Docenten on C&CZ News

Matlab R2022b available

Fri, 07 Oct 2022 23:09:00 +0200

The latest version of Matlab, R2022b, is available for departments that have licenses. The software and license codes can be obtained through a mail to postmaster for those entitled to it. The software can also be found on the install-disc. All C&CZ-managed Linux machines have this version installed, an older version (/opt/matlab-R2022a/bin/matlab) is still available temporarily. The C&CZ-managed Windows machines will not receive a new version during the semester to prevent problems with version dependencies in current lectures.

Shredding/destruction of data carriers / hard drives at C&CZ

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 11:29:00 +0200

The Internal Affairs department manages a contract with an external specialized company for the secure destruction/shredding of data carriers. The secure metal container that is used as a temporary cache, can be found at C&CZ as of the new academic year. Employees and students of the Faculty of Science can put data carriers with sensitive data in the container themselves at C&CZ. The C&CZ helpdesk can help recognizing and removing data carriers from desktops, laptops etc.

CCZ moves back to HG03.055

Fri, 15 Jul 2022 10:43:00 +0200

Because there was too much noise in the new rooms, C&CZ will temporarily move back to the third floor of the Huygens building. We expect that the final move to the ground floor will be in December 2022.

June 22, CCZ will move to HG00.051

Tue, 17 May 2022 15:05:00 +0200

To make room for the expansion of IMM departments, C&CZ will move June 22 to the ground floor of the Huygens building. The C&CZ helpdesk will still be directly accessible on the main street with an entrance at HG00.051.

Maple new version: Maple2022

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:39:00 +0200

The latest version of Maple, Maple2022, for Windows/macOS/Linux can be found on the Install network share and has been installed on C&CZ managed Linux computers. License codes can be requested from C&CZ helpdesk or postmaster.

Malicious network traffic will be blocked

Wed, 15 Dec 2021 16:13:00 +0100

In the process of handling the Log4Shell vulnerability, it was decided to use the Intrusion Protection of the FortiNet firewall for all RU network traffic. Don’t hesitate to contatc us if you experience drawbacks.

Donation to free and open source software: Mozilla

Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:38:00 +0100

For the majority of the services C&CZ uses free software and open source software. Therefore, some time ago the idea emerged that the C&CZ employees would vote each year which projects would receive a donation from C&CZ. This year the Mozilla Foundation was chosen. Many people will know the Mozilla Firefox webbrowser and the mailclient Mozilla Thunderbird and maybe use it hours a day. But the Mozilla Foundation does a lot more to try to ensure the internet remains a public resource that is open and accessible to us all.

Peage: workaround for PrintNightmare

Fri, 29 Oct 2021 14:58:00 +0200

C&CZ has a workaround that one can try if on a self-managed/BYOD Windows pc one has problems printing due to the RU Peage PrintNightmare issue. This workaround can be found at the C&CZ Peage page.

Server room network switch powerless

Tue, 12 Oct 2021 11:50:00 +0200

Two modules of an important switch in the main C&CZ server room lost power during the preparation of planned maintenance. This disconnected ca. 75% of the servers in the room from the network. Moving the modules to new PDU’s kimited the downtime to ca. 15 minutes.

License server problem

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 04:40:00 +0200

An error in the management software prevented all license processes from starting correctly at the reboot of the license server. After fixing this error, all licenses were available again.

FNWI network cable administration by ISC networks

Bjorn Bellink — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 18:15:00 +0200

As of October 11, 2021, C&CZ will transfer the management of the fixed data connection points (network outlets, switch ports) in the Faculty of Science buildings (Huygens, Mercator, HFML/FELIX, Goudsmit, Proeftuin) to ILS networks. This concerns both activating/deactivating an outlet (patching) and adjusting settings or solving malfunctions. Taking care of the IP addresses (DNS/DHCP) and the shielding/security by means of Access Control Lists will remain with C&CZ. All requests and malfunctions relating to data connection points can therefore be addressed to the Helpdesk of the ISC as of October 11.

BigBlueButton videoconferencing updated

Simon Oosthoek — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 15:40:00 +0200

The experimental BigBlueButton videoconferencing website has been moved and updated. The new URL is https://bigbluebutton.science.ru.nl/ , you can create your own login, or use the one you had on https://bigbb.science.ru.nl, which is being redirected to the new site. The status remains “experimental”; without warranty.

AVS Science now part of AVS Radboud

Bjorn Bellink — Tue, 28 Sep 2021 13:02:00 +0200

As of October 1, the Science AVS will be merged with Radboud AVS. This reorganization is a result of the improvement programme of facility management and real estate, with bundling of similar services on campus. This bundling creates a campus-wide AV service that will be controlled in its entirety by Campus & Facilities. For FNWI users, the existing contact options (email, telephone) and availability of local support will be continued for the time being in accordance with the existing situation. There will be further communication about any changes in the future. The AVD Faculty of Science resorted under C&CZ since January 2018.

Fileserver 'flock' overloaded

Fri, 17 Sep 2021 14:30:00 +0200

Course software that had been tested caused an overload of the fileserver when it was used by 100 students. The performance of the fileserver was impaired for all users of network shares of this server.

Major RU network maintenance October 9 08:30-15:00

Wim Janssen — Wed, 15 Sep 2021 16:42:00 +0200

ISC network announcement.

Saturday October 9, between 08:00 and 15:00, major RU network maintenance will be carried out. During the maintenance window there will be interruptions of maximum 15 minutes. For the FNWI buildings, the maintenance will end 15:00 hours, for the other RU buildings, it might continue until 19:00 hours.

VPN onbereikbaar

Sat, 24 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

A broken PDU has offlined a switch, which has caused the VPN server to be unreachable (and several other things, which don’t affect users).

Mailman lists sender address change: from sender to list address

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:22:00 +0200

DMARC is increasingly being used as a spamfilter, checking whether the sender ought to send mail via this route. To comply with this for mail sent through Mailman, we will change the From: sender address to the list address. The current:

> From: Some User <some.user@somewhere.domain> > Sender: "listname" <listname-bounces@science.ru.nl>

will be changed to:

> From: Some User via listname <listname@science.ru.nl> > Reply-To: Some User <some.user@somewhere.domain> > Sender: "listname" <listname-bounces@science.ru.nl>

If you filter or forward mail automatically, you might need to change the filter.

Linux login server lilo5 decommissioned

Simon Oosthoek — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 11:10:00 +0200

The support for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ends on April 30th, 2021. Therefore we will turn off lilo5 with this version of Ubuntu on May 1st, 2021. The default login server (lilo.science.ru.nl) points to lilo7 with Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, but lilo6 with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will remain available until support for this version ends in 2023. The signatures of the C&CZ loginservers can be checked. Please also check these tips for improving your SSH settings tips for improving your SSH settings.

Central E-mail/Calendar disruption (exchange)

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 09:30:00 +0200

Due to an emergency maintenance, the central microsoft exchange server is unavailable for 4 hours. This may also affect systems that are dependent on exchange. E-mail and calendar functionality is expected to be restored when the maintenance is done around 13:30 Today.

Maple new version: Maple2021

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 18:01:00 +0200

The latest version of Maple, Maple2021, can be found on the Install network share and has been installed on C&CZ managed Linux computers. License codes can be requested from C&CZ helpdesk or postmaster by departments that take part in the license.

Windows 7 computers disabled in B-FAC domain

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100

Because of security issues the last remaining Windows 7 machines wil be disabled, effective 24-03-2021, as member of the Active Directory Domain B-FAC. Please upgrade these computers to a more up-to-date OS.

Windows 7 computers disabled in B-FAC domain

Wim Janssen — Tue, 23 Mar 2021 10:22:00 +0100

Matlab R2021a available

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 18:36:00 +0100

The latest version of Matlab, R2021a, is available for departments that have licenses. The software and license codes can be obtained through a mail to postmaster for those entitled to it. The software can also be found on the install-disc. All C&CZ-managed Linux machines will soon have this version installed, an older version (/opt/matlab-R2020a/bin/matlab) is still available temporarily. The C&CZ-managed Windows machines will not receive a new version during the semester to prevent problems with version dependencies in current lectures.

CourseFiles

Tue, 23 Jun 2020 16:22:15 +0000

How can I access my course file?

The course files is an network disk that can be attached on campus. Off-campus, VPN must be used to attach this network disk. More info on how to attach a network disk and on using VPN is available. Linux users have the alternative to login with ‘ssh’ on the Science loginserver lilo, followed by a cd to /vol/cursusdossiers.

Windows:

At ‘File Explorer’, choose the option ‘Map Network Drive’, and type in file://cursusdossiers-srv.science.ru.nl/cursusdossiers and pick your drive letter of choice. By doing so, you will link up the network disk to your local computer. The next options are also possible to get a more limited set of courses:

GitLab temporarily unavailable during upgrade

Tue, 16 Jan 2018 23:00:00 +0100

Because of a planned upgrade, gitlab.science.ru.nl and gitlab.pep.cs.ru.nl will not be available. See also: 1

RU network maintenance problem

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 01:00:00 +0200

After the maintenance activities as mentioned below, a large number of workplaces of Molecular Biology at RIMLS did not receive an ip-address. After a reset by ISC of a table in the central RU-firewall, the problem was solved.

RU network maintenance

Mon, 12 Sep 2016 23:00:00 +0200

In the night of 12 to 13 September, maintenance on the Radboud University network will be performed from 11pm to 03am. Several service interruptions may occur, like internet access via SURFnet, mail via Exchange, Bass, Osiris and Blackboard. We advise to check which systems might be affected by this and if possible shift network activity to a different time slot. You also might think about systems with alerts via Internet.

Network drives not available after reboot

Mon, 12 Sep 2016 06:30:00 +0200

After the Monday morning reboot, the Samba network drive service was not running on all Ubuntu 12.04 servers. Reinitializing all Samba configuration files solved the problem. Problems fixed at 08:30 for home servers, 10:25 departmental printers, 12:45 departmental server.

Digital exam environment not available due to maintenance

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 16:30:00 +0200

Due to maintenance, the digital exam environment will not be available for several hours.

Atlas.ti reports: license (almost) expired

Fri, 17 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0200

When starting Atlas.ti, you get the message that the license expires in a few days or already has expired. There is, however, a three-weeks grace period during which the users will see a warning message but can still use the program normally. The vendor has promised to send the license June 24, and to send it earlier next years. The new license key can be requested from C&CZ.

License server reboot problem

Mon, 30 May 2016 06:30:00 +0200

Due to a problem with a new license the license server didn’t go down for the weekly reboot. When this came to attention, the server was rebooted and the problem was solved.

Altera Ansys Accelrys Genesys Hdlworks Idapro Xilinx IntelCompiler Ingr Maple Mathematica Matlab MentorGraphics Mestrelab Topspin Orcad Originlab StateaseRlm

IMAP mail server problem

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 06:30:00 +0100

For unknown reasons, the IMAP mail server was unavailable. The service cyrus-imapd was not correctly started. Starting this service service cyrus-imapd start solved the problem.

IMAP mail server problem

Mon, 15 Feb 2016 11:20:00 +0100

For unknown reasons, the IMAP mail server was unavailable. Mail services were halted after some time because of logging activity. As a temporary workaround logging is now performed using UDP instead of TCP.

Services unavailable due to power outage

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 20:00:00 +0200

A short power dip interrupted desktop computers and some network switches without UPS backup power on the RU campus. It took approx. 20 minutes before the affected switches became fully operational again. A network switch at the Transitorium reported a failed module until it was reset around 8:30 am on Friday morning. For ca. 46 outlets/users the network didn’t function until 8:40. The UVB reported as cause a cable cut at the Kapittelweg. Liander reports a power disturbance an hour later at that location.

GitLab server problems

Sat, 30 May 2015 07:34:00 +0200

A configuration error caused the automatic installation of an older version of GitLab (7.7.1) over the the most recent version (7.11.4). Because the GitLab version did not correspond to the state of the underlying database, what caused multiple problems. Among which the gitlab shell for ssh access and inaccessibility of some parts of the web interface. The problems were solved after upgrading to version 7.11.4.

License server reboot problem

Mon, 11 May 2015 06:30:00 +0200

Today the license server booted without configuring the network. The cause of the problem was an error in a configuration file. This has been corrected.

Affected licenses:

Altera Ansys Accelrys Genesys Hdlworks Idapro Xilinx IntelCompiler Ingr Maple Mathematica Matlab MentorGraphics Mestrelab Topspin Orcad Originlab

IMAP mail server upgrade next monday night

Mon, 16 Feb 2015 23:00:00 +0100

The IMAP server will be replaced by a new server next Monday night. During the night, no Science mail can be read from the server, because then the most recent mails will be synchronized to the new server. Mail can be sent in this period, but new mail will start being delivered on the new server from 07:30. A word of warning, one could login on the old server with the first 8 characters of the password, the new server only accepts the full password.

Network switch problem

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 16:42:00 +0100

Due to a configuration fault in a C&CZ server switch it became unreachable. Therefore some servers and services were unreachable as well (nameserver, mail etc). After a quick fix the systems were up and running again.

Power dip Huygens building Saturday, January 17

Sat, 17 Jan 2015 07:54:00 +0100

Saturday morning, during maintenance by UVB and Liander, there were a few short unintended power dips in the Huygens building. A large part of the network switches does not have a UPS and thus restarted. After 09:11 all switches were operational again.

Background: January 10 and 17, maintenance has been carried out on the power transformers in the Huygens building. This work should be carried out once every 5 years. Because a power failure of 6-8 hours (duration of maintenance) is unacceptable for the Faculty of Science, last year bypasses have been constructed, to make the transformers able to replace each other. Beforehand, the chance that a power failure should occur, was thought to be particularly small. The next time such a service is planned, in 2020, everyone will be informed in advance.

Again IMAP mail server problem

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 17:46:00 +0100

There was again a problem with another harddisk of the IMAP server. This made the server unusable. A reboot solved the problem.

IMAP mail server problem

Wed, 24 Dec 2014 09:20:00 +0100

The IMAP server got overloaded again which could not be due to user usage. The server was rebooted since all I/O processing was stopped and we could not kill any processes. Snapshots have now been completely disabled. It took quite some time before the server had all disks and filesystems in working order.

IMAP mail server problem

Mon, 15 Dec 2014 06:30:00 +0100

There was a problem with a failed harddisk of the IMAP server. This slowed the machine down so that it was practically unusable. The problem was solved by replacing the disk.

Failure cn56 disk

Mon, 07 Jul 2014 08:00:00 +0200

One of the mirrored disks failed. We didn’t manage to rebuild the raid set with a new disk. The system is reinstalled with two new disks. After that, data from /scratch could be recovered from one of the old disks.

Network drive migration

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:00:00 +0200

The network drives will be migrated to a new server. During the migration, the network drives will be unavailable.

Affected shares:

acfiles, bioniccell, bio-orgchem, celbio1, CSGI-Archief, Csg-Staf, ds, evsf2schijf1, giphouse, gissig, gmi, hfml-backup, hfml-backup2, highres, impuls, introcie, isis, kaartenbak, microbiology, microbiology2, microbiologyftp, milkun2, milkun3, milkun5, milkun6, milkun7, milkun7rw, mwstudiereis, neuroinf, olympus, permissies, puc, secres2, sigma, sigmaalmanak, sigmacies, sigmaexchange, sigmasymposium, Soheto, splex, spmdata3, spmdata4, spmdata5, spmdata6, spmdata7, stroom, thalia, ucm, vsc, vsc1, vsc2, vsc3, vsc4, vsc5, vsc6, vsc7, vsc8, vsc9, vsc10, vsc11, vsc12, vsc13, vsc14, vsc15,wiskalg, wiskunde

Reboot of login servers after network drive migration

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 16:00:00 +0200

The planned move of network drives from an old to a new server caused a lot of “stale NFS file handles”, which made it necessary to reboot some login servers.

IMAP mail server problem

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 14:05:00 +0200

The IMAP server got overloaded again. Restarting the IMAP service was required to bring it back in operation. We think it is related to snapshots and therefore regularly remove invalid snapshots from now on.

IMAP mail server problem

Tue, 27 May 2014 14:05:00 +0200

The IMAP server got overloaded. Restarting the IMAP service was required to bring it back in operation.

Power dip December 3

Tue, 03 Dec 2013 09:36:00 +0100

Tuesday morning around half past nine, there was a short power dip for RU/UMCN, probably due to a switch error at Liander. This power dip, that is not listed on the power interruption website, made all systems restart that were not on UPS power. Because only the network switches in Huygens wing 1 and 7 are on UPS power, a lot of users lost their connection to the network, including wireless and IP-telephony, for about 20 minutes. Apparatus that restarted faster than the network, might have needed an extra restart to restore the connection to the network.

Again IMAP mail server problem

Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:35:00 +0100

Just like 3 days ago, the IMAP server got overloaded after noon. It took a reboot to bring the service back in operation. We suspect that our making of a backup-snapshot triggers this and now have disabled the snapshot during working hours.

IMAP mail server problem

Fri, 25 Oct 2013 13:23:00 +0200

During an extra backup the IMAP server got overloaded. It took a reboot to bring the service back in operation.

Wireless @ru.nl authentication problem

Wed, 23 Oct 2013 14:30:00 +0200

Yesterday afternoon around 14:30 the ISC conducted a seemingly innocent maintenance on the LDAP-server, but immediately after that auth-requests from Radius were no longer serviced. This made it impossible for wireless users to authenticate with their u/s/e number. Users in the realm @science.ru.nl were not affected by this.

Power dip October 22, ca. 11:00

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:55:00 +0200

Tuesday morning around 11 o’clock, there was a short power dip for RU/UMCN. This power dip, that is not listed on the power interruption website, made all systems restart that were not on emergency power. Because only the network switches in Huygens wing 1 and 7 are on emergency power, a lot of users lost their connection to the network, including wireless and IP-telephony, for about 5 minutes. Apparatus that restarted faster than the network, might have needed an extra restart to restore the connection to the network. A department reported that a departmental printer did not survive the power dip.

Again mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 10 Oct 2013 00:04:00 +0200

Again a Science user supplied his Science password to phishers. We notice that because Internet criminals use these passwords to get into the Science mail servers (horde webmail, smtp) in order to send spam.

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Fri, 06 Sep 2013 10:13:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

And again mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:22:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

And yet again mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:12:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Fileserver chunk needs reboot

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 07:30:00 +0200

Affected shares:

arb botgarden ccs4 excienwi exoarchief FIT gi1 gipsy isis-dhz itt iwwr1 leonardo mercator micord molspec olcwis ons pvs ratio tzacad vb vscxray WiskundeToernooi zeegras

Yet again mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 29 Aug 2013 05:30:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Again mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 22:38:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 22 Aug 2013 01:45:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Lilo3 reboot for different IP number

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 11:00:00 +0200

Today lilo3 appeared to have an incorrectly chosen IP number. A reboot fixed this.

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 23:50:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:48:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 27 Jun 2013 17:48:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 09:00:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Sun, 23 Jun 2013 15:54:00 +0200

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Disk server pile offline

Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:30:00 +0200

Pile did not shutdown properly during weekly reboot due to a kernel panic. Solution: Executed power-cycle of the system

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 11:45:00 +0100

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

Disk server pile offline

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 06:30:00 +0100

Was waiting for interactive input after reporting a warning (^d)

Network problems due to installation of Matlab R2013a

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 13:00:00 +0100

Yesterday Matlab R2013a has been installed. Today at 13:00 hours many servers started to automatically copy this 5.4 GB to their local disc. Some parts of the network were overloaded by all these copying, which made accessing the network slow for many users. The distribution of this software will now be scheduled to happen over a longer period, primarily outside of working hours.

More IP addresses for ru-wlan and Science (wireless)

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Monday, March 4th 2013 at 18:00 hours, the number of IP numbers that is available in the FNWI buildings for ru-wlan and Science will be doubled. Because ru-wlan moves to a new range, users of ru-wlan will lose connectivity for at most 15 minutes. There was already a plan to replace ru-wlan and Science within the FNWI buildings by the RU-wide Eduroam and ru-wlan, but the wireless network usage has grown so fast that we can not wait for this plan to be realized. Last week some wireless users at times could not even get an IP address, although the lease time had been brought down to 30 minutes. Therefore this temporary measure became necessary on such short notice.

Short interval in wireless network service

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100

On Monday feb 18 at 6:00 pm there will be some maintenance at the wireless network which will effect the following locations at Toernooiveld:

FNWI cellar A1 FEL Huygens: Library of Science, terrace behind Huygens, cantine, room HG-1.132 KDV1 en KDV2 Linnaeus building Logistic Centre Mercator I Mercator II, ground floor and 7nd floor Mercator III, 2nd floor Transitorium FNWI (ACSW and FELIX) UBC

We expect the service will be completely available again within 30 minutes.

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0100

The last few days three Science users have supplied their Science password to phishers. We notice that because Internet criminals use these passwords to get into the Science mail servers (horde webmail, smtp) in order to send spam. This time they even used a fake copy of the horde Science webmail website. The big differences with the real horde Science webmail website are:

the URL is not within science.ru.nl
the connection is not a secure https connection, there is no lock
the username and password do not arrive at C&CZ servers, but in the hands of Internet criminals.

PLEASE: do not naively click on a link in an e-mail!

New Radius server for ru-wlan and eduroam (wireless)

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

On Monday, January 28th 2013 at 8:00 am, one of the servers that is being used by the wireless network of the RU, will be replaced. This replacement will affect you as a user of the wireless networks ru-wlan and eduroam: There will appear a new certificate when connecting. You can just accept this, after which the connection should work. If this appears not to be the case, then it’s best that you remove your old Eduroam- respectively your old RU-WLAN settings first to activate the new connection .

Homeserver bundle crashed

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Because the file server crashed, it had to be rebooted.

LDAP server vernieuwd

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Older Fedora desktop PC’s may experience startup problems after an upgrade of one of our LDAP servers. A fix is available and has been applied. If you still encounter this problem, please contact C&CZ.

Mail problems after supplying password to phishers

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0100

Horde webmail again appeared to be misused for sending spam. This could happen because a naive user gave the Science password to phishers/spammers. After first stopping horde, early Friday morning we disabled the account of the naive user and restarted horde. Saturday morning it appeared that this short spam-outbreak had caused administrators of hotmail.com to add our mail server to their blacklist. Therefore we switched the IP-number of this mail server Saturday morning.

Services unavailable due to power and network outage

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0200

During the night of wednesday on thursday a power outage resulted in a network outage in the basement computing facilities. The power was restored to the network equipment using a bypass thus circumventing the UPS at about 09:15. Further checks implied that most servers had not become powerless so that most services became automatically available again. Network drivers on “bundle” had to be restarted in order to get access to home directories for a large number of users. Furthermore, several websites had to be restarted which made it possible for PC’s to boot properly. During the day, an unrelated issue with the RAID storage of “plus” has been fixed as well granting access to the following network shares: sofie, ams*, molchem, mb*, encapson, milkun4, snn, neuropi, digicd. carta, … Since wireless devices were unable to acquire IP addresses, i.e. gain access to the network, a split-brain situation was diagnosed within the DHCP service which was resolved around 13:00.

Announced downtime: home server "pile" down for reboot

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0200

Next Friday morning, the home server “pile” will be rebooted. There are problems with the snapshots, which could make a reboot take more time. Therefore we schedule the reboot for early next Friday.

Horde webmail server down because of spam

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 23:05:00 +0200

Yesterday evening, horde webmail appeared to be misused for sending spam. This could happen because a naive user gave the Science password to spammers. First we stopped horde. This morning we disabled the account of the naive user and restarted horde.

Announced downtime: home server "pile" down for replacement

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +0200

Next Tuesday morning, the home server “pile” will be replaced by a new, more powerful server. Because the data have been synchronized with the new server, there will not be much downtime.

Postponed: Announced downtime: home server "pile" down for replacement

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +0200

The downtime below has been postponed, because we had a few questions on the new server, that could not be answered in time. To be continued…

Next Tuesday morning, the home server “pile” will be replaced by a new, more powerful server. Because the data have been synchronized with the new server, there will not be much downtime. The new server should be very dependable: hardware RAID-6, double processors and power supplies and a 5-year support contract from the supplier. The performance has improved, e.g. by using hardware RAID with a 1 GB write cache with battery backup.

Partly announced downtime for mailman + horde webmail server

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 09:09:00 +0200

This morning, horde webmail appeared to be misused for sending spam. This could happen because naive users gave their Science password to spammers. After we found out who the users were and had them change their password, we decide to also replace a defective cpu fan. Therefore also Mailman mailing lists will be down from 13:00 to 14:00 hours.

SMTP server blacklisted by MS Live Hotmail

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 03:08:00 +0200

This morning, users reported that mail from smtp.science.ru.nl to hotmail users was being bounced by hotmail. We have tried to let the hotmail administrators change this fast, but when this took too long, we changed the IP-number of our smtp-server.

Planned service interruption: file server with problems

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 17:03:00 +0200

A hardware failure of a boot disk of the fileserver stack was reported Friday morning June 22. We decided to repair this after working hours. Thus at approximately 17:00 the defective boot disk was removed from the machine and replaced by a spare one. Enabling the disk, making it bootable, restoring file systems and rebooting the machine (after removing all snapshots) took a lot of time. When this was resolved Friday evening, the NFS/SMB fileservice was not active on the mounted filesystems. It took a reboot Sunday evening to resolve all problems.

Tracelab server poly defective

Thu, 21 Jun 2012 14:12:00 +0200

A hardware failure of the server poly was reported at 2012-06-21 14:12. After a restart of the machine, it stopped working again. No more recoveries were attempted and an identical spare machine was outfitted with the disks from the defective server. Disks had to be synchronized before making the machine available again.

Servers without electric power

Thu, 07 Jun 2012 13:45:00 +0200

A power failure in a rack in a server room brought some C&CZ servers down. After less than two hours all problems were dealt with. Affected systems ware mainly: postvak (Science mail server), bundle (user homedisk), heap/stack (network discs), resser/kookpunt/brievenbus/rustug (mail transport smtp servers)

Planned Service: website-databases and maybe Linux clients

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:00:00 +0200

A defective hard disc has been replaced in a server, but the server needs to be rebooted to ensure that this is reboot proof. The MySQL database of roughly 70 websites will therefore be down for a short time. Since this server also provides the Kerberos authentication for Linux clients, Linux clients might encounter service interruptions during a short period.

Fixed phone problem

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0100

You can’t reach certain fixed phones at the university right now, mobile phones and Skype do work ok though.

Planned Service: Limited computer services

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 07:00:00 +0100

A backup cooling system will be installed in our main computer room. Therefore the air conditioning system must be switched off, which means that most of the computer facilities in this room must be shut down. This includes the cluster nodes cn00 through cn53 and many of the web- and file- (network share) servers. It is advised to expect a very limited service level. We will try to keep all home directories and the mail system available. For detailed information about the impact please contact C&CZ.

Printer lp5

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Printer lp5 has been moved to HG00.089. You can’t use this printer at the moment, there’s a problem with the power supply unit.