ITS Service Outage

Time Frame: Wednesday 24 March 5:00pm -6:00pm

The University of Otago Library’s webserver will not be available for approximately 1 hour commencing at 5:00pm on Wednesday 24 March.

This will affect:

• The library’s website http://www.library.otago.ac.nz and http://library.otago.ac.nz/billrobertson
• Authentication for accessing electronic resources from off campus via the ezproxy servers. Polytechnic users will not be affected
• Booking of the student group study rooms in the Libraries
• - Locally hosted databases including the Exam and Digital databases Though this will not affect access to the following sites, off-campus University users may have problems if they need to authenticate to access electronic resources - The library online catalogue http://otago.lconz.ac.nz The E-Journals / E-Books portal http://rb6fc7tv6s.search.serialssolutions.com/ (Dunedin campus), http://mb4pz8vy2l.search.serialssolutions.com/ (Otago Polytechnic) The Research Archive http://ourarchive.otago.ac.nz/

  This outage is to allow ITS to complete some maintenance on the server.

Last updated on 22/03/2010

Student Email Service Evaluation

One of the options being considered is to outsource the service to either Google or Microsoft (the major, proven, service providers in this area).

Here's how you can find out what each are offering and have your say.

Google - Gmail
View Wednesday's (17/3/10) presentation.

Please give us your Google feedback via this online survey.

Microsoft - "live@edu"
Demonstration: 12:00-12:50pm, Thursday 18 March -
* Come to the Archway 2 lecture theatre.
* From your desktop - Streamed live

Please give us your Microsoft feedback via this online survey.

You are also welcome to email Peter Williams (peter.williams@otago.ac.nz) with your feedback and questions.

Last updated on 22/03/2010

Staff Scholarships to Apple's World Wide Developers Conference

Otago has recently joined the Apple University Consortium (AUC). One of the benefits is that our staff can apply for scholarships to attend Apple's World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco (June). There are TWO opportunities available: a local Otago University WWDC scholarship (competitive locally), and an AUC WWDC scholarship (competitive across Australasia). If you are interested in attending WWDC, we recommend that you apply for both, since the AUC winner will be announced before our local one is.

Scholarship recipients will receive a standard AUC scholarship to attend Apple's World Wide Developer Conference in 2010 (this covers MOST, but not all costs associated with attending: there will be a short-fall of approximately $1200).

Scholarships work on a "rebate" basis, so all costs must be paid for up front, and then claimed back from the AUC.

How to Apply

AUC Scholarship
Apply directly to the AUC, on the AUC website (http://www.auc.edu.au/WWDC+Scholarships+Apply). You should read the "Competitive Staff" sections. Applications are not collected or processed locally.
Closing Date: 31 March 2010. (note: this date differs from the one advised by email).

If you need help or further information, please contact Annemaree Senior, AUC Representative (annemaree.senior@otago.ac.nz).

Last updated on 17/03/2010

ITS Service Outage: Advance Planning Notification - Data Centre Shut Down

Proposed Time Frame: 7am Saturday 26 June to 7pm Sunday 27 June (inter semester break)

A complete shutdown of the current network equipment and systems located in our current data centre is required as a key step in commissioning the new data centre (325 Great King Street). The schedule for the shutdown and restart of equipment will include minimising the time critical services are unavailable.

The proposed time frame is the weekend at the start of the break between semesters one and two and are proposed as best minimising the impact of the outage. The outage will affect all services provided from within the ITS data centre at 444 Great King Street on the Dunedin campus.

Services that will be affected, irrespective of location, are:

• Central \"mailhub\" and \"studentmail\" servers. Any incoming email for the University will be queued until services are restored and then delivered. Outgoing email will be queued and sent when services are restored.
• The student desktop. Students will not be able to log into computers in computer resource rooms and School of Business or College of Residence computer labs that run the student desktop.
• The staff desktop. Staff will not be able to log into computers which are running the staff managed desktop.
• Central corporate databases (e.g., student records, HR and financial systems).
• Central backup services.
• Central web services.
• Access to the Library catalogue. Read-only access will be available from off-campus
• Central file servers. • Access to the Internet/KAREN from on-campus and access to the University web site (and other Internet facing services) from off-campus.
• Phone services - desktop dialling (using the short extension number) to the Oxford Terrace, St Elmos Courts and Auckland Centre.
• Avaya Phone system (Student Health, UIC and ITS)
• Any other services located or hosted at 444 Great King Street, Dunedin.

If an outage on these dates will significantly impact on your department, please contact the Nicola Walmsley (email: nicola.walmsley@otago.ac.nz) as soon as possible.

Last updated on 19/02/2010

Cyclone/Lenovo Purchase Agreement 2009/2010

The deal for a standard configuration PC has been renegotiated. Upgrade options are also available.

The offer is open to all departments of the University of Otago. Personal purchases (staff and student) are also possible.

Details of the computers, upgrade options, pricing and how to order are in the following document (pdf): Cyclone Lenovo Purchase Agreement

Last updated on 17/02/2010

University of Otago Webpages Access

If you are using a MS Windows based system, then use the address:

\\webpages.otago.ac.nz\webpages\

If you are using a Mac OS X, then use the address:

smb://webpages.otago.ac.nz/webpages

No Usernames or Passwords have been changed.

Last updated on 25/11/2009