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ICT Maintenance Windows

ITR schedules maintenance windows to perform regular work on its information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructures.This comprises of network, servers and software services.Regular maintenance is important to ensure that software and infrastructure is properly patched, and changes to provide better services can be implemented on a timely basis.

There are two types of scheduled maintenance windows: Fortnightly ICT maintenance windows and Major ICT maintenance windows, and each are discussed in the following sections.

Fortnightly ICT Maintenance Windows

Fortnightly ICT Maintenance Windows, as listed in Table 1 schedule below, are periods of time when some services may not be available between 6am to 9am.In some extreme circumstances an outage may extend beyond 9am.These dates coincide with the Friday of each pay week.

Normally most computing and communication services will be unaffected during the fortnightly ICT maintenance windows.However, all scheduled and unscheduled service outages are notified via Central Computing Bulletins.

The fortnightly ICT maintenance windows are used for regular computing and communications upgrades and maintenance, and for power generator maintenance. Where possible, any scheduled upgrades and/or maintenance of ITR computing and communications infrastructure requiring service shutdown or restart, will be scheduled during these maintenance windows.

Power Generator Maintenance

ITR has generator capacity to run services in the event of power outages. It is a requirement that the generator be run-up on a regular basis to ensure that it is functional in the event of a power failure. The generator will be run up on every four (4) weeks as indicated with an asterisk in Table 1 below.

The main effect of this will be that the General Access & Teaching Computer Facilities in Building 2 (DA2 (Humanities Annex) will be unavailable for some period on these mornings. Power supply to the labs will be lost when the power supply is transferred to the generator, and again when the power supply is switched back to commercial power.

Messages will be posted on the computer lab doors on the preceding evening with a warning regarding power loss. A message will also be broadcast to the workstations 5 minutes before the expected outage(s). No classes should be scheduled in these labs at these times.

Table 1 Schedule of 2012 Fortnightly ICT Maintenance Windows

13 January*

13 July

27 January

27 July*

10 February*

10 August

24 February

24 August*

9 March*

7 September

23 March

21 September*

6 April*

5 October

20 April

19 October*

4 May*

2 November

18 May

16 November*

1 June*

30 November

15 June

14 December*

29 June*

* Includes a power generator test.

Major ICT Maintenance Windows

Major ICT Maintenance Windows, as listed in Table 2 schedule below, are weekends (from 5pm Friday to 11pm Sunday) when the entire JCU network - and all services - will be unavailable to allow upgrades to be performed.Note: These will be server and/or network upgrades - not application upgrades.These scheduled outages are notified in advance via Central Computing Bulletins.

These major ICT maintenance windows should be taken into account when planning any University event that requires any computing and/or networking services on-campus, including video conferencing.

These weekends were chosen after extensive consultation with the University community to avoid study periods one and two, as well as taking into account constraints such as:

  • Study period census dates

  • Subject result release dates

  • QTAC offer dates

  • Enrolment periods

  • Graduation ceremonies

  • Payroll runs

The overall criterion we were adhering to in selecting these dates was to minimize impact on academic activities.

The major ICT maintenance window dates for 2012 are listed in Table 2 below.

Table 2 Schedule of 2012 Major ICT Maintenance Windows

23-24 June 2012

24-25 November 2012