The winter 2021 issue of the IST Newsletter is now available! Read about the Office 365 change management program, see the latest WCMS 3 project updates, learn how to protect yourself against zoom-bombing, and learn more about some of the projects we've working on right now!
Resolved (March 25, 1:57 p.m.):Users should be able to send and receive Microsoft Teams chat messages again.
Questions or concerns?Please contact theIST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
What is happening?Users may be unable to send and receive Microsoft Teams chat messages. Microsoft is investigating the issue; updates will be provided when available.
Questions or concerns?Please contact theIST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
What is happening?Configuration changes will be made to O365 inbound and outbound email routing.
When is this happening?Saturday, March 27 from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
What is the impact tousers?Userswill be mostly unaffected by this change, however in certain circumstances emails may receive a bounce message during the maintenance time above. If this happens, users will need to resend the email after the maintenance time has ended.
Questions or concerns? Please contact theIST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or ext. 44357.
Resolved (March 16, 9:22 a.m.):Microsoft has closed the service alert and services have been restored. Users should have access to Microsoft 365 services again.
Persisting issues?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.
Update (March 15, 8:30 p.m.): While service health has improved and many users are no longer experiencing problems, Microsoft is taking further steps to identify and remediate isolated residual impact for all Microsoft 365 services including Teams, Exchange services, SharePoint Online, Intune, Outlook.com, and the admin portal.
Questions or concerns?Please contact theIST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.
What is happening?Users may be unable to access multiple Microsoft 365 services including Teams, Exchange Online, and Yammer. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is investigating.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.
What is happening?The launch date for WCMS 3 websites has been revised from April 26 to June 29, 2021.
Why is there a delay?The WCMS 3 project team needs more time to finish work on the WCMS 3 platform, which includes core (Drupal 8) functionality as well as technical setup on our new cloud hosting platform, Pantheon. The delay is required in order to release a WCMS 3 platform that contains critical bug fixes and go-live required features.
As announced in the July 15 Daily Bulletin, we have been reviewing how telephone services are provided to campus and planning a move to a primarily softphone model. Part of this proposal includes the eventual elimination of telephone rental charges. It won’t be realistic to eliminate telephone rental charges for May 1, 2021, the date we had originally proposed, and had started discussions with stakeholders around. Even with the progress that has been made, there are still some matters to resolve, and more time is needed.
The current charges will remain as is ($8/month for S4B and $18.95/month for most other phones) and IST will continue to work with stakeholders over the coming year with a goal to eliminate the rental charges by May 1, 2022 instead.
Resolved (March 15, 8:39 a.m.):The automated system for processing Teams and Planner requests is now functioning as expected.
Questions or concerns? Please contact theIST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or ext. 44357.
Whatishappening?The automated system for processing Teams and Planner requests is currently unavailable.ISTisinvestigating with the vendor. Users will still be able to submit requests for Teams and Planner but there may be processing delays until further notice.
Questions or concerns? Please contact theIST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca or ext. 44357.
Whatishappening?Standard Windows patching will be performed on theSkypefor Business environment during the dates below.
Whenisthishappening?
Note:The failoverprocesstakes approximately 30 minutes.
Whatisthe impact tousers?Userswill disconnect and reconnect for each of the instances above, howeveractive calls shouldbeunaffected.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
Update (March 24, 1:50 p.m.): The Skype queue call issues have been resolved. Updated timelines for the remaining EC2 maintenance will be announced at a later date.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
Update (March 19, 10:47 a.m.):The remaining work for Skype Server patching will be put on hold until the current Skype for Business issues are resolved. Some users in the Skype for Business MC pool may experience intermittent issues with Skype queue calls.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
Update (March 17, 2:05 p.m.):Part of the Skype Server patching originally planned for Friday, March 19 at 10:00 p.m. will now be performed today:
Note:Thefailoverprocess takes approximately 30 minutes.
What is the impact to users?Users will disconnect and reconnect for each of the instances above, however active calls should be unaffected.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
What is happening?Standard Windows patching will be performed on the Skype for Business environment throughout various dates mentioned below. The work will be completed throughout the week that each pool is out of service.
When is this happening?
Note:The failoverprocesstakes approximately 30 minutes.
What is the impact tousers?Userswill disconnect and reconnect for each of the instances above, howeveractive calls shouldbeunaffected.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
What is happening?The OUAC eINFO site URL that was previouslyelectronicinfo.cahas been updated to. The former URL now redirects to a casino site. If you have any links to this site on any website(s), you should update the URL to go to the OUInfosite.
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service Desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.caor ext. 44357.
What is happening?It will no longer be possible to log on to the University’s wireless network (eduroam) using an“@edu.uwaterloo.ca” email address.(Note, @edu.uwaterloo.ca addresses were converted to @uwaterloo.ca addresses in April 2020.)
When will this change take place?Monday, March 1, 2021.
What is the impact?After this date, the only acceptable login for the wireless network will be the individual’s username (up to 8 characters) followed by“@uwaterloo.ca”, e.g.d17hende@uwaterloo.ca
Questions or concerns?Please contact the IST Service desk,helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca.