BRIEF: 'Major' Power Failure Disrupts Harvard IT Services

A power outage at a University data center took down several of Harvard's online services starting at 11:50 a.m. Monday, including the University's main www.harvard.edu Web site and those requiring PIN authorization.

At 2:07 p.m., FAS Research Computing sent an e-mail informing users of a "major power failure" at 60 Oxford St., home to University Information Systems, that caused the failure of several file systems. Most of those file systems as well as electricity had been restored at the time, according to the e-mail, though several of the affected services were still unavailable.

By 3:50 p.m., the University Web site and the Harvard PIN authorization system were back online.

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences Information Technology's Web site listed nine "services or regions affected" by the outage, including the site that allows students to download certain software at no cost and the administration database at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

The FAS Life Sciences Division e-mail portal as well as Web sites accessible via the Harvard PIN authorization system, including the online student record, were also unavailable.

FAS IT spokesman Noah S. Selsby '94-'95 was unavailable for comment due to the holiday, and members of the service desk declined to be interviewed, citing media policy.

Electrical maintenance was scheduled to take place at the data center from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. today, according to a notice on FAS IT's Web site. It is unclear whether maintenance activities had a role in today's outage.

—Staff writer Naveen N. Srivatsa can be reached at srivatsa@fas.harvard.edu.