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2008 Technology Update Schedule
Archives of known infrastructure changes are cataloged here for use by
information technology consultants on campus. Current technology updates
can be found at the TechUpdates
homepage: www.princeton.edu/techupdates.
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Details
December 2008: IT's Academic new edition available
online
IT's Academic is a blog for and about Princeton University faculty use of
technology for teaching and research. Almost all of the stories featured
on IT's Academic include links to podcasts should you wish to hear the talks
for yourself. The staff of IT's Academic wishes you a joyous holiday season
and a happy, healthy and productive 2009!Go to IT's Academic at:
www.princeton.edu/itsacademic.
November 2008: Vista and Leopard operating system upgrade
clinics offered to students
OIT held special clinics to help students upgrade their operating systems
to Windows Vista or Apple OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The clinics were held at the
OIT Solutions Center in
Frist, beginning October 28 and ending in November. If your computer meets
the minimum hardware requirements, OIT recommends upgrading to the current
version of the operating system for security as well as performance reasons.
If you have general questions about your computer you may also contact the
OIT Help Desk at 609-258-4357.
November 2008: OIT launches online collaborative
tools; WebSpace and SharePoint
OIT is pleased to announce the availability of WebSpace and SharePoint, two
new collaborative services designed to facilitate and support the sharing
of information and communication of ideas among people working towards a
common goal. WebSpace is primarily for managing and collaborating with files,
such as Word and Excel documents. SharePoint is primarily for team communication
via a website with useful widgets including discussion boards, calendars,
and document libraries. OIT can assist you in identifying the most appropriate
tool(s) and services to meet your specific needs as well as provide guidance
and technical support to make sure that electronic collaboration is successfully
deployed for your group. For more information on these services and OIT contact
information, please see:
kb.princeton.edu/9905.
October 2008: Class of 2008 accounts close on October
1
On October 1, Class of 2008 student netIDs were terminated. The OIT Digital
Student Suitcase was available to help with necessary tasks. Once accounts
were closed, access to the Suitcase application was no longer available.
Call the OIT Help Desk at (609) 258-HELP (4357), option 1 if you have any
questions.
October 2008: Windows Service Packs distributed Oct.
1 to student Windows computers
On Wednesday, October 1, Microsoft operating system upgrades (called
Service Packs) were distributed to all student Windows Vista and XP computers
that did not already have them. These upgrades were necessary to increase
Microsoft Windows operating system security. Students with computers that
needed these service packs were notified by e-mail. The download and installation
of Windows XP Service Pack 3 takes approximately 20 minutes; the distribution
and installation for Vista Service Pack 1 takes approximately 45 minutes
and requires two or three reboots. For best results, leave your computer
on, plugged in, but logged out! For more information regarding these upgrades,
please see: kb.princeton.edu/9768.
October 2008: OIT central file server (H: drive)
quota increase to 5GB
All faculty, staff and student central file server (H: drive) quotas have
been increased to 5GB as of October 15, 2008. This is a very substantial
increase over the past 1GB quota. <p>If you have been paying for additional
H: drive quota and you need no more than 5GB, you will no longer be
billed.Combined with e-mail and quota upgrades last spring, this increase
significantly expands access to fully backed-up central storage for your
documents and messages. Please see
http://kb.princeton.edu/4926 for
details of quota allocations.
October 2008: Improved and updated IMAP WebMail program
launches
On Tuesday, October 21, the IMAP WebMail program was replaced by a new, updated
program. The new WebMail replaces the old WebMail and is accessible from
the Princeton home page WebMail links or directly at
www.princeton.edu/webmail.
The new IMAP WebMail offers the following features: attractive and easy to
use graphical interface, enhanced sorting and searching, and improved
organization of messages into folders. The old IMAP WebMail will continue
to be available until the spring of 2009. There is no change for Exchange
(OWA) WebMail users. If you have any questions, please contact the OIT Help
Desk at helpdesk@princeton.edu, or call 8-HELP (4357).
September 2008: New IT Security website provides
policy, procedure guidance
The University IT Security Officer and the Security & Data Protection
Group of OIT are pleased to announce the launch of a new Information Technology
Security website at
www.princeton.edu/itsecurity.
Information security is a vital component of the work that is done in the
interest of the University, and the new website has been designed to increase
awareness of this important aspect of our IT security infrastructure. We
are all responsible for protecting sensitive information that can be captured
and used for identity theft, sale of institutional information and research,
and many other malicious acts. Both technical and non-technical information
is presented in a way that makes this protection easy for us all. Please
take time to read the information within www.princeton.edu/itsecurity and
take the steps necessary in your personal and professional lives to strengthen
and protect the University information infrastructure. The IT Security website
includes important information about phishing, the fraudulent requests for
personal information that seem to arrive regularly. As the site emphasizes:
Don't fall for phishing scams. No reputable organization, no Princeton University
office, including the OIT Help Desk, will ever ask you to give account, password,
or other confidential information like Social Security number or birth date
by e-mail or by phone. For further information, contact the University's
IT Security Officer, Anthony Scaturro, at 8-4611 or scaturro@princeton.edu.
September 2008: OIT academic support services groups move
to Lewis Library
Several of OIT's academic support services have found a new home in the Frank
Gehry-designed Lewis Science Library. Please see the websites indicated for
details of location and service hours.
September 2008: Special OIT hours and events during
Orientation Week
OIT staff were available at numerous times and locations throughout Orientation
Week to help students with Princeton's information technology resources.
OIT was present at Residential College Move-in, at Freshman and Graduate
Sign-in, and at the Frist Campus Center Open House on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
OIT support services at Frist provided extended hours at the Solutions Center
as well as special Tiger TV/network cable pick-up and phone sales booths.
All students were welcome to visit and take advantage of these services.
A complete
schedule
for OIT Orientation Week events was available online.
August 2008: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to distribute
August 26 to University computers
On Tuesday, August 26, 2008, at 12:01 a.m., the Microsoft Windows Software
Support Server (WSUS) distributed software to install Vista Service Pack
1 (SP1) on all University Windows Vista computers. (This excludes all
undergraduate student machines to be updated later in the fall, as well as
all DeSC computers which were upgraded to Vista SP1 on Monday, August 18.)
Distribution and installation takes approximately 45 minutes and requires
two or three reboots. OIT recommends that on Monday evening the 25th, Vista
users log off but leave their computers on. This will allow the installation
to run automatically overnight and will lessen the impact on day-to-day business
the next morning. For more information regarding Windows Vista SP1, please
see:
Microsoft's
Quick Start website. If you have any questions, please contact the OIT
Help Desk at 8-4357 or helpdesk@princeton.edu.
August 2008: Interruption to central computing
services August 23, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
An electrical power outage is required at one of the University data centers
to carry out service upgrades. This work will improve reliability and increase
capacity for central computing services. OIT has worked to find a time that
will cause as little disruption as possible. The work has been scheduled
for Saturday, August 23, from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. The following services
will not be available during the outage:
- Student e-mail on IMAP1/mailserver3
- Digital Student Suitcase (service will be up, but no requests will work)
- Almagest
File shares:
- SWS file share
- SCAD file share
- The Art Museum's /PUAM file share
- Streaming for the Language Resource Center, WWS, Library Reserves
- Webtrend logs
- oraback for Oracle logs
- Athletics Audio
The campus community should expect that most other central computing services will be available during this period, but you should check the OIT Outage announcement regarding this outage for details. The OIT Help Desk will be open throughout the outage to answer any questions you may have. The OIT website at www.princeton.edu/oit will also be updated with any information as necessary. OIT regrets the inconvenience this outage will cause and thanks you for your patience.
August 2008: PuTTY now recommended as the University's
default SSH client
The University's recommended SSH client has changed to a collection of Open
Source SSH clients called PuTTY. The software is freely licensed for download
from http://www.putty.org under the MIT
License. Distribution to University departmental DeSC computers will be announced
at a later date. The PuTTY clients are simple to install and very stable.
PuTTY is popular in the Linux community, which is likely to be the largest
group of users on campus. For those who want a secure graphical FTP interface,
OIT also recommends the use of FileZilla, a free FTP solution found at
http://filezilla-project.org.
Information about SSH at Princeton University can be found at:
www.princeton.edu/ssh. If you
have any questions, please contact the OIT Help Desk at 8-4357 or
helpdesk@princeton.edu.
August 2008: Managed Macintosh Environment (MME) available
on Wednesday, August 13
OIT has been working to put more options in place for departmental Macintosh
users. If there are Intel Macintosh users in your department who would like
to take advantage of a centrally managed computing environment -- similar
to that of DeSC for Windows computers -- the information below will be of
interest. The Managed Macintosh Environment (MME) went into production Wednesday,
August 13, 2008. Though MME has many of the same policies as DeSC (for example,
no administrative access, centralized software distribution, etc.), not all
University business applications are certified to be compatible in this
environment. Please go to the MME website at
http://department.princeton.edu/its/managed_environments/mme
for more detailed information including business application incompatibilities,
computer setup instructions, and how to schedule OIT assistance. Please contact
picss@princeton.edu or 8-6034 if you have any questions.
August 2008: Windows XP Service Pack 3 distributed August
5 to University computers
On Tuesday, August 5, 2008, at 12:01 a.m., the Microsoft Windows Software
Support Server (WSUS) distributed software to install the Microsoft Windows
XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) on all University Windows XP computers. This excludes
all undergraduate student machines that were updated later in the fall, as
well as all DeSC computers which were upgraded to XP SP3 on Monday, July
14.This distribution is necessary to increase Microsoft Windows XP operating
system security. The download and installation of this service pack is reported
to be relatively transparent to end users. If you are prompted by Windows
Update to install Service Pack 3, please accept the prompt so that the install
can complete. For more information regarding Windows XP SP3, please see:
Microsoft
Quick Guide regarding XP SP3.
August 2008: PeopleSoft 9 outage and upgrade beginning August
1
An important upgrade to PeopleSoft Human Resources and Student Administration
will go live on Tuesday, August 5. This upgrade to PeopleSoft 9 brings a
new look, new features, and ease of use for students, faculty and staff.
Note that PeopleSoft University Financials will not be affected by this upgrade.
In order to bring the new version live it will be necessary for PeopleSoft
Human Resources and Student Administration to be unavailable from Friday,
August 1st, until Tuesday, August 5th. Members of the University community
have been reading about the changes during the spring semester, and many
have already taken advantage of the valuable training offered by OIT. For
information about continuing training opportunities and further details about
new features, see
www.princeton.edu/pshelp, in
particular the "What's New in Version 9" link. Questions can be directed
to the OIT Help Desk at 8-HELP(4357) option #3.
July 2008: Windows XP Service XP 3 to be distributed to
University computers
On Tuesday, August 5, 2008, at 12:01 a.m., the Microsoft Windows Software
Support Server (WSUS) will distribute software to install the Microsoft Windows
XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to all University Windows XP computers (excluding
undergraduate student machines). All DeSC computers were upgraded to XP SP3
on Monday, July 14, and those computer users may ignore this message. This
distribution is necessary to increase Microsoft Windows XP operating system
security. The download and installation of this service pack is reported
to be relatively transparent to end users. For more information regarding
Windows XP SP3, please see: the
Microsoft
online announcement. If you feel it necessary, please communicate
this information to your departmental users and remind them to log off but
not power off at the end of each day. This best practice will ensure that
their workstations receive security updates and software distributions and
their files can be backed up.
July 2008: Interruption to central computing services
July 19, 6 a.m. to noon
An electrical power outage is required at one of the University data centers
to install new electrical equipment. This work will improve reliability and
increase the capacity of the electrical infrastructure for central computing
services. OIT and the Facilities department have worked to find a time that
will cause as little disruption as possible. The work has been scheduled
for Saturday, July 19, from 6 a.m. until noon. The following services will
not be available during the outage:
- Student e-mail on IMAP1/mailserver3
- Public servers: phoenix and fedora (though the other hats and arizonas will be available)
- PeopleSoft Report Repository for HR/SA and the messaging connection between CRM (HR Helpdesk and PS)
- Digital student suitcase (service will be up, but no requests will work)
- Almagest
File shares:
- SWS file share
- SCAD file share
- The Art Museum's /PUAM file share
- " Streaming for the Language Resource Center, WWS, library Reserves
- Webtrend logs
- oraback for Oracle logs
- Athletics Audio
Additionally, any services which use ldap.princeton.edu for authentication will experience timeouts or slowness, including Blackboard, many websites, PeopleSoft, and anything that requires authentication using your LDAP password. The campus community should expect that most other central computing services will be available during this period, but you should check the OIT Outage announcement regarding this outage for details. The OIT Help Desk will be open throughout the outage to answer any questions you may have. The OIT website at www.princeton.edu/oit will also be updated with any information as necessary during this outage.
May 2008: Digital Student Suitcase available for graduating
students pack their files and e-mail
A suite of tools is available to help graduating students pack their IT property
(such as e-mail messages, H: drive files, and Blog entries) and remove their
computers from the Princeton domain. For details, see
www.princeton.edu/suitcase.
May 2008: OIT central file server quota now
1GB
OIT is pleased to announce that all faculty, staff, and student central file
server (H: drive) quota has increased to 1GB as of May 5, 2008. This quota
upgrade quadruples the storage space available for your files. If you have
been paying for additional H: drive quota and you need no more than 1GB,
you will no longer be billed. Combined with a similar e-mail quota upgrade
in February, this increase should significantly expand access to fully backed-up
central storage for your messages and documents. Departmental quota has also
increased to 20GB. Please see
kb.princeton.edu/4926 for details
of quota allocations.
May 2008: PeopleSoft Human Resources and Student
Records Upgrade
PeopleSoft Human Resources and Student Records applications will have a new
look, new features, and improved ease of use, following a year-long 2007-08
upgrade project. These changes, effective August 2008, will affect: all employees
who use Human Resources Self Service to enroll in benefits, change personal
information, and update emergency contacts. Also affected will be faculty
and administrative users of Campus Community, Human Resources, Benefits,
and Payroll Systems, Course Information System, Graduate and Undergraduate
Admissions, and Student Records. Please note that University Financials will
not be affected. More information will be sent to specific affected groups
later in the spring. Information sessions, online demos, and hands-on training
will be scheduled in late spring and summer. Keep an eye on your inbox for
additional details. If you would like to take an early look at some of the
new features, you may also visit
www.princeton.edu/pshelp.
April 2008: OIT Security Check-Up Service: Make sure
your departmental information is secure
OIT is offering a new service to help departments ensure that sensitive data
they may have on local systems is protected. Offered at no charge to both
academic and administrative departments, the OIT Security Check-up Service
includes a review of all aspects of protecting sensitive data. (The University
defines nine pieces of information as sensitive. See the
University's Information
Security Policy for more information about confidential information.
Departments may have additional information that they may need to keep
confidential.) OIT and representatives of the department will meet to map
out the details of the review. The work is typically a team effort between
OIT staff, departmental IT staff, and departmental data stewards. Once the
review is complete, the team will provide a report on the overall system
and data security and appropriate recommendations. Contact the University's
IT Security Officer, Anthony Scaturro, at 8-4611 or scaturro@princeton.edu,
with any questions -- and to schedule an OIT Security Check-up for your
department!
March 2008: OIT dotNet service launches
This small-scale, shared, development environment enables departments to
build web applications that interact with Microsoft SQLServer databases and/or
Microsoft Access databases. It uses Microsoft's Internet Information Services
(IIS) web server, which supports application development environments and
languages that use Microsoft's .NET technological foundation, such as Visual
Studio, Microsoft SharePoint Designer, and CodeCharge. For more information,
please see: kb.princeton.edu/9900.
February 2008: OIT offering departmental on-site training
for Microsoft Vista and Office 2007
Is your department planning to migrate to Windows Vista and Microsoft Office
2007 in the near future? Did you know that OIT offers on-site training for
your group to help them make the transition more smoothly? OIT offers the
following migration classes on-site at your department. For more information,
send e-mail to
training@princeton.edu.
January 2008: Vista and Leopard operating system upgrade
clinic for SCI computer users
OIT is hosting a series of clinics to assist currently enrolled students
upgrade the operating systems of their 2006-07 and 2007-08 SCI computers
to Windows Vista Ultimate and/or OS X 10.5 (Leopard). The clinics are being
held at the OIT Solutions Center and begin January 28, 2008 and continue
into February. Five weekdays, one weekday evening, and two Saturdays are
scheduled. To participate, register for the clinic and reserve a time slot
online at:
https://oitscs.princeton.edu/unstuc
Vista Ultimate and OS X 10.5 (Leopard) media will be available at the clinic at an educational discount price. For computers that require additional RAM, memory will be installed as part of the upgrade. There will be a charge for the cost of the memory, but no charge for the installation. Details, including clinic dates, system requirements, and charges are provided at this site. Be sure to read everything carefully and feel free to call the OIT Help Desk at 258-4357 (HELP) with any questions.
January 2008: MyFax now offered for sending and receiving
faxes from your computer
MyFax is a convenient Internet service that lets you send and receive faxes
through your e-mail, and replaces the OIT Campus Fax Gateway as the recommended
and supported process for faxing from your computer. MyFax requires no specific
hardware or software; all you need is Internet access, an e-mail address,
and a MyFax account. On Thursday, January 31, 2008, the OIT Campus Fax Gateway
service will be discontinued.
The University has created a corporate account with MyFax for faculty and staff so that billing can be centrally managed. University sponsored MyFax accounts are only available to faculty/staff with a valid departmental project grant. For an overview of the service and a link to the MyFax account request form, please see: www.princeton.edu/fax. MyFax is also available to students through a personal account if a personal credit card is used. See the www.myfax.com web site for more information.
January 2008: DeSC Windows migration to Vista swings into
high gear
The next phase of the DeSC Windows Vista Migration project swings into high
gear. The Desktop Systems Council requests that departments upgrade or replace
all computers over the next eighteen (18) months with the DeSC Windows Vista
image. To assist departments, OIT has enhanced existing services including
computer setup for migration, Vista and Office 2007 training classes, and
others services as needed for the duration of this project. For more information,
see: www.princeton.edu/desc
Archived technology updates are also cataloged, beginning June, 2003.
- Archived technology updates for 2007
- Archived technology updates for 2006
- Archived technology updates for 2005
- Archived technology updates for 2004
- Archived technology updates for 2003
- E-mail tech-updates@princeton.edu to have a change included in this list.
Last Updated:Monday January 19 2009