Faculty/Staff Profiles

We are experiencing some problems with our Faculty/Staff profile server (FS1) this morning. Our system administrators are working on the problem to get it corrected as quickly as possible.

UPDATE: As of 10:31 AM, the FS1 server is back up and functioning correctly. We again thank you for your patience.

Corrupt Profiles

A little background before we get started...
A profile is what allows you to access the same printers, software, and settings no matter where you log in. That information travels or "roams" with you. What makes that happen is that your profile is stored on a server (FS1 for Faculty/Staff and FS3 for students). When you log in the information is downloaded to the computer you are using and then when you log off the information is then uploaded back to the server.


First of all, what is a corrupt profile?
Some of the tell-tale signs of a corrupt profile are:

1. The left side of your Start menu is empty.
2. When you try to add a printer, you get a message about having insufficient access or your access is denied.
3. A lot of your settings that you have for your programs are no longer there. For example, you may have to set up your email account again or your wallpaper image has changed.
4. You may get a message that not all network drives could be connected.
5. Things just generally look weird or not right.

What causes a corrupt profile?
The short answer is that something happened during the download/upload process that caused the problem. This could be a network "hiccup," a hardware failure on the PC, or even the server is having trouble. This is why we strongly suggest that you reduce your profile size to as small as it can be. The larger the profile, the longer it's going to take you to log in and out and therefore a greater chance of corrupting. The optimal size is for a profile is for it to be less than 75MB.

How do I reduce the size of my profile?
The main thing to do is to not store files on your desktop. Make sure that you are storing the actual files on your S drive or the T drive. You can create shortcuts to those files, but the actual files need to be stored in a place that is more stable. If you need assistance in this process, we encourage you to check out the software guide or contact the Helpdesk at your convenience. We'd be happy to help you.

Letter to Students

Students,

Here is a copy of the email that will be arriving in your inboxes today.

============================================================

TO: SHSU Students
FROM: Mark Adams
Associate VP for SHSU Information Resources


We are very appreciative of your support and patience with the campus technology this semester. A good year in the job market has resulted in a large number of vacancies in Computer Services, and has resulted in an unusually high number of problems this semester with technology resources. We realize how often the computing systems have been slow or unavailable. We'd like to fill you in on what's happening:

• We are aggressively advertising, interviewing, and recruiting additional staff. We have twelve open positions at this time, and we encourage you to recommend and refer applicants to us. http://www.shsu.edu/ITjobs
• We are working almost daily with Blackboard to assist us with system improvements. Blackboard consultants will be on campus in January to further improve reliability and response.
• Additional, and more reliable, server systems have been purchased and will be installed during the semester break.
• A new database is being purchased which will help with the high-volume traffic during registration and finals.

A number of other initiatives are being carried out as we strive to expand the computing systems. We're very proud to be part of one of the fastest growing universities in the state; we are just currently experiencing some really agonizing growing pains!

Thank you again for the many positive comments of empathy and concern that you've expressed. Have a great holiday season as we look forward to Spring 2008!

New Temporary Admin Access Policy

Hello all,

As always, the IR Update contains a lot of useful information for the campus community. I did want to call your attention to one specific artcle in this month's update since it does refer to a policy change.

Sticking to Business

We are continuing to streamline functions to ensure we can meet the business needs of the campus. Therefore, temporary administrative access will only be granted for University-related installations. This will help reduce staff time in granting and monitoring these privilege changes and will also lower the risk that University machines are compromised by non-essential software.

We want to encourage you to take a moment to read the IR Update each month.

Have a great week!

Faculty/Staff Profiles

We are currently experiencing some problems with our Faculty/Staff profile server (FS1). We do have system administrators working on the issue. We realize that this is an inconvenience, so we are working to correct the problem as quickly as we can. We appreciate your patience.

UPDATE: The issues with the FS1 server should now be corrected. If you are still having trouble, we suggest that you reboot your machine and try again. If you still have trouble contact the Helpdesk at x4-1950.