All Data Center operations will be suspended starting at 12 a.m., March 16, 2009. The Data Center and servers will be returned to operational status on or before 5 p.m., March 18, 2009.
Outage #5 (Spring Break)
Work: Move equipment into renovated/new locations.
Impact: During spring break beginning Monday, March 16th through Wednesday, March 18, 2009, as part of the Data Center Renovation work, the Data Center will suspend operations for up to three days to move equipment into newly renovated locations.
This is a complete outage that will include all the servers and networking equipment located in the Data Center. During the scheduled outage, the following buildings will be without telephone services: Forrest County Hall, College Hall, Administration Building, Fine Arts Building and Bennett Auditorium.
If you have questions or concerns, contact the HELP Desk at 601-266-HELP.
Outage #1
Work: Disconnect the current emergency generator and connect to a temporary emergency generator.
Impact: The Data Center will lose power from 11:00 PM on 10/08/08 until 9:00 AM on 10/09/08. In addition to the Data Center being shut down from power loss, during this time phone service will be out for College Hall, Administration Building, Fine Arts Building, Forrest County Hall, Bennett Auditorium, and Stout Hall.
Work was completed on 10/08/2008.
Outage #2 (Fall Break)
Work: Remove existing transformer and connect to different switch gear.
Impact: The Data Center will lose power from 11:00 PM on 10/16/08 until 9:00 AM on 10/17/08. In addition to the Data Center being shut down from power loss, during this time phone service will be out for College Hall, Administration Building, Fine Arts Building, Forrest County Hall, Bennett Auditorium, and Stout Hall.
Work was completed on 10/16/2008.
Outage #3
Work: Remove existing transformer from system.
Cancelled. Work originally scheduled for 10/20/2008 was completed during Outage #2 on 10/16/2008.
Outage #4 (Rescheduled)
Work: Remove, reinstall, and test new electrical service line and switch for Forrest County Hall.
Impact: Cook Library and Forrest County Hall power (but not the Data Center portion) will be without power during this outage. The Data Center and all campus phones should be operational as the Data Center will be operating on emergency generator power during this outage. This outage was previously scheduled to occur on December 15, 2008. The outage is now scheduled for January 2, 2009.
Work was completed on 01/02/2009.
The Uptime Institute has developed criteria to help predict the amount of downtime a data center can expect to experience due to environmental conditions such as loss of power or improperly cooled equipment. The USM Data Center has been classified as a Tier I environment due to a lack of redundant environmental systems which can lead to complete outages of important computing resources. The purpose of the Data Center Renovation Project is to reduce the amount of expected annual system downtime by increasing the uptime rating of the Data Center to Tier II Plus.
The project includes installing a new air conditioning system and an additional emergency generator; upgrading electrical systems which are currently overtaxed; installing a new fire detection/suppression system; placing security cameras inside and outside the Data Center; and installing new monitoring systems, including one which proactively monitors the Data Center’s environment and places a call to Data Center personnel when there is an environmental issue that needs to be corrected. This allows corrective action to be taken before a crisis occurs.
The improvements made by the Data Center Renovation project will increase user satisfaction by reducing downtime and increasing the reliability of critical systems. The project is being funded by a Department of Education Hurricane Education Recovery Act (HERA) grant.
