Below is a collection of the reports on ISU's web page re the mail outage that began last Thursday. I have not the slightest idea whether this was a one-time thing specific to ISU or whether it may be an index to more widespread difficulties with e-mail service. Perhaps people more computer-savvy than I can comment.
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I'm very familiar (unfortunately) with this sort of problem.
It sounds as if there was disk failure on the computer acting as the host for ISU's email services.
I'm guessing that the configuration of the machine's storage, given the huge amount of data stored, is what is known as a RAID - a combination of multiple hard drives into a single storage entity via either software or hardware techniques.
Typically, a well designed RAID system can survive the death of one drive but not two. The mail server probably lost more than one drive causing a system failure.
To recover from such a total failure often requires the re-installation of the network operating system and the restoration of applications and data (such as mailboxes and stored mail) from tape or other backup media.
This is most likely the "data integrity" check referred to in the mail you received from CISS.
So the email application itself was not at fault, the hardware - no doubt the disks - simply failed.
Like death and taxes it's one of those things that's bound to happen sooner or later. This is why smart IT departments and users practice data backup with fundamentalist fervor and keep their backup sets current.
I tell clients to stop dreaming that the inevitable failure won't occur and shift their efforts to having as robust a recovery strategy as their pocketbook permits.
DRM
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