ELN (Elektronisches LaborNotizbuch)

Following the widespread disruptions on June 22, 2026, the central data center Core L2 switch must be updated. The update is scheduled to take place during this period with very brief interruptions (<10 seconds).

Even though most of the services are up and running again, the root cause of the problem has not been resolved. We are continuing to work behind the scenes to fix the issue. However, this also means that disruptions may still occur.

The work has been completed, and the issue has been successfully resolved.

To resolve the current issues, maintenance work will be performed today between 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. During this time, there will be a service interruption affecting most of the services at RWTH for approximately 10 minutes. Please take this last-minute announcement into account when planning your work.

The work has been completed, and the issue has been successfully resolved.

Login via RWTH Single Sign-On (SSO) is currently disrupted. As a result, it is not possible to log in to any connected services.

There is currently a widespread disruption affecting, among other things, the SSO, though not limited to it. The root cause analysis is still underway.

Most of the services are currently up and running again. The analysis is ongoing. We cannot rule out the possibility of further outages.

Most of the services are up and running again. Please note, however, that the underlying issue has not yet been resolved, and disruptions may therefore continue to occur.

Explanation Following the Outage:
On June 22, 2026, starting at 9:00 a.m., there was a widespread outage affecting our services, which primarily impacted the RWTH Single Sign-On but was not limited to it. By around 12:00 p.m., the situation had largely stabilized, allowing users to log in via RWTH Single Sign-On again; however, other issues (e.g., with the IT Center ticket tool and RWTHmoodle) persisted. On the same day, between 4:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., the data center firewall was rebooted, which resolved the remaining issues. The disruption was caused by problems with the data center core switch. To ensure a lasting improvement in the situation, maintenance on the affected system was successfully carried out on June 30, 2026.

There may currently be issues logging in via RWTH Single Sign-On (SSO).
This is because a new certificate has been active in the metadata since 9:30 a.m. today.
The relevant department has been notified and is working with the system operators to resolve the issue.

As of v5.3, resources are handled in an analog manner to experiments in terms of categories and templates. One caveat here is that, while templates can be shared across teams, categories can not. The previous categories still exist, while each of them has also been turned into a template. See the associated feature request for some of the concerns and discussion: https://github.com/elabftw/elabftw/issues/6018

TeamAdmins no longer have to manually add team members. New members can now select a team and log in, which creates an account on the fly. TeamAdmins must then validate the account for the ELN can be used.

Using this workflow for new accounts should avoid some issues with e-mail mismatches between the RWTH IdM and the ELN. We do still control the allowed domains. If you receive an error, please report this to the IT-ServiceDesk.

RWTH Single Sign-On login ist not possible at the moment.
Existing sessions are not affected.
We are working on fixing the problem.

The problem has been solved.

There are currently disruptions to RWTH Single Sign-On. After entering your login details, the screen loads and then an Internal Server Error appears. This affects all services that use the RWTH Single Sign-On login.
The specialist department has been informed and is working to resolve the issue.

The problem has been fixed.

During this period, the routing of the previous XWiN routers (Nexus 7700) will be switched to the new XWiN routers (Catalyst 9600). These routers are essential for RWTH's network connection. This changeover also requires the migration of the DFN connection, which is switched redundantly to Frankfurt and Hannover, and the RWTH firewall to the new systems.
There will be complete or partial outages of the external connection during the maintenance window. All RWTH services (e.g. VPN, email, RWTHonline, RWTHmoodle) will not be available during this period. The accessibility of services within the RWTH network will be temporarily unavailable due to limited DNS functionality.

Der Uplink nach Frankfurt wurde erfolgreich auf das neue System geschwenkt.

Umbau des Uplinks nach Hannover beginnt.

Uplink nach Hannover auf das neue System umgezogen.

BGP v4/v6 nach Frankfurt und Hannover sind nun über die neue Routern funktional.

Es stehen noch ein paar kleinere Nacharbeiten an.

Wartung ist abgeschlossen. Der Datenverkehr läuft nun vollständig über die neuen Router!

Problematik mit der Anbindung zur Physik identifiziert, Lösung erfolgt morgen früh.

This evening around 20:25 - 21:00 there was a performance low in the SSO service and was checked by the specialist department during this time. The problem has been solved and fast logins without waiting times are possible again.

At the moment, single sign-on and multi-factor authentication are sporadically disrupted. We are already working on a solution and ask for your patience.

Due to DNS disruption, the name servers of various providers are currently not returning an IP address for hosts under *.rwth-aachen.de.
As a workaround, you can store alternative DNS servers in your connection settings, e.g. the Level3-Nameserver (4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1) or Comodo (8.26.56.26 und 8.20.247.20). It may also be possible to reach the RWTH VPN server, in which case please use VPN.

Instructions for configuring an alternative DNS server under Windows can be found via the following links:
https:
www.ionos.de/digitalguide/server/konfiguration/windows-11-dns-aendern/
https:
www.netzwelt.de/galerie/25894-dns-einstellungen-windows-10-11-aendern.html
You can also use VPN as an alternative. If you cannot reach the VPN server, you can adjust the host file under Windows according to the following instructions. This will allow you to reach the server vpn.rwth-aachen.de. To do this, the following entry must be added:
134.130.5.231 vpn.rwth-aachen.de
https:
www.windows-faq.de/2022/10/04/windows-11-hosts-datei-bearbeiten/

The hosts of RWTH Aachen University can now be reached again from outside the RWTH network.

Individual users may have experienced problems even after the fault was rectified on 25 August at 9 pm. On 26.8. at 9 a.m. all follow-up work was completed, so there should be no further problems.