Service Status

We are currently experiencing issues with quota reporting in BEAR DataShare; 1) The total quota is not being reported accurately and is changing from day to day and 2) some folders are reporting as having 0KB when they actually contain files. We are currently testing a fix to this problem from our Suppliers and hope to implement it imminently.

In the meantime if you would like to know your actual quota, please raise a Service Desk ticket and we can let you know.

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We are receiving reports that some University staff have not been paid correctly in this months payroll.

If you think you may be affected by this, please contact payroll in the first instance using the contact details below:

You can log a query via the form on the intranet here, or  call them on 0121 41 43030

Further payroll information can be found at https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/finance/payroll/index.aspx

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In the morning, Contensis fails to load the dashboard and is unable to save changes made to any pages. This is due to Contensis being unable to access the database. We can manually correct this and should be able to do so by 8am each morning. We are also investigating how to repair this as a priority.

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We are experiencing an issue with the University’s email service which means that some University staff and Postgraduate Researchers (PGR) have been unable to access their emails, calendar and/or contacts via Outlook and Outlook on the web, or have lost access to older (archive) email.

What are IT doing to resolve the incident?

We have restored the ability for affected users to send and receive emails and are currently working with affected staff to restore any data that went missing during this incident. Missing data has included email, calendars and contacts.

Our technicians are visiting and/or contacting staff individually to restore their mailbox data. The methods of restoration differ depending on the affected user. Factors include where their mailbox was hosted and the way they accessed mail before this happened.

The process of restoring email, contacts and calendar files back into Outlook takes approximately 24 to 48 hours to complete for each person; for some larger mailboxes, it may take a little longer. We are either personally visiting affected users across the University or remotely logging in to carry out the necessary work.

Why is it taking so long?

Our top priority is to restore mailbox data, including mail, calendars and contacts for people who lost their primary email accounts. We appreciate that this is taking a lot longer than any of us want.

We have now completed a partial (approximately 1 year) recovery of historic data for the majority of affected users. We will continue this stage of recovery until all users have their data restored as closely as possible to the point at which this issue occurred.

Unfortunately, there is no way to speed up this process, and we thank you for your continued patience.

What about my archive email?

For staff that have lost older (archive) email, the process of recovering these will happen in the next phase of our efforts. Once we have restored everything we can for the users who lost access to their primary email accounts, calendars and contacts, we will begin restoring archive email. This process may take a few weeks to complete; again, this is dependant on the size of the archive files.

Update 8 October, 15.51pm – archive email update

Archive folder restoration works are currently on hold whilst we deal with the campus network issue.

This Knowledge Base article has answers to many of your email issue questions

Our technicians are continuing to visit affected staff to restore their mailboxes. Meanwhile, if you have any questions relating to the issue, we have created a Knowledge Base article that answers the most frequently asked questions. You can read the the article at https://kb.bham.ac.uk/KB14648

Affected shared mailboxes

If you are having issues with opening shared mailboxes in Outlook, please try opening the mailbox through mail.bham.ac.uk by following the steps in this Knowledge Base article https://kb.bham.ac.uk/KB11724

How to help us restore your services

• MacOS users: If you discover that you are affected by this issue, please do not run Outlook. It is very important that you raise a call with the IT Service Desk so that we can work with you to in person recover your email data.
• Until our staff have restored Outlook for you, please do not use it. You can continue to use Webmail https://mail.bham.ac.uk to access your email in the meantime.
• If your PC is connected to the University network domain: If you discover that you are affected by this issue, please restart your device as soon as possible so that we can automatically retrieve files from your PC. This will help us ensure we can restore your Outlook information including contacts and calendar appointments.
• If you are not using a device connected to the University network domain or you are working off-campus and discover that you are affected by this issue: Please contact the IT Service Desk 0121 414 7171 so that we can help you retrieve the files we need to restore your information.
• If you lost your archive email and think that you will be able to manage without it being restored, please do let us know via the IT Service Desk itservicedesk.bhamm.ac.uk or call 47171.

Initial Situation Notification: 27 August 2019

We are currently experiencing an issue with the University’s email service which means that some University staff and Postgraduate Researchers (PGR) are unable to access their emails via Outlook and Outlook on the web.

If you know of someone in your team or department that may be affected by this issue, please explain this information to them and refer them to the IT Service Desk or the IT Service Status Page https://status.bham.ac.uk/.

What is the current situation?

We are working closely with our Microsoft partners to resolve this issue as quickly as possible but cannot yet confirm when we expect normal service will resume.

Affected users may experience any of these three issues:

Email sent to affected accounts during this time will remain in a delivery queue and the sender will be notified that delivery of their email is delayed. If delivery fails, the sender will be notified. Email sitting in the queue when service is restored will be delivered at that time.

What do I need to do?

• Affected users may need to back up certain email data before we restore their accounts. We will try to provide direct advice and help wherever possible, but may not be able to do so in all cases so we will provide information on how to do that on the Status Page https://status.bham.ac.uk/.
• If you log a call with the IT Service Desk please provide an alternative email address so that we are able to update you directly.

Further updates

Please refer to this page for any further updates.

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The Core Systems Operational Team (CSOT) are performing routine System Maintenance on Oracle Fusion & Taleo.

For Oracle Fusion this will take place between 5.00pm Friday 15 November 2019 and 8.00am Monday 18 November 2019.

For Oracle Taleo this will take place between 11:00pm Monday 18 November 2019 and 2:00am Tuesday 19 November 2019.

Oracle Fusion

You will be unable to login to Oracle Fusion from 5.00pm until 8.00am on Monday morning, and it is important that everyone is logged off during the maintenance period to ensure the work is a success.

Fusion Taleo will not be impacted during this period so external candidates will not be impacted.

Oracle Taleo

You and external candidates will be unable to login or use Taleo from 11:00pm on Monday 18^th until 2:00am on Tuesday 19^th November.

 What do I have to do?

• Ensure you are logged out of Core Systems (Oracle Fusion & Taleo) by 5.00pm on Friday 15 November 2019.
• Please do not start any long running operations/tasks before 5.00pm on Friday, unless you are sure they will complete in time.
• Use the Service Status page for information and updates
• Core System may be slower than normal when you initially use the system after the maintenance is complete which is normal.
• Integrations will be paused from 5:00pm Friday 15 November 2019 – 8:00am Monday 18 November 2019. You will not see data within some systems until Tuesday 19 November 2019.

If you experience an outage outside of the maintenance timeframe, please raise a call at the IT Service Desk.

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It is important that we carry out regular maintenance on our IT infrastructure to ensure that our IT services and core-business applications continue to function reliably when we need them most.

In order for us to do this we maintain a rolling schedule of agreed ‘maintenance windows’ for when the planned work will normally be carried out. These maintenance windows have been scheduled in advance after consultation with senior University Committees.

The dates of our maintenance window have been chosen so that they minimise disruption to the day to day work of the University as much as possible. They are scheduled during the working week but out of term time and avoid critical operational periods such as the financial year-end, A-level results processing and clearing, Exam Board meetings, Degree Congregations and Admissions.

The date of the next maintenance window is Tuesday, 17 December.

Unfortunately, it is unavoidable that there will be some disruption to a number of University services whilst we carry out this maintenance work. We will provide further updates about which services will be affected nearer to the time.

A schedule of all our scheduled major infrastructure maintenance windows is available on the intranet at https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/it/teams/infrastructure/Major-infrastructure-maintenance-windows.aspx

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IT Services are conducting some security improvements to our firewalls. These security enhancements are part of a series of works approved by the University’s Information Security and Management Group (ISMG).

These works will reduce the risk of unauthorised access from outside our network.

What to do if you use services that connect in from outside our network

Please advise your local College/End User Services IT Manager of all your known external services before close of business on 18/10/19.

Why this is important

So that we can ensure your service is included in our approved connection lists following these enhancement works.

What will happen if we don’t know about an external service before these enhancements?

Any services not identified before we make these changes will not connect once the enhancements are complete. It will be possible to reconnect after the changes are made, however you will need to advise us to add your service to our allow rules.

What to do if you notice any interruption to your service

Please contact your local College/End User Services IT Manager. Find who your local contact is at: https://intranet.birmingham.ac.uk/it/teams/infrastructure/end-user/index.aspx

We will update this information when we being activating these enhancements.

Find more information on IT Security at http://itsecurity.bham.ac.uk/

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We are pleased to say that this weekend’s Banner upgrade was successful and the system is now back online. The URL to use to access Banner has been sent via email to people who need to access the system. You now need to login with your standard University username and password.

If you have any problems accessing Banner please speak to the designated expert user(s) in your team, or Jas Dhanjal or Dami Kelani from IT Services, who will be based in Aston Webb throughout this week and next to offer support.

This upgrade was a key requirement of Council and has secured our data system so that, working together across the University, we can begin to make changes that will support our strategic aims in the years to come. It has involved 18 months of hard work from the StARS programme and colleagues in IT Services, Academic Services and beyond. We are very grateful for their contribution to this team effort.

Recommended browser:

The recommended browser for Banner 9 is Google Chrome. If you do not have this installed on your PC or laptop you can download it from the Software Centre on your PC.

Occasional misleading warning message:

Users may see a blue warning message when entering a Banner page. Please ignore this if you previously had write access to the page in Banner 8 and continue as normal. This is a known issue that will be corrected soon.

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