By Rashad Mulla, Broadside Correspondent
Patriot Web is undergoing a massive database and software upgrade that will keep the system down until Wednesday, April 7. Thomas Shifflett, director of ITU database application services, said the upgrade, which began Friday, April 2, is aimed at improving system performance and providing thorough maintenance.
Notices will be sent on Wednesday afternoon when the system is available for use, according to Shifflett.
During the outage, Patriot Web will be unavailable, and a host of other related systems, such as Blackboard, will have accessibility restrictions. Blackboard itself will be available for student and faculty use, Shifflett said, but course and enrollment data was frozen on Friday afternoon.
The upgrades are expected to be completed a week before class registration begins. Graduate students, the first group eligible for class registration, may begin signing up on April 13. Summer class registration, which began on March 15, will be frozen during the upgrade.
Beginning at 8 a.m. today, a copy of the new PatriotWeb will be up for viewing only, allowing students to look at the class schedule, but no account actions within the system, such as registering for or dropping classes, will be saved. Any information entered into the system during this time, such as a change in personal data, will be wiped out upon completion of the upgrade.
Despite the mid-semester timing of the upgrade, Shifflett said it is essential.
“The purpose of the upgrade is to ensure that the Patriot Web software and the underlying hardware and software infrastructure are at a supported maintenance level,” he said. “The upgrade will also facilitate enhancements to functionality that will be implemented in the coming year.”
Other related systems affected by the upgrade include the library, Student Accounts, Student Health, Parking Services and Mason Money. All of these sites remain available.
For a complete list of affected systems, please visit https://patriotweb.gmu.edu/alerts.html. Send questions to the Patriot Project Team at banner@gmu.edu.
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