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IT Alerts

This page lists all official IT service alerts shared with the KAUST community. Alerts are also delivered directly to your KAUST email.

Standard Weekly Maintenance Window

Thursday at 5:00 PM to Saturday at 8:00 PM. During this window, some services may experience temporary slowdowns, intermittent issues, or brief outages while essential maintenance is performed.

Vendor-Scheduled Maintenance

Some KAUST systems hosted on the KAUST Portal (portal.kaust.edu.sa) are maintained directly by our cloud vendor. These activities are scheduled quarterly and are independent of KAUST IT's regular maintenance windows. They may temporarily affect the availability or performance of several online services.

View Planned Vendor Maintenance

 

Recent Alerts

The most recent IT service alerts are shown below. For the full history, see the archive further down this page.

 

30 September, 2026

Scheduled Maintenance: KAUST Sign-In Services, IT Website, and Network Switches

Planned IT maintenance includes a 30-minute KAUST sign-in maintenance window, IT Website maintenance, and ongoing network switch upgrades. Review the schedule and any action you may need to take.

Read more

27 September, 2026

IT Maintenance Notice: IT Website Maintenance

The KAUST IT Website will undergo maintenance on Tuesday, 6 October, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. No downtime is expected, but the website may be slower than usual during this time.

Read more

 

About IT Alerts and the Change Advisory Board

The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is a cross-functional group within KAUST IT that reviews and approves proposed IT changes to maintain service reliability and reduce risk. The CAB Chair is appointed by the Chief Information Officer (CIO).

For urgent or high-impact situations, the Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) may be activated to ensure timely decisions while protecting service stability.

Learn more about the CAB

When Are Alerts Issued?

All IT changes are reviewed under the Change Management process. When communication is needed, an IT Alert is published and shared with the KAUST community. This includes:

  • Scheduled or planned service changes
  • Changes affecting specific groups or areas (such as faculty, students, or building residents)
  • Unplanned outages or urgent service issues

 

Alerts Archive

All past IT service alerts are listed below, including scheduled maintenance notices, unplanned outages, and service restoration updates.

 

Planned Maintenance – VMS System Update – No Impact Expected for Gate Access

10 July, 2025

Dear KAUST Community,

Please be advised of the following scheduled maintenance activities, which may temporarily impact access to specific services. Details and expected impacts are listed below:

Affected ServicesMaintenance Window / Downtime

KAUST IT will be performing a routine security update on the system that supports the Visitor Management System (VMS) on Friday night, July 11.

  • When: Between 12:00 AM and 12:30 AM on Saturday, July 12 (late Friday night)
  • What to expect: A brief interruption of 1–2 minutes, while the system switches to a backup server

What you need to know:

  • Gate access and campus operations will continue as normal
  • The system will automatically resume service after the brief switch
  • A full backup will be completed before the update begins

No action is required.

This is part of our regular work to keep KAUST systems secure and reliable.

Friday, July 11, 2025 12:00 AM – Saturday, July 12, 2025 12:30 AM

For further information or assistance, please contact the IT Service Desk on 910 or 012-8080-910, or visit our walk-in support desk during business hours. You can also log a ticket using our chatbot VITA at it.kaust.edu.sa (or vita.kaust.edu.sa if you are off campus).

KAUST IT

it.kaust.edu.sa