Wednesday, November 12, 2008
by: James Bauchkey

Summary:  University IT Services (UITS) has implemented redundant servers
for the Law School and South Orange Administration, Staff, and Faculty.
This provides you with a backup server containing all your mail files. If
you are using email and there is a problem with the server, you can simply
restart Lotus Notes (or restart your Web browser if you are using Webmail)
to automatically connect to the backup server.

To the University Community:

As previously announced, University IT Services (UITS) is actively planning
a switch of the campus email system from Lotus Notes email to Microsoft
Exchange. While MS Exchange is designed to share data with Lotus Notes,
this “co-existence” places significant additional load on the Lotus Notes
servers. This has caused some performance problems with the Lotus Notes
servers since we began piloting MS Exchange in March of this year.

To improve the performance and reliability of the Lotus Notes servers, UITS
has implemented real time standby servers for the Law School and South
Orange Administration, Staff, and Faculty email servers (MAIL13A, MAIL13B,
and LAW01). Since these are real time standby servers, they contain an
exact copy of your mail file.

If your primary mail server is down or slow, you will be automatically
redirected to the appropriate standby server. (These standby servers are
named MAIL14A, MAIL14B, and LAW02.)

If you are using the Lotus Notes client and a problem occurs with the
server, you can restart Lotus Notes and you will be automatically
redirected to the standby server.

Similarly, if you are using Webmail and a problem occurs with the server,
you can restart your Web browser and you will be automatically redirected
to the standby server.

If you are in the middle of important work when a problem occurs and you
would prefer not to close your session and lose your work, you can contact
the Technology Help Desk at 973-275-2222; they should be able to assist you
in connecting to the standby server without losing your work.

Note that the first time you connect to your standby server it may take a
few moments for the server to rebuild your views.

If you have any questions, please contact the Technology Help Desk at
973-275-2222, or James Bauchkey, Director of Systems Support at
bauchkja@shu.edu.
 

For more information please contact:
Technology Help Desk
(973) 275-2222
helpdesk@shu.edu