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Service status

Current issues

issues with staff profiles, distribution lists and staff directory - tuesday 19 september

  • UPDATE (19 September, 02.17 pm) - The data in the distribution lists have been restored but we strongly encourage users to check the number of participants.  
  • My Birkbeck for staff (MBS) is picking up old relations from the previous structure. This issue impacts staff profiles, distribution lists and staff directory. 
  • Currently, we are investigating the issue. 
  • Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. 

 

Long-term issues

  • There are no long-term issues.

 

Upcoming planned maintenance

decommission of vpn server - friday 22 september at 05.00 pm

  • The VPN service (fort.bbk.ac.uk) will be decommissioned by Friday 22 September. 
  • Users are advised to make sure they are using our main VPN (vpn.bbk.ac.uk) to avoid experiencing connectivity issues. 
  • When users create a new profile or change their existing one to vpn.bbk.ac.uk, they need to change the port to 443. 
  • Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. 

Planned maintenance - Weekly every Tuesday morning between 6am and 10am

  • Tuesday mornings between 6am and 10am is the ‘at risk’ period where we undertake general maintenance and updates.
  • During this period services are considered at risk and might be unavailable for short periods. Other scheduled maintenance will be noted below.
  • Please Note: if any maintenance is expected to have an impact on students or staff, it will be noted below.

 

Resolved and completed

completed - TRANSITION TO NEW STRUCTURE - UPDATE FRIDAY 4 AUGUST

  • All services are available. 
  • Automated distribution lists are fully populated and available and updates completed to profiles visible in Outlook, Teams and SharePoint, 

resolved - NETWORK SERVICES AT RISK - 3RD FLOOR MALET ST - FRIDAY 1 SEPTEMBER

  • This issue is now resolved. 
  • Network services on the 3rd floor Malet Street Extension Building are at risk whilst we work to resolve a switch issue. 
  • Services which are at risk: Classroom digital signage, Extron devices in 2nd and 3rd floor rooms, wireless access point on the 2nd floor. 

resolved - EMAIL FROM MOODLE CURRENTLY OFFLINE - FRIDAY 1 SEPTEMBER

  • This issue is now resolved and all outgoing mail from Moodle is working properly (Monday 4 September - 16.57). 
  • Our Moodle hosts have made us aware of an issue with our emails being sent from Moodle.
  • Please use GURU mailing lists to communicate with students in the meantime.

complete - UPDATE ON WEDNESDAY 2 AUGUST 2023

  • Outlook, SharePoint & Teams - "job title", "reporting to" may not be up to date
    • Some staff are reporting that the details are incorrect when looking up individuals in Outlook, SharePoint or Teams.
    • For Outlook, this is likely due to an old cached Global Address List (GAL) - within Outlook, refresh it by using File | Account Settings | Download Address Book (and uncheck - "download since last send/receive") - this may take +/-10 mins to run.
    • Teams and SharePoint get their information from Active Directory in the cloud (AAD) - and whilst the on premise Active Directory is correct, the updates through to AAD are taking time and it may be a further 24-48 hours before those are fully synchronised. This is a background Microsoft process and we have no control over it.

complete - UPDATE ON TUESDAY 1 AUGUST 2023

  • SITS and My Birkbeck are now available. 
  • Clearing Self-Apply is now available. 
  • Business World/UNIT4 ERP is now available. Users will need to logout of My Birkbeck and login again to see the Business World containers.  
  • Tableau is now available. 

Other services are available, but updates will continue throughout the day: 

  • Identity Database (IDB) - updated mid-morning. 
  • Active Directory (AD) - updates complete throughout the day. 
  • M365 services - Teams, SharePoint: new teams and sites will become available over the course of the day. 
  • Email distribution lists - new lists will become available over the course of the next 2 days. 
  • Shared mailboxes - staff access to new mailboxes with automated membership groups will become available over the course of the day. 

Services should be considered to be at risk for the duration of the day. 

complete - SERVICES AT RISK ON MONDAY 31 JULY 2023

As you are aware, the College is undertaking a significant transition to the new Faculty Structure on Tuesday 1 August.

Work to prepare the changes will require downtime from Monday 31 July for the following systems:

  • Business World/UNIT4 ERP – from 05.00 PM
  • Tableau – from 07.00 PM
  • SITS and My Birkbeck will be unavailable periodically after midnight on Tuesday 1 August overnight.

complete - ADVANCE NOTICE: SERVICES AT RISK ON TUESDAY 1 AUGUST 2023

  • The College is undertaking a significant transition to the new Faculty structure on Tuesday 1st August.
  • We are planning the fundamental changes required to our corporate systems to support this. Affected services include but are not limited to:
    • My Birkbeck, My Birkbeck for Staff, Ask and associated systems
    • Business World/UNIT4 ERP
    • HireServe
    • Explorance Blue
    • Kinetix
    • M365 services – Teams, SharePoint, Email
    • Moodle
    • Salto
    • SITS
    • Tableau
  • Please be aware that some downtime will be required on 1st August. Our corporate systems should be considered 'at risk' throughout the day.
  • More specific information will be provided on expected downtime for these systems w/c 24th July.
  • The ITS Service Status page will be kept up to date throughout the day.

RESOLVED - MOODLE ACCESS FROM MY BIRKBECK FOR STUDENTS -THURSDAY 27TH JULY 2023

  • We are currently experiencing an issue with the ability to login to Moodle via the link in My Birkbeck. 
  • It is currently not possible to login to Moodle via the link ion My Birkbeck for Students without authenticating. We are working on the problem and hope to have a solution shortly.

RESOLVED - UNPLANNED ISSUE - ONLINE PROSPECTUS - WEDNESDAY 26 JULY 2023 FROM 9AM ONWARDS

  • We are aware of problems with the online prospectus at https://www.bbk.ac.uk/courses/
  • The developers are working to fix this urgently
  • Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause

Complete - EXPECTED DOWNTIME AFFECTING MOODLE: TUESDAY 25 JULY 2023

  • Update 25/7/2023 20:00 - The upgrade to version 4.1 of Moodle has been successful.
  • Please be aware, that IT Services will shortly be carrying out an essential upgrade to Moodle which will result in application downtime on July 25th 2023.
  • Moodle will be inaccessible during the upgrade and colleagues should ensure no assignments are due to be submitted on the upgrade date.
  • Staff and  Students are advised to expect Moodle to be unavailable for most of the day while the upgrade is carried out. We will update this page as soon as we are able to advise when Moodle becomes available.
  • If any exceptional alternative arrangements are necessary during the upgrade, colleagues are asked to please contact your Digital Education Team to discuss options.

Complete - UPGRADE - STORAGE SYSTEMS

  • An urgent upgrade is taking place on Tuesday 18th July for our DR storage platform. This is not expected to impact student or staff facing services.
  • The Production (Live) storage platform will be upgraded on Wednesday 19th July from approximately 22:00 - access to some shared and personal drives may be temporarily affected whilst this is taking place. 
  • Please ensure you have saved all your work before 22:00 on Wednesday 19th July if you are using these services.

resolved - SPORADIC INTERNET DISCONNECTION ISSUE

  • There is a sporadic issue whereby some devices on the college network lose connection to the internet from time to time.
  • The events seem to occur later in the evening rather than during core time, with one or two events a day, each lasting for 3-4 minutes.
  • It will affect both outbound and inbound data traffic (for example dropping a VPN connection or being unable to log in to some college services).
  • We are working closely with our network support partners to investigate and resolve this issue as quickly as possible.
  • Due to the sporadic nature of this problem, it may take longer than usual to repair.
  • I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Complete - EXPECTED DOWNTIME AFFECTING SITS, KINETIX, MY BIRKBECK, MY BIRKBECK FOR STAFF, TELEPHONY, AND OTHER APPLICATIONS: TUESDAY 11 JULY 2023

  • Update: 11/7/2023 17:00 - The migration has been hugely successful.
    • All systems listed below are fully operational.
    • There is 1 outstanding item (Password reset facility) which is being investigated.
  • Update: 11/7/2023 07:50 - the Firewall traffic has been moved to the new platform.
    • Currently reviewing and monitoring the network. 
    • SITS and APEX (My Birkbeck and other applications), Library systems and CCTV are being tested and appear to be working.
  • Please be aware, that IT Services will shortly be carrying out an essential firewall migration which will result in some application downtime in July.
    • The hardware currently hosting our internal firewall is reaching end-of-life and will be out of support soon. We therefore need to move the firewall to new hardware. This will help secure, standardise our IT environment, and make it more efficient for our teams to manage moving forward
    • The migration will not involve the powering down of the legacy firewall
    • While we conduct the firewall migration, access to the network and the applications listed below may be interrupted for short periods on the following dates:
    • Firewall migration – Tuesday 11 July 2023, between 07:00 – 17:00
    • Firewall migration back-up date – Tuesday 18 July 2023, between 07:00 – 17:00, (in the event the migration on 11 July proves unstable)
    • The firewall migration will affect all traffic, including potentially stopping outbound, (i.e., internet), traffic
  • Affected services include:
    • Abintegro
    • My Birkbeck, My Birkbeck for Staff, Ask etc.
    • Paygate
    • Hireserve
    • Explorance Blue
    • ‘General MIS’ (catch-all)
    • ‘General Web’ (catch-all)
    • Kinetix
    • Moodle
    • Salto
    • SITS
    • Tableau
    • Student attendance monitoring
    • Unit4 (Business World)
  • Please note, these works may impact both staff and students.
  • Should you have any questions, or queries, please contact Azmol Meah, Project Manager or phone 0203 926 3431

Not completed - network maintenance 7am Tuesday 17 May - potential impact

  • This activity has not been completed and will be rescheduled.
  • We need to undertake some urgent network maintenance from 7am on Tuesday 17 May for approximately 20 minutes.
  • We are not expecting this to have an impact on services - but there is a small chance of one or two short outages.
  • I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

POSTPONED - PLANNED - EXPECTED DOWNTIME AFFECTING SITS, KINETIX, APEX, TELEPHONY, AND OTHER APPLICATIONS - 18 APRIL 2023

  • This work wasn't undertaken due to an outstanding technical issue that needs to be resolved first. New dates will follow.
  • Please be aware, that IT Services will shortly be carrying out an essential firewall migration which will result in some application downtime in April.
  • The hardware currently hosting our internal firewall is reaching end-of-life and will be out of support soon. We therefore need to move the firewall to new hardware. This will help secure, standardise our IT environment, and make it more efficient for our teams to manage moving forward.
  • The migration will not involve the powering down of the legacy firewall.
  • While we conduct the firewall migration, access to the network and the applications listed below may be interrupted for short periods on the following dates:
  • Firewall migration – Tuesday 18 April 2023, between 07:00 – 17:00
  • Firewall migration, (back-up date, in the event the migration on the 18 proves unstable) – Tuesday 25 April 2023, between 07:00 – 17:00
  • Affected services include:
    • Abintegro
    • Apex (My Birkbeck/My Birkbeck for Staff)
    • BacwayIP
    • Explorance Blue
    • ‘General MIS’ (catch-all)
    • ‘General Web’ (catch-all)
    • Kinetix
    • Moodle
    • Salto
    • SITS
    • Tableau
    • TDS Student attendance monitoring
    • Unit4 (Business World)
  • Please note, these works may impact both staff and students.
  • Should you have any questions, or queries, please contact Azmol Meah, Project Manager or phone 0203 926 343

postponed - PLANNED - UPGRADED ZEND-TO SERVICE  - 25TH APRIL 2023

  • This upgrade will be performed out of hours and will not affect services.
  • Please be aware, that IT Services will be upgrading the ZendTo service between 07:00 and 09:00 on Tuesday 25th April.
  • During this period, the service will be unavailable.
  • Once complete, all existing files will still be available.
  • ZendTo is the secure way to share/transfer large files with third parties and for others to share them with us.
  • More information about ZendTo can be found on the ITS Connect site in the User Guides and know-how section.