Data Center move will shut down all network systems

By David Miller, Editor

Faculty and students will temporarily be lost in cyberspace as the college’s Data Center moves to new quarters and installs updated hardware.

Most college computer services will be unavailable from noon, Friday, Dec. 22, until Jan. 2, when the Data Center completes its move into the Robert P. Todd Science, Engineering and Math Center, said James Riha, Information and Instructional Technology Services chief technology officer.

During that time, Riha said, the college e-mail system, Internet access, Datatel, MineOnline and WebCT will be out of service. Network services such as WI-FI, and the local and wide area networks, also will be unavailable.

“The only thing that will be working during this break period is voice mail,” he said.

As of noon, Dec. 22, Riha said, college computers will be functional, but anything connected to a network device or to the wireless network — such as network printers — will no longer work because all network wiring connections will have been severed.

What this means, Riha said, is students will have a limited time period in which to check their grades online for the fall semester.

“Grades will be processed through the student information system, and then students will have access to their grades online from Thursday morning through noon on Friday, the 22nd,” Riha said.

Riha explained the full effect the shutdown will have on students.

In addition to not having access to grades, students won’t be able to pay their bills or register for classes.

Riha said, although there may be some inconveniences, the timing is the best anyone could hope for.

“Because of the significance of this move, this is the only time it really makes sense,” he said.

OCCC student Jennifer Dobry said she’ll be ready for the transition.

“I don’t really think it will affect me,” Dobry said. “I already know that it’s going to be down, so I’ll just plan ahead of time for anything I need to access [Mine Online] for.”

Although most students will be gone for break, the Recruitment and Admissions Office will remain open until 8 p.m., Dec. 22, said Admissions Services Assistant Lyndsie Strem-low.

She said the office will be adversely affected by the inability to access Mine Online and the college e-mail system.

“I won’t be able to look up course availability for students and I won’t be able to e-mail my co-workers in order to get some pretty important messages across,” Stremlow said.

“Students may call and we won’t be able to give them answers to their questions because the college’s Internet is down. It’s very inconvenient.”

Riha said anyone who uses OCCC e-mail is cautioned to use an auto-reply message in advance to inform senders of the planned shutdown.

For directions on how to set up the auto-reply message, users can visit http://itnews.occc.edu/emaildown.html.

Riha said, during the transition, e-mails can’t be sent or received and won’t be stored, even when the system is backed up.

“Since the connections will have actually physically been cut, people are just going to get some sort of response from the e-mail sender saying that the e-mail is undeliverable. It literally can’t find the machine on the other end.”

In addition to the auto-reply, Riha said, students and adjunct faculty who may still be using their former e-mail accounts should forward any important e-mails from those accounts to their new college e-mail account, as the old accounts will no longer be accessible after the transition is made.

Riha said the college plans to use the down time to kill two birds with one stone.

New hardware also has been purchased to update the college’s information technology system and will be simultaneously installed in order to create as little inconvenience as possible.

“A lot of the servers that we’re running are older servers,” Riha said.
“It’s time to replace them all.”

Release 17, the current version of Datatel, will be replaced with Release 18 because, in July, the vendor will no longer support the current version, said Riha.

“We’ll start doing our testing and then, during spring break, we will actually make the conversion to everyone using the Release 18 version of Datatel.”

After the move is made and all systems restored, it will be business as usual, Riha said.

He said students and faculty will likely not notice a change has been made.

“It’s really a big, technical re-write that gives us the potential to add additional capabilities and features to the student information system,” Riha said.

Editor David Miller can be reached at editor@occc.edu.