UNT Campus Wide Network Outage

There appears to have been a campus wide internet outage that would have caused any users to be unable to connect to any UNT web service, including Blackboard Learn. The outage lasted from approximately 1:55pm to 2:01pm.

Learn Regular Maintenance Running Long 10/27/2013 -- UPDATED

The Learn System is currently unavailable due to longer than expected installation of database patches.
We have no ETA, but we will update this blog once we have more information from the relevant teams.

Update: Database patching has been completed and the learn service has been restored at approximately 4:30am 10/27/2013. We appreciate your patience during this extended maintenance window. Thanks

Learn System Slowness 10/13/13

DLS received reports from the help desk that Learn experienced some system slowness between 10pm and 10:30pm this evening. The issue was resolved by DLS performing a rolling restart of the affected nodes, which were having IO issues that were subsequently resolved.

Learn Service Issue

Starting at around 3:20 p.m. this afternoon and ending at approximately 4:30 p.m., the Learn service experienced a minor interruption of its back end network services and as such all users will have had a degraded Learn experience. This would have presented itself as slow page loads, however Learn was still functional. We appreciate your patience during this unplanned service issue. If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact your regular Learn technical support help desk. Thanks.

Learn Service Issue

Starting at around 2:00 a.m. this morning and ending at approximately 8:30 a.m., the Learn service has had issues connecting to its back end database and as such all users will have had a degraded Learn experience. We appreciate your patience during this unplanned service issue. If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact your regular Learn technical support help desk. Thanks.

Learn Service Restored

At this time, Learn has been fully restored to normal service. If you are still having issues please contact your regular Learn help desk.

Learn Service Issue 7/16/2013

Starting at around 2:00 a.m. this morning, the Learn service has had issues connecting to its back end database and as such all users will experience a degraded Learn experience. We are currently working with the database team to resolve this issue. We do not have a firm eta for service restoration at this time, however all teams involved have been and are currently working diligently for a resolution. We appreciate your patience during this unplanned service issue. If you have additional questions or concerns, please contact your regular Learn technical support help desk. Thanks.

Phishing Attack Targets Learn Users

Some on-campus users have reportedly been receiving fake Learn system messages that are "Blackboard Notifications" that a post has been added to their Learn courses. These phishing messages are intended to deceive the user and make them follow a link that will then ask them for their log in credentials.

If you did follow the link from the fake message and entered your log in information, please go to https://ams.unt.edu immediately and change your password. You should then notify your regular help desk team for further assistance. Thank you.

Possible Minor Interruption

Between 9:15 a.m. and 9:20 a.m. users of the Learn service may have experienced brief interruptions of service due to a non-Learn related networking issue. At this time we have received no reports at the CLEAR helpdesk of any problems, however our monitoring indicates that interruptions were possible. If you believe you were affected by this please contact the helpdesk. Thanks.

Possible Minor Interruption

Between 3 and 3:15 p.m. users of the Learn service may have experienced brief interruptions of service. At this time we have received no reports at the CLEAR helpdesk of any problems, however our monitoring indicates that interruptions were possible. If you believe you were affected by this please contact the helpdesk. Thanks.

Learn Service Restored

At this time, Learn has been fully restored to service, we do not anticipate further power outages at this time. The system’s full downtime range was approximately 8:00am to 12:30pm today, 5/29/2013. If you are still having issues please contact your regular Learn help desk. 

Learn Service Interruption 5/29/2013

At approximately 8am this morning, the General Academic Building on the UNT main campus suffered a power outage, this lasted until about 10:15am when power was restored. This power outage brought down both Learn servers as well as multiple other mission critical UNT services. At this time, several system services that Learn depends on are being restored after their outages, at which time we will be able to restore Learn’s functionality. We do not have a firm eta for service restoration at this time, however all teams involved have been and are currently working diligently for a resolution. We appreciate your patience during this unplanned interruption, if you have additional questions or concerns, please contact your regular Learn technical support help desk. Thanks. 

Blackboard Issue: Red Banner Error Messages

It has been reported that users are seeing red banner error messages in Blackboard Learn when attempting to access tools through the My Blackboard Posts feature on the My Institutions page. (See image below.)

Please be aware that this error only occurs when users click on an image icon for posts, updates, and MyGrades from the My Institution page. Users can still access each of these tools through individual courses. Access to the global calendar through My Institution is functioning correctly. 

More updates will follow as we resolve this issue with Blackboard's technical support team. 

Learn Email Issues 3/26

The Learn mail tool is unavailable currently. DLS was contacted at 7:50pm by the CLEAR help desk and alerted of the issue, at which time the DLS team was able to test the mail server and determine that it is unresponsive to our requests. The ticket we received was opened approximately 7pm, and the issue is currently ongoing. 


Update: The issue appears to be resolved at approximately 10pm. Normal system functionality should be returned. 

Unexpected Outage 3/12/2013

At approximately 2:20am this morning a critical support system for Learn (https://learn.unt.edu) had unexpected problems which brought the system down for all users until 3:40am when the errors were resolved. The issue is not expected to cause further problems at this time. Thanks.

UNT Site Access Issues for Comcast Customers

Currently we are aware of an issue affecting Comcast customers that is restricting their access to UNT sites, which includes the Learn system. Comcast is aware of the issue and is working on a corrective action.

Update: At this time, please contact the UNT UIT helpdesk for a work around on the issue, or follow the directions provided on their site. Thank you.

Learn Slow Response Times (2/5/2013)

Yesterday for approximately one hour between 12 pm and 1 pm, the Learn system experienced issues on its application nodes that resulted in slow response times for webpage requests. DLS has identified the issue as part of an ongoing support request we have with Blackboard support and is working on a permanent resolution.

Learn Issues 1/19/2013

3:10pm CDT We are currently experiencing issues with Learn due to high memory consumption on the Server.  We are investigating the problem and hope to return service to normal levels soon.  Thanks for your patience.

Learn was restored to normal operating levels by approximately 4:00pm CDT.  DLS is planning to install a patch from Blackboard that will alleviate future outages of this nature.

Scheduled Maintenance 1/9/2012

On Wednesday, January 9th beginning at 10:00pm CDT until 2:00am January 10th Blackboard Learn will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance.