Small time-outs data center on 23 February due to network hardware renewal

(23-01-2020) Ghent University wants a data center that is as efficient and reliable as possible, as it is the nerve center of all electronic services. After eight years the active network equipment in the data center must be replaced.

To this end, Ghent University will briefly and partially interrupt all its electronic services several times on 23 February. During the summer, on 11 July, another interruption follows.

First short breaks in February

All ICT applications and services of Ghent University are offered from one primary data center, which centralizes all electronic infrastructure. With this, Ghent University serves both employees and students, and we support research, education and administration. The hardware is now in need of replacement, says Johan Van Camp of the Department of Informatics and Communication Technology (DICT): “It was no coincidence that we chose to drop it on a Sunday, which hinders the least number of people. Yet a lot of processes continue: in many labs they continue to work and many researchers work on Sundays and use our applications. Students also sometimes study on Sundays and view course material, assignments or a recording of lessons via the electronic learning environment. In the course of February 23 you will notice that the IT services of the data center will be interrupted in turn."

The DICT Helpdesk (09 264 47 47) will exceptionally be open during the works on Sunday 23 February and the Emergency Centre of Ghent University (09 264 71 25) will also be available by telephone.

Questions? Contact the DICT Helpdesk.

A second interruption follows in July

A second interruption will take place on 11 July. Johan Van Camp: “Then the intention is to test the DRP, the Disaster Recovery Plan or plan B in case something should go wrong with our data center. The most important services can then be restored in the backup data center in the event of a disaster. Should a serious incident make the data center completely unavailable, everyone should be able to continue working. In July the intention is to test whether the Disaster Recovery plan works. The interruption will therefore take a little longer, probably a day, but more information will follow later. "