Project Portfolio

During the Fall 2021 semester, ITS-Educational Technologies and Digital and Lifelong Learning conducted a small pilot of the Canvas learning management system. In Spring 2022, this project will expand the pilot to include more courses and users. ITS-EdTech will continue to evaluate the Canvas learning management system as a possible replacement for Sakai, and will collaborate with Instructure (developers of Canvas) and their course migration partner K16 on the implementation of the pilot. The project will measure success using end-of-semester surveys and focus groups with faculty and students.

This is an ITS sponsored project for improvement of infrastructure. This project will change the method we use to back up our enterprise systems databases from Oracle Recovery Manager to the database snapshot method (a database snapshot is a consistent, read-only copy of a database). Switching to this method will reduce the time it takes to back up our databases.

This project will provide patches and hardware changes as needed. It will also reorganize the data disk so that log and error files can be segregated from the actual data in the databases, reducing the disk space needed to back up databases.

Update: Altavault License has been extended to May 2022, reducing the criticality of the project. The team has successfully completed and tested with Finance and will schedule work with other EA towers. The project will require us to create and document new back-up processes. The new plan is to complete all the work before the end of Altavault license period.
Original End date has been extended from 10/21/2021 to 05/31/22

This project is performing a lifecycle replacement of storage controllers and disk that are nearing the end of their useful life. As hardware ages, it becomes less reliable, the potential for data loss grows, and maintenance costs increase. This project is focusing on replacing:

• ESMC0 – the hardware supporting Storage.unc.edu and SecNas.unc.edu.
• ESMC5 – the hardware that provides some primary storage for Splunk and serves as a backup destination for a majority of ITS data.

Currently, when you set up your Onyen, you answer some questions about yourself. Later, if you ever forget your password, you can answer these questions to prove that “you’re you” and safely reset your password.

This security model is no longer considered safe enough by the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), the NIH (National Institute of Health), REFEDS (the Research and Education FEDerations group), and the University’s own Information Security Office. Current guidance says that resetting a credential needs to require strong proof of identity, such as two-factor authentication or confirmation that the person resetting the password has presented a government-issued ID.

This project is replacing both the self-service Password Reset function linked from onyen.unc.edu and the  challenge questions that the Service Desk uses over the phone. Ideally, the reset will be built into ServiceNow, possibly in an automated chatbot, or handled through a live chat with a Service Desk staff member.

Duo for Password Reset Summary Document