Information Technology Services Advisory Page Status

Internet and Network Outages at the Nanaimo Campus

Update - Network equipment in buildings 335 and 350 draw their power from the 5th street power grid, which is currently down. We are waiting on BC Hydro to assign a crew to this outage, before we can assess further.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 4:30pm today.
Nov 20, 2024 - 14:37 PST

Update - Network and internet services have been restored to the Western Student Housing Buildings 4 and 6. (Pine and Cedar)

Network equipment in buildings 335 and 350 draw their power from the 5th street power grid, which is currently down. We are waiting on BC Hydro to restore power, before we can assess further.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 2pm today.
Nov 20, 2024 - 10:11 PST

Identified - Network and internet services have been restored to building 210.

Network equipment in buildings 335 and 350 draw their power from the 5th street power grid, which is currently down. We are waiting on BC Hydro to restore power, before we can assess further.

Technicians are now on their way to investigate the outages in the Western Student Housing Buildings 4 and 6. (Pine and Cedar)
Nov 20, 2024 - 08:53 PST

Investigating - The storm last night has resulted in power loss to some of our key network systems in individual buildings on the Nanaimo Campus. This has resulted in our wired and wireless networks to go offline in the following areas:

- B210
- B335
- B350
- Western Student Housing Building 4 (Cedar Activity Center & Offices)
- Western Student Housing Building 6 (Pine House)

Our technicians are investigating. Please use the IT Service Desk toll free number found on technology.viu.ca page. Our 250 number is currently offline.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 11:30pm today.
Nov 20, 2024 - 08:31 PST

Mitel and Nortel Phone systems on the Nanaimo Campus - Power loss to main telecom systems

Identified - Our technicians have discovered a key component in the Nortel System has failed. We are investigating possible solutions and alternative options.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 4:30pm today.
Nov 20, 2024 - 13:39 PST

Investigating - The storm last night has resulted in power loss to some of our key telecom systems. This has resulted in both our Mitel and Nortel phone systems to go offline.

External calls currently cannot be made to, or from the Nanaimo Campus. However, 4 digit dialing between Mitel phones does work. Nortel phones currently have no service at all.

Cowichan, tiwšɛmawtxʷ, Deep Bay, Milner Gardens and the G.R. Paine Horticultural Training Center have working phones.

Our technicians are investigating. Please use the IT Service Desk toll free number found on technology.viu.ca page. Our 250 number is also offline.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 1:30pm today.
Nov 20, 2024 - 08:44 PST

Nortel Phone system at the VIU Nanaimo campus - Not accepting changes.

Update - Calls in and out of the Nortel System continue to process normally. However it continues to not process any programming changes.
Any requests for changes or updates to numbers residing in the Nortel system will not be actioned at this time.

Our technicians are continuing to investigate possible solutions and alternatives. Due to the age and sensitivity of the Nortel system, extreme care is required and this continues to be a slow process.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next Update: Will be by 4pm, Wednesday, November 27.
Nov 19, 2024 - 16:01 PST

Update - Calls in and out of the Nortel System continue to process normally. However it continues to not process any programming changes.
Any requests for changes or updates to numbers residing in the Nortel system will not be actioned at this time.

Our technicians are continuing their investigation. Due to the age and sensitivity of the Nortel system, extreme care is required and this continues to be a slow process.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next Update: Will be by 4pm, Tuesday, November 19.
Nov 13, 2024 - 10:46 PST

Update - Our technicians are continuing their investigation. Due to the age and sensitivity of the Nortel system, this will take some time to dig into. Any requests for changes or updates to numbers residing in the Nortel system will not be actioned at this time.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next Update: Will be by 4pm, Tuesday, November.
Nov 06, 2024 - 13:16 PST

Investigating - Although still passing calls, our Nortel phone system stopped accepting any programming changes late October 11. (e.g. call display name changes, reassigning/moving locals. etc.) The last change took over a week for the Nortel system to process to completion.

Our technicians are continuing their investigation. Due to the age and sensitivity of the Nortel system, this will take some time to dig into. Any requests for changes or updates to numbers residing in the Nortel system will not be actioned at this time.

The previous IT Status Page entry for this challenge was closed in error.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next Update: Will be by 4pm, Monday, November 4.
Oct 29, 2024 - 13:47 PDT

About This Site

Our technology advisory page provides up-to-date information about the operations of Vancouver Island University's Information Technology systems and services. Scroll down for scheduled maintenance and incident history.

Please follow us on twitter @VIU_IT to receive updates regarding service outages and scheduled maintenance.

Computer Accounts and Files Operational

Email Operational

Network: Internet, Wireless, and Wired Partial Outage

Printing Operational

Telephone System Major Outage

Websites and Learning Tools Operational

VIULearn (D2L) Operational

Library Services Operational

University Website (viu.ca) Operational

Student Self-service: My Student Record Operational

Administrative Systems Operational

Student Records (SRS) Operational

Financial Records System (FRS) Operational

Employee Portal (FRIS, HRIS, Payroll, Etc) Operational

Admin Systems Portal (VIUWeb) Operational

Operational

Degraded Performance

Partial Outage

Major Outage

Maintenance

Scheduled Maintenance

Maintenance: VIU Administrative Systems Outage; Service Interruption Nov 21, 2024 16:30-23:30 PST

What is impacted: SRS, isapp.viu.ca and connected tools; Technicians will be performing critical maintenance on key VIU administrative systems and tools. These include the Student Record System, and tools accessible via isapp.viu.ca (SAWS, Gradebook, reporting applications, FSRWeb, VIUWeb). Also impacted are any jobs or applications that interact with these systems. (e.g. EducationPlannerBC downloads, Unit4 integrations, D2L integrations, etc.)
Level of impact: Service Interruption. During maintenance window the above systems will be unavailable, and any scheduled tasks or processes will not run.
Timing: Beginning 4:30pm, Thursday, November 21. This maintenance is anticipated to take 7 hours to complete; however, it may take longer.
Preparation: Save all work and close these systems and all applications connected to these systems prior to the maintenance window. Please plan for any tasks that rely on these tools to be done outside of the maintenance window.
Posted on Nov 13, 2024 - 13:06 PST

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption Nov 22, 2024 21:00 - Nov 23, 2024 00:00 PST

What is impacted: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Every Friday our vendor performs maintenance on the servers hosting the IT Ticket System (https://ithelp.viu.ca) and the IT Client Portal (https://technology.viu.ca).
Level of impact: Service Interruption. Employees will be unable to access the above sites/services during the maintenance window.
Timing: 9pm to 12:00 am, every Friday.
Preparation: None required. If you need to submit an IT Request during the maintenance window please e-mail ithelp@viu.ca. Once the maintenance is complete, an IT request will automatically be created based on your e-mail and you will be e-mailed a ticket number.
Posted on Nov 01, 2024 - 11:08 PDT

Maintenance: VIU Employee Portal; Service Interruption Nov 23, 2024 21:00 - Nov 24, 2024 04:00 PST

What is impacted: VIU Employee Portal and related tools; Our vendor is installing updates and performing maintenance on the systems that host our VIU Employee portal. This impacts tools accessed by the portal including HRIS, FIS and Procurement tools, among others.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. During the maintenance period the Employee Portal and related tools will be unavailable.
Timing: Beginning 9pm, Saturday, November 23. Ending 4am, Sunday, November 24.
Preparation: If needed, please plan to use the Employee Portal outside of the Maintenance Period.
Posted on Nov 20, 2024 - 12:53 PST

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption Nov 26, 2024 10:00-15:00 PST

What is impacted: VIU Websites. Our Web team performs updates to our Drupal Web Content Management System.
Level of impact: No Interruption. While no outage is expected, saving content during this timeframe within the Drupal platform may be slower.
Timing: 10am to 3pm, every Tuesday.
Preparation: None
Posted on Nov 01, 2024 - 11:11 PDT

Maintenance - wordpress.viu.ca; Service Interruption Nov 27, 2024 06:00-08:00 PST

What is impacted: wordpress.viu.ca; Our team will be installing updates to the system that hosts wordpress.viu.ca.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. During the maintenance window the above website will be unavailable for 15 minutes.
Timing: 6am to 8am, Wednesday, November 27.
Preparation: Please save any changes and log out your VIU WordPress blog prior to the maintenance window.
Posted on Nov 01, 2024 - 11:15 PDT

Maintenance - VIU Network Storage (U-Drive, Shares, etc.); Service Interruption Nov 27, 2024 17:00-19:00 PST

What is impacted: VIU Hosted Network Storage; Our team will be installing updates to the server that manages the various VIU hosted network storage. This includes Departmental Shares, as well as VIU computer account U-Drives, Desktop, and Documents Folders.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. During the maintenance window, the update process will cause several disconnections to occur. These disconnections will occur 4 times, lasting anywhere from 10 seconds to 5 minutes before reconnecting. When these disconnections happen, access to and the saving of files to the above locations will be interrupted.
Timing: 5pm to 7pm, Wednesday, November 27.
Preparation: Please save your work and sign out of your computer when you leave for the day. Do you need to access and work on files from the network shares listed above during the maintenance window? Please copy the files you need to your device or OneDrive. Continue to work on the copy until the maintenance window is complete. Please remember to copy your files back to the network share afterwards
Posted on Nov 01, 2024 - 11:16 PDT

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption Nov 29, 2024 21:00 - Nov 30, 2024 00:00 PST

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption Dec 3, 2024 10:00-15:00 PST

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption Dec 6, 2024 21:00 - Dec 7, 2024 00:00 PST

Past Incidents

Nov 20, 2024

Unresolved incidents: Mitel and Nortel Phone systems on the Nanaimo Campus - Power loss to main telecom systems, Internet and Network Outages at the Nanaimo Campus, Nortel Phone system at the VIU Nanaimo campus - Not accepting changes..

Nov 19, 2024

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 19, 15:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 19, 10:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: VIU Websites. Our Web team performs updates to our Drupal Web Content Management System.
Level of impact: No Interruption. While no outage is expected, saving content during this timeframe within the Drupal platform may be slower.
Timing: 10am to 3pm, every Tuesday.
Preparation: None
Nov 1, 11:10 PDT

Nov 18, 2024

Network and Internet Access outages impacting Buildings 459 and 180

Resolved - Internet and Network access has been resorted for the impacted areas of buildings 180 and 459.

This incident is now resolved.
Nov 18, 13:04 PST

Identified - Network and Internet services is restored for the first floor of B180. However, B459 is providing more of a challenge with some network equipment needing to be replaced and reconfigured.

Estimated resolution time: 1:30pm today
Next update: shortly after 1:30pm today
Nov 18, 10:46 PST

Update - The network and internet access on the first floor of Building 180 has been restored.
Technicians are now working on restoring B459 network and internet.

Estimated resolution time: 11am today
Next update: shortly after 11am today
Nov 18, 09:56 PST

Investigating - There is currently an Internet and Network outage impacting the first floor of B180 and all of B459. The outage appears to have started around 3am this morning.

Our Technicians are investigating.

Estimated resolution time: 10am today
Next update: shortly after 10am today
Nov 18, 09:10 PST

Nov 17, 2024

No incidents reported.

Nov 16, 2024

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 16, 00:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 15, 21:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Every Friday our vendor performs maintenance on the servers hosting the IT Ticket System (https://ithelp.viu.ca) and the IT Client Portal (https://technology.viu.ca).
Level of impact: Service Interruption. Employees will be unable to access the above sites/services during the maintenance window.
Timing: 9pm to 12:00 am, every Friday.
Preparation: None required. If you need to submit an IT Request during the maintenance window please e-mail ithelp@viu.ca. Once the maintenance is complete, an IT request will automatically be created based on your e-mail and you will be e-mailed a ticket number.
Nov 1, 11:07 PDT

Nov 15, 2024

Nov 14, 2024

No incidents reported.

Nov 13, 2024

Maintenance: Server Restarts; Service Interruption impacting employees and students

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 13, 19:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 13, 17:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: All VIU technology including email, files, VIULearn, printing, internet, etc. A complete list of services is included below.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. All services listed will be unavailable for up to 15 minutes during the maintenance window.
Timing: Wednesday 5pm to 7pm
Description: All servers are receiving monthly updates and must be restarted.
Preparation: Please close these systems and all applications connected to these systems before 5:00pm. Do not use these systems during the maintenance period.

Services that may be unavailable for up to 15 minutes between 5pm to 7pm:
- VIU email (including Outlook, webmail and public folders)
- VIU websites (including isapp.viu.ca sites, InVIU, viuresidences.ca, stuweb.viu.ca)
Nov 1, 11:14 PDT

Maintenance: Server Restarts; Service Interruption impacting employees and students

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 13, 08:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 13, 06:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: All VIU technology including email, files, VIULearn, printing, internet, etc. A complete list of services is included below.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. All services listed will be unavailable for up to 15 minutes during the maintenance window.
Timing: Wednesday, 6am to 8am
Description: All servers are receiving monthly updates and must be restarted.
Preparation: Please close these systems and all applications connected to these systems before 6:00am. Do not use these systems during the maintenance period.

Services that may be unavailable for up to 15 minutes between 6am to 8am:
- Internet access on campus
Internet access on campus
- VIULearn online courses (D2L)
- Student and Employee Printing
- Employee and Student U Drives, My Documents and Desktop Files
- Department Share Drives
- Website logins (including VIULearn, VIUTube, VIUBlogs, VIUSpace, InVIU, Unit4/UBW, and isapp.viu.ca sites)
- VIU databases (including Checkbox Survey, Research Office app, StarRez, Tableau)
Nov 1, 11:13 PDT

Nov 12, 2024

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 12, 15:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 12, 10:00 PST

Maintenance: Nanaimo Library Building 305 - 3rd Floor- IT Service Outage; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 12, 14:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 12, 09:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: Building 305, 3rd floor- internet and network services; Technicians will be replacing key network equipment located in the Nanaimo campus Library building(B305). While this work is underway, most of the third floor of B305 will experience an internet and network service outage. This outage will impact the ability to log into shared computers for both employee and students; Access to network and cloud share drives; VoIP phones, both inbound and outbound calling; FindMe printing; and employee remote access to computers on the third floor of 305. Wireless networks will be intermittent, as Wi-Fi Access Points from other floors try to connect the additional devices.
Level of impact: Service interruption. The above services will be unavailable to most of the third floor in building 305 during the maintenance window.
Timing: 9am to 2pm, Tuesday, November 12.
Preparation: Sign into your workstations prior to 9am. Copy any files you need from network or cloud shares to your device before the start of Maintenance. Save any work to a USB stick, as well as to your computer. Once the maintenance window is over, please confirm you are connected to the internet and copy any changed files back to your share drives. Plan to make any calls either outside the maintenance window, from a cellphone, or another location.
Nov 6, 15:04 PST

Nov 11, 2024

No incidents reported.

Nov 10, 2024

No incidents reported.

Nov 9, 2024

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 9, 00:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 8, 21:00 PST

Nov 8, 2024

Nov 7, 2024

Maintenance: MAINTENANCE NAME; Level of Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Nov 7, 01:30 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Nov 7, 01:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: Instructor Stations; VIU Technicians are deploying an update to all Instructor workstations in classrooms and lecture theaters. This update will schedule a re-occurring nightly restart of these workstations. This will help maintain system stability and ensure software updates that need a re-start to complete finish installing.
Level of impact: No Interruption. This update will deploy silently in the background.
Timing: 1am, Thursday, November 7.
Preparation: Please be sure to logout of instructor workstations when your class is finished.
Nov 6, 14:01 PST

Nov 6, 2024