WebCT System Update from Office of Information Technology
(May 5, 2003)
UTSA Colleagues,
The WebCT System suffered a series of hardware problems during the last two weeks. WebCT has been running on an old server and it was planned to move it to a new server as soon as the semester was over. Unfortunately, the old server began failing before that.
The problems were first evidenced by the degraded performance. On Wednesday night, April 30, Technology Support Services (TSS) attempted to transfer the system data to a new server to alleviate the performance issues. Unfortunately, the attempt failed and subsequent attempts to reset the original WebCT system also failed due to the hardware problems. As TSS staff attempted to restore the system, it was discovered that the hardware failures had caused the backup tapes of the system to be incomplete.
As a result, WebCT has been reloaded on new hardware and the course data restored from a saved copy. Unfortunately, the last successful backup was on April 13, 2003. All of the restored course data is from two weeks ago, meaning anything posted after April 13 is lost.
TSS staff have now placed WebCT on the new server and will be backing it up to two sources -- a disk image and to tape. The WebCT backup files will be in the same environment used for Banner backups.
Distance Learning and Academic Technology staff members have been available throughout the weekend to assist faculty in updating their course data.
For assistance with the re-creation of any missing course materials, please contact one of the following offices by phone, or e-mail.
New Media Lab, Multidisciplinary Studies Building Room 3.02.28, 1604 Campus, (210) 458-4519
WebCT Support 1604, Business Building Room 4.02.28, 1604 Campus, (210) 458-7376 or 458-5414
Advance Projects Lab, Durango Building Room 2.202, Downtown Campus, (210) 458-2642
We do understand the serious impact of this situation for some classes and apologize to all affected. We have staff resources available to assist in every way possible to recover lost data, including reloading files, and scanning or doing data entry from paper records. Please let us know if we can be of any assistance.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey W. Noyes
Chief Information Officer and Associate Vice President for Information Technology
The University of Texas at San Antonio
(210) 458-4684
UTSA Office of Information Technology
Web site.
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2003