General Information about Services and Procedures
The Information Systems (IS) Helpdesk can be contacted by phone at (860) 570-5158, or via email form.
IS provides
1) Support and services for all Law School-owned hardware and software.
2) Networked services such as email, file and print sharing, Library catalog, Internet access from campus, and the Law School web site.
3) Limited support, on a time-available basis, for students, faculty, and staff setting up their laptops and/or home computers to connect to the Law School network.
I. Problem Reporting and Tracking
When problems are reported to the Information Systems Helpdesk (by phone or email), they are logged into our database. If phoned in, a problem that cannot be solved immediately is entered into a tracking system to ensure that it is dealt with, and to ensure that the person who reported it is informed of the outcome when the problem is closed. The anticipated turn-around time for all call tickets not marked "critical" (for definition, see Section II) is 1-3 days.
Problems outstanding for more than 3 days are reported to the Associate Director for Information Systems who ensures that all reasonable progress is being made. Priorities between outstanding problems may be adjusted at this stage.
A. Help Desk
1. Aim - To provide a single, helpful, point of contact within the IS department.
2. Applies to - All students, faculty, and staff of the Law School.
3. Service Level
- The Help Desk is open 8:30 am to 4:30 pm weekdays when the University is open, except for closures for staff training.
- Incoming emails and voicemails are usually entered in the database every 15 minutes.
- Urgent or critical work takes priority over general assistance of users.
4. Includes
- Contact by telephone (x5158).
- Contact by email.
- Contact "in person" in Lib 234, located in the Library next to the computer labs.
- Logging of call ticket in Help Desk tracking database.
- Tracking of all problems with users able to obtain problem's status.
- Serious problems are escalated by Help Desk.
5. Measurement of Compliance
Records of Help Desk usage are kept and an annual report of usage is provided to the Library Director and the Faculty Computer Committee.
II. Escalation/Resolution Procedure for Critical Problems
If a problem is of such a nature that it prevents a number of people from working, or puts users' information at risk, it is regarded as critical and its progress towards resolution is monitored by an escalation procedure within the IS department. The purpose of the procedure is to ensure that work on the problem is properly prioritized. The main aspects of the procedure are:
1. As soon as a reported problem is categorized as critical, it moves immediately to the top of the queue and is addressed by the appropriate staff member(s). If the problem affects the network, or impacts a substantial group of people, an explanatory email (if possible) will be sent out to the appropriate group(s).
2. Contact with the vendor is made as soon as possible, when such action is deemed appropriate.
3. If the problem persists for half a working day, the Law Library Director is informed of the status and an email (if possible) detailing the status is sent out to the effected group(s). If email is unavailable, a status report will be posted on the Law School's homepage under "News & Announcements."
III. Software and Hardware Modifications
Services provided by the IS department are relied upon by the faculty, staff, and students of the Law School. It is important that these services be of high quality and that they not change at unpredictable, or inconvenient times. Accordingly, our goal is to maintain services in a stable form during the academic year. New services or new components of existing ones may be added during the school year, but we strive to introduce them in a manner that does not affect existing ones. If serious, unforeseeable problems affecting users' ability to work do occur as a result of these upgrades, the IS department will make all reasonable efforts to install fixes as quickly as possible.
Major changes (upgrades, introduction of new software or hardware, etc.) will usually be made during the summer to minimize disruption. Staff and faculty will be informed of any proposed changes or additions prior to the end of the spring semester. Changes or additions could include new software to be added to the PC desktop, software or hardware that we will no longer support, and/or software or hardware upgrades.
Any approved changes will be in place by late August. Careful consideration is given to the length of time old software versions need to be retained and notice of planned removals is given in advance. In the case where software is being withdrawn completely, the period of notice will usually be significantly longer than that used to warn of the removal of an old version.
IV. Software and Hardware Support
The IS department attempts to provide a high-level of technical support for all officially supported software, although the level of support varies according to the availability of appropriate staff expertise.
The Helpdesk should be the first point of contact for any software or hardware problems or issues.
A. PCs
1. Aim - To provide appropriate software on a PC suitable for teaching, research, and staff use.
2. Applies to - PCs that are University-owned.
3. Includes - all currently supported software and hardware (see attached sheet or view the IS web pages at http://www.law.uconn.edu/infosys/supported.html)
4. Excludes - Non-University owned hardware or software.
B. Printers
1. Aim - To provide appropriate and cost-effective printers suitable for staff and faculty needs.
2. Includes - all currently supported HP printers.
3. Excludes - all printers that were not approved by the Information Systems department prior to purchase.
V. Network Services
In conjunction with the University, the Information Systems department seeks to provide the Law School community with an effective, well managed, and developing network infrastructure, appropriate for its evolving teaching, research, and administrative needs.
If it is necessary to interrupt any network service, prior notification is given via email and interruptions are scheduled to minimize their impact on users.
A. General Support
1. Service Level - The IS department strives to ensure a continuously operational network. However, the campus network is an interdependent entity. Failure of a single device can cause widespread problems and service disruption. The IS department does attempt to minimize downtime due to hardware failures. Where technically and economically possible, the IS department will build in redundancy and/or maintain 24 hour, on-site service agreements with our network vendors.
2. Includes
- The maintenance, development, and management of the campus Local Area Network (LAN). Work with the main campus to ensure continued, stable access to the Wide Area Network (WAN).
- Addition/deletion of network accounts. Accounts will be created or deleted within 1-3 days from receipt of request. Requests concerning forgotten passwords or login IDs will be responded to within 4 hours.
- Monitoring the general availability, performance, and reliability of the Campus network.
3. Modifications
- If possible, major changes to the network infrastructure will be scheduled between semesters or during the summer.
- Other changes, especially those required to rectify problems, will be carried out at the discretion of the IS department. Routine maintenance, often requiring the shutdown & restarting of network services, will occur during the designated period - Thursday & Friday mornings between the hours of 6:00am and 8:30am.
B. Server Information
1. Includes
- The standard, individual disk quota for staff or faculty will be 100 megabytes (MB) of disk space on a file server. Students are allotted 10 MBs.
- Additional space is reserved for departmental folders. Each department may be allocated up to 100 MB of disk space for folders subject to the maximum available disk space. The management of each folder is the responsibility of a designated person within a department.
- Students, faculty, and staff are allotted up to 15 MB disk space for email.
- Full backups of the Novell NetWare file servers occur weekly with daily incrementals. The cycle of tapes is sufficient to keep 4 weeks worth of data available.
- Full backup of the Exchange server occurs daily. The cycle of tapes is sufficient to keep 4 weeks worth of data available.
- Full backup of the data on the Web server occurs daily.
- Full backup of the Library Catalog (Innovative Interfaces system) occurs daily. The cycle of tapes is sufficient to keep 2 weeks worth of data available.
- The primary purpose of backup is to enable reconstruction of the data in the event of total failure of the disks, but requests to recover user files that are deleted in error will be processed as soon as possible, and normally within three working days of the request.
2. Operational Framework
- Availability of servers and services is carefully monitored by the IS department. Loss of a server is a serious problem and is subject to the escalation procedure (see Section II).
- Users should report network or email problems to the Help Desk where they will be logged in the problem tracking system.
- Additional disk resources for staff, faculty, and students may be allocated, dependent on available space, by sending a request to the Help Desk.
C. Email
1. Service Level
- The E-mail service is available 24X7, with the exception of the regular maintenance hours every Thursday and Friday between 6:00 am and 8:30 am.
- In the event of an email server failure, most Internet and UConn mail systems will hold incoming messages for three to five days before returning them to the sender.
- If serious problems are observed, IS staff will contact the following people and they in turn will communicate the information to their respective buildings:
- Chase - Administrative support for the Dean's office (Donna Kasey)
- Hosmer - Manager of Faculty Support Services (Delia Roy)
- Starr - Development Office
- Knight - Connecticut Urban Legal Initiative
- Library - Information Systems - Helpdesk
2. Includes
- Documentation for the services
- Access to electronic distribution lists both on campus and in the wide area.
- Maintaining mail server.
3. Modifications
- Major changes to the e-mail infrastructure will only be made during vacations, or in between semesters.
- Other changes, especially those required to rectify problems, will be carried out at the discretion of the IS department.
VI. Documentation and Training Services
A. Aim - To provide high quality information, training, and support for students, faculty, and staff of the University in the effective use of IT services, as staffing permits.
B. Applies to - All services provided by the IS department.
C. Service Level
- Introductory documentation and/or training is provided for the main IT services provided by the IS department.
- Additional documentation and training may be provided, subject to negotiation.
D. Includes
- Up-to-date information provided via the IS web pages at http://www.law.uconn.edu/infosys/
- User documentation for certain applications.
- Training for any new, campus-wide applications introduced by the Information Systems department (e.g., new email system).
E. Compliance
- Online information sources have an email address to which feedback can be sent.
- Feedback on other services is obtained in the annual departmental survey.