KAUST Community,

The following maintenance activities are planned to keep KAUST IT services reliable and to maintain their performance. Please review the schedule and expected impact below.

VPN Maintenance

When: Wednesday, December 24, 2025, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Impact: A maintenance activity for the VPN Service will take place, during this time there may be intermittent disruption to the VPN Service.

Campus-Wide Network Upgrade

When: Recurring every evening, from 6:00 PM to 11:30 PM, starting Wednesday, December 24, 2025, through Saturday, January 31, 2026.

Affected locations: (Buildings 6, 12, 14, 16, 18, 23, 24, 35, 36, 40, CMOR1010, CMOR1020, CMOR1050, CMOR1060, Security Headquarters).

Impact: Network equipment will be upgraded across campus and off-campus buildings (excluding residential neighborhoods). Each building may experience one short interruption (up to 20 minutes) affecting internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and other connected systems.

Action Required:

• Save your work in advance and plan for possible short connectivity interruptions.
• Expect one brief outage (up to 20 minutes) during the maintenance window.
• Note that during the upgrade, internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and fire alarm systems in affected campus buildings will be briefly interrupted.

Internet Firewall Upgrade

When: Thursday, December 25, 2025, from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Impact: An Internet firewall maintenance activity will take place. During this activity there will be an intermittent disruption to internet service and services hosted in the cloud to the entire community and all externally published applications.

Research Buildings Network Upgrade

When: Friday, December 26, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 11:30 PM.

Impact: An upgrade of the network Core equipment software will be conducted in academic buildings (Building 1, 2 , 3 , 4 ,5). Each building may experience one short interruption (up to 20 minutes) of internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and other connected systems.

Action required:

• Save your work in advance and plan for possible short connectivity interruptions.
• Expect one brief outage (up to 20 minutes) during the maintenance window.
• Note that during the upgrade, internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and fire alarm systems in affected campus buildings will be briefly interrupted.

Network Switch Upgrade in Residential Area

When: Recurring every day, from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, starting Sunday, December 24, 2025, through Saturday, January 3, 2026.

Where: All residential neighborhoods.

Impact: A brief (10-15 minute) interruption to internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and connected systems may occur in residential units.

Action required:

• Save your work and plan ahead for possible short interruptions.
• Please note, that during the upgrade, internet, Wi-Fi, IP phones, and fire alarm systems in affected homes will be intermittently available.

Azure Firewall Upgrade

When: Tuesday, January 6, 2026, from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Impact: Azure firewall maintenance activity will take place, no impact is expected on any services.

Data Center Firewall Upgrade

When: Thursday, January 1, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Impact: Data Center firewall maintenance activity will take place; during this activity there will be an intermittent service disruption impacting all services hosted in the Data Center.

Need help?

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