October 30, 2011 - November 5, 2011 Archives

Group training sessions have been scheduled for the new STAR tool in DMS! The tool is designed to assist those who have a role in scholarship finance and award administration (those who do projections, scholarship entry, general scholarship management). If you work with scholarships and have not attended training, please plan to attend one of the following STAR training sessions:

No Need to RSVP for the following session:

You MUST RSVP to Mary O'Brien, mkobrien@umn.edu, for the following sessions: 

Ongoing training sessions will be held monthly as part of the regular DMS training calendar.

If you are not sure if you should attend training, or for other questions regarding STAR, contact Rose Pederson at r-kerb@umn.edu

Regarding access, users must attend a STAR training to be granted DMS access to use the STAR tool. CLA users should contact Rose Pederson to request STAR access, after you have had the STAR training. Note that we must hold on submitting access requests pending some access issues yet to be worked out.

Additional information about STAR:  The Scholarship Tracking and Reporting (STAR) database is being built in DMS and tracks all scholarships and fellowships paid to students, no matter the funding source (UM Foundation, O&M, Treasury Accounting.) STAR will pull balances for scholarship and fellowship funds from EFS and DMS.  The goal is to have the database fully functioning and everyone trained so we are using STAR for projections to make FY13 awards.  Anyone interested who is in a role involving projections, administration or awarding of scholarships may sign up for training.

The deadline to invoice the Foundation to meet the December TIP date is November 15, 2011 (noon.) Contact Rose Pederson, r-kerb@umn.edu, if you have questions.

Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that lets you organize, edit, and upload your photos in quick, easy steps.

Picasa Web Albums provides one GB of free storage that makes sharing your photos a snap.

Together, Picasa & Picasa Web Albums make it easy for you to organize and edit your digital photos, then create online albums to share with friends, family & the world.

Features

Make a collage: Make a collage and share it with your friends and family. Experiment with six different types of collage, and maintain total control over your collage content and layout.

Use Movie Maker: Combine your photos, videos, and music into a movie and upload it directly to YouTube. You can also trim existing video files.

Back up your collection: Protect those precious memories. Use Picasa to back up your photo collection to either an alternate drive or to CD/DVD.

CLA's deadline is 18 working days away and there are 141 employees who still need to migrate to Google. Department administrators, please check your Google Docs for today's spreadsheet outlining those who still need to migrate. Thank you!

** KUDOS KUDOS KUDOS ** to the following departments who have migrated all employees:

• Asian Languages & Literatures
• Center for Writing
• Philosophy of Science
• Political Science
• Spanish & Portuguese

Saturday
November 5, 2011
8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Services Affected (avoid these during the window)

• Research servers
• Unix-based file servers (clio and thalia)
• Database servers
• Web servers

Services Not Affected (common services that users often ask about)

• Google Apps (Gmail, Docs, Sites)
• Active Directory File storage (Home, Shared, Project folders)
• CLA Terminal Server

Specific Details

• Database Upgrades:
• upgrade all MySQL databases to version 5.5 for audit compliance
• Security Patching:
• physically moving servers
• perform routine maintenance tasks which will require rebooting most Unix servers

FAQ

What is a "system maintenance window"?

In order to correct a technical issue, install a security patch, or upgrade server hardware, CLA-OIT must occasionally disrupt normal networked services. Whenever possible, we plan such service outages in advance during times that minimize the disruption to our users.

Can I work during the maintenance window?

In general, CLA-OIT recommends that you avoid using the affected services during the maintenance window. Systems may be available during the maintenance window, but they can and will be shut down without warning and may be unavailable for hours at a time. So, use only at your own risk.

Can't this be done without disrupting service?

Certain tasks require server reboots and/or physically unplugging electricity. We do our best to group these tasks together to minimize the number of outages we schedule each year--which is generally less than five.

Can you reschedule this window to a more convenient time?

CLA-OIT strives to select times that minimize disruption. It isn't possible to pick a time that will not affect somebody. We also have to consider the availability of our staff and central OIT staff who run the data centers and networks. We try to soften the impact by announcing maintenance windows well in advance.

Why wasn't this work performed during the recent University-wide data center outage?

Since the previous maintenance affected such a large number of systems and users, significant efforts were made to minimize the amount of downtime--extra projects like this database work was discouraged. In addition, all the servers were powered off during the window and unavailable for additional maintenance.

How do I find out more?

If you have any questions or concerns contact us at 612-624-4357 (4-help) or 4help@umn.edu.

CLA-OIT System Maintenance Windows Google Calendar

Subscribe at: http://z.umn.edu/maintenance