13-Dec-2021

CLASSE Network Outage: Wednesday, 15-Dec-2021 @ 9:00 AM

On Wednesday, 15-Dec-2021, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 noon, there will be a general network outage for a central firewall upgrade. Please save your work to samba (central filesystems) and log out of your computer before this time. During this network outage, CLASSE resources and websites will be inaccessible from offsite (e.g. computers at home or on Cornell's RedRover/eduroam wifi). If you are onsite, computers on wired ethernet connections will experience disruptions (including to external sites like Zoom), although Cornell's RedRover/eduroam will remain available for external connectivity on wireless devices. Please submit a ServiceRequest with any questions or concerns, and consider subscribing to the CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L mailing list for additional announcements and information.

macOS Mojave Deprecation

Beginning this month, Apple and CIT have stopped supporting macOS Mojave (10.14). If you have a CLASSE-managed Mac running macOS Mojave, you will receive an email asking you to schedule a macOS upgrade. We have already seen some problems with Mojave security updates that make it impossible to log in with CLASSE credentials. To check your version of macOS, select "About This Mac" under the Apple menu () in the upper left corner of your screen. The upgrade process takes around half a day and may require you to bring your Mac to the lab.

OpenVPN Retirement: Monday, 28-Feb-2022

On Monday, 28-Feb-2022, we plan to shut down the legacy CLASSE VPN service, OpenVPN. At this point, CLASSE personnel should begin to use our new VPN, known as Pritunl. Instructions for using Pritunl from CLASSE-managed and personal computers are available at ClasseVPN. For enhanced security, our Pritunl deployment includes two-factor authentication via CLASSE Duo (see below).

CLASSE Duo: Two-Factor Authentication

In light of the increased threat posed by ransomware and account compromises, CLASSE is adopting the use of Duo two-factor authentication for enhanced security of web services and remote logins. CLASSE Duo operates very similarly to Cornell's Duo service, although a separate CLASSE registration is required. To enroll in CLASSE Duo, please see these instructions for our web-based management portal. CLASSE Duo is currently required for the new VPN (Pritunl), and we plan to enable it for additional services in the future. If you have any questions or concerns about CLASSE Duo, please submit a ServiceRequest.

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General network and server maintenance will occur every Tuesday from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM. The CLASSE-IT group will always announce any expected disruptions in our NewsLetter and via CLASSE-IT-NEWS-L, but with the size and complexity of our network there is always the potential for something to go wrong. We will do our best to contain all network maintenance and planned outages to Tuesdays from 12:00 noon to 2:00 PM.

Unless other arrangements have been made, CLASSE-managed Windows systems may be updated and rebooted on Tuesday morning at 2:00 AM, so please avoid critical or lengthy operations at that time. For more details, please see SystemExpectations.

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Questions or problems? Submit a service request.

Other resources:

• CLASSE IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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