Early morning system test will interrupt core data systems
July 8, 2019
On Saturday, Aug. 3, Â鶹´«Ã½F Facilities Services will be shutting down power to the entire Butrovich Building to test electrical systems and prepare for the installation of a new 800-kilowatt backup generator for the systemwide data center later this year.
The shutdown will mean that Â鶹´«Ã½ data systems will be offline for up to 10 hours starting at 2 a.m. Those systems include Banner and related applications (TEM/Workflow, Vista Plus, App Manager, Degree Works), Blackboard (Learn, Transact), OnBase and video conferencing. Contractors hope to have power and network systems restored by noon.
In addition to the systemwide outages, the Â鶹´«Ã½ Fairbanks main campus, including the Butrovich Building, and all Â鶹´«Ã½F community campuses and outreach centers will lose on-campus internet access during the shutdown. Â鶹´«Ã½ and Â鶹´«Ã½F users will also lose access to VPN and any shared file servers hosted in the Butrovich data center.
The shutdown will affect all building systems in Butrovich, with the exception of water, sewer, sprinklers and fire alarms.
Systems and services not hosted in the Butrovich data center should be available, such as email, Internet services for Â鶹´«Ã½A and Â鶹´«Ã½S and their affiliated community campuses, etc.
The backup generator, once installed later this year, will allow the Â鶹´«Ã½ network to remain online during a long-term power outage. Backup generators have become increasingly important as a safeguard against natural disasters that can result in days or weeks of power loss.
The work on Aug. 3 will include three hours to power down the building and network, four hours of work on the electrical system and three hours to bring the building and network back online. The electrical system must be completely powered down to ensure safety for the technicians doing the work.
University employees in the Butrovich Building can help by powering down their workstations and other electrical loads at 5 p.m. on Friday Aug. 2.
Additional updates will be communicated prior to the testing.