Archive for the 'ITD News' Category

More than 3,000 UNE students have received their second semester unit results by SMS.

Results are out - and ITD’s e-results project seems to have made the grade. All students received their results by email for the first time. In addition more than 3,000 students received their results directly by SMS.

In spite of a small hiccup that saw the SMS message arrive a few hours late all SMS notifications were successfully sent.

Students can also access their second semester results online through MyUNE.

An upgrade to the power supply for the Lamble building will ensure uninterrupted power.

This weekend will see an upgrade to the power supply for the TC Lamble building including the installation of an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

This will mean that there will be power outages to the Lamble building while work is carried out. The proposed power outage will commence at 7.00am Saturday 8th December and last for around 6 hours i.e. until 1pm Saturday.

A number of systems will be unavailable during this time, including:

• Callista (and related systems DEM, Timetabling and eSubmission)
• Mail
• WebCT
• Erskine (as well as Banner and all QA and DEV Tru64 applications)
• FinanceOne
• Forums
• Blogs

For further information contact Dan Dooner on ex 3251

The response to ITD’s SMS results project has been astronomical with more than 1700 students opting in to receive their second semester results by SMS.

From second semester 2007 all students will automatically receive an email (to their UNE email address) informing them of their course results. Results will also be available online.

In addition students can opt-in for SMS delivery of results by visiting the new results portlet in my-UNE. If you want to opt-in for SMS you need to ensure that you do so at least one day prior to the release of results.

Don’t forget to check out the latest ITD Newsletter. You can get it online here

A new anti-spam, anti-virus email system means much less spam for users.

As part of the upgrade to the UNE data network, ITD has recently installed a new anti-spam, anti-virus email filtering system.

Initial results show that the amount of email now being identified as spam is 93% up from 86% previously identified as spam. This means much less spam in your inbox.

The new system is able to evaluate incoming emails in a number of ways.

1. Email coming from an address identified as a source of spam will be
blocked. 
2. Email without a valid ‘from’ address will be blocked.
3. Content will be evaluated and emails with content identified as spam
will be blocked. 

Email identified by this new services as “possibly” spam will be tagged as
spam, with the word [SPAM] added to the subject line and passed on to your
inbox.

As well as fewer spam emails users can now send and receive Zip files to their UNE email account. Before being delivered to a user all attached files will be scanned by the new anti-virus software.

If you have any questions or concerns about the new email filtering system - contact the Servicedesk on x5000.

Contracts have been signed and boxes of new equipment have begun arriving at UNE.  With the network upgrade about to get underway here’s how you can find out about network outages and upgrade works.

After months of planning the upgrade to UNE’s data network is about to become a reality. Over the next few months hundreds of switches, cables and other devices will be replaced. This means that users will have a very speedy 1000 Mbit/s connection to the network.

There will of course be a need to disrupt access to the network for upgrade works to be carried out. ITD wants to keep users informed about outages so that inconvenience to staff and students is minimised. So here’s how you can stay in touch….

The Net-Ops mailing list - this mailing list provides information on the status of the UNE campus network, UNE’s regional network, the network link to Sydney, AARNet and the internet. If you want to have access to the latest information about network outages you are urged to subscribe to this list. To subscribe go to: https://mail.une.edu.au/lists/cgi-bin/listinfo/net-ops

ITD is currently working on a list of staff contacts for each area. Email notification of outages will be sent to staff on this list. If you would like to be included on a contact list please email knash@une.edu.au

And of course there’s always the ITD news blog…..I’ll be including information on network outages relating to the upgrade.

Recent power outages put UNE’s new emergency power system to the test. Despite two prolonged cuts to the university’s power supply, there were no disruptions to IT services.

Ensuring an uninterrupted power supply is a central part of ITD’s emergency planning. The recent purchase of a Genset diesel generator and UPS ‘smart’ battery pack has proven that it has what it takes to keep UNE’s computing systems up and running when the power is cut.Country Energy cut power to the university for 4 hours over two consecutive days to carry out upgrade works in relation to the School of Rural Medicine. The UPS ‘smart’ battery pack kicked in providing instant emergency power while the Genset generator ensured that there was no interruption to power over the 4 hours.

It was no ordinary upgrade – more like a triple bypass – but this weekend’s upgrade of the Callista student administration system was a resounding success.

It involved new servers, new power supplies, an entirely new operating system, an upgrade to the finance system and even a new air-conditioning system. And then of course there was the upgrade to Callista, UNE’s student administration system, itself. So when staff arrived back at work today to find their computer systems working – some very tired technical staff breathed a sigh of relief.

Testing times… 

Because Callista is so central to the smooth running of UNE the new version of Callista had to be thoroughly tested before it could be turned on. Around 70 staff members checked and double-checked every aspect of the new system as well as it’s ability to work with other university systems such as Finance One, Web CT and Cognos. The project took 4 months to complete and the whole thing was co-ordinated by a team of four staff-  Daniel Watkins and John Baker from ITD, and  Bruce Gowar and Kylie Day from the Student Centre.The Callista student administration system is the administrative backbone of UNE. Callista performs just about all student admin functions, from admissions and advanced standing to exam timetabling and graduation.

Go-Live 

It may have been a peaceful long weekend for some but for ITD and Student Centre staff involved in the upgrade it was all hands on deck. It took around 100 person hours over the weekend to complete the upgrade. Project leader Kylie Day explains “We turned Callista off on Friday to retrieve all of the data within it. Then we had to build the new system and apply all the fixes we discovered during the test phase and then finally we had to transfer all the data into the new system.”

UNE will be one of the first universities to upgrade to the latest version of the Callista student administration system

The Callista student administration system is UNE’s administrative backbone. A major upgrade to the latest version of Callista is scheduled to take place this weekend (29 September-1 October)

The new version of Callista has a number of performance improvements and new functions. The upgrade will also include an upgrade to key hardware and associated operating systems.

There will be interruptions to online services over the long weekend while the upgrade is completed. All efforts have been made to minimise the impact on students and staff.