To ensure the resilience and continuity of our essential university operations, Information Technology Services is conducting a Planned Disaster Recovery (DR) Failover Exercise on Tuesday, January 6, 2026.

This exercise is a critical step in validating our ability to operate following a catastrophic IT event that would take out all of our IT services for a significant period of time, including campus access to the Internet.

Event Details: The Planned Failover

During the morning of the exercise, we will be intentionally failing over our critical systems to our off-campus Disaster Recovery site.

• Exercise Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2026
• Timeframe for Interruption of Service: 9am-Noon
• Impact: All users should expect an intentional loss of connectivity and access to critical services while the failover switch is executed. Specifically, we expect a disruption in connectivity between 9am-9:30am as we failover to the Disaster Recovery site. Critical services should then be up and running from 9:30am-11am. At 11am, we will return services back to UIS, during which time there will be another intentional loss of connectivity.
• Critical Services Affected (Downtime Period):
  • Between 9am-9:30am and 11am-11:30am, expect a complete loss of most services. Users will not be able to log into services and may get disconnected from services currently logged into.
  • Between 9:30am-11am, access to critical services should be restored. Critical services include email, Canvas Learning Management System, the UIS website, and authentication (the ability to log into various single-sign on applications).
  • Please note that Internet access will remain functioning during this test. However, the ability to log into UIS services will be impacted. In a true disaster, Internet access may be impacted but loss of Internet is out of scope for this event.

Communication is Key

• Please use this feedback form throughout the event to let us know about issues, loss of service/functionality. You can submit it multiple times - we encourage you to submit a form each time you hit a pain point.

Unit Business Continuity Testing

Once the critical services are confirmed running on the Disaster Recovery site (anticipated to be around 9:30am), we need your help.

Your unit's participation in testing its Business Continuity (BC) plan is critical.

The goal of this test is two-fold:

1. Validate BC Plans: Ensure your department can function under the reduced and potentially limited service environment of the disaster recovery site.
2. Identify Unknown Dependencies: Help ITS identify which additional services (including cloud apps, local servers, or department-specific systems or files) your unit critically relies upon that were not part of the primary failover. This information is vital for future planning.

We encourage units to simulate a standard day of operations using the disaster-recovery environment services between 9:30am-11am.

Planning for the Failover Event

To effectively prepare for your unit to test your business continuity plan, we encourage at least one representative from your team to join us for one of the planning workshops listed below. This session will outline expectations, review the status of services at the DR site, and help you finalize your testing procedure. Sessions can be attended in person in or via Zoom. No registration is required.

• November 18 from 2pm-2:30pm in UHB 2003
• December 3 from 2pm-2:30pm in UHB 2001
• December 9 from 10am-10:30am in UHB 2009

Alternatively, you can schedule a customized session for your unit. Please reach out to Kara McElwrath at kmcel2@uis.edu to schedule a session for your unit if you would prefer.

Preparing for the unexpected is what makes our campus resilient

We recognize that this exercise involves disruption, but the successful completion of this failover and your subsequent testing is essential to guaranteeing our campus’ ability to recover from a major incident. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

If you have any questions regarding the technical scope of the failover, please contact Kara McElwrath at kmcel2@uis.edu.