Intermittent access issues - update 13
14 Oct 2022
Information about intermittent issues accessing a number of University services
Update 13 (5.05pm, Friday 14 October)
Following the IT system changes earlier today the University's IT systems are currently stable. Colleagues will be closely monitoring systems overnight and throughout the weekend.
Once again, many thanks to all our staff and students for bearing with us while this was being worked on. We know it has been disruptive, and we will continue to work to prevent issues like this from happening again.
Anyone who has any IT issues should telephone the 24/7 IT Support Centre phone line on 0161 306 5544.
Update 12 (3.40pm, Friday 14 October)
After further extensive testing and analysis, the work proposed for 4pm today will go ahead, which means that we expect campus-wide network disruption between 4pm and 4.15pm today.
Update 11 (2pm, Friday 14 October)
After today’s work at 12.30pm, we have noticed many services restoring, although there is still a lot more work and testing to do before we can consider the issue resolved.
We are tentatively proposing a similar piece of work at around 4pm today which may have a similar impact, that is, up to 15 minutes campus-wide network disruption. We will keep you updated.
Update 10 (12 noon, Friday 14 October)
To work towards fixing the IT issues we have been experiencing, we need to make more changes, which will cause a momentary loss of campus-wide network connectivity, between 12.30pm and 12.45pm today (Friday 14 October). There may be another planned outage later this afternoon too; as soon as we have confirmed this we’ll let you know.
Update 9 (11.25am, Friday 14 October)
As you are undoubtedly aware, IT issues during week commencing 10 October have resulted in staff and students experiencing problems using services such as My Manchester, Blackboard, GlobalProtect, Library resources, business applications, mailing lists, printers and many others.
We’re aware that this is causing disruption to our colleagues’ and students’ work, learning and research activities.
We are having technological issues, and are working with our vendor to resolve this. An issue has been identified, as has the associated work needed to resolve it. We are planning our next steps to deal with this, however please note that this may cause further disruption while the work takes place. If we anticipate planned disruption we will communicate in advance, although this may be short notice as we want to resolve the issues as quickly as possible and return to full service. You can follow our latest updates via the IT Services Twitter account:
While performance has improved on some systems, it is still at an unacceptable level on many key University services.
We are sincerely sorry for the disruption and frustration we know this is causing for our University community, and will continue to work on this issue until is it completely resolved.
Thank you and best wishes.
PJ Hemmaway
Director of IT
Update 8 (11am, Friday 14 October)
There are still intermittent issues with access to key University services. We're continuing to work on them and will keep you updated.
Update 7 (5pm, Thursday 13 October)
There are unfortunately still issues accessing key University services and performance is notably slower than normal. The work and tests performed this afternoon have not brought back full service. In the majority of cases My Manchester is showing as unavailable, however some services can be accessed directly.
If you experience difficulty accessing any systems, you may need to wait a few minutes before attempting to access them again.
Our IT teams and partners continue to work on resolving the issues as our highest priority. We sincerely thank you once again for bearing with us. Unless we resolve the issues, the next update will be Friday morning (14 October). Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/UoM_ITS
Update 6 (2.40pm, Thursday 13 October)
The tests we performed earlier today have completed, and while we have noticed some small improvements, we are still not running at full service, especially when accessing key services including (but not limited to) My Manchester.
For the rest of the day, you may continue to notice short interruptions to connectivity while tests and investigations continue. If you experience difficulty accessing any systems, you may need to wait a few minutes before attempting to access them again.
As we continue to deal with this as our highest priority, we sincerely thank you once again for bearing with us, while we work towards ensuring our staff and students have access to the IT services they need for work, study and research.
Update 5 (10.55am, Thursday 13 October)
While performance has improved on some services since we made the change at 4pm yesterday, there are still services which are having intermittent or slow access problems.
We’re currently performing several tests in our data centre, and there is one test we intend to perform today which may cause short interruptions to connectivity at some point between 12 noon and 12.30pm today.
One of the services which appears to be affected the most by these issues is My Manchester. Some people have observed that there are workarounds which have helped them to access some systems such as Blackboard, Timetables and the Campus Solutions Student System directly, although please note that these workarounds may not work in all scenarios.
Direct links:
In addition, some people have noticed that using a different web browser or opening the service in a private/incognito web browser window has enabled them to access these systems. Instructions on how to do this are available for Google Chrome , Microsoft Edge and Apple Safari for macOS .
Again, thank you for bearing with us while we perform this essential work at short notice to restore service to an appropriate level.
Update 4 (8.25am, Thursday 12 October)
Work is ongoing to deal with the intermittent IT access issues this morning, and we'll post more information here as soon as we have it.
Update 3 (4.45pm, Wednesday 12 October)
We’ve identified the fault and services are starting to return, however we still have additional work to complete before we consider the issue resolved. We will continue to monitor closely overnight. Next update: Thursday morning.
Update 2 (3.10pm, Wednesday 12 October)
As you are aware, there are IT issues at the moment causing intermittent problems accessing some University services. To work towards restoring these services, we need to make changes which may cause short losses of campus-wide network connectivity between 4pm and 4.15pm today (Wednesday 12 October). This will affect people on campus, and people connecting to University services from off-campus.
We fully understand the disruption that such outages have on our staff and students, and appreciate that this is very short notice, however we need to do this as soon as possible to ensure services are working at a level expected by our staff and student community.
Thank you for bearing with us while we continue to work on restoring services.
Update 1 (11.55am, Wednesday 12 October)
We are continuing to investigate these intermittent issues as our highest priority, and will post an update as soon as we have any more information. Thank you for bearing with us while we work on restoring services.
Original message (10.20am, Wednesday 12 October)
IT Services are urgently investigating intermittent issues accessing a number of University services. As soon as we have any more information, we’ll post it here.