University Systems News for November 2013

Accomplishments this month:

• Our network technicians are concentrating on completing the wireless infrastructure upgrade project by focusing on the Residences. Almost 97% of the access points from the old wireless infrastructure have now been upgraded, and only 35 in Residences are left to go!
• In parallel to the wireless infrastructure upgrade project, a wireless optimization and expansion project is also in progress; this project includes surveying upgraded areas to evaluate if expansion of the wireless service is required. Through this project, the Library has had additional wireless capacity added and the Medical Sciences Building will be next.  This is a challenging project because we are actively responding to client requests for additional capacity at the same time as surveying campus!
• We participated in Supercomputing 2013 in Denver, Colorado as part of an international team of high energy physicists, computer scientists, and network engineers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Victoria (UVic), the University of Michigan, Vanderbilt, and the University of Sao Paulo.  This year, UVic, with its partners BCNet and CANARIE, focused on a demonstration of Intercontinental OpenFlow which was tested spanning Victoria, Denver, Sao Paulo, Chicago, New York, Amsterdam, and CERN (in Geneva).
• Our Cascade web content management system (CMS) was successfully upgraded to version 7.6.
• We upgraded our central enterprise Symantec Endpoint Protection Server so that clients using Windows 8.1 and Mac OS 10.9 can obtain endpoint software for their computers.
• We have completed the development and testing of a standard Windows 8.1 image for our TSC standard PCs.  However, we are still not recommending clients upgrade due to hardware/software incompatibilities.  More information can be found in our bulletins regarding Windows 8.1 and Mac OS 10.9.
• Our Video Conferencing rooms in the David Turpin Building are being upgraded with larger, higher quality displays and we are adding additional room capacity.  These upgrades are planned to be complete by January 2014.
• We developed a software image for the Positive & Eudaimonic Psychology (PEP) Lab and deployed 12 workstations with this image; this gives the lab a much improved lab environment using surplus equipment from our Student Computing Facilities.
• We have always provided free demonstrations and tutorials on how to use classroom technology, but now we have begun to add instructional videos!
• Our PaloAlto NextGen Firewall was put in-line with research and commodity internet traffic at our network border.  The purpose of this device is to protect us against malicious network traffic and attacks.  When installing such a system, there is always a risk of false-positives; however, there were only two minor issues with websites being blocked, and they were quickly addressed.  In the first week of operation, over 30 million events were blocked!
• The Limit. Secure. Report. awareness campaign went live in conjunction with efforts from Privacy, Communications, and Campus Security staff.
• Better Voicemail is coming! Notifications were sent out to departments about our exciting new Better Voicemail service on November 15, and 55 out of 157 have responded; the remaining departments will be contacted to ensure we have current information regarding who is using what telephone local so we can ensure a smooth transition to Better Voicemail.
• The computing classroom located in LIB 034j is used for training by a number of groups for many of our services (e.g. Cascade CMS, SAS Portal); we swapped equipment from our drop-in student computing facility areas with this classroom, resulting in faster iMacs with a newer version of Mac OS to support training in this classroom.
• We have completed the migration of all workstations in the Student Union Building to Symantec Endpoint Protection.  These workstations are now protected and will regularly self-update using the supported, recommended platform for antivirus protection at UVic.
• A bug was discovered in older version of our Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) central enterprise backup software and we have been working with clients to upgrade their software  to the latest version.  This has also been a good opportunity to clean up old TSM backup nodes that are no longer being used, and free up storage space on the backup server.  Once clients have been upgraded, all workstation backups will be migrated to a new TSM server.

Projects Snapshot:

• PC0377, Wireless Optimization and Expansion Project Charter, was granted approval to plan.  This project seeks to optimize and expand the new wireless environment by surveying each campus building and identifying areas that need enhancing, by either relocating existing access points or purchasing additional access points and cable infrastructure.
• PC0378, EDC1 Research Router Replacement Project Charter, was granted approval to execute.  The goal of this project is to improve network reliability and reduce operational costs for research by upgrading a 10-year-old router supporting the research connections in EDC1 (Enterprise Datacentre 1).
• PC0379, Gustavson Database Project Charter, was granted approval to execute.   The goal of this project is the creation of a new APEX database system for the Gustavson School of Business for the purposes of storing and tracking data for internal processes such as recruitment, admissions, student advising, graduation and accreditation. The database and its output will be used for tracking, reporting, business continuity, client service and business analytics within the Gustavson School of Business (GSB) and the various program offices.  The urgency behind this project is to replace an ageing Microsoft Access database, and the functionality achieved will help serve as a template for similar systems for other departments that manage similar information.

Customer Satisfaction

Our Computer Help Desk and Desktop Support Services use a ticketing system to track issues they are working on.  When an ticket a closed, clients are provided with the opportunity to complete a customer feedback survey using a 5-point scale.