[CCoE Notice] Access to computer and shared recourses post-hurricane

[Luong, Kiet A]

Good morning,

As you are making preparations for the projected hurricane situation, please keep these in mind relating to computers:

1.        Please take this opportunity to back up all important data while computer and network access are still available.  It's ideal to take a copy of important data home with you, as well as copying it to MS One Drive for Business.  You will see instructions for accessing One Drive account by choosing "Office 365" from access.uh.edu (under University Services).  You can also use other cloud storage for data backup, but Level 1 data (attached) should only be stored on UH servers and/or approved One Drive for Business from Office 365 link mentioned.



2.       Protect IT equipment - please be sure that devices are protected from potential rising water/flooding by getting all devices up off of the floor.  If possible, turn off and unplug any devices that do not need to be accessible.  Scientific instruments and equipment may also need to be shutdown.



3.       If you plan to work remotely in the event campus stays closed due to flood damage, please make sure your computer stays on and protected by a UPS (uninterruptable power supply).  Remote access using a computer will require VPN (http://www.uh.edu/infotech/services/computing/networks/vpn/#set).  It's better to follow instructions on how to setup VPN instead of installing the software.  Email can be accessed from mobile devices and computers (access.uh.edu) without the use of VPN.



4.       In the event the college's server room loses power or cooling, all servers will be shutdown subsequently.  We will do our best to be proactive to avoid data loss, and will communicate our actions beforehand.  It's best to avoid running extended data analysis or codes during this time to avoid highly-possible interruptions.  If you have servers in our care and don't need to access them during this time, please let us know so we can shut them down ASAP.  Some research areas may have a local NAS (network area storage), so those will also need to be shutdown to prevent data loss in the event of power loss.  Please let me know ASAP when those need to be shut down.

Please plan on turning off all computers and electronics in your areas before leaving today.  For those who are not on campus, please contact peers in your respective departments for help turning off computers and electronics.  Please avoid simply pressing the power button to turn off computers, however.  Doing so may cause harm to hardware, and consequently software and data.  To safely shutdown computers, click on "Start" button then "Shutdown."  You can also shut down the computer without logging on by getting to the login screen (Ctr+Alt+Del, click OK then choose "shutdown" from red button at bottom right corner).  Other operating systems will also have safe shutdown procedures, so please follow them to protect your computers.

Please email me with any questions regarding any of this.  If you have students in your labs, please communicate this to them as well.  Stay safe and we'll see everyone back on campus when it reopens.

Sincerely,

Kiet Luong
Director of Engineering Computing
College Information Security Officer
Cullen College of Engineering
University of Houston
Email: KietL at uh.edu
Voice: 713.743.9974

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://Bug.EGR.UH.EDU/pipermail/engi-dist/attachments/20170825/add5931e/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Level 1 Data.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 89186 bytes
Desc: Level 1 Data.pdf
Url : http://Bug.EGR.UH.EDU/pipermail/engi-dist/attachments/20170825/add5931e/attachment-0001.pdf