DoIT News

Blackboard Update Issues:
Blackboard utilizes a data feed from UMBC’s PeopleSoft student administration system which updates student enrollments in classes and changes in official course instructors. These changes are batched to Blackboard 4 times a day (2AM, 8AM, 2PM & 8PM). A corrupted file from our PeopleSoft system resulted in this process breaking on Sunday, August 30th. The problem was identified on Thursday, September 3rd and was fixed by 10AM. Unfortunately, this problem resulted in some students not being able to see classes in Blackboard that they were registered for. We have addressed the problem and implemented an automated system to check for this error condition in the future.

Campus Router Issue:
On Monday, August 31st around 11AM there was a brief network outage on campus lasting approximately 5-10 minutes. The router failed over to a redundant internal system as it was designed to do. We worked with the vendor and identified a bug in the current version of code that will need to be updated to fix this condition. In order to provide as much stability as possible during the start of the semester we will delay updating the code until after September 15th. New versions of code can create collateral problems that are unexpected. Therefore, we will monitor the existing condition and reassess when to apply the new code if it occurs again.

Campus Phone Switch Problem
There was a problem with the uninterruptable power supply (UPS) that provides battery backup to the phone switch located in the TRC building. This phone switch provides service to Potomac, Patapsco, Facilities Management and the Warehouse. The problem occurred when a brief power outage or brown out would cause the faulty transformer on the UPS to trip the master electric breaker. A temporary UPS was installed on Wednesday night at 7PM to prevent this from occurring again. The UPS vendor will be replacing the faulty component sometime in the next two weeks.