Scheduled Maintenance Announcement: DSA Data Center Move (Service Outage)

The Division of Student Affairs (DSA) is relocating significant IT equipment to a new data center. Multiple DSA IT services will be degraded or unavailable during this scheduled maintenance window.

Maintenance Window:

Saturday, November 23, 2019, 12:00am (Midnight) – Sunday, November 24, 2019, 12:00pm (Noon), CST

Impact to Customers:

Early Saturday morning DSA’s Department of Information Technology (DoIT) will begin turning off IT equipment for the move. At that point, the impacted services will be degraded or no longer be available. Technology Services – Student Affairs estimates equipment and impacted services will be available later on Saturday but reserves the entire two day window in case the move process takes longer than expected or if there are unforeseen issues.

Non-Impacted Services:

  • TAMU Email
  • DSA Websites (Division, Departments, Programs, Student Organizations, etc.)
  • DSA Security Camera System
  • Counseling and Psychological Services – Computer Logons, File Shares, Medical System
  • Rec Sports – Member Management System
  • Residence Life – Housing Management System
  • Student Health Services – Medical Systems
  • University Center & Special Events – Event Management System

Impacted Services (Many services will be impacted. This list contains commonly used services and is not meant to be exhaustive.):

  • DSA Computer Logons (You can logon BUT it will take about 3 minutes and your desktop icons/files will be missing. Computer usage will be degraded.)
  • DSA File Shares
  • DSA Custom Applications – Corps Apps, Sport Clubs, StuAct Online, etc.
  • Corps of Cadets – Uniform Management System
  • MSC – ELIAS and OPAS website

Details:

DSA has significant IT equipment to host its enterprise services at multiple data centers (one TAMU on-campus and one commercial off-campus) for high availability and redundancy. Texas A&M University completed the construction of another on-campus data center in Fall 2017. TAMU SAP 29.01.03.M0.05 approved January 15, 2019, requires that all “significant IT equipment”, also referred to as “high or moderate impact information resources”, must reside in a Texas A&M enterprise data center. DSA is relocating its significant IT equipment from the commercial off-campus data center to the new TAMU on-campus data center.

This type of equipment relocation is often referred to as a “forklift move” because enterprise hardware is powered down, disconnected, and physically moved to a new location where it is re-installed, powered on, and services brought back online. Forklift moves happen very infrequently but when they do occur they require a longer maintenance window and impact more services.

If you have any questions or concerns about impacted services or if you experience any issues with IT services outside the scheduled window, please contact the Technology Services – Student Affairs Service Desk.

Current Status: