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.
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
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 SwitchesPlanned 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.
27 September, 2026
IT Maintenance Notice: IT Website MaintenanceThe 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.
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.
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:
All past IT service alerts are listed below, including scheduled maintenance notices, unplanned outages, and service restoration updates.
11 December, 2025
KAUST Community,
The following maintenance activities are planned to keep KAUST IT’s services reliable and performing well. Please review the schedule and expected impacts below.
When: From Thursday, December 11, 2025, 8:00 PM to Friday, December 12, 2025, 8:00 AM
Impact: The KAUST VMS will be unavailable during this window. New business visit submissions cannot be made, and Gate Access processing may be delayed for entering or leaving KAUST.
Action Required:
For KAUST Community Members (with KAUST ID)
For Business Visits
When: From Thursday, December 11, 2025, 8:00 PM to Friday, December 12, 2025, 8:00 AM
Impact: Below SAP applications will be unavailable during this maintenance window. Please plan your work accordingly.
Affected Services Include:
Integrations to the following SaaS systems may also be impacted:
When: Thursday, 11 December 2025, from 8.30PM to 11.00PM
Impact: A scheduled maintenance activity will take place on the Sitefinity websites. During this window, you may experience intermittent access, including a possible brief service interruption of 3–5 minutes.
Action required: If you encounter any issues accessing the website, please refresh the page and try again.
When: Thursday, December 11, 2025, from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Impact: During this maintenance activity, all services that rely on the KAUST Community Map will be temporarily impacted. In addition, the URL maps.kaust.edu.sa/maps/ will be unavailable for the duration of the maintenance.
When: Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Impact: Windows security updates will be installed, and devices will undergo a forced restart if not updated by the deadline.
Action Required: Important Windows security updates are now available. You will receive a pop-up notification prompting you to install the updates and restart your device.
Please follow the instructions and complete the restart as soon as possible before December 17 to avoid a forced restart that may interrupt your work.
Contact the IT Service Desk at 910 or 012-808-0910, or visit the walk-in support desk during business hours.
You can also log a ticket using our virtual assistant, VITA, at it.kaust.edu.sa or vita.kaust.edu.sa.
We appreciate your understanding as we continue improving KAUST IT’s services.
KAUST IT
it.kaust.edu.sa
