Crucial firewall upgrade and systems outage – Friday 8 September

Thursday 7 September 2023

During the planned upgrade of the University’s border firewalls last Friday night, several unexpected issues were found that meant the upgrade could not be completed in the allocated time.

We are therefore planning a second round of work to start at 10pm this Friday 8 September running for four hours, during which time some internet-connected services will be unavailable across the University (please see the list in the original notice below). Again, we strongly recommend that any data processing activities planned for this outage period are deferred or rescheduled to another time.

If more time is needed to complete the work, it will take place the following evening from 10pm on Saturday 9 September.

We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we carry out this essential upgrade.
 

Monday 28 August

At 11.59pm on Friday 1 September the University will replace the border firewalls that protect numerous internet-connected systems. These digital sentinels serve as our frontline security defences, ensuring that our systems are kept safe from unwanted or potentially harmful internet traffic.

This essential upgrade is expected to last for two hours (until 2am), and during that time the following internet-connected services will be unavailable across the University:

  • All systems, platforms and tools that rely on an internet connection.
  • All external systems that require authentication, including cloud-based services such as Canvas.
  • The University of Auckland website.
  • Remote access to internal services via VPN/internet.
  • WiFi services, unless you connect and authenticate before 11.59pm and continue actively using the service during the outage.

We strongly recommend that any data processing activities planned for this outage period are deferred or rescheduled to another time.

Please note that internal systems that are not reliant on internet services will not be impacted by this planned outage. This includes CCTV cameras, building door controls and alarms.

We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience as we carry out this essential upgrade.