May 2026

Date: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 (09:00-10:30)

Who is affected:
Anything physically connected to the CS building network in the offices and
open areas. Please note, this will not impact wireless connectivity or any
of the equipment in room 002.

What is happening:
We will be upgrading the firmware on our network switches in room 218. This
action will result in a brief network outage of approximately 3 minutes in
each respective location. This upgrade will be conducted one switch at a
time to both reduce risk and only cause brief isolated outages.

Why is it happening:
The firmware on these switches is in need of an upgrade in order to patch
for security issues, bugs, and to implement new features on our network
switches for future projects.

We will post updates to the status page: www.csstaff.org
as necessary.

If this downtime will cause you undue hardship, please contact
csstaff@cs.princeton.edu immediately, so we can discuss options to reduce
any negative impact. Your patience is appreciated.

Sincerely,
CS Staff

Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 (7:00-9:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department publicdb database server, including any
dependent web properties and all CS Department Beowulf high-performance
computing cluster users, known as ionic and neuronic.

All users of CS Department administrative web properties (Dropbox, CS
Guide, the Main website, etc.)

What is happening:
During this window, the publicdb database server will be upgraded to the
latest Redhat distribution. No data loss is anticipated. However, while
Slurm jobs will continue, new jobs cannot start during the migration.

In addition, the database server underlying the administrative systems will
be upgraded. During the upgrade, all database-dependent administrative
systems will be unavailable. This includes the CS Dropbox service, the main
website, the CS Guide, ADM, and any content feeds provided by CS Staff.

Why is it happening:
publicdb database server MariaDB will be upgraded from 10.5.22 to 10.5.29.

phpMyadmin web interface will be upgraded from version 5.2.1 to 5.2.3.

This is part of regular maintenance to enhance system performance and
security.

We will post updates to the status page: www.csstaff.org
as necessary.

If this downtime will cause you undue hardship, please contact
csstaff@cs.princeton.edu immediately, so we can discuss options to reduce
any negative impact. Your patience is appreciated.

Sincerely,
CS Staff