Wi-Fi and VPN authentication issues

August 29, 2024 1:21 p.m.
Outage category: 
VPN, Wireless Network
Location: 
Wireless on all Mason locations and VPN users
Status: 
Closed
Resolved alert: 
08/26/2024 12:48 pm

Users experiencing issues connecting to Wireless network and VPN connection. Users are not  able to connect.

Initial symptoms: 

Support was receiving calls from users unable to connect to Wi-Fi or able to Login to the VPN

Duration: 
08/26/2024 9:30 am - 08/26/2024 12:48 pm
Impact to Mason: 

All users on all 3 campuses are affected by this outage. Unable to connect to Wi-Fi and Login to the VPN.

Affected Services: 
Virtual Private Network (VPN), Wireless (Wi-Fi) Network
ROOT CAUSE ANALYSIS
Cause: 

The ClearPass authentication server cluster was out of SYNC due to the /var partition reaching 100%-disc usage. This issue appears to have been introduced in the latest patch upgrade (addressing CVE).

Resolution: 

The Vendor applied temporary work arounds to address the issue, until a patch fix is published.

Prevention: 

Vendor and Mason are monitoring disk issue via Splunk alert.

STATISTICS
Service Team: 
FIOPS, NSOIPS, NSENG, ITSO Engineering