In preparation for working remotely or from home, there are several resources to guide you.

• Remote Work Toolkit in the Partners Pulse *(access requirements)
  • A Guide to IS Resources
    • Many applications are available that do not require you to install VPN and GoToMyPC.  This guide provides helpful information for accessing Partners network resources when not connected to the Partners network: https://rc.partners.org/kb/article/3040. 
  • Collaboration Tools
  • Gain Remote Access and Collaboration Tools
• INFO: Remote Work Setup Resources: Many links within this article go to internal pages in the IS Service Desk Knowledge Base *(access requirements)
  • Much of the instructions are available on https://rc.partners.org/kb; no log in required.
• Web, Audio & Video Conferencing & Remote Access sections on https://rc.partners.org
  • Search the Knowledge Base for how-to's (i.e. mapping network drives) for quick access; no log in required.
• A single-request form has been created in the IS Service Desk for Audio Conferencing and Screen Sharing Requests for InterCall, Microsoft, Windstream, WebEx, and Zoom
  
  • Visit https://www.partners.org/ISServiceDesk
  • Make a Request
  • Collaboration Tools: Audio Conferencing and Screen Sharing 

* The Partners Pulse and the IS Service Desk require login with Partners username and password and Secure Log in (Okta or 2-factor) when off network.

Read Additional system-wide changes made to broaden timely access to these resources​ (Login with Partners username and password required.)

Check back for updates. Contact your IS Service Desk for assistance.

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) server maintenance was completed on Saturday, February 29th, 2020 from 9:00AM to 12:00PM ET.

REDCap was down for a short time during the maintenance window.

If you have any concerns about this scheduled maintenance, please email edcsupport@partners.org

ERIS Patching Schedule for February 2020

This is a reminder that the ERIS Infrastructure team will be patching both Non-Production and Production VM’s and Systems during the last 2 weeks in February 2020.

We are changing the schedule for the non-production nodes from the last Wednesday of the month to Wednesday and Thursday of the third week of each month. Non-production nodes, servers and VM’s that begin with the letter A – K will be patched on the 3^rd Wednesday of each month, and nodes, servers, and VM’s that begin with the letter M – Z will be patched on the 3^rd Thursday of each month. The production patching schedule will remain on the last Saturday of the month.

Below are the dates and times for the February patching process:

• Non-production VM’s A-K:  Wednesday, February 19^th from 12pm - 8PM
• Non-production VM’s L-Z:  Thursday, February 20^th from 12pm - 8PM
• Production VM’s:                Saturday, February 29^th from 9AM – 6PM

Impact

Applications, Databases, Systems and VM’s will experience downtime when the database servers are patched when the ERIS proxy server is patched and again when the application VM's are patched. Each downtime should be short however, applications could experience 3 outages during the maintenance window.

Service Level Reminders

ERIS strives to keep all systems up to their most current and/or stable revisions. Please visit https://rc.partners.org/support-training/eris-service-level-agreement to review the full ERIS Service Level Agreement.

Server owners are responsible for maintaining the applications running on DIPR VMs and systems, ensuring the applications are patched and comply with Partners Information Security Practices and Policies. Server owners are responsible for the backup of critical configurations in case of a failure.

Please contact rcc@partners.org if you have any questions

Did you know that Microsoft regularly releases security patches for its software products on the second Tuesday of every month? How frequently do you update your computer?

This month, Microsoft introduces patches for critical flaws and vulnerabilities that require you to patch as soon as possible.

Here is some guidance to keep your device secure and your Microsoft software up to date and running smoothly.

Do I need to make changes on my computer?

• Not if you use a Partners standard Windows computer (those with the asset tag, yellow lock and Partners' screensaver). The updates are run for you and devices are usually patched the Friday following Patch Tuesday. Both Microsoft and Adobe products are typically updated at this time. This can change if there is a significant freeze in place. 
• Yes, you need to run updates if you use a non-standard Windows, Macintosh or personally-owned device for Partners' business. ​It is your responsibility to keep your device and software up to date. 

See HOWTO: Run Windows Updates for additional instructions.

The ERIS Infrastructure team has completed the patching of the DIPR production servers and VM’s for today. Please connect to your server or VM and validate that your applications and systems are working. 

Our next scheduled patching event will occur at the end of January, and starting in February we will move our Non-Production patching to the third Wednesday of the month and continue our Production patching on the last Saturday of the month.

• January 29,  2020     Patching Non-Production VM's   10:00am - Finish
• February 1,  2020     Patching Production VM's             9:00am - 3:00pm
• February 19, 2020     Patching Non-Production VM's  10:00am - Finish
• February 29, 2020     Patching Production VM's            9:00am - 3:00pm

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) is now back online. REDCap was offline from 10:40AM-2:00PM while the data was migrated from one server to another.

We recommend that users review their projects for any data entered between yesterday January 6th beginning around 2:30PM until REDCap was brought offline today at 10:40AM.

The root cause of this issue was database related. As soon as it was determined that there were continued data submission issues, a decision was made by the EDC Support team to take REDCap offline, migrate and optimize a new database server. 

FAQs When REDCap is Offline

If you have any concerns, please email edcsupport@partners.org

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) is currently experiencing intermittent access issues for anyone using an internal Partners network. Users outside the network should still be able to access REDCap. 

The EDC Support team is actively working to fully resolve this issue.

If you have any concerns, please email edcsupport@partners.org

The Research Computing website, https://rc.partners.org, was offline from 7:10-7:17a.m. EDT time on Monday, December 23, 2019 while platform updates were applied.

Please contact rcwebmaster@partners.org if you have any questions or concerns.

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) upgrades to v9.1.22  scheduled for Friday December 13th, 6:30AM EST are complete. REDCap was offline from 6:36-6:58 AM EST. 

This upgrade includes a number of security and bug fixes.

Release notes available here.

If you have any concerns about REDCap being offline at this time or any questions about these new features, please email edcsupport@partners.org

The ERIS Infrastructure team completed the patching of ERIS Production VM's, Databases, and systems.

Please check your VM, database, or applications to validate that it is working properly.

ERIS Hosted Services MySQL and PostgreSQL underwent server maintenance on Saturday, December 7th, 2019 from 9:00AM to 7:00PM EST. There was a short period of unavailability during the maintenance window. 

If you are the owner of a database on the PostgreSQL or MySQL hosted database service, we encourage you to review and validate your application's connection to your database when this maintenance has completed. 

Contact rcc@partners.org with any questions or concerns.

Partners Healthcare REDCap: Scheduled Downtime

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) server maintenance is scheduled for Saturday, December 7th, 2019 from 9:00AM to 2:00PM EST. Please expect REDCap to be down for a short time during the maintenance window.

If you have any concerns about this scheduled maintenance, please email edcsupport@partners.org

REDCap Upgrades to v.9.1.18 Scheduled:

REDCap (https://redcap.partners.org/redcap) upgrades to v9.1.18 scheduled for Tuesday December 10th, 6:30AM EST are complete. REDCap was offline from 6:36-7:00AM EST.

This upgrade includes a number of new features and bug fixes. These include:

New feature: Alerts & Notifications:

The Alerts & Notifications feature allows you to construct alerts and send customized email notifications. These notifications may be sent to one or more recipients and can be triggered or scheduled when a form/survey is saved and/or based on conditional logic whenever data is saved or imported. When adding/editing an alert, you will need to 1) set how the alert gets triggered, 2) define when the notification should be sent (including how many times), and 3) specify the recipient, sender, message text, and other settings for the notification. For the message, you may utilize customized options such as rich text, the piping of field variables (including Smart Variables), and uploading multiple file attachments. While similar in many respects to Automated Survey Invitations, Alerts & Notifications allow for greater complexity and have more capabilities. For example, alerts apply to both data entry forms and surveys, and they also allow for more options regarding who can be the recipient of a notification (project users, survey participants, etc.).

New feature: Rich text editor for field labels and section headers

For any field on an instrument in the Online Designer, users may optionally utilize the rich text editor for styling field labels or section headers with many text-formatting options. The rich text editor allows users to change the color of text (including background color), create tables, add text of varying sizes, bullet lists, and more. For any field labels that were originally created without the rich text editor, users may optionally enable the rich text editor for any field by clicking the 'Use the Rich Text Editor' checkbox. It may also be disabled afterward at any time just the same. Rich text is enabled by default for any new fields being created via the Online Designer.

Improvement: New records can now be created directly from the Record Status Dashboard. If record auto-numbering is enabled, it will display an “Add new record” button, otherwise it will display a text field for users to enter a new record name to create.

Improvement: Links to the Online Designer, Data Dictionary Upload page, and Codebook were added to the left-hand project menu for easier navigation. Also, a new section “Project Home and Design” was added on the left-hand menu to contain all these links, as well as the Project Home and Project Setup page links.

Full release notes

New Features and Improvements

If you have any concerns about REDCap being offline at this time or any questions about these new features, please email edcsupport@partners.org

Open Position: REDCap Application Support Specialist!

Interested in the exciting world of REDCap? Want to join the Partners REDCap support team? 

If so, there is an open position for a REDCap Application Support Specialist. 

If you have any questions about this career opportunity, please email edcsupport@partners.org