Phone service and voicemail restored. 2009-02-28

Thanks to Tim and the TDS Technicians putting in a 12+ hour day, phone service has been restored to 98% of extensions. Voicemail is also working again. There are still a few extensions that need to be configured, but most are now working. Please report any problems with phones to the helpdesk.

Thanks for your patience. 

Phones at DSO, PVE, NKE down. 2009-02-28

Update 2009-02-28 16:18

A spare phone switch has been installed while ours is being taken in for repair. Technicians are now in the process of restoring the switch configuration. Our ETA for service resuming is still for some time this evening, though it will take a while to get all the reconfiguration done.

---

2009-02-28

Phones at NKE, PVE, and DSO are down, due to a hard drive failure in the phone switch that provides service to those buildings. Technicians from TDS have been onsite since 10 AM working on restoring service. We expect phones service to resume later today.

Because the voicemail system is located in the DSO, voicemail is also down at this time.

2009 Summer Series: Empowering the Innovators!

The Oregon School District is hosting a series of summer courses for teachers, designed by teachers. This is a call for presenters. If you are interested in teaching a course, please submit a proposal today!

Submission deadline is March 14.
Submit a course proposal online at http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/

Why teach a course?

• Share your knowledge with other teachers from south-central Wisconsin
  
• Earn extra income over the summer
  
• Build your resume
  
• Meet teachers from other schools
  
• Because you always learn more by teaching
  

Why would teachers want to take my course?

• They can earn credit from Viterbo University
  
• To fulfill PDP requirements
  
• To sharpen their teaching skills
  
• To collaborate with colleagues
  
• To meet other teachers from the area
  

Where and when can I teach a course?

• All courses will be hosted in the Oregon School District, seven miles south of Madison.
  
• You can choose your own class meeting times! From June 16 - August 20 (in July, only afternoons and evenings- no morning classes). You can meet straight for a week, or once or twice a week, or a couple evenings, or a miscellaneous schedule- whatever works for you. Keep in mind that your class is most likely to get participants if the schedule works for them.
  
• You can host a portion of your course on a Moodle server.

What kind of facilities do you have?

• K-12 classrooms
  
• Meeting rooms
  
• Science labs
  
• Multimedia computer labs (Windows only) with fast Internet access
  
• Standard computer labs in elementary, middle, and high schools
  
• LCD projectors, SmartBoards (limited number) and wireless Internet access
  
• No food service on-site, but a number of local restaurants
  

What kind of courses are you looking for?

• While we are especially hoping to provide classes on balanced literacy, guided reading, technology literacy, Love and Logic, TRIBES, technology integration, and Everyday Math, we are open to all types of classes.
  
• If optional graduate credit will be offered, Viterbo requires 13.34 contact hours per credit. (Forty hours for a three credit course.)
  

What qualifications do I need?

• If your course will be offered for optional graduate credit through Viterbo college, you must have a Master's degree in education or administration. Viterbo will evaluate each instructor's qualifications based on what is included in the course proposal.
  

When will I find out if my course has been approved?

• Course proposals will be accepted or declined by March 21. Because each course must have a minimum enrollment to be offered, final decisions will not be made until registrations have been paid in mid-May.
  

How can I get more information?

See http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/instructions_letter.php
Call Jon Tanner at 608-835-4024
Email jst+summerseries@oregonsd.net
Follow updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/OregonSummer

Remember, you can't win if you don't play, so submit today!  http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/

Oregon Gmail February 24 Outage Postmortem

If you had difficulty accessing Oregon Gmail between 3 AM and 6 AM on Thursday, you weren't alone. Below is Google's explanation of the outage.  

Begin forwarded message:

From: The Google Apps Team <apps-notify@google.com>
Date: February 26, 2009 12:38:47 AM CST
To: jon.tanner@gmail.com
Subject: Google Apps Update: February 24 Outage Postmortem
Reply-To: apps-notify@google.com

Dear Google Apps customer,

Between approximately 9AM to 12PM GMT / 1AM to 4AM PST on Tuesday, February 24, 2009, some Google Apps mail users were unable to access their accounts. The actual outage period varied by user because the recovery process was executed in stages. No data was lost during this time. The root cause of the problem was a software bug that caused an unexpected service disruption during the course of a routine maintenance event. The root cause of this unexpected service disruption has been found and fixed.

Additional Details

A few months ago, new software was implemented to optimize data center functionality to make more efficient use of Google's computing resources, as well as to achieve faster system performance for users.

Google's software is designed to allow maintenance work to be done in data centers without affecting users. User traffic that could potentially be impacted by a maintenance event is directed towards another instance of the service. On Tuesday, February 24, 2009, an unexpected service disruption occurred during a routine maintenance event in a data center. In this particular case, users were directed towards an alternate data center in preparation for the maintenance tasks, but the new software that optimizes the location of user data had the unexpected side effect of triggering a latent bug in the Google Mail code. The bug caused the destination data center to become overloaded when users were directed to it, and which in turn caused multiple downstream overload conditions as user traffic was automatically shifted in response to the failures. Google engineers acted quickly to re-balance load across data centers to restore users' access. This process took some time to complete.

The recently launched Apps Status Dashboard includes greater detail on this February 24th incident, including actions we are taking to continually improve performance.  For a direct link to this Incident Report, visit http://www.google.com/appsstatus/ir/1nsexcr2jnrj1d6.pdf (English only).

For ongoing service performance information, please access the Apps Status Dashboard at http://www.google.com/appsstatus (English only).

We are very sorry for the inconvenience that this incident has caused. We understand that system problems are inconvenient and frustrating for customers who have come to rely on our products to do many different things. One of Google's core values is to focus on the user, so we are working very hard to make improvements to our technology and operational processes so as to prevent service disruptions. We are confident that we will achieve continuous improvements quickly and persistently.

Once again, we apologize for the impact that this incident has caused. Thank you very much for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Google Apps Team

Email preferences: You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google Apps product or account.

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

IT Update for February 25, 2009

IT News, February 25, 2009

1. Email transition to Gmail

We appreciate everyone who has become an "early switcher" from Groupwise to Oregon Gmail. Based on feedback from those who have already switched, we are streamlining the transition process and ironing out some glitches. (Yes, believe it or not, even Google has glitches.) We will provide more documentation and formal training sessions after spring break. Thanks for your patience as we try to make it as smooth as possible.

2. Wireless

Many have asked when wireless access will come to your school. For a complete explanation of why we temporarily stopped installing wireless access points, read the Wireless LAN Roadmap at http://osdtech.blogspot.com/2009/02/wireless-lan-roadmap.html

In short, the moratorium has been lifted, and here is our timeline for the coming months:

    * Pilot of either Cisco or Aruba 802.11n network in English area of OHS.
    * Phase 2 network infrastructure deployment spring 2009
    * 802.11g managed APs deployed to elementary schools summer 2009
    * 802.11n managed APs installed in RCI, OMS, OHS summer 2009
    * All plans are dependent upon funding, which has not yet been approved.

3. Summer courses

We are now accepting proposals for teaching summer courses. You can submit a course proposal online at http://db.oregonsd.org/district/course_proposal/ The deadline is March 14.

You will be able to register to take a summer course beginning March 21.

Notable quote:
In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia. -Unknown

Wireless LAN Roadmap

Wireless LANs were installed in 2003 using consumer-level 802.11b access points in the Middle School to support a “mobile lab” of notebook computers due to a lack of traditional labs. Wireless implementation has been fraught with difficulties due to unique needs of schools:

1. high density of computers in a single area;
2. all computers being booted and logging in simultaneously;
3. roaming profiles and other login-related traffic saturating available wireless bandwidth.

In 2006, the consumer-level access points were replaced with an enterprise-level managed wireless network. This alleviated some issues, but not all. The main problem is the large bandwidth needed by a full classroom of notebook computers logging in simultaneously. The theoretical I/O of 802.11g is 54Mbps shared, but real-world bandwidth is closer to 30Mbps. Shared among 20 notebooks, each gets only 1.5Mbps. Compared to a wired 100Mbps connection, this is obviously about 60 times slower. Because the 802.11b/g network has only three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, 11), there is a maximum of three access points servicing a given area; more will cause signal interference. Regardless of changes made to the wireless LAN, this is a fundamental problem.

The next wireless standard, 802.11n, was ratified in November 2008. It offers not only increased speed and range for 802.11n clients (many of which are shipping with draft specification hardware now), but also an increase in performance for legacy 802.11g clients due to its MIMO capabilities.

The IT department has decided that deploying additional 802.11g infrastructure is not effective. All further wireless deployment is deferred until 802.11n access points are available.

Cisco (the manufacturer of our current switch infrastructure) has a prototype 802.11n access point based on the draft spec. Research indicates that improvements to the wired network will be needed to effectively deploy 802.11n access points. The IT department will prepare for 802.11n by completing the following action plan:

1. Identify best locations for APs and survey available power. New APs will require more power than previous standards.
2. Identify structural support for AP installation. Unlike earlier APs, the 802.11n models house multiple radios and are therefore too heavy (11 lbs.) to simply hang from a drop ceiling.
3. Install 1000BaseT copper SFPs in network switches to provide gigabit connections to 802.11n APs (needed because the APs  will exceed 100BaseT throughput back to the switch).

Here's our current timeline:

• Pilot of either Cisco or Aruba 802.11n network in English area of OHS.
• Phase 2 network infrastructure deployment spring 2009
• 802.11g managed APs deployed to elementary schools summer 2009
  
• 802.11n managed APs installed in RCI, OMS, OHS summer 2009
  
• All plans are dependent upon funding, which has not yet been approved.

IT News, February 4, 2009: Summer classes, Gmail, logins, and Board Policy

OSD IT News
Februrary 4, 2009

1. Summer classes- let us know what you want!

We are planning the Oregon Summer Series of classes. So, what do you want to take? Let us know by entering your request online. See your staff email for the link (I'm not posting it here because they spammers would get it and put all sorts of junk in the form.)

2. Login issues

We are still wrestling daily with the server refusing to log people in. It's a weird thing where we think we have everything fixed, and then the next day they suddenly stop working again for no apparent reason.

3. Board Policy regarding student cell phones and devices

Did you know that the Board policy no longer prohibits students from bringing their own computing and communication devices to school? This is in line with the nature of 21st Century learning, and the prevalence of devices being used by students. See the policy at http://www.oregonsd.org/site_uploads/news/newsfile1344_1.pdf. Teachers, of course, still have the right and responsibility to prohibit usage when it interferes with learning, but they also have the freedom to have students use information devices as a learning tool when appropriate.

4. Email

Many of you have already accessed your new Gmail account in Google Apps. To get started, just

1. go to http://www.OregonSD.net 
2. click on the big "OSD Start Page" header
3. enter your Novell username and password. If it's your first time logging in, you'll be asked to enter some squiggly letters and click "I Accept."
4. On your start page, click on "Email." This is your new Google Apps email account, where messages sent to xyz@oregonsd.net go.
   

If you want to use the new Google Apps Gmail to access your GroupWise mail, you'll want to read the instructions at http://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/support/email-migration (Note: Link has been fixed.)

Note: These instructions require you to login first, since we don't want just anybody looking at our documentation.

Notable quote: "There is never a wrong time to do the right thing." -unknown, but recently said by Mike Chapes

Login issues 2009-01-02

Email issues were finally resolved on Sunday evening, but we are still dealing with problems logging in. Several servers (Netmail, Panther, and PVE) were not processing logins. So, if your computer randomly chose one of these to log into, you either weren't able to log in, or it took 15 minutes until the computer switched to another login server.

The servers have been fixed, except for Panther, on which we are still working.

GroupWise WebAccess outages continue 2009-02-01

As if it heard that it is going to be replaced and is now throwing a tantrum, the GroupWise WebAccess server continues to freeze up and become unresponsive to queries. I am rebooting the server on a regular basis to minimize disruption, but the time in between incidents varies.

A Novell consultant has been contacted to resolve the problem, though he may not be available until Monday.

Regular client access appears to still work. Ironically, or perhaps as a demonstration of why we are moving this way, Google Apps Gmail continues to work- users are able to log in, send and receive mail.

Further updates as events warrant.