Original email subject: Emergency VPN maintenance at 5:30 p.m. today

[The VPN upgrade was completed successfully on March 17.]

March 17, 2020

Dear faculty, staff, and students,

In the face of the unprecedented situation with COVID-19 (coronavirus), the university—like many institutions around the world—is relying on technology in a way never before experienced to support the continued delivery of education and remote operations of businesses. As major components of the workforce are placing a strain on our nation’s infrastructure, patterns of internet use are changing around the world, resulting in traffic spikes of 40% or more in areas that have moved en masse to remote education and work.

Here at the UO, we are already seeing a dramatic increase in the use of virtual private networks (VPN) as faculty, staff, and students shift to remote teaching, working, and learning. In fact, our current VPN infrastructure is nearing capacity so quickly that Information Services will be performing emergency maintenance tonight to increase capacity and throughput.

Emergency VPN upgrade today

Campus VPN will be down tonight (Tuesday, March 17) from 5:30 to 11:30 p.m.

IS will be upgrading the VPN infrastructure to increase capacity from 750 users to 4,000 users (with the ability to increase further if needed) and increase throughput from 1 Gigabit to 10 Gigabits.

We had previously planned this upgrade for spring break but are accelerating that timeline to meet the university's emerging usage needs. If the work is completed early, we will post a note on the IT Service Status website under "VPN (Virtual Private Networking)."

After tonight's upgrade, you shouldn't notice any difference when using VPN.

Good VPN etiquette, now and later

To avoid an unplanned VPN outage today before 5:30 p.m., and avoid overloading the VPN infrastructure even after the upgrade, please exercise good VPN etiquette.

• Only use VPN when you truly need to. Most applications don't require VPN for off-campus use. Lists of which common services do and don't need VPN are available in this page about connecting to UOVPN.

• Log off VPN when you're done using it.

Thanks in advance for your patience. As we move through the upcoming weeks and months together, we may experience further technology challenges related to the unique strains that this situation poses on technology, both our own and the underlying infrastructure we rely on from other businesses and agencies. Your UO IT staff are here to help and support you through these challenges.

UO facilities—including the Eugene and Portland campuses—are currently open, but are taking actions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. You can find the most current information on the UO's coronavirus webpage, which includes an FAQ and links to additional information about the novel coronavirus and messages related to the university's preparation and response.

General questions or concerns about anything related to the university and its response to COVID-19 can be submitted using this web form.

Sincerely,

Jessie Minton
Vice Provost for Information Services and Chief Information Officer