Important Notice for all VIU Community Members

The next phase of VIU’s Information Technology Services (ITS) Network Remediation Project (NRP) to upgrade VIU’s network will require a technology outage on Sunday, March 3, from 8 am – 8 pm. This project will provide significant benefit to all employees and students.

On Sunday, March 3, 8 am – 8 pm only the following are UNAVAILABLE:

• Internet access (External Websites) from all campuses
• Wireless from regional campuses
• VIU Email from outside the Nanaimo campus
• External resources from all (e.g. VIULearn, VIUVideos, certain Library Resources)
• Shared drives stored in the Nanaimo Campus will not be accessible remotely
• VPN
• Student logins to VIU computers at Parksville, CTC, Deep Bay, Milner and GR Paine locations will not work

The following will be AVAILABLE (from the Nanaimo campus):

• Wireless from Nanaimo campus, NO Internet
• VIU student computers in Nanaimo, Cowichan and Powell River – will be OK to login to, but there will be NO Internet access
• VIU employee computers in Nanaimo, Cowichan and Powell River – will be OK to login to, but there will be NO Internet access
• In Parksville, CTC, Deep Bay, Milner and GR Paine: logins will only work if the user has logged into the computer previously
• VIU email from the Nanaimo campus, incoming and outgoing emails may be queued
• Local network resources and shared drives
• Code Blue Emergency Poles
• VOIP phones
• 4-digit dialing between campuses will be affected ‒ use 10-digit dialing
• access to voicemail and call flows from regional campuses will not be available

The main viu.ca website will be functioning, but pages that require a log-in will not be accessible outside of the Nanaimo campus. Any applications hosted off-site will be functioning normally but will not be accessible from all VIU campuses.

The Library Learning Commons will be open 24/7, with the following limits on resources:       

• WIFI will be available (no external sites/Internet) except during the two-hour outage window from 3 – 5 pm
• VDI student workstations will be available except during two-hour outage window from 3 -5 pm

The Library will be affected in the following way:

• Open from 10 am – 3 pm, NOT until 5 pm
• WIFI on internal websites will be available (no external sites/Internet)
• Library-licensed e-resources will not be available
• Open Access library resources will be accessible at: libguides.viu.ca/library

Reason for disruptions occurring now:

VIU recently received the funding for this project, which must be used by March 31, 2019. This timeline meant IT Services only had a short period of a few months to make this work happen.

What do I need to do to be ready?

1. Save and close your work, then log off or restart your computer prior to the scheduled service interruption.
2. Please remind your colleagues and friends of this outage, and if you have a team or other project you’re working on this week, please plan around the outage.
3. Please log onto any employee workstations you will need to use on Sunday workstations at least once before the maintenance window.

Faculty have been asked to consider accommodations to minimize the impact of this outage and ensure students have time to complete and submit their work.

Please Note: additional outages will follow, so stay tuned.

Look for updates on the main viu.ca website and on VIU’s social media channels:

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/viuniversity; www.facebook.com/VIUnews
• Twitter: @VIUniversity; @viunews