website outage schedule for Nov. 21-22

In order to perform maintenance upgrades, the www.OregonSD.org public website will be unavailable as described below.

Friday, November 21st
8:00 pm - 1:00 am: www.OregonSD.org will be unavailable. 

Saturday, November 22nd 
www.OregonSD.org will be available in read-only mode, with possible momentary service interruptions to either certain components or to the entire site. 

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.

Destiny unavailable June 6, 2014 at 10 PM for upgrade

An update to your Destiny 12.0 will occur June 6, 2014 at 10 p.m. CST

. As a result, Destiny will not be available for a period of two hours. Once updated, you can start using these amazing features right away.

Destiny Textbook ManagerManage and distribute textbooks using barcodes, by quantities only or use both methods!

• Add quantities of textbooks into inventory
• Circulate by ISBN barcode; enabling pull-up textbook lists for easier check-out
• Easier check-in of books without barcodes
• Simplified quantity movement – ordering,
  transferring and reporting – district wide

Destiny Library Manager

• Ability to see the "who" and "where" of a transaction in the Copy Transaction report
• Display of blocked messages in the Copy Transaction report, enabling a user to see if an update is complete/incomplete, or spot an error message

wireless network down for upgrades between 4-5 PM today (4/8/2014)

The district's wireless network will be down today for about 20 minutes sometime between 4:00 - 5:00 PM so that we can upgrade the wireless LAN controllers. You should plan to use a computer with a wired network connection during this time. 

I apologize for the short notice.

Internet bandwidth upgrade complete

The district's Internet bandwidth upgrade was finished late this morning and it seems to be working well. We are using both Internet connections and our total throughput is well over 100Mbps (our old limit). We have eased some of the traffic limits that were in place, but we are continuing to prioritize traffic that could cause problems. For example, Adobe updates are throttled because 2,000 computers all downloading the same update would clog the connection no matter how fast it is. We also will continue to prioritize traffic that is instructional in nature, and limit or block traffic that is not instructional.

Wireless network outage today around 4:15 for upgrade

The district's wireless network will be unavailable briefly today while the software is upgraded and the controllers are rebooted. This outage will occur around 4:15 today, and should last no more than 10 minutes. However, as with all things technical, unforeseen errors could cause this outage to last longer.

Network upgrade status update, including upcoming outages

The Brooklyn Elementary network is still down except for a few computers in the office. Contractors will be here Monday to complete the wiring work in the building. Hopefully it will be done Monday. 

At 8:00 AM on Tuesday, the Prairie View data network will have an interruption lasting around 5 minutes to install a fiber patch cable.

Wireless networks are still available in only certain areas in the buildings. (There are 43 wireless access points currently running, instead of 74 at the end of the school year.) Wireless should begin coming online (in new and improved form) starting tomorrow, with full coverage scheduled for August 22. At that point, there should be 168 high-capacity access points providing coverage. I'm sure there will be some tweaking necessary. Thanks for your patience as we try to get everything installed.

Updated schedule of network outages

Here is an updated schedule of network outages, listed by building. To avoid deluging you with emails, I will post minor updates to the OSD IT Blog at http://osdtech.blogspot.com and send email notifications only for major changes. Unless noted otherwise, all outages are for the entire day.

BKE

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network down Monday, 8/12 - Thursday, 8/15, except for select office computers.

Network down Friday, 8/16

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

PVE

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network down Friday, 8/16

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

NKE

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network down Wednesday, 8/7 - Thursday, 8/8, except for select office computers.

Network down Monday, 8/12.

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

RCI

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network down Thursday, 8/15 except for select office computers.

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

OMS

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network, except for select office computers, down now through 8/14.

Network down 8/14 (even office computers)

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

OHS

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Network down in areas surrounding PAC, Science, Office, Math, and Tech Ed on Monday, 8/12.

Network down in areas surrounding IMC, Social Studies, and Bus. Ed. on Tuesday, 8/13.

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

DSO/Pool

Entire network and voicemail down Thursday 8/8, 4:00 PM - Friday, 8/9, 2:00 AM.

Intermittent wireless outages Thursday, 8/22

Planned network outage at NKE on 8/9

Scheduled outage: NKE 8/9

All network services including wireless, Internet access, and printers, will be down in Netherwood on 8/9 starting for part or all of the day. Please plan accordingly. Thank you.

Destiny (Online Library Catalog) to be offline Saturday night and Sunday

The online library catalog (called Destiny) will be offline for upgrades on Sunday. The upgrade is scheduled for Saturday, April 6, 2013, beginning at 9:00 pm CT until Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 9:00 pm CT. The Destiny system will be temporarily unavailable during the upgrade.We apologize for any inconvenience.

Upgrades to Firefox and iTunes coming tonight!

We've had many requests for updates to a couple of our core applications, Firefox and iTunes. Normally, we try to do this when school is out (like during the summer) to avoid disruptions, but since our current Firefox version is having difficulties displaying Infinite Campus pages and the newest Apple OS needs a new iTunes version, we will try to push these out this afternoon (10/26) through tomorrow morning.

What we need from all of you is to NOT shut down any computers today. Close all of your programs and log off, but leave the computers powered on. I have set the applications to start installing automatically beginning at 4:30 p.m. It's actually a random schedule using a 3-hour window no earlier than 4:30, so your computer may start right away, it may wait for several hours. Either way, when the install happens, the computers will automatically reboot without warning and should also shutdown via our policy at 9:00 p.m.

If a computer does not get updated tonight, it will likely happen the next time someone starts it and will also reboot without warning. If this happens to you once in the next day or two, assume that is what is happening. If you continue to have unexpected restarts or either of the applications stop working, then report that to us via the helpdesk.

Thanks from technology!

Instructions for teachers with Moodle courses

In response to many teacher requests over the past year, we upgraded the Moodle server to version 2.1. However, the conversion process had some technical limitations that we and our beta-tester teachers did not catch. This means that many teachers are missing some documents in their courses. Fear not, we have your data!

If you are missing items, you need to follow the instructions posted at https://sites.google.com/a/oregonsd.net/technology/documentation/moodle/2-1-upgrade-file-rollover (staff login required)

This involves retrieving your files, then uploading them anew to your Moodle course.

Many thanks to Chris Brown for figuring out a way to resurrect these files and make them accessible in a human-readable manner.

Internet access interruption 7/21, 3:30 - 4:30

The district's connection to the Internet will be interrupted sporadically between 3:30 - 4:30 today while we perform server upgrades. No action is needed on your part.
Sorry for any inconvenience.

Voicemail will be down July 13

Remember the good old days, when you would dial - and I mean actually dial, not push buttons - the phone to call a friend, and let it ring seven or so times before hanging up? No answering machine, no voicemail, just the steady, indefinite ringing from the other end to let you know that you couldn't reach your friend at that precise instant. Perhaps they weren't home (that's the only place phones were back then), or maybe they just didn't feel like answering the phone at that time. I mean, it could have been anybody calling them (there was no Caller ID). Perhaps they were just relaxing comfortably and said to themselves, "If it's important, they'll call back later."

Well, get ready to relive those placid days of yesteryear while the district's voicemail system is down on July 13.

To get ready, you should check all your voicemail messages late on July 12, in case they get deleted during the transition (which is quite likely).

On July 13, phones will ring, but if nobody is there to pick them up, they will be forwarded to the District Services Office reception desk, where operators will be standing by to take messages. Callers will be given the option to call back the next day, or to leave a message. If the caller chooses to leave a message, the operator will write down the message on vintage message slip (pictured at right) and send it to you via interoffice mail.

If all goes well, July 14 will herald a new era of voicemail, complete with web-based controls and voicemails emailed to you as attachments, so that we can all resume our frenzied, always connected, über-busy lifestyles.

But at least on July 13, we can pause to remember what it was like, not so long ago, when we could actually let the phone ring, knowing that "if it's really important, they'll call back."

PowerSchool planned outage Wed., 10/14, 7-8 PM

PowerSchool will be unavailable on Wednesday, October 14, 7-8 PM, for a version upgrade. Please do not log in during this time.

In addition to some important bug fixes, the upgrade has one significant improvement: the parent portal will show exactly what teachers have entered in the grade book.  For example, if a teacher marks an assignment as an "M" for missing, or "L" for late, it will show up for parents to see.

2009-01-01 PowerSchool upgraded and back online!

In a happy start to the new year, the PowerSchool server is fully upgraded to version 5.2.1.0 and is online. There is still a little bit of data cleanup to do, which will be done soon, as well as the batch conversion process to link students to the new FamilyID field. However, the system is usable immediately, even while those are getting finished.

PowerGrade is already at the most recent version on all district computers, so no upgrade is necessary. From the teacher perspective, everything should be the same.

2008-12-30 PowerSchool planned outage 12/31-1/2

PowerSchool will be unavailable beginning at 5:00 AM on December 31 for an upgrade to version 5.2.1. Although it is difficult to predict the duration of the upgrade process, we anticipate the outage will last through January 1, and possibly January 2.

This upgrade provides updated state reporting capabilities, ODBC access to custom fields, improved performance, and a new Oracle database backend.

Thank you for your patience.

2008-12-29 PowerSchool is back online

Early this morning, PowerSchool came back online after four days of processing database schema updates required for the upgrade to version 5.1.3.

(Tips of the hat to Mike Way of CESA 5 support who worked on this over break, including Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the weekend, and to Chris Brown for his preliminary testing and ongoing support.)

The schema update should not have taken that long (even though Chris told us to expect that it would); PS Support is investigating the cause.

The server is now at version 5.1.3. Our hope was to be fully upgraded to 5.2.1 by the end of break, so we are evaluating options and tentatively planning to perform the upgrade on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Another post will confirm any planned downtime for the additional upgrade.

Thanks for your patience.

2008-12-24 PowerSchool unavailable through Dec.26

The PowerSchool upgrade is taking significantly longer than expected. Pearson tech support has escalated it to engineering. The upgrade process will continue today and tomorrow (12/24 - 12/25) and hopefully be completed by late in the day on 12/26.
At this point, it's difficult to give an accurate ETA for completion, but it will be unavailable at least through the 26th.

Check back here for more details.

2008-12-19 PowerSchool planned outage Dec. 22-24

Update: The upgrade is taking longer than originally anticipated. The outage is now scheduled to last through December 24. A new ETA for resumption of service will be posted when we have more information. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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PowerSchool will be unavailable on December 22-24 for an upgrade to the latest version. This is necessary in order to receive current state reports. Additionally, it upgrades the database engine to Oracle and makes schema changes to improve speed and allow ODBC queries of custom data fields.