Windows Servers reboot 8AM Today

Between 8AM and 8:30 this morning Windows servers MERCURY and PLUTO were restarted to install one of the critical Microsoft security updates issued Tuesday CHFATECH article: Microsoft Windows Critical Updates October 2005
As of this morning, there are known virus/worms on the Internet that exploit this vulnerability. Delaying the Microsoft patch KB902400 any further risks our system's security.

If you are a CHFA staff member, your documents on Windows or Macintoshes are likely stored on MERCURY which was unavailable for two minutes around 8:02AM. If you are staff and have a Macintosh running OS X 10.3x (Panther), you may need to restart the computer to reconnect to your home directory.

Our Windows server PLUTO was restarted at 8:10AM. Windows self-detected a disk error on the "Public Files" disk volume during restart, and ran a full diagnostic. The diagnostic
was automatic, and took until 8:28 to complete. The server returned to full service at 8:31AM.
Pluto hosts all Windows shared (networked) printers, shared Public Files, and installer packages (any Windows computers restarting during these 21 minutes would seem to hang when "installing managed applications").

While we prefer not to interrupt servers during the work day. This immediate action avoided a larger interruption. If this exploit were breeched, we would need to take the server completely down and likely reformat and reinstall all software to ensure a clean computer free of any maliciously installed software. We appreciate your understanding and patience this morning.

Again, please leave your office computers on during the night so this patch can install automatically. CHFA Windows XP computers are to install this patch at 5:00:00PM today (if not restarted before then). You should also ensure your home Windows computer(s) have this patch installed ASAP.

Information posted by Chris Conklin, 10/13/2005 11:52:05 AM.