IT Services: Major Infrastructure Maintenance Windows
IT systems, like our cars, need regular maintenance to ensure trouble-free operation and the University’s complex IT infrastructure is no different. After consultation with senior University Committees, IT Services has produced and will maintain a rolling schedule of agreed ‘Major Infrastructure Maintenance Windows’ for the coming two years when planned work will normally be undertaken.
In order to minimise disruption to the day to day work of the University, the dates selected will be during the working week but out of term time and avoiding critical operational periods such as the financial year-end, A-level results processing and clearing, Exam Board meetings, Degree Congregations and Admissions. Regrettably, with an institution as busy and diverse as the University, the constraints leave us with few opportunities or flexibility with dates so, once published, these dates will be firm.
The idea is to allow all organisational units and both staff and students to plan for these dates and avoid arranging any activity with a critical dependence on IT during that 24 hour period.
2015:
Wednesday 7 January 2015
Deferred from December 2014 due to Research Excellence Framework results.
Work in January will include updates to the fire and flood detection systems, and simulated failure testing in the Primary and Secondary Data Centres.
Tuesday 30 June 2015
No work is being undertaken during this maintenance period.
Wednesday 16 December 2015
2016:
Wednesday 29 June 2016
Wednesday 14 Dec 2016
The work planned for each Major Infrastructure Maintenance Window will vary. IT Services will use service resilience where feasible to mitigate any disruption to core services, but cannot guarantee there will not be disruption to any or all services. In the run up to the dates, IT Services will publish a summary of the work to be undertaken and confirm the expected impact.
Whilst we have added resilience to many systems and the underlying infrastructure, to enable us to carry out the work whilst services are running in an alternative location it will always be necessary to carry out some pieces of work with the systems or the underlying equipment switched off. This might be to ensure a successful outcome or to speed the process or simply to be certain that there is no safety risk when working on components of the power supply to our data centres.
Should you have questions related to these windows, please contact your College IT Manager, listed below or Larry Kearns for Corporate Services at l.p.kearns@bham.ac.uk.
Updated 8 December 2014