In an effort to implement best practices and increase security, Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration is implementing a new password policy  for U of T’s Administrative Management System. While this update will occur on Saturday, August 22, it will take effect when  users are prompted for their regularly scheduled password change (this normally this happens every 90 days). Users will be provided with easy-to-follow instructions for their new password within SAP, which include the following:

• Minimum Password Length: 8
• On password change – at least one char to differentiate between old and new passwords
• At least one digit
• At least one letter
• At least one special character
• At least one lower-case character
• At least one upper-case character
• 5 records to be stored in the password history

Please note, that users’ UTORids will remain unaffected.

In order to implement this policy, the following Administrative Management Systems will not be available on Saturday, August 22 from 7 am to 12 pm:

• AMS
• Employee Self-Service & Manager Self-Service (ESS/MSS)
• Expense Reimbursement Direct Deposit (ERDD)
• My Research
• Capital Project Portal and Invoice Workflow

View details of systems affected by outage

Thank you for your patience as we make these improvements.

Congratulations to Gaye Wignall, who will be retiring on August 31 after 31 years of dedicated service to the university. Gaye joined the Student Information Systems team in January 2000 and has worked on a broad range of projects, including ROSI, ROSI Express, Convocation, Degree Explorer, Varsity Blues Registration System, StarRez and OUAC.

Learn more about Gaye below, and please join me in wishing her all the best in the future!

Cathy Eberts
Director Enterprise Applications and Deputy CIO

---

Gaye Wignall, Senior Information Systems Analyst, EASI
Joined U of T: September 1989
Retirement and last day at work: August 31, 2020

Describe your background and how you arrived at EASI
My path at the University of Toronto has been very interesting and full of twists and turns. It all began when I listed my name with a temporary agency. They found me an administrative position with Kathryn Hough and Dr. Fraser Mustard at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. From there, I was fortunate to gain experience with the following mentors:

• Darlene Frampton and Jennifer Clark, Public Relations, Faculty of Arts and Science
• Sharon Bradley, Alumni Office, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Health
• Terry Rubenstein, Financial Office, Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Health
• Angela Snikkar, Rick Hayward and Jennifer Leigh, Student Information Systems
• Marilee Keogh and Rodney Branch, Client Services, EASI

Each mentor has had a part in shaping who I am today by imparting their guidance, knowledge and encouragement.  I am most grateful for their leadership.

What will you remember most about EASI?
In a word “teamwork”. Angela Snikkar informed me when she hired me at SIS that no one would ever know everything there was to know about ROSI. If I needed help in understanding a particular issue, I needed to speak with the “expert” – the person who had the knowledge about that particular area of ROSI. The advice also applies to EASI. I could not have done my job at EASI without the support and expertise of others. Everyone has been so willing to explain, assist and answer my questions. I will never forget their kindness.

What will you remember most about U of T?
All the great people who work there and special moments shared together.

What do you plan to do in retirement?
Switch from left-brained to right-brained, and see where my creativity takes me; and of course, have fun experiencing new places, new challenges, and meeting new people along the way.

It’s been over two years since U of T completed a massive upgrade to its student information system. After converting millions of lines of code and replacing an aging server, how did the system handle peak enrolment this year? 

On July 31, over 35,000 Faculty of Arts & Science students logged in to ACORN during the largest enrolment day for U of T. Similar to last year, the system successfully handled the massive number of logins during the Faculty’s “priority drop” enrolment period. 

“This year, Enterprise Infrastructure Services helped us to make some improvements to the authentication servers,” says Haroon Rafique, DevOps Manager with Enterprise Applications & Solutions Integration (EASI). “These improvements helped us to balance the large load of students equally so we didn’t see a lot of bottlenecks. We also worked closely with Information Security to make sure we had a streamlined process.” 

The first round of enrolment at 9 a.m. had a peak of 2,300 students and the second round was smooth sailing for students. The third enrolment period at 11 a.m. performed even better than other sessions even with an increase in volume and complexity. At 11:06 a.m., there were 4,183 students logged in and by 11:13 a.m. that number had decreased to 2,635. The 12 p.m. enrolment period was even faster and overall the day was a success. 

In order to ensure students have a smooth enrolment day, the team starts planning three months in advance. 

“Before peak enrolment, we go through an in-depth infrastructure review and then perform load tests to see if any changes to the application or infrastructure are causing any issues,” says Laurel Williams, an Information Technology Analyst with EASI. “Also, we’ve been monitoring other enrolments this month and responding to any issues we’ve seen, and we’ve tweaked the configuration to make it optimal for the largest enrolment day.” 

Unlike other years, when staff need to arrive at work extra early, staff met through a virtual meeting on Microsoft Teams. 

“It was nice to miss the early morning commute, but it’s also great when we can project all of the statistics at the same time and walk around and look at each other’s screens,” says Williams. “Hopefully next year we can get together again in person and enjoy the coffee and muffins!”  

This year, staff enjoyed their virtual donuts from home 

What can staff and students expect next year? 

“With new servers and the new platform, we’ve seen an improvement and now with two years under our belt we feel much more comfortable,” says Rafique. “In early July we identified servers that needed balancing. We’re continually evolving and developing better techniques and processes.” 

Williams agrees.  

“It’s one of the most important days for students and we want to ensure they’re successful. We’ll continue to do infrastructure reviews and load tests to make ensure students are successful.” 

Some members of the team celebrate another successful peak enrolment day 

Thank you to everyone on the team, including Client Services Representatives and registrars across the University: 

Frank Boshoff
Magdalene Cheung
Richard Chow
Paul Day
Zunan Dong
Paul Fardy
Miki Harmath
Matt Hendrickson
Titus Hsu
Sarosh Jamal
André Kalamandeen
Laura Klamot
Stefanos Kythreotis
Haroon Rafique
Ken Tsang
Parani Vinayagamoorthy
Laurel Williams
Mike Wiseman
Mike Wyers
Eric Xiang
Xin Xiang