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Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Resolved: Email notifications for past Outlook meeting requests - August 3

Resolved (August 4, 2:38 p.m.): Emails for past Outlook meeting requests were sent as a result of the restoration of Teams voice conferencing licenses. All voice conferencing licenses have been restored; users should no longer receive these emails.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.

What is happening? Users may have received email notifications for past Outlook meeting requests yesterday between 5:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. IST is investigating with the vendor.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Teams voice conferencing licenses are currently unavailable – August 3

Resolved (August 4, 12:04 p.m.): Voice licensing for users is currently being processed and restored. All licenses will be restored over the next several hours.

  • Users will be able to use voice conferencing again once licenses have been restored.
  • Users may receive another email confirmation once their license has been reapplied. This is a legitimate email; no action is required.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.

What is happening? Teams voice conferencing licenses are currently unavailable. 

What is the impact? Users are unable to create new Teams meetings using a telephone number. This issue does not impact any other features in Teams or Skype.

IST is working with the vendor to resolve the issue.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357. 

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Zoom now available for University of Waterloo employees and students

Please share with employees and students in your department. 

What is happening? The campus-wide Zoom license is now available for employees and students; pro/educational licenses are available for employees and graduate students, and basic licenses are available for undergraduate students. 

  • IST is continuing to migrate existing University of Waterloo Zoom users to the campus-wide license. 
  • The integration of Zoom with LEARN is currently underway and is expected to be complete during the first week of August.

If you do not have an existing Zoom account: Faculty, staff, and students can create an account by going to https://uwaterloo.zoom.us, clicking Sign In, and logging in with their username@uwaterloo.ca credentials. 

If you have an existing Zoom account:  Migrate your account to the campus-wide license using the steps below. 

  1. If your Zoom account username is not username@uwaterloo.ca, update your username.
  2. Go to https://uwaterloo.zoom.us and click 'Sign In'. Enter your username@uwaterloo.ca login credentials. The first time you login, you will be asked to migrate your existing account. Follow the prompts to migrate your account. 
  3. If you have a paid Zoom account, Zoom will update your account balance and you can request a refund by calling Zoom Support: +1.888.799.9666 ext 2.

Notes: 

  • The ability to log in with Zoom credentials will be disabled at a later date and users will be required to log in with their University of Waterloo credentials. 
  • To optimize the reimbursement of your remaining account balance, it is recommended that you create or migrate your Zoom account as soon as possible. If you have an upcoming Zoom event, you can create or migrate your Zoom account at your convenience after the event date.

Additional resources

Questions or concerns? Please submit to the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca.

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Resolved: Wireless authentication issues - July 20-21

Resolved: Users may have been unable to authenticate when connecting to the eduroam and UniversityofWaterloo wireless networks from 11:00 p.m. on July 20 to 8:00 a.m. on July 21. The issue has been resolved; users should be able to access the wireless networks again.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, or 519-888-4567 ext. 44357.

Monday, July 12, 2021

N: drive service end-of-life - April 2023

What is happening? The individual user network drive (N: drive) service will no longer be offered by IST after April 2023. OneDrive will replace N: drive as the centrally supported user file storage tool. 

  • In preparation for this change, users in Academic Support Units with IST-managed Windows machines will be migrating from N: drive to OneDrive during the Spring 2021 term, as part of the Migrating N: drives to OneDrive Project. Academic Support Unit migrations are expected to be complete by mid-September 2021. 
  • Participating faculties ready to begin N: drive to OneDrive migrations can contact IST for assistance. 

When is this happening? April 2023, between Winter and Spring terms.

Why is this happening? In comparison to N: drive,OneDrive offers a more user-friendly and robust file storage solution. With 5 TB of storage, OneDrive offers a significantly greater amount of storage space compared to the N: drive. OneDrive also allows users to access, share, and collaborate on files from anywhere on any device. Visit the Migrating N: drives to OneDrive Project page ​for more benefits.

Additional Resources 

Questions or concerns? Please contact Andrew McAlorum (amcalorum@uwaterloo.ca)

Friday, July 9, 2021

Shibboleth server upgrade from version 4.0.1 to 4.1.2 - July 20

What is happening? Shibboleth SAML identity provider (https://idp.uwaterloo.ca/), one of the University’s application authentication tools, is being upgraded from version 4.0.1 to 4.1.2.

When is this happening? The upgrade will start on Tuesday, July 20 at 7:00 a.m. and will take a few hours to complete. 

What is the impact? 

  • During the upgrade, the service should remain largely available. Some authentications may fail when service nodes are taken offline or returned to service. 
  • After the upgrade, users accessing Shibboleth supported applications will be redirected to authenticate using the ADFS login page.

What do users need to do? Owners of Shibboleth supported applications should test each application’s authentication after the maintenance time above. Any issues found during testing should be reported to rt@uwaterloo.ca. 

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.

Friday, June 11, 2021

Request Tracker (RT) moving to ADFS authentication - August 11

Update (August 6, 1:07 p.m.):

What is happening?

  • Request Tracker (RT) will be moving to Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) authentication. ADFS is the recommended authentication service for campus.
  • Moving to ADFS will enable these systems to support single sign-on, a service that provides a secure method of accessing multiple web-based systems and applications without being required to log in to each one. Visit the IST Single sign-on website to learn more.

When is this happening?  Wednesday, August 11.

What do users need to do? When logging into RT:

  • On the Sign in page, enter your username@uwaterloo.ca and click Next.
  • If prompted to choose an account, choose ‘Work or school account’.
  • Enter your WatIAM password.
  • You will also receive a two-factor authentication (2FA) prompt.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357.

Update (June 16, 8:55 a.m.):

What is happening? Request Tracker (RT) will not be moving to Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) authentication today as scheduled due to last minute inconsistencies found during upgrade testing. This update will be postponed to a future date (TBD).

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357. 

What is happening? 

  • Request Tracker (RT) will be moving to Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) authentication. ADFS is the recommended authentication service for campus.
  • Moving to ADFS will enable these systems to support single sign-on, a service that provides a secure method of accessing multiple web-based systems and applications without being required to log in to each one. Visit the IST Single sign-on website to learn more.

When is this happening? Wednesday, June 16.

What do users need to do? When logging into RT:

  • On the Sign in page, enter your username@uwaterloo.ca and click Next.
  • If prompted to choose an account, choose ‘Work or school account’.
  • Enter your WatIAM password.
  • You will also receive a two-factor authentication (2FA) prompt.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 44357. 

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Central Authentication Service (CAS) maintenance - June 10

What is happening? Various deprecated security protocols and ciphers from the CAS service are being removed.

What is the impact? This change applies to the limited set of applications still using the CAS service. Please note that CAS is a deprecated service and this removal is essential to maintain the security of Waterloo credentials.

When is this happening? The CAS change will be implemented on Thursday, June 10 at 8:00 a.m.

Why is this happening? This maintenance is required to remove obsolete protocols from campus authentication systems.

Action you may need to take before the change: Review your CAS services to verify they can communicate using TLS1.2 and associated ciphers OR prepare to switch to ADFS.

Questions or concerns? Please contact the IST Service Desk, helpdesk@uwaterloo.ca.