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The last several weeks of the calendar year traditionally represent a time when demands on systems are lower, reducing the risk that ºÚÁÏÉçÇøs, faculty, or staff will be inconvenienced by the disruptions that this work may cause.

Please bookmark or follow us on Twitter/X () for real-time notifications of any disruptions that may occur during these maintenance windows. Also: Please note that this list is not exhaustive and may change, so check back here regularly for updates as the winter term progresses.

If you have any questions about any of this work, please contact IT Help at 513-529-7900 or . To view the full calendar of planned IT activities and the current status of major systems and services, please visit our dashboard at .

Here are some of the activities that we will be doing during this time:

December (Winter Break)

Web Directory will require login

Information security is a priority for IT Services, and a big part of security is making sure systems are updated. This includes the applications we support.

In service to maintaining a high level of security, we will be placing our web directory () behind authentication on December 16, 2024.

This means that you will need to have a Miami username and password to view the contact information housed in the web directory, as you’ll be asked to log in.

More information can be found on the IT News site.

Canvas Duo Bypass to be sunsetted

The CAS Auth Tools application, otherwise known as the app that provides the Canvas Duo Bypass functionality, will be sunsetted on December 16, 2024.

The development teams have been working hard to modernize our applications. Unfortunately, the Duo Bypass functionality will not be supported by future updates to the CAS Auth Tools application, and as we update the app, the Canvas Bypass feature has to be deprecated.

The Information Security Office has carefully weighed the options for the retirement of this application, and in looking at the data, we have found that very few people are still using the app. We believe that the robustness of Duo and general campus familiarity with the tool has removed the necessity for the Canvas bypass functionality.

Please note: This notice is simply informational. IT Services has been communicating directly with the folks that will be impacted by this retirement.

MU-Wireless is going away

As part of an initiative to improve the overall security, features, and performance of the Miami Wi-Fi infrastructure, IT Services will be removing the MU-WIRELESS option from the Miami Wi-Fi environment on Friday, Dec. 20 at 7 a.m.

MiamiOH-Secure is the replacement for MU-WIRELESS and provides increased security standards and leverages enhanced capabilities. It became active for Miami users this past May. You are able to log in to MiamiOH-Secure by using your UniqueID and MUnet password.

More information can be found on the IT News site.

Phone system upgrades

Technicians will be performing system upgrades on the ºÚÁÏÉçÇø phone system on Friday, Dec. 20, starting at 5 p.m. The maintenance will run through the weekend and will be completed by Sunday, Dec. 22, at 10 p.m.

January (Winter Term)

Kubernetes upgrade

IT Services will be upgrading our container environment (AWS EKS / Kubernetes) to version 1.30.

We will upgrade the Production EKS cluster on Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, starting at 8 a.m. This will take around five hours. (The TEST cluster will be upgraded on Dec. 19, 2024 starting at 8 a.m.)

The AWS EKS / Kubernetes environment is the backbone of many Miami applications, including Courselist, FindUser, and the IAM Portal. The nodes in the EKS cluster are an important part of our cloud-based infrastructure!

This is a rolling upgrade, meaning each node of the cluster will be upgraded one at a time while the others continue to maintain the environment – so we do not expect any outages to occur. However, if you experience issues during this maintenance window, please contact IT Help.

Miami ID Card system upgrade

Miami’s ID Card system, CS Gold, will undergo a standard point version upgrade beginning Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. The upgrade will begin at 6:30 a.m. and will last for five hours. Outages are expected to occur intermittently throughout this timeframe, however, primary services will continue to operate in Offline mode. The WebCard Center will not be available at all during the outage window.

As a precaution, before January 7, please tap your Miami ID at electronic doors that you will need to enter that day. For more information about vending and doors that will be affected by this change, see the IT News article.

Network failover testing

IT Services will be doing annual network failover testing on Saturday, Jan. 11, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. This testing enables IT Services to exercise the resiliency of our network systems to provide highly available and stable core communications systems for all Ohio campuses of the University. It’s critical that we ensure the systems can withstand failures without an extended disruption in services.

Between 8 a.m. and noon, brief internet interruptions of five to 10 minutes are expected as we do our testing. Any issues will be analyzed and remediated within the outage window.

Production Oracle Grid Patching

IT Services will be installing security patches to the production Oracle grid infrastructure (specifically on the databases that are on 19c). These patches are currently tentatively scheduled for Jan. 16, 2025, starting at 5 p.m.

These patches will typically be installed in a rolling fashion; one Oracle Grid node at a time. This means the supported databases will not be completely down, and services will be available since they all have multiple instances (except for IAPROD -- see below). However, users may need to log back into their sessions after the upgrade (as some applications don’t handle failover well).

Note on IAPROD: This database (which services OAS/BI) only has one instance. Therefore, during the installation of the patch on this server, there will be a full outage. It will take around 20 minutes. Please be sure to save your work in OAS/BI before this time.

FYI: Vendor maintenance windows

IT Services isn’t the only organization doing maintenance on critical infrastructure during the winter break period.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) planned maintenance

From Dec. 29 at 10 p.m. to Saturday, Dec. 30, at 2 a.m., AWS will be performing maintenance on the internet infrastructure that services our connection to the cloud. Many Miami apps are now running in the cloud on containers, and this service connects those apps with our systems. This means that any Miami-made apps (think the red-and-white screen like CourseList or the Web Directory) may be unavailable if you are on campus.

There is only a potential for outage, but as this is a vendor-scheduled maintenance, we have little insight on how it will impact Miami systems at this time. Technicians will be on standby to assess any issues, but longer outages are not expected.