Beginning January 1, 2003 patches are being applied to the LMS on a weekly basis. Prior to this date, patches accumulated and were applied during semester breaks. This procedure put us in a position where the server was potentially at risk to known vulnerabilities. Because of the criticality of LMS patches, the software hotfixes are now applied within one week of the release date.

The system maintenance cycle follows this schedule:

• Tuesday 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Coordination between server and software managers to communicate and exchange previously released hardware, operating system, database, and application updates (hotfixes, service packs, application packs, version upgrades). Review documentation, release notes and develop a tentative timeline for testing, staging and production installation.
  
  
• Friday 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Updates are installed on a test system for analysis and evaluation of user impact. Depending on the scope and impact of the update the test period varies in length:
  • Hotfix - 72 hours
  • Service Pack - 1 week
  • Application Pack - 3 months
  • Version Change - 6 months
    
    
• Monday 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Updates are installed on the staging system for 48 hour evaluation period.
  
  
• Wednesday 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. Updates are installed on the production system.