Service Notices

Current

Future

No scheduled events.

Past

- 2026.06.03 11:30 - 14:00
  - We are currently experiencing technical issues with catalog items that require web access.
  - This is related to a Certbot SSL certificate problem.
  - It is resolved on CertBot side.
- 2026.06.02 08:00 - 15:04
We strongly advise all users with active HPCC workspaces against changing their status. Otherwise, their workspaces will transition to an 'unhealthy' state.
- - The HPC Cloud (HPCC) provider will be less available due to updates on the underlying infrastructure
  - Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal
    No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
    No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces
2026.05
- The service is deprecating catalogue items that have reached their End of Life standard support
- Catalogue item developers managing deprecated items were notified on the 15 May with the following note:
  - Dear user,
    We are writing to inform you of an important security matter regarding catalogue items you manage in the SURF Research Cloud (SRC) platform.
    Current Situation
    You have catalogue items based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, which has reached End of Life status. This means the operating system no longer receives:
    Security patches and updates
    Bug fixes
    Official technical support from Canonical
    
    Why This Matters
    Running an unsupported operating system exposes your systems and data to increased security risks, including:
    Unpatched vulnerabilities that could be exploited
    Compliance issues with security standards
    Potential incompatibility with newer software and tools
    
    Required Action
    We strongly recommend you to:
    select newer ubuntu versions to be offered to your SRC collaboration members
    uncheck all catalogue items based on ubuntu 20.04 LTS
    
    In two weeks time, SRC service will inform all users about the deprecation and instruct them to upgrade their workspaces based on ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
    If you need support, please contact us via SURF Service Desk.
    Thank you for your prompt attention to this security matter.
    ... snip ...
- Catalogue item users consuming deprecated items were notified on the 29 May with the following note:
  - Dear user,
    We are writing to inform you of an important security matter regarding your workspaces managed by SURF Research Cloud (SRC).
    Current Situation
    You (may) have workspaces currently running Ubuntu 20.04, which has reached End of Life status. This means the operating system no longer receives:
    Security patches and updates
    Bug fixes
    Official technical support from Canonical
    
    Why This Matters
    Running an unsupported operating system exposes your systems and data to increased security risks, including:
    Unpatched vulnerabilities that could be exploited
    Compliance issues with security standards
    Potential incompatibility with newer software and tools
    
    Required Action
    We strongly recommend migrating to a supported Ubuntu LTS version (such as 22.04 or 24.04) as soon as possible.
    
    Next Steps
    1. Check your workspaces – the Flavors section of the workspace details in your dashboard shows the operating system (e.g. Ubuntu 20 or Ubuntu 20 Desktop).
    2. Migrate - create a new workspace based on a newer Ubuntu version.
    2a. If the catalog item you need doesn’t have the new OS flavor, contact the catalog‑item owner or the SURF Service Desk.
    3. Copy data from your old workspace to the new workspace if needed, and then delete the old workspace.
    
    We understand that migrations require planning and resources.
    Our team is available to help you navigate this transition smoothly and minimize disruption to your operations.
    Thank you for your prompt attention to this security matter.
    ... snip ...

2026.04.24 08:30 - 16:00
- Scheduled HPC Cloud security maintenance
- Impact:
  - GPU and high-memory workspaces will experience a downtime
  - creation of new GPU / high-memory workspaces may fail
- Users with workspaces (as of 10th April) which might be impacted by the maintenance, were notified on the 13 Apr. with the following note:
  - Dear user,
    Maintenance of the SURF Research Cloud (SRC) service is scheduled for 24 April 2026.
    At least one of your workspaces will be affected.
    This message is intended to inform you of what to expect.
    What will happen?
    A set of SURF HPC Cloud hardware nodes are scheduled to receive a security update.
    These nodes will be patched sequentially during the maintenance window on Friday 24 April, between 08:30 and 16:00 CEST.
    Impact
    Workspaces based on the following SRC flavours will be impacted:
    HPC Cloud GPU
    HPC Cloud High Memory
    During the maintenance window:
    affected workspaces will be shut down temporarily by SURF and will become available again once the node is back online
    the creation of new workspaces based on the aforementioned flavours may also fail
    What do you need to do?
    Plan your project computing activities on the impacted workspaces in advance.
    Long running compute tasks will be affected.
    If you have any questions, contact the Helpdesk.
    Kind regards,
    The SRC service team

2026.04.23 04:00 - 12:47
- The wallet balances are not shown correctly, and some wallets might have been depleted because of that. We are currently working on a fix.
- Impact: Some wallets might have been depleted overnight, and the workspaces have been paused.
2026.04.13 8:30 - 2026.04.14 9:00
- The network underlying infrastructure supporting the SURF Research Cloud service is experiencing problems. Due to this issue some workspaces are unreachable.

2026.04.09 9:30 - 17:55
- The network underlying infrastructure supporting the SURF Research Cloud service is experiencing problems
- Impact: the HPC Cloud (HPCC) provider is less available

- - Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal
    No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
    No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces

- We strongly advise all users with active HPCC workspaces against changing their status. Otherwise, their workspaces will transition to an 'unhealthy' state.

- - Two disruptions are impacting the platform:
    network switch issues
    CPU bug on core infrastructure components
  - Emergency maintenance is underway
  - Impact for HPCC:
    Storage: no impact (your data is safe)
    Computing:
    running workspaces: operate as normal (1), with network hiccups to be expected
    new workspaces: the feature remains disabled
  (1). We advise you against changing the status of your workspace(s) for the time being.
- - The service is recovering well
  - Unhealthy workspaces are being fixed
  - Access to HPCC resources was reopened (1)
  - The service team will continue monitoring the infrastructure
  (1). i.e. new workspaces can be created and running workspaces are operating as normal

- - The service is fully operational
  - All unhealthy workspaces were recovered
  - The service team will continue monitoring the infrastructure

2026.04.02 - 2026.04.16 12:00
- An issue in the synchronisation between SURF Research Cloud and the SURF Research Acces Management is hindering new users to create workspaces because Collaborations are not shown.
- A workaround is in place and it works for some users:
  - As a Collaboration Admin, you can force a synchronisation by opening the collaboration in SURF Research Access Management, clicking Edit, and saving without making any changes.
- If the workaround does not work, contact the SURF Service Desk
- A permanent fix was released

2026.03.26 11:38 - 15:39
- Some HPC Cloud workspaces failed to be created due to a misconfiguration introduced during an update to the network security groups
- This issue has now been resolved

2026.03.19 08:00 - 09:00
- The accounting / budgeting service component will be in maintenance.
- Impact: wallet changes will be delayed
2026.03.19 09:00 - 11:00
- Scheduled HPC Cloud network maintenance
- Impact:
  - a small number of workspaces might experience a temporary connectivity interruption
  - Windows workspaces created during the maintenance window will have a delay to receive licensing
- The service is increasing its IP pool capacity. A migration of a set of workspaces to a new IP pool is required.
  User's workspaces
  Some user's workspaces may experience a temporary connectivity interruption.
  All users and their collaboration members affected by this maintenance were notified on the 11 March with the following message:
  - Dear user,
    Your collaboration, <CO name>, has a workspace(s) that needs your attention.
    Summary
    * The SURF Research Cloud (SRC) service has scheduled network maintenance for Thursday, 19 March at 09:00
    * A set of users using SURF's HPC Cloud (HPCC) will be impacted and are being informed accordingly
    Description
    * The SRC HPCC is undergoing a network change for the optimisation of service IP pools
    * The change is planned for 09:00 on 19th Mar. and is expected to take less than 2 hours
    * A small number of users consuming reserved IP's on the SRC HPCC will be affected
    Workspaces affected
    Here is a list of workspaces that need your attention:
    * ID: ..., name: ..., owner: ...
    What to do next?
    * Is your workspace paused and/or your reserved IP not being consumed? If so, you will not notice the change.
    * Is your computing workspace running? You will experience downtime during the maintenance period.
    We advise you to:
    * Pause your computing workspace if relevant
    * Release any reserved IP addresses that are no longer needed by deleting them through the SRC portal
    If you have any questions, please contact the Service Desk.
    Best wishes,
    The SRC service team
  SRC License workspaces
  Windows License Server and RDP License Server will have a temporary connectivity interruption.
  Users with Windows workspaces created during the maintenance period may temporarily appear unlicensed. These workspaces will activate automatically once the licence servers are reachable again following the migration.
2026.03.03 07:00 - 07:30
- Scheduled maintenance to improve/optimize the underlying HPC Cloud (HPCC) network infrastructure
- Impact: network traffic to HPCC workspaces can deteriorate temporarily

2026.02.02 09:00 - 11:00
- Scheduled HPC Cloud network maintenance had an unexpected higher impact on creation of new workspaces on SURF HPC Cloud, causing them to fail.
- Impact: a small number of users might experience a downtime of their running computing workspaces
- Affected users/collaborations were notified on the 27th Jan. with following note:
  - Dear user,
    Your collaboration, <CO name>, has a workspace(s) that needs your attention.
    Summary
    * The SURF Research Cloud (SRC) service has scheduled network maintenance for Monday, 2 February at 09:00
    * A set of users using SURF's HPC Cloud (HPCC) will be impacted and are being informed accordingly
    Description
    * The SRC HPCC is undergoing a network change for the optimisation of service IP pools
    * The change is planned for 09:00 on 2nd Feb. and is expected to take less than 2 hours
    * A small number of users consuming reserved IP's on the SRC HPCC will be affected
    Workspaces affected
    Here is a list of workspaces that need your attention:
    * ID: ..., name: ..., owner: ...
    What to do next?
    * Is your workspace paused and/or your reserved IP not being consumed? If so, you will not notice the change.
    * Is your computing workspace running? You will experience downtime during the maintenance period.
    We advise you to:
    * Pause your computing workspace if relevant
    * Release any reserved IP addresses that are no longer needed by deleting them through the SRC portal
    
    If you have any questions, please contact the Service Desk.
    Best wishes,
    The SRC service team

2026.02.02 9:00-10:00
- Portal login issues due to a problem in the connection between SURF Research Cloud and SURF Research Access Management.

2026.01.30 11:30
- A set of workspaces might (have) experience(d) connection issues with WebDAV based remote storage services, such as Research Drive/SURFdrive
- An updated WebDAV connection script was rolled out
- Users with WebDAV endpoints configured in their collaboration(s) were notified with following notice:
  - Dear user,
    You are currently working on a SURF Research Cloud (SRC) collaboration that uses WebDAV endpoints, such as Research Drive/SURFdrive. This message provides guidance on how to stabilise and secure your remote storage connection to your workspaces.
    Description
    The SURF SRC service allows users to connect WebDAV endpoints to their computing workspaces
    These workspaces are configured so that a remote storage service is properly mounted based on SRC's portal user credentials
    The SRC service has identified the following issues:
    the remote storage connection is not always stable
    some files can be deleted on the storage service
    The service team has improved the script that establishes the connection between the workspace and the WebDAV storage service
    
    What should you do next?
    Create a new workspace for your work. This will ensure that your personal remote storage account is correctly mounted
    Would you like to continue using the current workspace(s)? If so, proceed as follows:
    login to your workspace
    run a bash script to fix the issue
    
    Please contact the SURF Service Desk:
    if you need help to implementing these guidelines
    if you ever experience data loss while running your workspace connected to SURF WebDAV storage services
    
    With kind regards,
    The SRC service team

2025.12.17 08:00 - 09:00
- The accounting / budgeting service component will be in maintenance.
- Impact: wallet changes will be delayed

2025.12.09 08:40 - 14:05
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) provider will be less available due to updates on the underlying infrastructure
- We strongly advise all users with active workspaces not to change their status. Otherwise, they will transition to an 'unhealthy' state.
- - Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal
  - No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
  - No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces

2025.11.25 15:00 - 2025.11.26 10:00
- Due to issues at a repository of a dependency of Research Cloud, the creation of workspaces with browser-based access might be slower or fail.
  - Examples of catalog items:
    - Jupyter
    - Desktop version of Ubuntu and Fedora
    - R-studio

2025.11.20 05:50 - 11:00
- Workspaces based on Ubuntu fail due to issues with APT repositories. We are monitoring the situation.

2025.10.20 - 2025.11.03
- A set of HPC Cloud generic workspaces will have to be paused/resumed
- Affected users/collaborations were notified on the 3rd Oct. with following note:
  - Dear user,
    
    Your collaboration, <CO name>, has a workspace(s) that needs your attention.
    This message explains why we are taking action and what steps you can take by 20 October at 08:00.
    
    Summary
    * The SURF Research Cloud (SRC) has recently updated the High-Performance Computing Cloud (HPCC) infrastructure
    * Some HPCC workspaces (WS) will need to be paused and resumed to fix a bug
    * Until 20 October at 08:00, WS owners can pause and resume relevant assets as they wish
    * SURF will pause and resume the remaining WS(s) on 20 October between 8:00 and 12:00
    
    Issue description
    The HPCC resources are managed by an OpenStack cluster and updated on 1 September. Your WS(s) did not experience any downtime.
    This maintenance was needed to keep HPCC OpenStack environment healthy and ready for the future.
    However, for your WS(s) to fully benefit from this high-availability environment, you will need to pause and resume the system to update the hypervisor associated.
    
    Workspaces to be paused and resumed
    Here is a list of WS(s) associated with your collaboration, <CO name>, that need to be paused and resumed:
    
    * workspace name (ID: ###) - workspace owner mail... snip ...
    
    What to do next?
    * (optional) Do a pause/resume cycle at your convenience by 20 October at 08:00
    * SURF will pause and resume any remaining WS(s) on your behalf on 20 October between 08:00 and 12:00
    
    If you have any questions, please contact the Service Desk.
    Best wishes,
    The SRC service team
- - All workspaces (WS) were paused/resumed
  - SRC monitoring system detected a new batch of WS(s) that also require a pause/resume cycle
  - Affected users/collaborations were notified with a due date on the 3rd Nov.

2025.10.20 09:00 - 13:20
- The services we depend on have stabilised operations. Minor residual issues might occur.
  - For deployment of our workspaces we use online repositories to get software packages. Some of these repositories might still have stability issues, which can cause workspaces to go to "failed".

2025.09.19 08:46 - 11:55
- A bug was introduced in the service which affected some users/collaborations
- Impact: creation and/or deletion of workspaces was affected; remaining operations functioned as normal.
- The issue was introduced in the 'workspace creation wizard'. The affected users were presented with the following error message
  {"code":500,"status":"Internal Server Error","message":"User server returned an error code: 404, with body: b'\n\n\n\n Not Found\n\n\n h1. Not Found The requested resource was not found on this server.\n\n\n'"}
  The wizard could not be finished and thus the workspace could not be created. No impact for the user's budget/wallet.

2025.05.13 - 2025.09.16
- The Research Drive (RD) service component is being updated
  - RD will migrate the software backend from ownCloud to Nextcloud
    The migration of the different RD instances will be done in a staged process
    Carefully assess the downtime for the instance you consume
    Your RD environment is expected to be available by the end of the maintenance day
    An user's migration documentation page describes the changes
    The following communication was sent to all RD Community instance users. Its content is valid for users of remaining RD branded instances.
    Dear user,
    You receive this mail because you are a user on the SURF Community environment.
    
    We would like to inform you about the upcoming changes to the SURF Research Drive environment, which will be carried out on Tuesday 20th May. These changes are necessary to improve the scalability and security of the system and to continue to provide a good experience using Research Drive in the future. While we are trying to make this transition as transparent and smooth as possible, it is unfortunately inevitable that you may need to take some actions as well.
    In this email we would like to explain what you can expect.
    
    What will change
    During this maintenance, the underlying engine of Research Drive will be replaced by a new engine. Research Drive is currently using the ownCloud software as a software backend and we will replace this with Nextcloud. This will not have any impact on your data within Research Drive, but it may have an impact on the way you can access your data. For example, the layout of Research Drive will look slightly different, certain features will have to be accessed in a different way and you may have to setup a new connection via the Desktop Client or WebDAV. See our migration wiki for the full overview of these changes.
    
    During the time of maintenance
    During the maintenance, Research Drive will be completely inaccessible. Please note that the environment will not be accessible for several hours that day. If you need data on the day of the maintenance, please make this data available elsewhere prior to the date of the migration (for example, by storing a local copy of this data on your laptop or on an external hard drive).
    
    After the maintenance
    The environment is expected to be fully available again by the end of the day. Your files are still in the same place as you are used to. However, a number of things have changed compared to before the migration to Nextcloud. For example, the user interface has changed slightly, custom groups have been renamed to "Teams" and there are more options and permissions available when you want to share with another user or a team of users. In addition, you may need to re-establish an external connection.
    
    Desktop Client or WebDAV connection
    This is especially the case if you previously used the ownCloud Desktop Client or a WebDAV connection on your own system. These changes, and steps you may need to take to set up a new remote connection have been summarised by us and can be found on this page.
    
    If you have any further questions or uncertainties, contact us via the SURF Service Desk.
    
    Met vriendelijk groet/ Kind Regards,
    Team SURF Research Drive
- SURF Research Cloud (SRC) platform users using RD will be impacted
  - If you have connected Research Drive to an SRC collaboration, please be aware of the following.
    Before the maintenance
    Halt all workload on your workspaces that read/upload data to your personal Research Drive account
    During the maintenance
    Research Drive will not be available
    After the maintenance, depending on how you connect to Research Drive
    relink Research Drive to your SRC collaboration(s)
    reissue new Research Drive WebDAV credentials

2025.09.15 9:40 - 11:15
- Due to unexpected issues during maintenance for SURF HPC Cloud no new workspaces and storage can be created, and no storage can be removed or added to running workspaces.
- Issues with running workspaces can occur.

2025.09.01 08:00 - 2026.09.02 16:04
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) provider will be less available due to updates on the underlying infrastructure
  - We strongly advise all users with active workspaces not to change their status. Otherwise, they will transition to an 'unhealthy' state.
  - No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
    No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces
    Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal
- - The maintenance of the HPCC, scheduled to be completed at 17:00, is taking longer than expected
  - The HPCC API will continue unavailable until further notice
  - Running HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal, as long as you do no change its status
  - A new service status update is due by tomorrow at 09:00
- - The HPCC is still not available to our users
  - We are stress testing the infrastructure & will update soon
- - The scheduled HPCC maintenance has been completed
  - Users with 'unhealthy workspaces' will be notified soon with more details
- - Users with 'unhealthy workspaces' are notified
- - All 'unhealthy workspaces' were recovered & are available to be consumed
  - The SRC platform and the HPCC cloud provider are fully operational

2025.08.26 14:41 - 16:55
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) external storage component is experiencing network issues
- Impact: some computing workspaces might have lost access to HPCC external storage volumes
- We are monitoring the incident and will keep this entry up to date
  - The issue is related to a faulty network switch which caused some hardware to loose connectivity
    The switch was replaced & the affected components are recovering
    The network seems stable again, we'll keep monitoring it
  - The underlying platform hosting SRC HPCC cloud provider is stable
    The incident is closed

2025.08.11 17:30 - 18:00
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) is less available due to issues with the network infrastructure

2025.07.02 10:00 - 2025.07.07 10:19
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) is less available due to issues with the network infrastructure
  - No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
    No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces
    Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal
- - The issue is related to an overload on a set of network components
  - Recovery fixes are being applied but proving to be hard to fix the underlying issue(s)
  - The technical team has all-hands on deck to mitigate/fix the issue as soon as possible while looking for long-term solutions
  - We'll keep you posted
- - The HPCC's workspace creation functionality is stable enough to resume operations
  - All workspace status functionality (rebooting, pausing and resuming) should operate as normal
  - Please note that some workspaces may still fail to be created (estimated failure rate of less than 5%)
  - We are closely monitoring the platform.

- - There were no failures with new workspaces instantiated in the HPC Cloud provider
  - The component is fully operational & network issues are mitigated
  - The team will continue to work on a long term solution

2025.07.02 - 2025.07.04 08:00
- The AWS Cloud provider is unavailable
- The investigation by the technical team was non conclusive

2025.06.11 09:06 - 09:44
- Access to the SRC portal was not possible due to an DoS to the SRAM component

2025.06.10 00:30 - 09:35
- The HPC Cloud provider will be less available
- The HPC Cloud (HPCC) API will be unavailable due to updates on the network underlying infrastructure. Impact assessment:
  - No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
  - No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces
  - Existing HPCC workspaces will continue to operate as normal

2025.05.15 06:00 - 15:00
- Synchronisation issues between SRC platform and SRAM component after a version release
- The SRC is displaying collaboration groups as separate collaborations
  New users in SRC without collaborations
  Issues updating collaboration membership and group changes in SRC

2025.05.12
- A medium score security vulnerability was disclosed
  - SANE users not part of the src_co_admin CO group were granted access to the Data Provider Portal
- SANE Data Provider computing workspaces created between 7 April and 12 May 2025 are affected
- Impact assessment and guidelines to secure and audit the issue shared with affected users
- The issue is resolved for all computing resources created after 12 May 2025

2025.04.23 08:00 - 09:16
- The accounting / budgeting service component will be in maintenance.
- Impact: wallet changes will be delayed.

2025.04.07
- SRC Acceptable Use Policy was update (v0.4)
- On Article 4 about Personal data and privacy the following was added:
  For any Personal Data processed by User on SRC, the following data processing terms are applicable (only available in Dutch):
  1. Annex Verwerkersafspraken
    Verwerkingsspecificatie HPC Cloud
    Verwerkingsspecificatie SURF Research Cloud
  The Annex Verwerkersafspraken together with the Verwerkingsspecificatie constitute a data processing agreement as referred to in Article 28(3) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

2025.03.24 16:55 - 2025.04.14 12:00
- Access to Oracle cloud provider resources was paused due to an ongoing security incident investigation.

Summary
A security breach at Oracle Cloud has surfaced. While no direct evidence confirms SURF’s exposure, proactive security measures have been taken to mitigate any potential risk.
Impact
No workspaces can be created on Oracle cloud resources till further notice.

- Access to Oracle was resumed.

Summary
After considerable research:
No active workloads, services, or sensitive data were hosted in the Oracle Cloud environment at the time of the breach
No evidence of unauthorised access was found
SRC's Oracle reseller has not issued further concerns

2025.03.11 11:00 - 12:20
- HPC Cloud (HPCC) API will be unavailable while certificates are updated in the underlying infrastructure
- Impact:
  - No new workspaces can be created on the HPCC provider
  - No Pause / Resume can be done on HPCC workspaces
  - Existing HPCC machines can be accessed

2025.02.26
- A medium score security vulnerability was disclosed: users can gain elevated privileges to their workspaces
- Computing workspaces created between 14 January and 19 February 2025 are affected
- Impact assessment and guidelines to secure and audit the issue shared with affected users
- The issue is resolved for all computing resources created after 19 February 2025

2025.01.22
- Known problem with the /etc/fstab file on some Ubuntu workspaces (WS). Fix made available.

Summary
SRC service has identified a problem with the /etc/fstab file on some Ubuntu WSs instantiated between 7 October and 19 December 2024.
Problem
New lines are appended to the /etc/fstab file every minute, for WS's that make use of Research Drive and/or WebDAV connection(s). This continuous growth leads to the file reaching its maximum length of 10,000 lines. Once this limit is exceeded, the WS will fail to boot.
Workaround
To resolve this problem, users can proceed in one of two ways:
Run a Bash Script that fixes the issue on the WS
Re-deploy and migrate to a new workspace

2024.11.27 16:15 - 2024.11.28 9:45
- Due to network issues during a network maintenance, no HPC Cloud workspaces can be started, paused, resumed or deleted. Communication with the workspaces can fail.

2024.11.13
- Root cause analysis of recent network outages.

Summary
SURF research services hosted at Amsterdam Data Center, experienced multiple interruptions in the last months. Namely, SRC service had limited access to the 'HPC Cloud' provider.
The reliability and availability of our services is paramount. After thorough investigation we have found the root cause of the issues and will implement a fix in the remainder of this year.
Root Cause Analysis
In recent years, SURF has experienced an exponential growth of hardware hosted at Amsterdam Data Center. This growth has led to scalability issues on our network which caused recent outage events. A solution was agreed to adapt our datacenter network to withstand with current and future loads.
What to expect
In the coming weeks, SURF plans to implement network adjustments to avoid future outages. This will require maintenance work. We expect the services, namely SRC, to continue operating as usual during the maintenance. Nevertheless, there is always the possibility that an outage will occur. You will always be kept informed through the usual channels, and any disruptive maintenance will be announced in advance as usual.
Should you have any questions, you can contact us via the Service Desk.

2024.11.06 9:00 - 13:30
- Due to issues in the underlying cloud infra-structure +/- 50 % of started workspaces were failing for SURF HPC Cloud. We have disabled starting new workspaces for this cloud for the moment so we can fix the issue.

2024.10.10 17:00 - 17:30
- Emergency maintenance: SURF Cloud workspace actions (start, pause, resume, delete) are disrupted

2024.10.07 15:30 - 2024.10.09 9:15
- Due to network issues no workspaces can be started, paused, resumed or deleted on SURF HPC Cloud.

2024.09.26 - 2024.10.14
- Due to an issue in the SRC accounting component, wallets were not charged for multiple weeks
- A recalculation of credits was completed on Sep. 26th
- Users might see a steep decrease in their wallet credits on this date
- As of Oct. 14th, the balances are accurate

2024.09.13 13:30 - 16:00
- Network instability on SURF Cloud
- Impact: some running workspaces weren't reachable

2024.09.10 08:30 - 10:15
- A technical problem on a SRC component impacted the regular users workflow
- Impact: starting workspaces not possible; connection with Research Drive broken.

2024.08.29 11:00 - 12:30
- The SRC service experienced a technical problem on one of our components hosted by Amazon AWS
  - Operational issue - AWS Identity and Access Management (Global)
- Impact: no new workspaces could be created in all Cloud providers

2024.08.27 15:36 - 2024.08.28 13:37
- Network outage at SURF's data centre in Amsterdam
- Unavailability of The 'HPC Cloud' provider until the network incident was resolved
- Impact: machines could not be started/stopped/paused in the 'HPC Cloud'; access to running workspaces was affected

2024.08.23 09:00 - 16:00
- The accounting / budgeting service component will have its annual maintenance. Impact: wallet creation will be delayed. Requests will be handled after the maintenance.

2024.07.09 21:54
- Communication to service users with workspace(s) potentially vulnerable to an OpenSSH server security vulnerability (CVE-2024-6387).
- Ubuntu SSHD vulnerability (CVE-2024-6387)
  Vulnerability & Impact
  A security regression (CVE-2006-5051) was discovered in OpenSSH’s server (sshd) for Ubuntu. An unauthenticated remote attacker may be able to run commands on a machine through the ssh protocol.
  More information can be found here.
  
  Secure ANalysis Environment (SANE)
  A machine is only vulnerable if it has the SSH port open for the internet. For SANE projects this means data servers don't have to be updated.
  Solution
  The solution is to update SSHD on the machine. This can be done in two ways:
  1 - Start new workspace
  
  If you delete your vulnerable workspace and start a new one, a new version of the sshd packages will be installed.
  2 - Update your active workspace
  
  You can also update your active workspace. For this we have created a script.
  The script does the following:
  - Update the packages repository information
  - Upgrade all packages
  - Turn on automatic updates
  - Check whether the script was successful, it returns results of the sshd version check.
  To use the script go to a terminal on your machine and run the following command:
  curl -s -L https://servicedesk.surf.nl/wiki/download/attachments/19825269/CVE-2024-6387.sh | sudo bash
  Succes:
  "Your OpenSSH version $ssh_version is not vulnerable to CVE-2024-6387."
  Failure:
  "Your OpenSSH version $ssh_version is vulnerable to CVE-2024-6387."
  Please contact the servicedesk if the script failed.
  
  "Paused" machines can be updated after your next resume, they are not vulnerable in "paused" state.
  How to get and use a terminal
  If you are using SSH to log in to your workspace, you probably know how to use the terminal (SSH is the method based on public/private key-pairs).
  If you are using a Jupyter Notebook or a RStudio workspace, there is an even easier to way to get a terminal and enter the command line given above.
  Jupyter Notebook
  The terminal is available in the lower part of the Jupyter Hub launcher view under "other":
  
  Click on the icon to open a terminal tab. A terminal tab opens.
  Copy/paste the command that is given above after the terminal prompt ("...:~$ ")
  RStudio
  The terminal is available as a tab next to the "console" tab:
  
  Go to the Terminal tab.
  Copy/paste the command that is given above after the terminal prompt ("...:~$ ")
  Script: CVE-2024-6387.sh

2024.06.25
- A preliminary evaluation of the network outage which caused the 'HPC Cloud' provider to be down, is publicly available. Executive summary:

On Wednesday evening, June 12, the SURF EVPN experienced an outage, caused by an internal broadcast storm. No external cause – or malicious intent – was detected. The network was fully recovered the next day. Eight services were impacted; two services were available the same night, with the last service fully recovered by Monday morning. The root cause is still unknown. An in-depth evaluation is planned, as we are awaiting more information from one of our vendors.

2024.06.15 14:43 - 2024.06.17 9:30
- HPC Cloud API is down due to cloud recovery due to earlier network issues
- No new workspaces can be created on HPC Cloud
- No Pause / Resume can be done on HPC Cloud workspaces
- Existing machines can be accessed

2024.06.14 10:15 - 12:00
- HPC Cloud API is down due to recovery from earlier network outage.
- No new workspaces can be created, no workspace states can be changed.
- Existing machines can be accessed.

2024.06.12 19:15 - 2024.06.14 9:45
- SURF Research Cloud service has limited access to the 'HPC Cloud' provider
- The 'HPC Cloud' is down due to network problems.
- Impact: machines cannot be started/stopped/paused in the 'HPC Cloud'

2023-12-15 10:00 am / 18:00 pm: Update network components, Impact: Possible short interruptions of portal functionality. I case of a glitch, please retry after 1-2 minutes. Workspaces will not be affected.
2023-06-20 7:49 am / 11:14 pm: Apply Security updates to a batch of GPU & CPU Fat nodes. Impact: less availability of mentioned resources and no running workspaces on the hardware under maintenance.
2023-06-13 08:37 am / 12:40 pm: Apply security updates to a batch of GPU & CPU Fat nodes. Impact: less availability of mentioned resources and no running workspaces on the hardware under maintenance.
2023-05-31 8:00 am / 03:51 pm: Update network components in our SURF HPC Cloud system. The portal is unavailable, workspaces cannot be created or paused/resumed in the Cloud provider 'HPC Cloud'. Running workspaces remain available.
2023-04-12 9:00 am / 5:00 pm: Maintenance of the accounting service that manages the wallets. New wallets or changes will be processed after this maintenance window. Existing workspaces and wallets will not be affected.
2023-04-04 7:00 am / 9:00 am: Network change 418 with expected network downtime of 2 minutes during this maintenance window. This might affect network traffic to and from VM's on SURF HPC Cloud.
2023-03-28 22:00 CET / 01:00 CET: Internal database outage. Users could not perform any operations on either workspaces or catalog items. Any changes made to either workspaces or catalog items between 19:00 CET and 22:00 CET are lost and cannot be recovered.
2023-03-21 / 2023-03-22: For a short period of time SURF ResearchCloud reported wrong usage amounts. This resulted in falsely depleted wallets and some users were unable to start/resume workspaces. This has been corrected and resolved.
2023-03-20 12:15 / 14:55: Storage issue caused workspace creation to be unavailable
2023-03-14 12:40 am / 12:50 am: Internal database upgrade, workspace cannot be created or paused/resumed.
2023-03-02 7:00 am / 9:00 am: Network change 418 with expected network downtime of 2 minutes during this maintenance window. This might affect network traffic to and from VM's on SURF HPC Cloud. (rescheduled to: 2023-04-04)
2023-02-16 5:00 am / 7:00 am: SRAM service dependency will be updated; Impact: SRC portal is not accessible; no impact for running workspaces
2023-02-07 11:25 am / 11:50 am: Due to problems with our authentication service, it is currently not possible to log in to the Research Cloud portal. Running workspaces are unaffected.
2023-02-06 2:00 pm / 8:26 pm: Ubuntu workspaces would fail sporadically due to failing to reach the package repository endpoint. (status.canonical.com)
2023-01-25 09:00 am / 11:30 am: Update network components in our SURF HPC Cloud system. The portal will be unavailable, workspace cannot be created or paused/resumed in the Cloud provider 'HPC Cloud'.

2022-12-20 08:00 / 17:00: Maintenance of all GPU & CPU Fat nodes; Impact: no running workspaces on the hardware under maintenance
2022-09-28 9:00 am / 19:00 pm: Updating the infrastructure supporting the SRC Portal.
2022-09-15 5:00 am / 7:00 am: SRAM service dependency will be updated; Impact: SRC portal is not accessible; no impact for running workspaces
2022-07-24 8:13 pm - 8:15 pm: Intermittent authentication service issues.
2022-06-03 / 2022-06-22: New workspaces can not be attached to existing reserved IPs and not be added to existing private networks.
2022-06-02 04:00 pm / 2022-06-02 18:00: No new workspaces can be created.
2022-05-25 1:00 pm / 6:30 pm: new workspaces likely to fail due to network capacity. Running workspaces could be logged in to and worked with as usual.
2022-05-10 11:30 am / 4:45 pm : portal.live.surfresearchcloud.nl blocked
- Impact: portal.live.surfresearchcloud.nl was blocked to external IPs except for the ranges: 145.100.1.0/24, 145.100.19.0/24, 145.100.43.0/24, 145.90.232.0/23
2022-05-09 08:00 am / 8:00 pm
- Plan: update network components in our SURF HPC Cloud system
- Impact: workspaces cannot be created or paused/resumed in the Cloud provider 'HPC Cloud'
2022-01-28 12:14 am: Communication to all service users about the PwnKit vulnerability and how to patch vulnerable workspaces
- Vulnerability & Impact
  Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a "component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems."
  It is installed by default on all major Linux distributions.
  
  A vulnerability was discovered in Polkit, which if successfully exploited "allows any unprivileged user to gain full root privileges".
  You can read more on the topic here.
  Solution
  The Polkit component has to be updated to the latest version.
  The instructions to patch all relevant linux distributions supported by SURF Research Cloud service are bellow.
  Noteworthy, new workspaces created from SURF catalog items will already be patched.
  Update instructions
  CentOS 7
```
sudo yum upgrade
```
  CentOS 8
```
sudo yum -y remove polkit

curl http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8-stream/BaseOS/x86_64/os/Packages/polkit-libs-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm --output polkit-libs-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm
sudo yum -y --nogpgcheck localinstall polkit-libs-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm

curl http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8-stream/BaseOS/x86_64/os/Packages/polkit-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm --output polkit-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm
sudo yum -y --nogpgcheck localinstall polkit-0.115-13.el8_5.1.x86_64.rpm
```
  Ubuntu 18
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install policykit-1
```
  Ubuntu 20
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get --only-upgrade install policykit-1
```
  Update only needed if your workspace is older than 12/05/2021

2021-10-13 12:30 pm / 2021-10-15 10:56 am: Maintenance was extended due to unforeseen stability issues while deploying service components to new hardware
- Impact
  - creation of new workspaces in the Cloud provider 'HPC Cloud' is not available
2021-10-13 7:00 am / 12:30 pm: Hardware replacement
- Impact
  - creation of new workspaces in the Cloud provider 'HPC Cloud' is not available
- No impact
  - running workspaces will operate as usual
  - SRC Portal is available
2021-09-29: SRC access might be less available
- From 5:00 to 07:00: SRAM service dependency will be updated; Impact: SRC portal is not accessible; no impact for running workspaces
2021-06-08: SRC access might be less available
- From 5:00 to 07:00: SRAM service dependency will be updated; Impact: access to SRC is less available; no impact for running workspaces
2021-05-26: Portal and connection to VMs unstable
- From ca. 10:00 to 12:00: Limited portal and VM usage due to an internal failure in Research Cloud.
2021-04-28: Creation of new workspaces fails
- From ca. 9:45 to 10:45: Due to a Research Cloud internal failure, users could not start new workspaces.
2021-03-15: Gitlab.com down

Between 13:00h and 15:00h, gitlab.com was unavailable, which rendered SRC unable to create workspaces.

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On Article 4 about Personal data and privacy the following was added:

Ubuntu SSHD vulnerability (CVE-2024-6387)

Vulnerability & Impact

Solution

1 - Start new workspace

2 - Update your active workspace

How to get and use a terminal

Jupyter Notebook

RStudio

Vulnerability & Impact

Solution

Update instructions

CentOS 7

CentOS 8

Ubuntu 18

Ubuntu 20