Banner and Oracle Upgrades

The regular Banner and Oracle maintenance window is scheduled for every Saturday evening starting at sundown until midnight.  During this time any systems that rely on Banner data and the underlying Oracle database may be unavailable.  These services include Banner Admin, Banner Self-service servers (like Registration and Student Profile), Redwood, Vault, CAS authentication or Andrews Secured Websites, TouchNet credit card payment processing.

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Upgrade Key words:

• Oracle/Oracle Patches:  This implies the Banner Oracle database server critical patch upgrades which take about 3-5 hours to complete and come out quarterly.  During these upgrades all database instances will be shutdown and any services requiring banner data will be unavailable.  This includes Banner Admin, Banner Self-service servers (like Student Registration, Student Profile, Employee Self-service, etc…), Vault, iVue, prevue, TouchNet credit card backend services, Redwood, CAS authentication for Andrews University secured webpages.

• Oracle Version Upgrade:  This implies the Banner Oracle database version upgrades which can take 6 - 10 hours to complete and will often be scheduled for multiple days including Saturday nights and part of Sunday for the core upgrade and additional Saturday nights for different Database instance upgrades.  This will typically happen every 1 - 3 years depending on the version of Oracle that Banner supports.  This affects the same resources as the Oracle Patches.

• Banner Upgrades:  This implies the Banner Admin and Banner Self-Service web servers are being upgraded.  During this time the following services may be intermittently available. Making any updates in these resources is not advisable because servers may become unavailable at any time during an update process.  These services include: Banner Admin, Banner Self-service servers (like Student Registration, Student Profile, Employee Self-service, etc…), Vault, iVue, prevue, TouchNet credit card backend services.

• Degree Works Upgrades:  This may include upgrades to the Degree Works Oracle database server as well as the different Degree Works application servers.  During this time the Degree Works servers will not be available.

• Upgrade Restricted:  These are scheduled dates where no upgrades will happen due to events requiring banner services during this upgrade window. To request an Upgrade Restricted date please email dba@andrews.edu with the date and reason and we will evaluate whether we can alter the upgrade schedule. In general, you should plan to not need banner services on Saturday night.

• Tentative:  This is an unconfirmed maintenance window that will be determined closer to the actual date.

• PROD:  This is updates in the production environment which will cause outages in applications like Banner, Vault, Touchnet, etc....

• TEST:  This is updates in the Test environment which should not impact access to production resources like Banner, Vault, Touchnet, etc....

Banner Upgrade Release Information

Upgrade calendar: This calendar may change as upgrades are approved for deployment into production.  To receive notifications on Thursday or Friday prior to the upgrades please subscribe to the bannerupgrades mailing list: (Subscribe Here)

Upgrade calendar Archive: