News

What is happening? As we continue to move development of our new WCMS 3 website environment forward, we would like to invite you to participate in the next part of our testing strategy, the beta 2 testing phase.

What is beta testing? Beta testing provides a structured approach to testing the features and functionality of WCMS 3, helping to identify bugs/issues/unexpected behaviours that cannot be caught through automated testing processes.

How long is the beta 2 testing phase? The beta 2 testing phase will take place between May 19 and June 8, 2021.

Who can participate in beta 2 testing? This testing phase is open to members of the University Community who have completed the WCMS for Content Maintainers (WCMS 2) training course.

What can I expect during this testing phase?

• Beta 2 websites will be built in the Pantheon environment and will not contain any content.
• You may choose to rebuild a WCMS 2 website in WCMS 3 for the following reasons:
  • You want to rebuild a small site to familiarize yourself with the new platform.
  • You want to revamp an existing site entirely.
  • You have a non-standard (FDSU) site that you are eager to get in WCMS 3 and feel the current functionality will cover your use case (Reminder: only standard FDSU sites and some single-page site functionality will be supported in WCMS 3 at launch).
• Alternatively, you may choose to begin building a brand-new website in WCMS 3.
• Migration of WCMS 2 websites to WCMS 2 is not supported at this time.
• WCMS 3 training notes will not be available during this testing phase.
  • Support requests may be submitted to wcms@uwaterloo.ca.
  • Training and support resources, and information on completing required WCMS 3 training courses, will be shared when ready.
• Websites built during beta 2 testing are eligible to move from development to the live Pantheon environment on or after June 29, 2021.

How do I participate in beta 2 testing?

You may submit a request to https://uwaterloo.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/2/create/753.

Notice a bug or issue with your site? Please submit any bugs and/or issues using the reporting form, https://uwaterloo.ca/building-the-next-wcms/wcms-3-bug-report-form

Questions or concerns? Please submit to the team via wcms@uwaterloo.ca.

What is happening? Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD), a Microsoft Azure-based system for virtualizing operating systems and applications, is now available for students to use for lab computers and software.

What is Windows Virtual Desktop used for? Windows Virtual Desktop is a Microsoft cloud-based solution that gives users remote access to desktops and applications. WVD can be used as an alternative to, or augmentation of, physical computer labs.

How do users access Windows Virtual Desktop? Students that have been given access to a department’s virtual lab can access Windows Virtual Desktop by logging in to www.wvd.uwaterloo.ca. 

How do I set up a Windows Virtual Desktop environment? IT support staff can enable Windows Virtual Desktop for their department or faculty by submitting a request to rt@uwaterloo.ca. Visit the Windows Virtual Desktop service page for more information.

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

What is happening? The University’s inbound mail record will be updated to route email sent to uwaterloo.ca addresses through the Cisco Cloud servers.

• Current mail delivery path: Internet (i.e., external individual/organization) > Mailservices > Cisco Cloud servers > Office 365/Exchange
• Planned mail delivery path: Internet > Cisco Cloud servers > Office 365/Exchange/Mailservices

When will this change take place? Saturday, May 15 between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m.

What is the impact? No end-user impact is expected.

Note: If desired, individuals may test unique mail delivery configurations following the above maintenance window.

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

What is happening? 

• The ability to use @edu.uwaterloo.ca for authentication to University systems/applications will no longer be supported.
• @eduuwaterloo.onmicrosoft.com accounts will be disabled, removing access to old @edu OneDrive accounts. 

When will this change take place? Wednesday, April 28, 2021.

What is the impact? After this date, the only acceptable login for University systems supporting single sign-on will be the individual’s username (up to 8 characters) followed by @uwaterloo.ca. Data associated with old @edu.uwaterloo.ca accounts will not be deleted. Accounts will be locked but can be temporarily unlocked to retrieve data, if necessary.

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

What is happening? Exchange servers are being removed from service for maintenance/updates. Individual servers will be taken out of service between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. each night throughout the maintenance period. 

When is this happening? Sunday, April 25 to Thursday, April 29 between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m. each night.

Why is this happening? To patch a known vulnerability in Exchange 2016.

Who will it impact? Users that are actively connected to a server when it is removed for maintenance may be prompted to enter their username and password. Outlook may also alert users about being redirected to autodiscover.uwaterloo.ca. This is normal behaviour, and the user should click 'Allow' when this happens. No other impact is anticipated as the remaining servers will continue to carry out email and calendar functions. This maintenance will not impact mailboxes that are in Office 365.

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

Resolved (April 20, 8:42 a.m.): Wireless calls, SMS and data services are now restored for the majority of Rogers and Fido customers. A small number of services with other carriers are continuing to come back online. The service outage was caused by a software update of network equipment that led to intermittent congestion and service impacts for customers across the country.

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

Update (April 19, 3:38 p.m.): The Rogers network teams are working diligently to resolve the outage but the issues are still ongoing.

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

What is happening? Some Rogers and Fido wireless customers are experiencing an intermittent service interruption for wireless voice and data services. Rogers is working on restoring these services.

What is the impact? Rogers and Fido customers may be unable to access cellular data and wireless services on their mobile devices. Incoming, outgoing calls, and text messages are impacted nationally.

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

What is happening? Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and license servers will be restarted to apply updates.

When is this happening? Sunday, April 18 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

What is the impact? Remoteapps and licensed app VDI environments will be unavailable during the maintenance window. Users of the following applications might experience short outages while the servers are rebooting:

• SPSS
• SAS
• Quest
• MATLAB
• COMSOL Multiphysics
• ArcGIS

Work should be saved frequently to avoid data loss.

Additional resources:

• VDI: https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/services/virtual-desktop-infrastructure-vdi
• Licensed servers: https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/services/scientific-computing-software-support

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

What is happening? The University of Waterloo has signed an agreement with Piazza. Piazza was adopted independently by instructors before and during the pandemic; procuring this software centrally will allow instructors to continue using this tool for teaching and learning. 

When is this happening? The new agreement will allow for uninterrupted use of Piazza to the end of the Winter 2021 term and beyond, expiring on April 28, 2022. At the end of 2021, IST and partners will conduct another review to determine whether Piazza is the most suitable Q&A tool and to investigate if it should be permanently added to the University’s educational technology suite.

What is Piazza? Piazza is a Q&A platform for students and instructors. Students can interact with each other to work towards solutions for problems while instructors can ‘endorse’ or ‘up-vote’ the best proposed answer. In this aspect, Piazza differs from a traditional discussion forum such as in LEARN, which may be more suitable for structured class discussions.

Questions or concerns? For licensing-related questions, please contact Pam Fluttert, fluttert@uwaterloo.ca. For Piazza help and support,please contact team@piazza.com. 

What is happening? The Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways site is now available for all Waterloo faculty, staff, and students.

What is Microsoft 365Learning Pathways?Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways is an on-demand, self-service solution designed to provide learning resources and videos for common Microsoft (Office) 365 applications and services including Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, and more! It also provides quick links to other IT support resources, including the IST Service Desk and Knowledge Base.

How do I access the learning pathways site? Bookmark the Microsoft 365 Learning Pathways site, or look for links to the appropriate training resources from the Office 365 website and IST Service Catalogue.

This site can be customized to address the MS Office 365 learning needs of our campus community. Please let us know of additional content that would be helpful. Check the site for changes as the content evolves to meet our needs. 

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

What is happening? The IST Service Desk will be piloting Social Intents as a replacement for the existing service desk live chat tool.

Why is this happening? The end-of-life date for the existing live chat tool, PHP Live, is August 1, 2021. More information about migrating from PHP Live to Social Intents will be provided to PHP Live users once the pilot is complete.

When  is  this  happening? The IST Service Desk will be piloting Social Intents from April 5, 2021 to April 30, 2021.

What will change for users? On April 5, links to the IST Service Desk live chat on the IST website will be redirected to go to the Social Intents chat widget.

• Users who contact the IST Service Desk via live chat will see a different chat interface.

• Users will be prompted to provide their name, email, and a description of their issue before being connected to a live chat agent.

To learn more about Social Intents, visit the IST Knowledge Base.
 

Questions or concerns? Please contact Matt Harford, mharford@uwaterloo.ca.