We just replaced our ailing backup server for laptops and lab PCs inplace with new, more performant hardware using the same proven BackupPC software, just a newer version. Its web-interface is available under the same URL.

The new server will start making backups from scratch for every host. Backups on the old server will still be available for a while at the address https://backuppc-old.phys.ethz.ch/.

Our old backup server became a victim of its own success. In the end it handled backups for over 100 hosts every day (over 160 during its whole life-time) and stored about 10 Terabytes of backups.

The BackupPC server of the Institute for Astronomy is not affected.

We have scheduled a downtime of the D-PHYS mail server for hardware maintenance on Friday, 1st of June 2012, starting after 4pm and lasting approximately half an hour. During the downtime sending and receiving mails will not be possible. Incoming mails will be slightly delayed.

Update 19:30h: Everything back again and looks fine. Performance may be slightly decreased for a day or so until the RAID has rebuilded.

Preparations took longer than expected, so we started later. The maintenance downtime itself also took longer due to some some unexpected issues which had to be resolved before we could continue start all service again. We're sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.

For some hardware and other maintenance we schedule a downtime of our mail server today (Fri, 13th of April 2012) evening after 6pm.

The downtime will likely take less than one hour. During the downtime you will neither be able to access your mails on the server nor to send mails via our server. Mails which are sent to the Dept. of Physics won't get lost, but will have some lag.

On Thursday, 9th of Februar 2012, starting at 16:30, we will upgrade the operating system on the remaining servers of our mail server cluster. This will result in temporary unavailability of most e-mail related services we provide: sending and receiving e-mails, mailing lists and webmail access.

Due to the maintenance e-mails may have some lag and arrive a few hours later than usual.

There will be an emergency maintenance downtime of the D-PHYS mail server later today (Tuesday, 27th of December) due to unexpected hardware issues.

Update 16:30: Everything seems to work fine again. It's though likely that there will be another downtime for further maintenance in early 2012.

Today, the 7th of December 2011, around 7pm, there will be a complete network interruption in the whole Department of Physics for about one hour. The central ETH IT Services (“Informatikdienste”) will replace the hardware of the core router to the HPx network zone (includes the HIT building).

Wireless LAN should not be affected, but as the servers will be offline, too, you won't have access to files or mails on the servers, i.e. don't expect to be able to work during the network downtime. The technicians will reconnect the servers first, so access to the servers from the outside of the Department or via WLAN will be restored earlier than 8pm. Workstations and printers will get network access back afterwards.

On Wednesday, 5th of October 2011, starting at 16:30, we will upgrade the operating system on several servers of our mail server cluster. This will result in temporary unavailability of most e-mail related services we provide: sending and receiving e-mails, mailing lists and webmail access.

Due to the maintenance e-mails may have some lag and arrive a few hours later than usual.

Update, 21:55: Upgrade of the incoming and IMAP/webmail/mailing list servers were successful. Everything is back to normal.

This Thursday, the 7th of July 2011, around 7am, there will be a short network interruption in the whole Department of Physics. The central ETH IT Services ("Informatikdienste") will move our network zone to new hardware, necessary for some future services.

Additionally, the WLAN Landing Page of the "public" network will have a maintenance downtime from 7am to 8am.

On Wednesday, 15th of June 2011, starting at 3pm, we will upgrade the operating system of our webserver zwoelfi.ethz.ch. This implies a downtime of all websites and web-related services (including www.phys.ethz.ch, isg.phys.ethz.ch, lager.phys.ethz.ch, events.phys.ethz.ch, FIRST booking, all wikis and the groupware service) and most MySQL databases for several hours. As many of those websites have to be upgraded as well, they will successively come back online as we patch them up. We'll keep you posted as we proceed.

Update, 21:00: Basic web services are running again, some PHP based sites may still have smaller issues, Zope based sites may still have performance issues, too.

We just deployed new SSL certificates for some of our services. Sending e-mails via our mail server no longer requires the import of our root CA certificate beforehand, but may require a restart of your e-mail client. Internal websites (like account management and password changing) or websites which are hosted by us and don't end in .ethz.ch got new certificates signed by our new root CA certificate. To avoid annoying and irritating warnings, we recommend you import our root CA certificate into your web browser.

The new root certificate will be installed in the web browsers on our managed workstations within the next days, too.