Tue 23 Jan 2007
All services are back online 1/23/2007 10:50 A.M.
Posted by Chance Gray under mail.usf.edu , WebMail , NewsAs of 3A.M. the mail server was brought back online. All mail waiting in the queue has been delivered. Some users are experiencing problems with corrupt files. Most of these are showing up in the log but to be sure post here if you encounter any problems with your account.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:19 am
Your running the entire webmail system on 73 gb?? My laptop has more space than that! I guess too much money is being used paying sub-standard personnel.
Again, is there a backup system? Why didnt it take over yesterday? Im assuming since you only have 73 gb of space that having a back up is too high tech for you guys but this is ridiculous.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:22 am
That is a RAID system based on 12 73GB disks. That is the original unit which failed. BTW, it is not a DELL.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:23 am
Again, where was the backup system?
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:32 am
This is where the shortage of funds comes into question. Do we replace the outdated, too small and broken down system or do we spread the data across multiple systems increasing the risk from multiple single points of failure? As bad as the old system was it was fully redundant: multiple disks could fail, a single controller could fail and one of the servers could fail and we would be fine. Both controllers failed. Our budget has not allowed us to have two or more fully redundant clusters. Perhaps that is what may have seemed like a luxury in the past which is clearly a necessity for the present and future.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:40 am
Its ironic that every other university seems to have enough money but we dont.
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:53 am
I chalk it up to growing pains during the post 9/11 recession. A lot of the bureaucratic problems that everyone is running into has to do with that.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Thanks to the IT team for doing their best getting everything running again.
I’m sorry you had to deal with so much heckling. I’m very glad it is back online.
Perhaps now the University will see the need for funds in this area. Yesterday was such a disaster.
January 23rd, 2007 at 6:53 pm
My mail.usf.edu account is stating that I have 4 new messages, but I don’t see them. Are they really there?
January 24th, 2007 at 2:01 am
Sherman, check if they are hidden on another page.
I once had a email that didn’t have a “known” date, was the very last email on the last page ( sorted by page, or at the bottom - one page ).
January 24th, 2007 at 7:16 am
hey jason,
i tried that. I checked every inbox folder with show all messages, and still no new emails.
January 24th, 2007 at 8:02 am
haha that is funny the 9/11 recession. You cannot blame this universities inability to handle money responsibly on fictitious political propaganda. he talks as if poverty struck the nation after 9/11. Yes of course our country and the world had a negative economic impact from 9/11but in the grand scheme of things this is still just after 9/11 and the unemployment rate is one of the lowest the country has seen.
January 24th, 2007 at 8:25 am
Sherman,
I have deleted some index files and other mailbox accounting information which was out of sync with your mailboxes. The correct number of unread messages is now listed.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:46 am
Mark,
I suppose it doesn’t matter what I say is the reason. While 9/11 may have been some factor in the creation of problems here it bears little importance on how we act from here on out. Clearly I was pandering for an emotional appeal. I apologize. Everyone was affected by 9/11 including other Universities where there may not be so many problems. Ultimately my analysis of what brought us here is irrelevant.
What matters is that we are providing the best service we can. What marks we have against us from recent history will be overcome with the realization of our intent.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I just want to say thanks for for working to get BB and our email back online, and for continuing to deal with a system that you so clearly know is sub-standard. That must be incredibly frustrating for you as well, and it seems there is no shortage of people to complain and rage while email is out but so few around to show appreciation once it is back up.
January 24th, 2007 at 11:12 am
in a service such that the IT staff performs, intentions mean nothing. results are all that matters. When a doctor makes a mistake during surgery and the patient dies, nobody cares that the doctor had the best intentions they still sue his ass off and usually win. my point is we do apprecieate that the IP staff is doing the best they can with sub par quipment. but what really matters is that the systems stay up. IF that means getting rid of incompetent IT staff then do it. If the staff is fine but the equipment sucks then do what needs to be done. I am sure that since this is part of the foundation of the schools infrastructure the powers that be can find some money for it.
January 24th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Nicole,
Thank you for the show of apprciation.
Mark,
I concur. It is fulfillment of our intentions which matters.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I have been experiencing a great deal of difficulty when I try to check my mail. It daily will not let me on, and tells me that the page is experiencing technical difficulties. This has caused many problems with my classes these past few week. Please fix the problem.
Thank you
January 24th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Hey guys. I keep getting notifications that my quota is exceeded when I use Evolution to access my mail. On WebMail, it reports that 88.8% of 52.4 M is being used, but there’s no way it’s that excessive. This is just a pesky error, so don’t go too far out of your way to fix it. I just wanted to bring it to your attention.
By the way, you guys are doing a great job. People only seem to notice when the trains aren’t on time.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
Lauren,
I need to lock your account temporarily. You may see an unable to connect to server error.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Lauren,
Some of the system settings for your account were incorrect. They have been fixed. None of those should have prevented you from logging in and using your account though. If you continue to have problems please post here or report them to the help desk. Your account is unlocked at this time.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Mr. Pembleton,
Your account is currently reporting only 60% usage. Have you removed some messages? If so has it resolved the notifications on Evolution?
January 25th, 2007 at 10:04 am
I can’t send an email to my professor. Tells me there is an error. Can you let me know what might be going on. Thanks!
January 25th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Shannon,
It looks like the message was delivered but perhaps not copied to the send-mail folder. I do see a message from a professor verifying receipt of the message. If this does not describe the problem please post back. Also if it is possible to do a screen capture, should it happen again, and send that to the helpdesk address that could be helpful.
January 25th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Hi my webmail keeps saying that I have 3 unread email in my indox, and Ive check through to see if there was predated spam or anything like that and my inbox is showing no new messages.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
John,
Some system files had to be resynced with your account. It should show the right number of messages now. Unfortunately the system now shows you as over quota. You will need to delete messages without copying to the trash. To set this up click options->folder Options->[do not use trash] under the special folders “trash” setting.
January 25th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
I still can’t check my mail, and I am sort of in trouble with one of my classes because of this. Every time I try to sign on it just does the same thing. I can get into my.usf.edu, but when I try to see my email it says error, cant connect, or something like that. Thank you for addressing the situation, and I know you guys are working on it…but help:)
January 25th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Lauren,
Please try logging in directly to the webmail server rather than using the my.usf pass through. The address is http://mailbox.acomp.usf.edu
Please post here with the result.
January 25th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hi my webmail is still saying that i have 100 and some odd percentage full and I dont understand because I went through and delete over half of my emails and Ive never had more than 80 percent full before, I now only have 90 some emails and 20 sent emails. I think I should be well under the mailbox size we are given.
January 26th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Still doing the same thing. It says page cannot be displayed. I have tried to log in from every way I can think of. I dont know whats the matter with it, but that is my only email address, so as soon as we can get it up and running that would be such a relief.
Thank you
January 26th, 2007 at 7:58 am
John,
Your account is disabled now while the issue with it is resolved. It should only be a few minutes.
January 26th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Lauren,
I am able to access your account. Have you tried different computers/browsers/mail applications? Are you using a PC or MAC? Which ways have you tried? I don’t mean to bombard you with so many questions but answering these will help diagnose the problem.
January 26th, 2007 at 8:11 am
John,
Your account is re-enabled. The quota is reporting correctly. I am not sure of the exact cause but I suspect the IMAP session was persistent and contained the original over-quota information which it would not refresh. I will consult the server software vendor for more info and post back here with it.
January 26th, 2007 at 9:59 am
John,
It is possible that if you close your IMAP session for a period it will clear up the quota issue. Unfortunately it is not guaranteed to work that way. The server thread which handled your last IMAP session may retain the incorrect value even after your IMAP session has been gone for a while (even > 1/2 hour). In these cases you will have to contact us to have it corrected. The server control panel allows us to tell the server to recalculate the usage for individual accounts.
January 26th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Lauren,
Better yet would you stop by the help desk?
January 26th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
I have tried to send email from my usf account, but sometimes it says-internet server not found or you must log in after I have just logged in? Any idea why it does that?
Thanks
January 27th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Pamela,
Some of your mailboxes had been corrupted (sent-mail, SPAM, trash). These may have affeced your ability to send email. They are repaired now so post back here if the problem persists.
January 27th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I cant login again. It keeps telling me that I have to enter my info, I do and it comes back to the same error message. Am I locked out?
I am just wondering why does USF have so many problems with email? I came here from a community college with lower tuition and they had excellent email and blackboard systems??? It doesn’t make sense. More money should mean better equipment? Just a thought.
January 27th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Here is the exact message after attempting to log in— You must be logged in to access this page—Does it not realize that is what I just tried to do????
January 28th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
Pamela,
Are you using the webmail address (http://mailbox.acomp.usf.edu) or going through BlackBoard (http://my.usf.edu)? Or are you using a particular email program and if so which one?
January 29th, 2007 at 2:43 am
I created some subfolders of my important box; I moved emails from specific classes into those folders. Later, when I logged back into my email, the important box and all of the subfolders I had created were missing. I’m upset and worried because I just lost all of my emails from my professors and several of my classmates in all of my classes. (They were every important emails.) How do I get them back? (Can I get them back?)
January 29th, 2007 at 7:49 am
where is the help desk? right now it will let me on sometimes but then will not let me on other..
January 29th, 2007 at 9:02 am
Katrina,
Some of the system files for your account had been corrupted and are now fixed. I see 8 messages in the Important box. The most recent message there is dated January 10th. If this means that you are still missing messages post back here with the date ranges and folders in which the messages that are missing existed. The backup tapes may still have a copy of them. Otherwise please post back if everything is working again.
January 29th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Lauren,
The help desk is located in the information commons area of the 1st floor of the library.
January 29th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
I think that it would be interesting to know what the budget looks like for the IT department. Where would one find a detail to the 2006/2005 expenditures? How often does the equipment allocated to the faculty and staff fail? What is the yearly budget for that equipment? USF’s IT members often use the “Funding Card” to excuse the system issues but none of them actually provide any data to back it up. You guys might as well blame everything on Murphy’s Law. Oh yea, you already do.
January 29th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
My email account has stopped working. It says that quota has been reached, but there are only 2 messages in the Inbox. There are also a bunch of folders that the system says no longer exist. Please wipe these folders clean if necessary. There is nothing in my email that I need, so you can clear everything if you need to.
Thanks.
Lucas
January 29th, 2007 at 8:43 pm
Lucas,
I am forwarding your post to the SysAdmins of the eng.usf.edu servers. Your mail.usf.edu account is well under quota.
January 29th, 2007 at 11:09 pm
dbs
I suggest you go to the next SG Senate meeting. They can only help you, if they know us students would like for this information to be public. Although the USF is a public school, so the information might already be easily accessable to us.
Lets just say its a concern of mine as well, and as a public school the information very well might be public, one must just look in the correct place.
January 30th, 2007 at 3:24 am
The emails started as far back as Dec. 15 and continued up through Jan. 29; as far as which folders they were located in there were several. They were probably going to be listed as in my Inbox; however I made some subfolders of the INBOX/important folder named “Anthropology” “Geography” “Introduction to Art” (I’m pretty sure that’s what I named them.) Included in those folders were emails from both classmates for a group project, my professors explaining assignments, and professors making general announcements about what to expect in the class/updates.
Is there anyway that I can get them back? I’m getting desperate!
January 30th, 2007 at 11:14 am
Jason and dbs, the information is publically available. The information is housed by the IT department. There used to be a public login to the financial query system. Call their helpdesk @ 974-9000.
January 30th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Katrina,
I will see what I can recover.
January 30th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
Katrina,
I have restored the only copy I could find. I hope it is what you are looking for.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:16 am
The services always seem to have some sort of a problem on Saturday mornings. The last 3 saturday classes we’ve had blackboard has gone down during our class time. It went down again right now.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:45 am
I keep putting in my user name and password and it keeps saying unknown user or password. Both my user and password work for blackboard but not email.
February 3rd, 2007 at 10:47 am
Down again. Need I say more at this point?
Andrew Herrmann, chime in with me!
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:07 am
I am having troble logging in. It is giving me this message:
ERROR
Unknown user or password incorrect.
Go to the login page
I can log into BB just fine and my user name and password are the same for BB and my USF mail account.
I really hope all the complaining people are doing on this well read forum that is devised to report errors is really helping you solve the problems. It seems like they are contributing to the common good.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:10 am
Webmail is down for the 1000th time this year..I’m missing out on inportant emails…please fix the problem soon …this is really startin to become aggravating..i tried to be patient but know its a big incovenience…
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:12 am
I am still having plans with my mail. It would take my user name and password.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:13 am
The email account will not let me in- it says that it does not recognize my username or password– but I know that I haven’t changed any of my informaton. What’s going on???? Pls respond ASAP
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:16 am
I to can not get my user name and email to take. I also have missed important emails today and probably yesterday to! I see I’m not the only one with this problem.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:22 am
Hey Chance,
you seem to be the go-to guy here, or maybe its just that your on top of the situation, but i’m having a similar problem that others are having with the ERROR message telling my my user name and password are incorrect. I tried the other suggestions that you posted here, but its a no go.
Is there anything else I can do from my home or is a trip down to campus necessary ?
Thanks
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:24 am
My mail is not working this morning.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
Same here, I keep getting an error and can’t log in. I hope it gets fixed real soon since I have a group project due soon and need to talk to my group mates.
February 3rd, 2007 at 11:32 am
I have tried to be very patient and understanding with academic computing. However, email is so chancy, so problematic, that I am deeply disappointed. My email is a ‘mission critical’ tool I need to submit work and meet deadlines. USF students must demand that the administration fixes this problem– which probably means more $ allocated, and perhaps hiring a new, more professional staff that meets the needs of a so-called ‘Carnegie research institution’ like USF.