Soft Phone Server Change

Telecom has created DNS names for the soft phone servers. These should be used in settings in place of the IP addresses. Please update your soft phone client, and help customers do the same if they call and ask about the change.

How to make the change: https://oregonstate.app.box.com/v/Avaya-OneX-Change

The server names for each campus location are here: Softphone – Installing

Office 365 Bookings and Shifts

There is some interest in using Microsoft Bookings as a possible replacement for TimeTrade going forward. Service Desk would be the first point of contact for support. We do not currently have this enabled in our Office 365 tenant. I will keep you posted as we learn more.

For an overview of Bookings, see: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/scheduling-and-booking-app

We are also looking at Shifts and whether that could be a replacement for WhenToWork and other similar tools. For more about Shifts, see: What is Shifts?

I will keep you all posted if we do end up going this route. For now, I recommend taking a moment to read up on these tools.

VPN Changes

Reminder that the old VPN server (sds.oregonstate.edu) will be decommissioned in September 2020. If customers are not able to use vpn.oregonstate.edu at this time, they can continue to use sds.oregonstate.edu until it is shut off. We will start sending migration reminder notices to them over the next couple of months, though.

A few issues have come up that you should be aware of:

• Older macOSes may have issues installing the AnyConnect 4.8 client, or with certificates. These computers should really be upgraded to a supported OS. Other work-arounds are in the KB, but… they should upgrade if they can.
• For Linux users (all platforms, really), the AnyConnect client is required on the new server. This means that there will no longer be a command-line method to connect to the VPN. If customers ask about this, we should ask why they are using VPN, and help come up with alternative solutions.
• There are some competing use-cases to be aware of: We should encourage people to use the VPN if they handle sensitive or confidential data because it is better for information security. But, we should encourage VPN alternatives for people who do not handle sensitive or confidential data, because the VPN is a limited resource and introduces latency.
• Remote Desktop gateway is still a good VPN alternative for most users. If someone is using that now, there is no need for them to switch to the new VPN.
• What is the best VPN connection type when doing video conferencing? None. Disconnect from the VPN first.
• Account types and VPN: DINO accounts cannot access the new VPN. They will need to be replaced with either delegated accounts in ONID AD, or sponsored accounts. In either case they will also need an exception granted by OIS to use the new VPN. Delegated accounts cannot do Duo auth because they cannot do SSO. Sponsored accounts are real ONID accounts and can do Duo, but require a lot more overhead to setup. I think most of the DINO VPN users will end up as delegated accounts.