Power outage on campus, August 24, 2022

Posted August 24, 2022

All power and network services have been restored. All other IT services have been operational. Please remember to turn all your devices back on. Thank you for your patience. If you are still experiencing any IT issues, please contact IT Help Central.

Posted August 24, 2022

As scheduled, Operations staff and Lubbock Power & Light have worked this morning to complete power restoration to the TTU Lubbock campus. IT staff had powered down network to most buildings on campus in preparation of this work. At this time, Operations reports that power is stable. All IT services are operational, except for network services for certain buildings that are being restored currently by staff on site.

Posted August 23, 2022

As announced by the university on Sunday, August 21, 2022, Lubbock Power & Light must perform additional power maintenance on the Texas Tech University general academic campus. This work has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 24, 2022, from 6:00 AM until 6:30 AM CDT. During this period, portions of the campus will experience planned, temporary power outages. In preparation for the power outage, portions of the campus network will be brought down at 5:30 AM. Staff will turn on network services, building by building, once power resumes. This may take several hours. Some locations may take longer if network equipment recovery requires staff intervention.

To avoid damage to electronic, research, audio/visual, and computing equipment, it is highly advisable to shut down equipment prior to this maintenance and only power it on after announcements are made indicating that power is stable.

For detailed tips and anticipated impacts, please review the lists below.

Tips to prepare for this outage

• Ensure that your backups are working properly and data can be restored if needed. Generally, you should be using university-provided storage, such as OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, or TechShare.
• If your technology equipment is connected directly to a wall outlet, power off and physically unplug all technology, electronics, and computing equipment prior to the maintenance, so power irregularities do not damage equipment. This includes computers, monitors, copiers, printers, televisions, audio/visual equipment, Mediasite recorders, etc.
• If your technology equipment is connected to a power strip, with or without surge protection, power off and physically switch the power strip off.
• If your technology is connected to a UPS, we recommend powering off and physically unplugging equipment from standard UPS devices to be safe, as there are numerous factors that affect the effectiveness of UPS-powered equipment.
• If you are unable to unplug from the above locations or if it is more convenient, unplug at the equipment itself after powering off the system.
• Once power is fully restored to the campus, you may plug in your equipment or make arrangements in advance for someone to power up your equipment.
• Everyone is encouraged to check all of their systems and equipment to make sure they restart properly.
• Once computing equipment is turned back on and the network is stable, remote access to desktop systems should be possible.
• Pause HPCC jobs, if you have any running at the High Performance Computing Center (HPCC). HPCC will be gradually shutting down the job queues in preparation for the outage.

What this means for the Texas Tech community from an IT perspective

• Cloud-based services such as Blackboard, Microsoft 365 (TechMail, OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams), Adobe Creative Cloud, and Zoom, should remain operational.
• TTU data centers, which host many IT services, including Raiderlink, eRaider Account Manager, Skype for Business, Banner, and TTU webpages, should remain operational on backup power.
• Network services across Texas Tech University in Lubbock will be disrupted; this includes both the wired and wireless networks on campus and remote access from outside the university. TTU IT staff will be checking classroom technology in Raider Rooms after power is restored.
• We also recommend that departmental IT staff check their classroom technology after power is restored.
• Since the fall session begins on Thursday, August 25, 2022, faculty should plan to arrive a bit early to their first class to ensure no technology problems are present.
• Network services should be restored once power resumes, but some locations may have longer interruptions requiring staff intervention. There is no way to predict which locations will be affected until the power is restored. Once power is restored, Telecommunications staff will be checking all network equipment and will manually intervene as needed; this may take a few hours or longer to complete, depending on the nature and extent of the network equipment failures due to the power outage.
• Cellular coverage in Lubbock will not be impacted. However, the enhanced cellular network over campus may be diminished during the power outage.

Please monitor communications from the university for the latest information. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the impact to IT equipment, please contact IT Help Central.