Computer systems to go offline Dec. 3, 4

Enterprise Technology Services will take ITD’s computer network offline for an extended periodSaturday and Sungay (Dec. 3, 4) to replace an “Uninterruptable Power Supply.” To take advantage of the down time, Building Services also will make improvements to the cooling system to prevent shutdowns because of overheating from power failures.

To complete both projects, all computer equipment and systems in the computer room must be shut down for approximately 18 hours, beginning at about 6 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3.

The UPS is a system that automatically supplies electrical power whenever the primary electrical supply from Idaho Power fails. In the event of a power failure, the UPS would power the system, preventing significant equipment damage and data loss to ITD and its customers, according to ETS.

Work on the computer room cooling system is designed to prevent a repeat of the Jan. 3 failure that resulted in a long-term shutdown of the system.

Who will be impacted?
A great deal of planning and preparation has gone into this effort to ensure minimal impact to ITD customers. The actual estimated system downtime is anticipated to be around 18 hours, and will occur starting at around 6am on Saturday, Dec. 3, outside of normal business hours.

While all ITD customers will potentially be affected, the overall impact will be low since the outage will be scheduled outside of normal business hours.

It is also important to note that while the overall outage will last around 18 hours, some critical communications systems will be restored faster, with the estimate being around two hours or less in order to bring the Idaho State Police system back online as quickly as possible.

The main impacts on Saturday, (Dec. 3) will include:

  • All ITD e-mail will be down
  • All ITD phone systems at HQ, and voicemail at HQ and all districts will be unavailable
  • The DMV county system will be down
  • ITD public-facing websites will be unavailable
  • Network files and all major ITD systems will be unavailable at HQ and all districts
  • VPN (remote user access) will be unavailable
  • DMV online transaction processing through Access Idaho will be unavailable to the public
  • The Idaho State Police (ISP) law enforcement telecommunications system will be unavailable (two hours only)

What is the schedule?
Friday, Dec. 2, 7 p.m.: ETS will begin running complete system backups to ensure all data is safe, and recoverable. Backups are expected to run until about 6 a.m. Saturday morning.

Saturday, Dec. 3, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.: New UPS and cooling system updates are completed by the contractors and Building Services staff. ISP ILETS equipment will be down between 10 a.m. and noon only.

Saturday, Dec. 3, 6 p.m. to 12 a.m.: ETS will bring all systems back online, and verify correct system operations and communications.

Sunday, Dec. 4, all day: Contingency time to allow for troubleshooting and resolution of any unexpected issues. All systems are expected to be online at this time, and normal operations can resume.

Monday, Dec. 5: Business as usual – Have all critical staff (BSM and ETS) in the office to address any issues that may arise. Critical staff should be onsite Monday morning no later than 6 a.m.

Published 11-23-2011