(updated August 31, 1999)
Year 2000 Institutional Coordinator: S. Hilton, Assistant Director, Auxiliary Services
The University of Oregon began evaluating Year (Y2K) issues in late 1996. Due to limited resources, we have focused our efforts on administrative computing, but we're also communicating with other departments whose operations have significant impact on the university (e.g., Facilities Services, Printing and the Office of Public Safety). We will continue to provide information to these departments as we discover it.
While individual departments are responsible for troubleshooting their own desktop systems, we'll continue to distribute as much information as possible to make their task easier, relying heavily on the communal web site that Oregon University System (OUS, formerly OSSHE) is developing for the universities. The OUS site will have links to a number of relevant Y2K web sites, including those of Microsoft, Novell, and the more mainstream hardware vendors. We're still working with OUS to identify potentially date-sensitive auxiliary systems that may still be in use on campus (i.e., security systems, elevator systems, heating and cooling systems, pagers, bar code readers, copiers, etc.) Once these are identified, we will pass the information along to the appropriate departments.
A. SCT BANNER applications
Y2K-ready versions of the SCT BANNER modules have been installed:
Oracle products are reportedly Y2K-ready.
B. Applications developed in-house. Auxiliary systems
developed in-house--including Perkins, Housing, Physical Plant, Printing, Student
Health Center and payroll systems for a number of departments--are now, to the
best of our knowledge, Y2K-ready.
C. DAISY, DONALD & OREGON systems. The Alpha 8400 (DAISY) and the
two Alpha 7000 (DONALD, OREGON) computers and their corresponding operating
systems are reportedly Y2K-ready.
Note: OUS is setting up an Alpha 8400 running the same operating
system as ours, with a 2000 date, and will conduct BANNER 3.0 tests.
D. NT servers (awaiting patches from Microsoft)
- GUI forms servers running NT (BANNER1, BANNER2, BANNER3, HUEY, DEWEY)
- BANNER web servers running NT (DuckWeb, BANNERWEB)
E. BANNER interfaces to systems developed in-house have been reviewed (and modified) for Y2K readiness.
F. DuckCallAcademic User Services supports faculty, staff and student users on a variety of software (including SAS, SPSS, Minitab, Lindo, Shazam, Mathematica, Maple, etc.), and freeware/shareware utilities obtained via the network. The vast majority of the software is date-insensitive (except perhaps for license management that software vendors may employ to ensure the authorized use of their product).
We do not believe that there are any Y2K problems of a mission-critical nature in the systems that we support. In the event that unexpected Y2K problems arise, as a "product taker" (often obtaining special educational licensing terms), our ability to demand/influence vendors is limited, and our recourse is generally simply to discontinue using a product if it no longer meets our functional requirements.
Responsibility for determining Y2K compliance for individual desktop systems, and replacing them if necessary, will be relegated to the individual departments. We will rely heavily on the OUS Y2K web site as a resource to these departments as to what hardware/software is Y2K ready, what patches are available for that software/hardware which is NOT compliant, and general information, including how to determine if your desktop is compliant or not. We will provide the link to the OUS web site from our own University of Oregon home page.
Telecommunications
Telephone PBXs, key systems, voicemail systems, and the controlling systems, both
hardware and software, have been upgraded to Y2K readiness. This was accomplished
with Intuity and Definity G3R upgrades in 1998 and an upgrade to the OIMB Merlin
Legend phone and voicemail system in late 1998.
The call accounting system is centralized at OUS and maintained by ITS and OUS
network management personnel. ITS administrators report that the core call accounting
system is Y2K ready. The polling and costing components, purchased and maintained
by Bitek, Inc., are not Y2K ready. Bitek has given OUS a quote to make those systems
Y2K ready which is being considered. Those systems have been tested, however,
and appear to rollover properly into the year 2000 with no service degradation.
Telephone switchroom power conditioning equipment/UPS battery backup is new and
Y2K ready.
There are various types and vintages of TTD and fax devices on the University
of Oregon campus whose ownership and and administration are distributed to the
departments. The office of Telecommunications is evaluating the Y2K readiness
of the most commonly used TTD equipment and has tested their fax.
911
911 service is provided by local law enforcement. The University of Oregon's PBX
will route 911 or 9-911 telephone calls to that number. The PBX is Y2K-ready.
As of July 09, 1999, Facilities Services has completed the installation of the Honeywell Plantscape system for the CPS Boiler Control systems. This system operates on a Windows NT platform and is, to the best of knowledge, completely Y2K ready.
Actual operational Y2K tests were performed on the new supervisory controls using the "off-line" boiler in PLC. The date was set to "Dec 31, 1999, 11:58 p.m.". The new date was then synchronized with the PLC "off-line" boiler, and the system was put through all critical functions. The boiler was lit-off and put through its paces using the "after 2000" date. Operation and data collection lasted about 15 minutes using the future date. No problems were detected.
An 8 hr formal training session on the new system was conducted July 19th. The training was videotaped for future use and reference.
All upgrades and tests of internal systems for Y2K have been completed. One piece of electrical diagnostic equipment, the Dranetz, is not compliant, and Facilities Services continues to work on acquiring a standby diesel generator. It is planned that the CPS 750KW standby generator and the campus emergency feeder standby generator will both be installed, tested and ready for operation by the end of Fall 1999.
Administrative Services
In general, offices report that they will be following the UO Inclement Weather Policy. The start of classes has been delayed until Wednesday, January 5th, 2000. Oregon Hall offices will be open, given that there is power and heat, as will the Vivian Olum Child Development Center. In the event of outages of utilities (sewer, water, electricity), the residence halls would not be able to sustain operation beyond a few days. Residence Halls are closed during Christmas break so if outages occurred during the weekend prior to classes, the Residence Halls probably would not open.
Facilities Services is working to acquire at least one 750KW diesel generator for the Central Plant. If there is a campus-wide power outage due to EWEB failure, Facilities Services plans to use the diesel generator to "cold start" the Central Plant to provide some level of power to critial areas on campus. Once the Central Plant is restarted, the internal steam driven generators could be started and provide additional power to the campus. Critical sites include the Zebra-fish facility, other specific science areas, Hamilton Hall and the Computing Center.
There are no administrative activities scheduled that could be classified as "mission critical". Note: Payroll will have completed the week prior to the end of the year.