News

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 

• Learn more about the Migrating N: drives to OneDrive Project
• IST Knowledge Base OneDrive articles 

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

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.

What is happening? Grouper is scheduled for maintenance on the date below. Users will not be able to access Grouper during the maintenance window. 

When is this happening?Tuesday, July 13 from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

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

Resolved: A delay in sending and receiving email to and from external domains occurred today between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. All delayed emails should now be delivered to the intended recipient(s).

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

What is happening? Information Systems & Technology’s Web Development team is excited to announce the launch of the new Waterloo Content Management System (WCMS) 3 platform. 

What does this mean? Standard (FDSU), non-custom WCMS 3 websites, hosted in the new Pantheon environment, are now available for request.  

• Site owners can request a new website in WCMS 3. 

• Site owners can schedule the migration of a WCMS 2 website to WCMS 3. 

• In lieu of migration, site owners can also request a WCMS 3 site and begin to rebuild an existing WCMS 2 website. 

What is different in WCMS 3? 

• Most changes will be noticeable to content maintainers working within the system to build websites. 
• There may be some visual changes to websites (e.g., content layout).  
• The left-hand vertical menu will now appear as a horizontal menu near the top of the website. 
• The “Log in” link has been removed from website footers.  
• See the Initial release comparison web page to see what will and what won’t be available at launch. 
• Watch the new WCMS 3 videos to learn more about these changes and compare WCMS 2 to WCMS 3. 

Which sites/themes are impacted by this launch? 

• This launch only impacts sites that want to use the current standard (FDSU) theme. 

  • This does not include the conference, publication, or single-page themes. 

  • This does not include authenticated sites or sites that require custom modules. 

• The launch of WCMS 3 does not impact Waterloo Scholar websites. 

Additional resources 

• WCMS 3 training and support resources. 

• Learn more about the Building the Next WCMS project. 

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

What is happening? The uwaterloo.ca WCMS website domain will be undergoing maintenance. Please note this change will only affect WCMS websites and the campus map. New WCMS 3 websites will be directed to Pantheon while existing WCMS 2 sites will continue to direct to our on-premises data centres.

When is this happening? From Thursday, June 24 at 8:00 p.m. to Friday, June 25 at 12:00 a.m.

Why is this happening? In order to prepare for the upcoming WCMS 3 release with our new Drupal vendor, Pantheon, changes need to be applied to the way WCMS website requests are directed.

What is the impact? No user impact is expected, all WCMS websites should continue to be available during this maintenance period.

Questions or concerns? Please contact Joe Kwan.

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. 

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. 

What is happening? We will be testing the University’s campus-wide emergency communication system.

When is this happening? Wednesday, June 2 at 11:00 a.m.                                             

What is the impact? Emergency communication channels being tested include:

Update (June 7, 2:30 p.m): Please share with members of your team/area/group.  

What is happening? The change to the data retention policies for Teams is being postponed. The new implementation date will be communicated once confirmed. 

Summary of the changes: