UW Research

November 15, 2016

Office of Research Server Maintenance

Office of Research Server Maintenance Window

Wednesday, November 16, 2016, 6pm – 9pm

 Intention

  1. Install security and software updates to Windows servers
  2. Expand OS Drive on Fogbugz server and Terminal Services server
  3. Firmware update for VTEST1 virtual host

Affected Systems and Services

  • Remote Desktop Gateway (RDG). We recommend that you do not remote in during the maintenance window. If you do, note that when (not if) the RDG server restarts, you will lose the remote connection to your office workstation. In most cases, the apps open on your office workstation will not be affected – you won’t lose any work, and you can resume the connection about 30 minutes later. However, sometimes things don’t go as planned and we’d prefer you not take the chance of losing hours’ worth of work, which is why we recommend not remoting in until the maintenance completes.
  • File server (shares and folders)
  • Printing to workgroup printers
  • Scanning to network scan folders
  • Terminal Server (if you have a remote session open on this server, when it restarts you will lose unsaved data)
  • DORA
  • SharePoint Sites: HSD, ORIS
  • FogBugz
  • ORIS SQL Servers
  • All servers will be unavailable at some point during the window

Overall Recommendations from ORIS Business Operations Team

Review the information below for recommended actions.  While you may continue to use your workstation during the maintenance window, many key services will be randomly unavailable (including remote access to the Terminal Server and Remote Desktop Gateway).  Even if services appear available, don’t rely on them remaining so because all servers will restart at some point during the maintenance event. A notice will be sent via email when the maintenance work is complete.

Recommended Actions for Staff

  • We recommend that you do not remote in to your office workstation during the maintenance window
  • Save all of your work and close all programs before leaving the office the day of the scheduled maintenance.
  • Wednesday or Thursday of this week, you may be prompted to install Microsoft Updates; please do so by the end of the week or as your schedule allows.
  • If your workstation automatically restarts and you were logged in, please contact us at tech1q@uw.edu.
  • If you plan to use your workstation during the maintenance window, keep in mind that the FILE server will be unavailable at random times and you might lose work if you are actively using a document on that server (you can save a copy of the document to your workstation computer and modify that document).
  • Reschedule or postpone any scheduled tasks you execute from your computer to run after the maintenance window ends.

Services AVAILABLE (UNAFFECTED by the Maintenance Window)

  • SAGE, SPAERC, Zipline
  • SharePoint Sites: OSP, OR
  • Email: Outlook / UW Exchange / Office 365 / Deskmail
  • Scanning to email accounts (Ricoh printers)
  • Faxing from fax-enabled workgroup printers
  • Shared NetID Accounts: http://myuw.washington.edu (you will need to know the password)
  • Office of Research web site (all units)
  • UW OneDrive for Business
  • UW Google Docs
  • UW Tower wireless