Evening work on login infrastructure may cause downtime

Upcoming evening maintenance on technology components at the University of Oregon may cause sporadic outages for a wide range of services. 

The work is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5, from 7 to 11 p.m. 

Information Services staff recommend that people avoid changing their passwords throughout that window. 

The team will be performing an early step in the three-month process of updating a critical back-end service known as Active Directory. 

If any noticeable service interruptions occur, they're expected to be brief and minor. 

However, the work has the potential to cause intermittent disruptions to dozens of UO services that rely on Active Directory, including computer logins, email flow and access to Wi-Fi, UO VPN and numerous other technology services. 

Future steps in the Active Directory upgrade include the following: 

  • A similar round of evening maintenance on July 11. 
  • Evening maintenance on July 24 that has a low chance of being disruptive. 
  • Nine hours of daytime maintenance on Saturday, Aug. 3, that may cause service outages. 

"We ask for your patience and understanding as we complete this essential, once-in-a-decade update," said Melody Riley, associate chief information officer for enterprise solutions. "Our staff have designed the process carefully to minimize disruptions to the UO community." 

Details about upcoming service outages will be posted on the IT Service Status website. That's also where Information Services will post updates if maintenance schedules change, along with in-the-moment updates if the work runs long or causes unexpected problems. 

Anyone with questions can contact the IT staff who support their unit or the Technology Service Desk

—By Nancy Novitski, University Communications