Weekend failures plague campus computer network

Computer servers across campus stopped Saturday morning as IU's computing services were off-line.\nThe problems prevented students from accessing the Shakespeare \ne-mail systems, the Windows NT application servers (R drive), the Common File System and IU Web pages Saturday morning.\n"I was not able to check my grades on the Post'em system over the weekend," freshman Justin Ross said.\nThere was no foul play involved, said Dennis Cromwell, senior functional manager of University Information Technology Services.\n"There was no evidence of someone tampering with the system from outside," he said.\nUITS is responsible for maintaining and updating computers and other information technology services on campus.\nThe shut down affected some students' ability to turn in class assignments. Others could not access the Post'em computer system to check midterm grades.\nCromwell said the shutdown of the servers was the result of miscommunications between the physical power plant and UITS. Cromwell also cited human error, as the attendants at the machine room failed to transfer power to the back up generator, he said.\nAt about 9 a.m. Saturday, the physical plant shut down power to a number of University-owned buildings for scheduled maintenance. This information was not relayed to UITS.\nUnder normal operating procedures, the machine room runs through an uninterruptible power supply to buffer against power spikes and unexpected losses in electricity. \nThe power supply lasts about 12 minutes if the power is cut. Also, if power is lost an emergency generator goes on automatically. Standard procedure then calls for an operator to manually switch over to generator.\nThe attendant on duty at the time followed procedure to the letter, said Cromwell, except that he miscalculated the amount of time they had on the backup batteries. \nAfter the batteries drained all power was lost to the University machines. In order to restore power the uninterruptible power supply had to be recharged' which caused an interruption in University computing services. \nBy noon, e-mail systems were running and by 4 p.m., all other computer systems were back on line.\nThere was a similar situation in January 2000, when electricity went out and UITS switched to the back-up generator, Cromwell said. But that time everything went according to procedure.\nSome students did not mind the shutdown in services. For them, a glitch was bound to happen.\n"It is inevitable such a large research university," senior Kathryn Bryan said. "I am sure they were doing everything in their power to fix the problem"