Problems affecting filestore and software performance

[25 July 2012]

Update 25 July, 08:00: Systems have continued to be stable, as they were yesterday and over the weekend.  Work has been taking place to mitigate problems seen with domain controllers and plans are in place to restructure the system and better distribute the MyFiles service as well as review the arrangements for roaming application data.  We hope this is the end of the current situation but we are monitoring the situation closely. If you are still seeing problems as outlined below then please contact the IT Service Desk.

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Update 23 July 09:50: The filestore situation continues to be improved, and we are not currently seeing reports of new related problems. However, if you are encountering problems, please report them to the IT Service Desk, service-desk@bristol.ac.uk.

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Update 20 July 16:00: The measures put in place last night appear to have improved the situation considerably on the domain controllers, and hence the filestore, and we are not currently seeing reports of new related problems. There are some residual issues to clear up, and we will be monitoring the situation closely over the weekend.

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Update 20 July 10:00: We are continuing to work on the intermittent problems affecting some users across the University. Some further changes were made yesterday and overnight. We believe that the changes we are implementing are improving the situation but we are monitoring the situation closely.

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Update 19 July 11:00: We are still seeing intermittent problems affecting some users across the University. This includes slow logins, unresponsive applications (including Firefox and Microsoft Office) as well as performance problems with services reliant on access to the file storage system. We believe that the changes we are implementing are improving the situation but we are monitoring the situation closely.

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Update 18 July, 14:40: We have implemented a change which should reduce the unresponsive behaviour of software and are monitoring the performance of the Domain Controllers, ensuring that any issues are dealt with quickly to allow staff to access services. We believe that the impact of these problems has declined as a result of these actions. However, if you are still seeing problems then please report them to the IT Service Desk, service-desk@bristol.ac.uk.

IT Services apologises for the inconvenience these problems are causing and we will continue to update this news item with information.

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We are seeing problems with a range of services connected to Filestore.  This includes access to Filestore / MyFiles / O Drive, availability of files and also performance issues with key software, such as Word, which connects to filestore.

O Drive not appearing

This is due to an issue with Domain Controllers. Those who do not have access can attempt to connect to O Drive / MyFiles by logging off and back in on their computers.

Unresponsive access to folder, files and some software (including Microsoft Office)

For those experiencing delays in accessing files or finding certain software unresponsive, the advice is to wait until a reconnection is automatically made.

Current activity

Staff in IT Services are investigating the problem which seems to be related to a number of processes.  Various changes have been implemented and we are monitoring reports to the IT Service Desk and from zonal IT teams to better understand the problems staff and students are experiencing. Plans are in place for additional work to the domain controllers and the filestore arrangements to improve performance.

IT Services apologises for the inconvenience this is causing.

Please report incident to the IT Service Desk.