12-Feb-2018

Remote Access: Introducting ScreenConnect, LogMeIn Deprecated

After many years of using LogMeIn as our remote access solution for Windows computers, we have decided to drop our license as of 04-Feb-2019, because of rising costs and degraded performance. We are replacing LogMeIn with ScreenConnect, which we have found to be more performant and easier to manage. Access to individual computers is granted through so-called "session groups".

ScreenConnect is currently available for testing. Please submit a ServiceRequest to get started. For more information, please see our documentation: https://wiki.classe.cornell.edu/Computing/ScreenConnect

Unexpected Computer Reboots

CLASSE-managed Windows computers are automatically updated every Tuesday morning -- 2-7 AM for desktops, 2-9 AM for laptops -- and may reboot up to three times, but only during this maintenance period. These multiple reboots are necessary for both Windows operating system updates and third-party software updates, which we manage using several different methods. The Windows reboots are preceded by a 10 minute warning, but unfortunately the third-party reboots are not always (we are investigating possible solutions).

If your computer is rebooting outside the Tuesday morning maintenance period, or if it reboots more than three times during the maintenance window, please submit a ServiceRequest to have the problem diagnosed. These unexpected reboots are not normal and can be a symptom of an underlying configuration error.

ESET Endpoint Security Client Update this Tuesday, 13-Feb-2018

We will be updating ESET Endpoint Security on CLASSE Managed Windows computers on Tuesday, 13-Feb-2018, which may result in a computer reboot during our standard maintenance period (but only during the maintenance period) -- Tuesdays 2-7 AM for desktops, 2-9 AM for laptops. Sometimes, ESET gets stuck re-installing and triggers repeated reboots during the maintenance period. If this happens to you, please submit a ServiceRequest to report the problem.

CESR Control Cluster Maintenance - 11am Tuesday 13-Feb-2018

The CESR Control system will be down from approximately 11am - 12pm Tuesday. During this time, any CESR Online services and resources, including the main /nfs/cesr/online file system, will be unavailable. If you have /nfs/cesr/online in your PATH, you may experience delays during this maintenance.

Updates will be sent to the classe-acc-comp-l mailing list when this work is done.

Please see NetworkedFilesystems for recommendations on configuring your environment to minimize the effects of these outages.

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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 (or email service-classe@cornell.edu).

Other resources:

• CLASSE-IT Home Page
• Previous newsletters

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