Information Technology Services Advisory Page Status

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

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional. Voicemail for the Nortel system is also offline.

Our vendor is out of their change freeze, and we are moving forward with moving the last batch of key phone numbers. Our legacy 4-digit local dialing is not compatible with Teams Calling. When leaving a message for someone to call you back, be sure they have your full name and contact info.

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If 911 has been called, have someone nearby call Security Services at 1-250-740-6600 to report the incident to VIU. If the incident is not urgent, call Security Services to request mobile first aid. Further information about First Aid can be found on the Health and Safety Services website.
Security Services can be reached at 1-250-740-6600.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 5pm, Friday, March 14, 2025.
Mar 03, 2025 - 10:45 PST

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional. We have noted that additional phone lines have become inactive over the last two weeks, as these systems continue to degrade.

Our vendor is out of their change freeze, and we are moving forward with moving our next batch of key phone numbers. Our legacy 4-digit local dialing is not compatible with Teams Calling. When leaving a message for someone to call you back, be sure they have your full name and contact info.

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).
Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 5pm, Friday, January 24, 2025.
Jan 17, 2025 - 17:27 PST

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional. We have noted that additional phone lines have become inactive over the last two weeks, as these systems continue to degrade.

To date, we have moved 27 critical external facing numbers into Microsoft Teams Calling. Our goal is to have these lines be able to send and receive calls and have a basic voicemail service. Most of these lines can now receive calls, and some have voicemail set up. Our vendor is currently in a change blackout, and we must wait before moving any additional numbers to Teams

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).
Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 5pm, Friday, January 17, 2025.
Jan 10, 2025 - 16:39 PST

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional.

To date, we have moved 27 critical external facing numbers into Microsoft Teams Calling. Our goal is to have these lines be able to send and receive calls and have a basic voicemail service. Most of these lines can now receive calls, and some have voicemail set up.

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).
Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 5pm, Friday, January 10, 2025.
Jan 03, 2025 - 16:26 PST

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional.

To date, we have moved 27 critical external facing numbers into Microsoft Teams Calling. Our goal is to have these lines be able to send and receive calls and have a basic voicemail service. Most of these lines can now receive calls, and some have voicemail set up.

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).
Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 5pm, Friday, January 1, 2025.
Dec 13, 2024 - 16:59 PST

Update - Currently, some legacy phone systems remain active on the Nanaimo campus. We cannot make any changes to what is left, nor can we estimate how long it will remain functional.

To date, we have moved 27 critical external facing numbers into Microsoft Teams Calling. Our goal is to have these lines be able to send and receive calls and have a basic voicemail service. Once we get a line to this state, we pivot to the next line in the list. With our efforts focused on getting as many lines moved before the old system fails entirely.

Note: The IT Service Desk can be reached at 250-740-6300, or our toll-free number 1-833-902-6301 for your urgent needs.
When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).
Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Updates: The next update will be sent out by 4:30pm, Friday, December 13.
Dec 06, 2024 - 18:08 PST

Update - Currently the Nanaimo campus has some operational phonelines. We cannot control which lines are active. Nor can we provide any surety as to how long they will remain active. Phone service continues to work for all other sites and campus sites.

We are working with vendors to accelerate implementing a replacement telecom solution. However this will take time to set up and implement. Our initial priority will be migrating core, Nanaimo based, public facing business numbers once everything is in place to do so.

Note: The IT Service Desk local numbers 6300 and 250-740-6300 are still offline. Please continue to use our toll-free number to reach out to us with your urgent needs: 1 833-902-6301.

When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium). Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 4:30pm, Friday, December 6.
Nov 27, 2024 - 16:47 PST

Update - Currently the Nanaimo campus has some operational phonelines. We cannot control which lines are active. Nor can we provide any surety as to how long they will remain active. Phone service continues to work for all other sites and campus sites.

We are working with vendors to accelerate implementing a replacement telecom solution. However this will take time to set up and implement. Our initial priority will be migrating core, Nanaimo based, public facing business numbers once everything is in place to do so.

Note: The IT Service Desk local numbers 6300 and 250-740-6300 are still offline. Please continue to use our toll-free number to reach out to us with your urgent needs: 1 833-902-6301.

When on the Nanaimo campus if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium). Campus Security can be reached at 250-740-6512 or 250-753-3812.

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 4:30pm , Wednesday, November 27.
Nov 22, 2024 - 14:56 PST

Update - Our technicians have discovered a key component in the Nortel System has failed. Working with vendors, our team is investigating possible solutions and alternative options.

On the Nanaimo Campus, if you have a medical, police or fire emergency, please call 911 from a cellular or smartphone. If you need First Aid, please visit B315 (Security Office) or B190 (Gymnasium).

Estimated Resolution Time: Unknown.
Next update: will be by 2:30pm tomorrow, Friday, November 22
Nov 21, 2024 - 13:39 PST

Update - 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 1:30pm tomorrow, Thursday, November 21.
Nov 20, 2024 - 16:19 PST

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

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 Operational

Printing Operational

Telephone System Partial 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

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption Mar 18, 2025 10:00-15:00 PDT

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 Mar 11, 2025 - 11:46 PDT

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption Mar 21, 2025 21:00 - Mar 22, 2025 00:00 PDT

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 Mar 11, 2025 - 11:48 PDT

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption Mar 25, 2025 10:00-15:00 PDT

Maintenance - VIU Network Storage (U-Drive, Shares, etc.); Service Interruption Mar 26, 2025 05:00-07:00 PDT

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, March 26.
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 Mar 11, 2025 - 11:50 PDT

Maintenance - wordpress.viu.ca; Service Interruption Mar 26, 2025 06:00-08:00 PDT

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, March 26.
Preparation: Please save any changes and log out your VIU WordPress blog prior to the maintenance window.
Posted on Mar 11, 2025 - 11:49 PDT

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption Mar 28, 2025 21:00 - Mar 29, 2025 00:00 PDT

Past Incidents

Mar 16, 2025

No incidents reported today.

Mar 15, 2025

Maintenance: IT Website and Ticket System; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 15, 02:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 14, 21:00 PDT

Scheduled - What is impacted: IT Client Portal and TDX Ticket System; Our vendor, TeamDynamix, is installing updates to our TDX Ticket System. During this time the IT Client Portal, and the IT Ticket System will be unavailable.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. During the maintenance period Employees and students will be unable to access the IT Client Portal. Additionally, our TDX Ticket System will be unavailable. Emails sent in to update or create tickets during the maintenance window will queue up in their respective inboxes. Once the system is back online, it will begin processing them as normal.
Timing: Beginning at 9pm, Friday, March 14. Ending at 1am, Saturday, March 15.
Preparation: None required.
Mar 12, 13:40 PDT

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 15, 00:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 14, 21:00 PDT

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.
Mar 3, 13:14 PST

Mar 14, 2025

Maintenance: Software Update; No interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 14, 23:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 13, 23:00 PDT

Scheduled - What is impacted: Student Workstations; Technicians will be removing SPSS version 27 and installing SPSS version 29 on some student workstations. Most student workstations with SPSS installed have already made the jump to SPSS 29. These workstations either failed to remove SPSS 27 when SPSS 29 was initially installed or missed the initial change over to SPSS 29.
Level of impact: No Interruption. The changes will happen in the background, with no computer restart is required.
Timing: Beginning 11pm, Thursday, March 13. Continuing until all impacted workstations have been updated.
Preparation: Please save your work and log off your systems at the end of every work day. Do not shut down your systems or they will not receive the update.
Mar 12, 13:35 PDT

Mar 13, 2025

Mar 12, 2025

Maintenance: Server Restarts; Service Interruption impacting employees and students

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 12, 08:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 12, 06:00 PDT

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)
Mar 3, 13:15 PST

Maintenance: Server Restarts; Service Interruption impacting employees and students

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 12, 07:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 12, 05:00 PDT

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 5pm. 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)
Mar 3, 13:16 PST

Mar 11, 2025

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 11, 15:00 PDT

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 11, 10:00 PDT

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
Mar 3, 13:14 PST

Mar 10, 2025

No incidents reported.

Mar 9, 2025

No incidents reported.

Mar 8, 2025

Weekly Maintenance: IT Client and Ticket Portals; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 8, 00:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 7, 21:00 PST

Mar 7, 2025

Maintenance: B305 Student Windows 11 Workstations; No Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 7, 00:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 6, 23:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: Windows 11 Student workstations; Technicians will be updating the Windows 11 licences on the student workstations in B305-R508, and the B305 Library Commons Media Stations. This is a background change and will not impact the Windows 11 experience.
Level of impact: None. This change will occur in the background and will not impact anyone currently using the device.
Timing: 11pm-12am, Thursday, March 6.
Preparation: None.
Mar 3, 13:13 PST

Mar 6, 2025

Maintenance - VIU isapp.viu.ca Tools and Systems; Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 6, 23:30 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 6, 16:30 PST

Scheduled - 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, March 6. This maintenance is anticipated to take 7 hours; 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.
Feb 26, 13:57 PST

Mar 5, 2025

No incidents reported.

Mar 4, 2025

Maintenance: IT Service Desk - Service outage

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 4, 16:30 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 4, 08:00 PST

Scheduled - What is impacted: The IT Service Desk team will be attending all day training with the rest of the IT team on March 4. We will not be taking calls or processing ticked during that time. The team will return, and service will resume on March 5.
Level of impact: Service Interruption. The IT Team will be unavailable to answer calls, work on tickets or respond to urgent requests.
Timing: 8am to 4:30pm, March 4.
Preparation: Please test your equipment ahead of time. Check out our Knowledge Base articles at technology.viu.ca for help with your technology challenges.
Mar 3, 11:44 PST

Weekly Maintenance: VIU Websites; No Service Interruption

Completed - The scheduled maintenance has been completed.
Mar 4, 15:00 PST

In progress - Scheduled maintenance is currently in progress. We will provide updates as necessary.
Mar 4, 10:00 PST

Mar 3, 2025

Microsoft challenge impacting some Teams Calling phone numbers.

Resolved - Microsoft confirms that a recently deployed fix has resolved the issue.

Teams Calling for numbers with an auto-attendant or call queue are processing calls normally.
Mar 3, 13:10 PST

Identified - Microsoft has identified the potential source of the Teams Calling challenge. They have deployed a fix that should resolve the issue.

Summary: A Microsoft challenge has resulted in many of VIU's external facing phone numbers unable to receive phone calls. When calling impacted phone numbers the call ends once dialing is complete. These numbers include the main VIU number, Registration, Facilities, Security, and the IT Service Desk amongst several others.

Estimated resolution time: 1:30pm
Next update: Today by 1:30pm.
Mar 3, 11:51 PST

Investigating - Microsoft is currently experiencing challenges with calls to and from select Teams phone numbers. Impacted numbers are ones set up with either:
- An auto-attendant (e.g. Press one for x-person, press two for Y-option, etc..)
- A call queue (one phone line taking multiple calls via many agents)

As a result, many of our external facing phone numbers cannot receive phone calls. When calling impacted phone numbers the call ends once dialing is complete. These numbers include the main VIU number, Registration, Facilities, Security, and the IT Service Desk amongst several others.

Microsoft technicians are investigating.

If you are calling into a VIU phoneline and it is not going through, please watch this space. Once Microsoft has resolved this issue, we will post an update here. In the interim, if you need to reach the IT Service Desk please use our toll-free number.

Estimated resolution time: Unknown
Next update: Today by 12pm.
Mar 3, 10:29 PST

Mar 2, 2025

No incidents reported.