You may be aware that we experienced unprecedented difficulties with the Student Administration Systems (Banner), the database that sits behind Self Service and other university functions, just before and during the Christmas period. We want to apologise for the disruption and provide you with some further information and reassurances.
What happened?
The system started to experience problem on 21 December which resulted in it being taken offline on 22 December. IT and Systems teams worked extensively during the holiday period to investigate these issues and stabilise the system, enabling it to be reinstated around noon on 1 January 2021. We undertook as much confidence testing as we reasonably could, without extending downtime into what we know is a critical period for the university and student records.
What does this mean for me?
We apologise for any distress that this outage may have caused. We are now in a period of intense monitoring and as a result, there may be unexpected issues and further unscheduled downtimes over the coming weeks, although it is currently looking stable. With this in mind, we ask that should you experience unexpected problems or issues, please escalate them to ServiceLine with a clear account of the nature of the problem. We will endeavour to keep you informed of downtimes and issues that affect you through SUSSED.
Thank you!
Finally, we would like to acknowledge the incredible efforts made by a number of staff in Student Administration and iSolutions, who gave up over a week of the closure period, and worked under huge pressure, to reinstate these services. We would also like to thank you for your support and understanding during this time.
