Planned maintenance on personal file storage and other services this weekend
09 Nov 2015
A number of services, including personal network storage (P:drives) will be unavailable on the morning of Saturday 14 November
What is happening?
Subject to approval from the IT Services Change Advisory Board, our ‘Isilon’ network storage needs to be upgraded on Saturday 14 November, meaning that you will not have access to your personal file storage, among other services.
Why is this happening?
We have recently experienced two major incidents caused by issues with our file storage system. We have worked closely with the supplier of the service and have now identified the cause. Fixes are available but require an upgrade to the software that manages the system. This upgrade was already planned to be implemented during the December holiday period, but due to the issues we will bring this forward.
What do I need to do?
You must save any open files and log off your University computer before the work takes place, otherwise recent changes may be lost.
Why do I need to do this?
A number of services will be unavailable while the upgrade work takes place, including personal storage space (also known as P:Drives, Documents folder or ‘My Documents’) of all University staff and students. Some shared network storage areas will also be affected.
As a result of this, Managed Desktop computers – including student PC clusters - will have reduced functionality; you will be able to log in and use the basic software applications, but you will not have access to documents on your P:Drive or other files on your desktop.
Which services will be unavailable during this work?
- Personal network storage (P:drives)
- The Video Library Service
- The Library services eScholar and digitisation
- The Electronic Software Delivery Service (ESD)
- Personal web pages
- Manchester Business School Applications portal (Eircom)
- Whitworth Art Gallery electronic collections system
- Manchester Museum collections management
- Some shared network storage areas
When is this happening?
We are scheduled to start the work at 6am on Saturday 14 November. We’re expecting the service to return by 12 midday, with confirmation and technical updates posted on our Service Notification System.
Further information
Further details about why this upgrade is taking place now, can be found on the following article:
For technical enquiries about this or any other IT Service, please contact the IT Support Centre:
IT Services