News

Hey Everyone,

Well, we've made it past the first 48 hours of our switchover! We wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going with the new Webmail & Email cutover.

So far, the transfer has been successful. We're over into our new Microsoft Exchange Server, with things largely settling in where they should be. That said, there have definitely were some hiccups, which which we have under control now. No matter how much you plan, there will always be a few issues that you run into when making such a huge change, especially when switching from one type of server to another! I'll address a few of the common questions and issues we've seen so far.

1.- Just like you do today, you'll simply need to navigate to https://webmail.phs.ca/ in order to access your account. Do note, though, that you'll need to log in using your NEW PHS ID. This is switching now from the firstname and last initial (ex. johns@phs.ca), to firstname.lastname@phs.ca (ex. john.smith@phs.ca). Again, you will receive email sent to your original firstnamelastinital@phs.ca email (ex. johns@phs.ca) as well. If you have a hyphenated name, then the hyphen will be included. Most of you have got this down now, but if you notice any of your teammates struggling, please suggest that they try this! If they're stuck, please get them to call @ 604.630-8707, or to email in to tech@phs.ca or migration@phs.ca.

2.- For now, the firstname.lastname@phs.ca applies to Email ONLY. You still log in to the logs & ticket systems with your old PHS ID, for the time being.

3.- You might notice that your account is a couple of days behind the current date. If you do, don't worry; the remaining messages are on their way! The final sync will take place shortly after the cutover, to ensure you have all of you email.

4.- Initially, there were some issues with incoming mail. These have been resolved, though if you're having trouble, please let us know.

5.- We did have reports of some emails "disappearing", specifically those from between the Thursday cutover to yesterday at approx. 4PM. For the record, THESE ARE NOT MISSING. There was a glitch that happened when importing (a bug that surprised us all); all it's done is tucked those emails into an incorrect folder. Our partner is working to get those put pack to their original locations, which we expect them to have done over the weekend.

6.- I've been in contact with the HR team to make sure they're aware of what's happening. They will take into account any issues or delays that may have occurred due to the transition.

For the time being, we'll have put an instance of the old PHS Webmail running at https://webmail-legacy.phs.ca, so you can access any of your legacy data (Going back from end of day, July 25th), by logging in with your old PHS ID. Note that ALL email will be migrated over as a matter of this process. If you have some critical contacts that you need us to migrate over for sure, please reach out to migration@phs.ca or call us at 604-630-8707 and let us know.

There you have it! Please spread the word around that it's here. Thanks again for your patience. :)

Cheers,

Scott Douglas
Senior Manager - Technology
PHS Community Services Society
9 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1M9

Over the last few days, we’ve been having some sporadic outages with our Mail Server.  Up until yesterday, they were fairly minimal, but have increased in severity since then.  We've been working hard to fix things; in order to apply a proper fix, the email services will need to be taken down tonight,  beginning at approx. 6:30PM, when we will attempt a final repair of the server.  We anticipate this will take several hours, after which time, we will bring the email server back online.

Thanks for your patience!  

Just an FYI that there is a shaw outage affecting a number of our locations. PHS tech has yet to determine the cause but are working towards having everyone online ASAP.

Thanks

PHStech 

Hi Everyone,

Maintenance is being carried out on the power lines at the Portland tomorrow (Friday, March 18th 2016). This will commence at noon and is expected to a last a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 2 hours. 

All services - including Mail, Webmail, Databases, Files, Online Logs, VPN etc. may be unavailable or intermittently available during this period. 

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Sincerely,
PHS Technical Services
tech@phs.ca
20 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1G6 
Tel.: 604.630.8707
Fax: 604.630.8787

Hi Everyone,

Maintenance is being carried out on the power lines at the Portland tomorrow (Friday, March 17th 2016). This will commence at noon and is expected to a last a minimum of 2 hours and a maximum of 2 hours. 

All services - including Mail, Webmail, Databases, Files, Online Logs, VPN etc. may be unavailable or intermittently available during this period. 

Thank you in advance for your patience.

Sincerely,
PHS Technical Services
tech@phs.ca
20 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1G6 
Tel.: 604.630.8707
Fax: 604.630.8787

Hi Everyone,

Our ISP had to reschedule and will now be performing maintenance on our server-room Internet connection TODAY (March 7th) starting at 4:30 pm. This is expected to last approximately half an hour but could be longer

All services - including Mail, Webmail, Database, Files, Online Logs, VPN, etc. may be unavailable or sporadic during this period. 

Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
PHS Technical Services
tech@phs.ca
20 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1G6 
Tel.: 604.630.8707
Fax: 604.630.8787

Hi Everyone -

We will be performing system maintenance on the PHS network and servers on Saturday, February 13th. 

Although we don't expect any major outages - you may find that some services may be affected temporarily during the day. 

Thanks in advance for your patience. 

Sincerely, 
PHS Technical Services
20 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1G6 
tech@phs.ca
Tel.: 604.630.8707
Fax: 604.630.8787

Hello,

We are currently experiencing a power outage at the Portland that may be causing some services to be offline. Once the power is back we will try to have services back up ASAP. 

Thanks for your patience.

Phstech 

Hi Everyone -

PHS Technical Services is planning system maintenance to the PHS network, starting at 11am tomorrow (October 29th) lasting for a few hours.

Although we don't expect a major outage - you may find that some services may be affected temporarily during this period. 

Thank you for your patience.

PHS Technical Services
20 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 1G6 
tech@phs.ca
Tel.: 604.630.8707
Fax: 604.630.8787

We're experiencing a Fido outage right now and we're working with them to have it resolved ASAP. 

Thanks,
PHS Tech