Title: System and Network Downtime
Effective Date: October 2003
Issuing Authority: Information Technology
Program Coordinators: Director of IT and Libraries
Last Updated: October 2003
IT is responsible for the management and maintenance of the St. Olaf College network and computing systems. To maintain the highest level of reliability, functionality, and security, IT must perform maintenance on existing equipment and must routinely upgrade and/or replace those systems. This work requires that the IT take the systems or network off-line, thus making the systems or the network unavailable for use.
When possible, IT will schedule system and network downtimes in advance and will provide one week of notice to the community. In many cases the downtime will be scheduled during off-hours (before or after the normal work day). At times it will be necessary to schedule downtime during normal work hours so IT staff can have access to technical assistance from our vendors. IT staff will work with the community to find the least disruptive time for this work, but IT cannot guarantee that some users will not be inconvenienced.
Major downtimes for systems upgrades and replacements will be scheduled during the summer months, normally on Friday afternoons, or during college breaks during the academic year to minimize the inconvenience to the community.
Systems and network resources also may be taken off-line for emergency repairs, security patching, and essential maintenance work with little or no notice.