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.
16 September, 2026
KAUST Community,
The following maintenance activities are planned to keep KAUST IT’s services reliable, secure, and performing well. Please review the schedule and expected impacts below.
Updated 29 September 2026: Residential network switch upgrades have been rescheduled to Wednesday, 30 September and Thursday, 1 October 2026, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. See the updated schedule.
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| VITA Virtual Assistant Maintenance | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM Impact VITA, the KAUST IT virtual assistant, may respond more slowly than usual during this window. Action Required No action is required. If VITA is slow to respond, please try again later. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| IP Telephony and Calling Services Maintenance | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 5:00 PM to Friday, 18 September 2026, 1:00 AM Impact Security certificates for KAUST’s calling and video services are being renewed. During this window: • Calls on physical IP desk phones will not be affected. Action Required If you need to make an important call during this window, use a physical IP desk phone. If a call drops, start the call again. If you are signed out of Webex Softphone, sign in again once the maintenance is complete. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Internet Firewall Upgrade | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM Impact Internet access may be intermittently interrupted across the entire KAUST network. This includes campus buildings, labs, and offices, as well as homes and apartments in the residential areas. Connections should restore on their own within a few moments. Action Required No action is required. If you are working, studying, or streaming online during this window, save your work regularly and expect brief interruptions. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wireless Network Upgrade (Campus) | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 6:00 PM to 12:00 AM (midnight) Impact Wi-Fi across all KAUST campus areas will be unavailable for approximately 40 minutes during this window. You may also notice brief interruptions throughout the maintenance window. Action Required No action is required. Wi-Fi reconnects on its own once the work is complete. If you are connected to campus Wi-Fi during this window, save your work regularly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Application License Server Patching | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 8:00 PM to Friday, 18 September 2026, 6:00 AM Impact Licensed applications that rely on the Application License Server will not be accessible during the maintenance window. See the list of affected applications below. Action Required Save your work and close any affected licensed applications before 8:00 PM. Please do not open or launch these applications during the maintenance window. If you are planning time-sensitive work, save your progress early and avoid launching licensed applications during this window.
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| Windows Server Security Updates (September 2026) | When Thursday, 17 September 2026, 8:00 PM to Friday, 18 September 2026, 6:00 AM Impact Microsoft’s September 2026 security updates will be applied to KAUST’s Windows servers. Some services hosted on these servers may be briefly unavailable or may restart while the updates are installed. Action Required No action is required. Please save your work ahead of the maintenance window in case of brief service interruptions. Read the September 2026 release notes or visit the Security Update Guide. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Internet Connectivity Maintenance | When Friday, 18 September 2026, 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM Impact We do not expect any loss of internet connectivity during this window. You may notice very brief, intermittent disconnections while the work is underway. This can affect services hosted in the cloud, access to the internet, and externally published applications. Action Required No action is required. If you are briefly disconnected, your connection returns on its own. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wireless Network Upgrade (Residential) | When Monday, 21 September 2026, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM Impact Wi-Fi across all KAUST residential areas will be unavailable for approximately 40 minutes during this window. You may also notice brief interruptions throughout the maintenance window. Action Required No action is required. Wi-Fi reconnects on its own once the work is complete. If you are working or studying from home during this window, save your work regularly. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Business Data Center Connectivity (Firewall Upgrade) | When Tuesday, 22 September 2026, 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM Impact Systems hosted in the Business Data Center may be intermittently unavailable during this window. Action Required No action is required. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Network Switch Upgrades Updated | When Residential areas (updated): Wednesday, 30 September to Thursday, 1 October 2026, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily Campus areas (phase 1): Thursday, 8 October 2026, 7:00 PM to 11:59 PM, then Friday, 9 October to Saturday, 10 October 2026, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM daily Campus areas (phase 2): Thursday, 15 October 2026, 7:00 PM to 11:59 PM, then Friday, 16 October to Saturday, 17 October 2026, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM daily Impact Network switches are being upgraded to address security vulnerabilities. Network connections in affected areas may be temporarily unavailable while each switch is upgraded. Action Required No action is required. Your connection will return automatically once the upgrade is complete. If your connection has not returned after 30 minutes, please contact the IT Service Desk. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Need help?
Contact the IT Service Desk at 910 or 012-808-0910, seven days a week from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Walk-in support is available Sunday to Thursday during business hours.
You can also log a ticket using our virtual assistant, VITA, at vita.kaust.edu.sa.
We appreciate your understanding as we continue improving KAUST IT’s services.
KAUST IT
it.kaust.edu.sa
