Author name: csstaff

Date: Tuesday, August 25, 2015 (06:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department public login servers (tux and opus, aka
\”penguins\”) and cycle servers (soak, wash, rinse, and spin, aka \”cycles\”)

What is happening:
During this window, these systems will have their OSes reinstalled and
upgraded to the latest distribution version, Springdale 7.1.

SPECIAL NOTE: As we are reloading the Linux (penguins and cycles) servers,
all crontabs will be deleted. If you have crontabs that you wish to
persist, you will need to back up your crontabs before the downtime, and
restore them after.

Why is it happening:
This is part of normal maintenance of the publicly-accessible systems, and
will bring newer versions of installed tools and software. This is the
first step in bringing this newer software to other parts of the CS
infrastructure.

Please note that with this upgrade, some older versions of software, or
some packages which are no longer part of the distribution, may no longer
be available. We encourage you to verify your workflows after this upgrade
to ensure you are able to continue your work. CS Staff stands ready to
assist with any unforeseen trouble.

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

If this downtime will cause you undue hardship, or if you have specific
concerns before the upgrade, 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: Tuesday, August 18, 2015 (05:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department computing infrastructure, including web
servers, public login and cluster servers, file service, and more.

What is happening:
The file server supporting most CS Department computing services will have
its OS and server software upgraded. During this time, all public login
servers and the ionic cluster will be shutdown and rebooted in order to
minimize the risk of data corruption or loss.

Why is it happening:
This upgrade is part of the regular maintenance of our storage system, and
is expected to improve the performance of the system.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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: Tuesday, March 17, 2015 (07:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department \”cycles\” systems (soak, wash, rinse, and
spin).

What is happening:
The cycles systems will be shutdown and rebooted after a firmware update.

Why is it happening:
Due to an uptime-related firmware bug on the current cycles servers, the
systems have recently become unstable. In order to avoid a possible
unplanned outage of these systems, they will be power cycled and have the
affected firmware updated to a version no longer affected by the bug.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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

Due to inclement weather, this downtime, previously announced for
Tuesday, is being rescheduled by one day to Wednesday, January 28, 2015.
Please contact CS Staff immediately if this causes you undue hardship.

Sincerely,
CS Staff

—– Original Message —–
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 1:41:46 PM
Subject: [downtime] CS System Downtime, Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 06:00-08:00

Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 (06:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of CS Department computing systems and services including, but
not limited to, e-mail, web service, cycles, penguins, and the ionic
cluster.

What is happening:
During this window, OS patches will be applied to update our managed
systems to Springdale 6.6. After patching, all systems will be rebooted.

Why is it happening:
This is part of regular maintenance to keep systems up-to-date.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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

*** This downtime has been rescheduled.***

Date: Tuesday, January 27, 2015 (06:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of CS Department computing systems and services including, but
not limited to, e-mail, web service, cycles, penguins, and the ionic
cluster.

What is happening:
During this window, OS patches will be applied to update our managed
systems to Springdale 6.6. After patching, all systems will be rebooted.

Why is it happening:
This is part of regular maintenance to keep systems up-to-date.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime

Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 (05:30-06:30)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS department computing using rinse.cs.princeton.edu

What is happening:
rinse.cs.princeton.edu will be rebooted.

Why is it happening:
rinse..cs.princeton.edu is running out of resources and has numerous
defunct processes.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime

Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 (05:00-05:30)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS department computing using wash.cs.princeton.edu

What is happening:
wash.cs.princeton.edu will be rebooted.

Why is it happening:
wash.cs.princeton.edu is running out of resources and has numerous defunct
processes.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime

Date: Thursday, August 28, 2014 (06:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department wired network

What is happening:
During this window, our core router will undergo a chassis swap. This will
disrupt all CS Department wired networking in the CS building, CITP, 221
Nassau St, and at the HPCRC. Wireless networking should be unaffected.

Why is it happening:
The core router has a backplane hardware problem which is causing some of
its ports to work improperly. After extensive troubleshooting to try to
solve the problem without disruption, it has become clear that a chassis
swap is in order.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime

Date: Thursday, August 14, 2014 (06:00-07:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department wired network.

What is happening:
Our core router and a few other switches will be rebooted in order to
refresh their firmware versions. During this time, all wired networking
will experience disruptions.

Wireless networking in the building should be unaffected.

Why is it happening:
This firmware update is part of the routine maintenance of the network, but
is also intended to address a few minor issues we presently face.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime

Date: Thursday, August 14, 2014 (07:00-08:00)

Who is affected:
All users of the CS Department public login hosts (cycles.cs.princeton.edu
and penguins.cs.princeton.edu).

What is happening:
These systems will be patched and rebooted.

Why is it happening:
During the recent reinstall of the cycles and penguins machines, problems
with the update repositories resulted in several updates not being applied.

We will post updates to the status page: http://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
_______________________________________________
downtime mailing list
downtime@lists.cs.princeton.edu
https://lists.cs.princeton.edu/mailman/listinfo/downtime