin this summer. In a phased
approach, Colorado College will be changing the form of its email
addresses from FirstinitialLastname@ColoradoCollege.edu (e.g., jdoe@ColoradoCollege.edu)
to Firstname.Lastname@ColoradoCollege.edu (e.g., John.Doe@ColoradoCollege.edu). Current
students, faculty, and staff will have both the old address and the
new address, allowing us to phase the migration of some 3,500 existing
email accounts. Starting this spring, all new faculty and
staff will be set up with the new email naming convention, and
as we welcome the Class of 2009, all new students will have the
new address as well.
There are two important reasons for this change: clarity
and security. Using
our current scheme, Michael Jones and Matthew Jones would have the
same email address, requiring one to add a middle initial. This
frequently leads to confusion, and sometimes messages are inadvertently
delivered to the wrong person. Electronic security has also
become a much bigger concern. Currently, the username (“FirstinitialLastname”)
portion of the email address matches our network account names, which
are used to access email, fileservers, and administrative data on
both c3po and the Banner system. It is not wise to advertise
these account names on the Internet in this era of identity theft
and computer hacking. A bonus side effect of phasing out
our old email addresses will be significantly reduced spam - at
least until the spammers discover our new scheme!
ITS will phase in the new email addresses for the students
entering in the Fall of 2005, and for new faculty and staff members
hired at the College this spring and summer. In the coming months,
watch the Help Desk website and your email for more detailed information
about making this move, including instructions for making the transition
as smooth as possible. Also, if you are changing office locations,
or getting a new title or promotion, or anything else that impacts
your business cards or office stationery, then you might consider
listing the new email address at the same time.
Accelerated computer purchasing
Thanks to support from the Business Office, ITS has
the opportunity to do limited accelerated purchasing for computers
from the 2005-06 budget allocations. We are focusing our efforts on computers
(Macs and PCs, desktops and laptops), because they are the most time-consuming
to deploy. Due to data center and network/server upgrades
already planned for the summer of 2005, we are discouraging accelerated
funding for servers, printers, and other gear at this time.
IT consultants will contact departmental representatives
in the next 3 weeks to assess needs for accelerated computers. Monday,
May 9, 2005 is our deadline for all accelerated requests. As
a point of information, $1,002,799 was requested for computer equipment,
and $619,828 was funded. This covers approximately 250 IT items. Given
this impressive volume, we are happy to accelerate funding for
necessary computer equipment, but we cannot possibly procure and
deploy everything by June!
If you do not need to accelerate computer funds, or
if you have been funded for other IT equipment, rest assured that your
funding will be available on July 1, 2005, and it will remain available
throughout the 2005-06 academic year. If you don’t need to accelerate
your funds, but you will not be on campus in July, we recommend that
you work with your IT consultant to arrange timing and authorization
of your computer purchases. For example, ITS could place your
equipment order on July 15, with your permission, even if you are
gone from campus in the mid-summer. To make sure we have
successful deployment of new equipment, however, we would prefer
that you are here when we place the new equipment and we have an
opportunity to confirm the setup.
If you would like to review your 2005-06 budget requests
and allocations, you can view the final Excel spreadsheet prepared
by Patrick Kirby, Director of Budget, in the Outlook public folders. The spreadsheet
is housed within a folder named “Budget 2005-06;” look
for the posting labeled “Approved Equipment AY 05-06.xls.”
If you have any questions about this process, please contact Millie
Brence-Austin, IT Support Specialist, at x6250 or via email at mbrenceaustin@ColoradoCollege.edu.
Voice mail spring cleaning
Spring Fever is in the air, and summer isn't too far
behind. Before you leave campus, the Telecommunications Office
is asking for your assistance in helping to clear the voice mail memory
space.
Did you know that the entire campus shares a 20-hour time allotment,
which includes voice mail messages as well as greetings (individual
and departmental)? This is a limited, fairly precious resource
across all of our campus telephones. Please use this opportunity
to help us clear unneeded messages, and if possible shorten your greetings. We
usually experience greater stress on the telephone system during the
spring and summer months, as many users let messages build up, or do
not check (and delete) them somewhat regularly.
Here are three helpful tips for working effectively with the Meridian
voice mail system:
- Consider using a voice mail log book to track important messages
without relying on storing them within the system.
- After listening to a message, be sure to press 76, the command for
deleting it.
- Even if you are not on campus, you can dial in to pick up your
voice mail messages. Simply call 389-6034; enter your four-digit
campus extension, followed by your password.
We appreciate your cooperation in this matter and we would like to
thank those who have already responded to this voice mail spring-cleaning
effort! If you have any questions or need assistance, please
call Alice Ledbetter at x6719 or Cindy Valdez at x6718.
The Pak is back!
The wholesale adoption by CC faculty of electronic
reserves (ERes) as the preferred method to make articles, book chapters,
and other readings available to students has had unintended consequences
for students and the campus this year. For students, the expectation
that they will print out long documents for each class meeting has
meant hours of wasted time as they deal with long print queues, slow
equipment, and a clogged campus network, especially at the beginning
of each block. Students who do not know how the print system works
often misdirect print jobs or send multiple print commands, leaving
mountains of unclaimed print jobs.
Many students have expressed a preference for a return
to Course Paks—they want to spend their time reading, not printing! Toward
this end, the Bookstore staff will help you create a convenient course
packet to go along with any required or recommended books. If
you turn in complete bibliographic information for your materials
along with a master copy at least four to six weeks prior to the
block in which the material will be used, the Bookstore staff will: