Note: Network support is a collaborative effort between the EITS Network Support Partnership (EITS NSP) and participating departments.
Technical Assistance
- Units subscribing to the Bronze support level should keep their equipment under a vendor maintenance contract or warranty.
- EITS NSP technical support staff will be available to units subscribing to the Bronze support level. Units will be charged a fee of $60 per hour for remote support or $85 per hour for onsite support.
- If EITS NSP support personnel are engaged for network problems of unknown origin, and the cause of the problem is determined to be due to the EITS equipment, the unit will not be charged the hourly technician fee.
- If EITS NSP support personnel are engaged for network problems of unknown origin, and the cause of the problem is determined to be due to the unit’s equipment, the unit will be charged the hourly technician fee.
- EITS NSP will provide consulting on switch specifications for purchases at no charge.
- EITS NSP maintains a stock of spare parts and equipment that may be utilized for immediate replacement and restoration of service in case of unit-owned hardware failure. This is done on a best-effort basis as it is not financially feasible to maintain a completely redundant inventory of spare equipment. The terms and conditions of this service are detailed in a separate agreement.
Unit or Departmental Use of EITS Equipment
- If units are provided switch ports on the EITS building router or other EITS-owned switching equipment, any changes made will be performed by EITS NSP and the unit will be charged the hourly technician fee.
- If units are provided switch ports on the EITS building routers or other EITS-owned switching equipment and need additional capacity on these devices, it will be the responsibility of the unit to provide funding for any additional equipment or components required. The terms and conditions for this are covered in a separate agreement
- EITS NSP provides switch and router configuration and installation for unit-owned equipment on a fixed-rate fee schedule. These fees are listed in the rate table.
Priority
Issues will be classified as follows:
- Severe: Loss of service or severely degraded network performance that affects the entire unit, an entire building, or a critical application.
- Moderate: Loss of service or severely degraded network performance that affects a building floor or an important application.
- Routine: Issues not significantly impacting production services.
Support Hours
- Onsite support is available between 7:30 AM and 5:00 PM Monday through Friday on normal working days.
- Limited Help Desk support is available until 7:00 PM Monday through Thursday and from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM on weekends.
- Help Desk support is not available on the day of home football games. On-site support may be severely restricted on those days.
- Response time during normal business hours is:
- Severe: Upon receipt of call.
- Moderate: Within one hour of receipt of call.
- Routine: Within one business day or receipt of call or as scheduled with the unit.
- On-call support after hours is available for all severe and moderate problems.
- After hours support is available by calling (706) 542-3106.
EITS NSP Access to Equipment
EITS NSP support personnel must have access to the EITS equipment in the unit’s building(s) for non-working hours maintenance windows and after hours support. This will require that EITS NSP either have keys to the building and MDF or that personnel with access will meet EITS NSP on site as needed. If EITS NSP cannot gain access to the equipment, the issue will be addressed the next business day.
Prioritization of Support
- In case of multiple network issues on campus, units subscribing to the Gold support levels will be assisted before units subscribing to the Bronze support level.
- If multiple units subscribing to the Bronze support level are experiencing network problems and all technical resources within EITS have been exhausted, support will be prioritized based upon the number of users impacted.
Routine Maintenance
- Routine maintenance is performed outside of normal working hours.
- The unit’s Customer Liaison will be notified of any planned routine maintenance at least 48 hours in advance. If this routine maintenance will cause disruptions to any planned activities, the maintenance will be rescheduled.
Main Data Closet (MDF) Restrictions
- For security, support, and network integrity reasons access to the MDF must be strictly managed by EITS NSP.
- EITS NSP will work with units having equipment in the MDF to address these issues and develop solutions that will ensure the integrity and security of EITS equipment. If EITS NSP and the unit determines that moving non-EITS equipment is not practical, the unit will be responsible for funding security devices for the EITS equipment.
Change Management
- Change management will follow the standard EITS NSP change management process (available upon request).
- The Customer Liaison has access to all change management logs that pertain to the EITS equipment upon request.
- The Customer Liaison will be included in any change management discussions that are not part of the standard EITS change management policy and will be informed prior to the change.
Metrics and Reporting
EITS NSP will report the following metrics for the EITS equipment providing service to the unit to the Customer Liaison on a monthly basis if requested:
- Uptime
- Trouble tickets received and resolution time
- Performance of the network
Other metrics are available at the request of the Customer Liaison.
Device Information
- Active devices are calculated by the entries in the unit's IP space in Proteus.
- Units utilizing NAT (network address translation) must report the number of devices that have been NATTED in the six months prior to March each year.
- The number of devices used in the monthly fee calculation may be reevaluated if a significant number of devices are added to or subtracted from the network in a building; for example due to renovation or repurposing of rooms. Any fee changes will be discussed between EITS NSP and the unit.