Blackboard Access Issuee

November 20, 2023 1:41 p.m.
Outage category: 
Blackboard
Location: 
Onlline
Status: 
Closed

A small number of users are reporting issues accessing Blackboard. Blackboard is aware of the issue with their hosted service and confirms the issue is resolved for most users.

If users continue to receive errors such as “DNS server error” or “This site cannot be reached” flushing your computer’s DNS cache may help. If this does not work, users can try a different network to access Blackboard – such as a different wifi network, using a cellular hotspot, Mason’s VPN, etc.

Initial symptoms: 

Reports to Support Center

Duration: 
04/25/2023 2:23 pm
Impact to Mason: 

Some users were unable to access Blackboard

Affected Services: 
Blackboard Courses
ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Cause: 
On April 20th, Anthology’s DNS servers experienced a targeted and excessive amount of DNS requests which was intended to deny servicing DNS requests. DNS servers became overwhelmed and unable to service requests.

On April 25th, a change was executed to enhance our DNS services to prevent DDoS events like the one that took place on 4/20. This change was not successful which propagated incorrect DNS information across the internet. The change was rolled back but DNS is a pull- based request and took time to propagate the correction across the internet.

Resolution
Resolution: 

Some users needed to flush their DNS cache or contact their internet provider to flush at ISP level.

Prevention: 

Anthology fixed and re-executed the upgrade to DNS services to prevent issues like the one experienced on 4/20.

STATISTICS
Service Team: 
Online Learning Resources, Vendor