Problems with ePass Login - 3/13

WHAT: Problems with ePass Login

WHEN: 03/13/2026 beginning 2:15pm

Current Status: Resolved

Description:

**3:45pm Sunday, March 15th**

I&TS believes we've restored stability to the ePass SSO system and should remain stable going forward.  We'll continue monitoring services to ensure no additional issues arise.

**3:15pm Sunday, March 15th**

We are once again experiencing a problem with the ePass SSO system that is causing login issues for various PLU services that require login via single-sign-on.  I&TS is actively troubleshooting the issue and will provide updates as information becomes available.

*4:45pm Update - Resolved*

We believe all of the issues related to the ePass SSO issues have been resolved and should remain stable going forward.  We'll continue monitoring services to ensure no additional issues arise.

*4:15pm Update*

The primary issue with ePass SSO seems to be resolved, but the I&TS team is still troubleshooting some underlying issues.  Most user-accessible services should be functioning, but some internal tools and processes are still offline.  We'll update status as more information is available.

*Original Post*

A problem with ePass single-sign-in login was discovered that blocks people from logging into to any single-sign-on resource using their ePass credentials.  We are actively working a resolution to the problem and will post an update regarding the status as soon as possible.

Service(s) Impacted: ePass, Sakai, Banner, Gmail, Google Apps

Workarounds: None

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: As new information is available

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.

Check https://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

Duo Multi-Factor Authentication Prompt Update

WHAT: Duo Multi-Factor Authentication Login Screen Update

WHEN: Wednesday, June 14th, 2023

Description: After June 14th, 2023 the Duo prompt that users are presented with after logging into a PLU resource will be changing.  Users will be presented with a screen similar to one of the screenshots seen below after they have entered their username and password at the PLU Single Sign-on login page:

 

If you are seeing a screen that does not look like the screenshots above, please reach out to the PLU I&TS Help Desk at 253-535-7525 or helpdesk@plu.edu to confirm what you are seeing is a legitimate prompt from Duo.  This change may also affect your traditional process flow when signing in.  Please let us know if you run into any problems or have questions about the new process.

Service(s) Impacted: ePass, Sakai, Banner, Gmail, Google Apps, and other PLU resources that utilize the Single Sign-on login page.

Unplanned Disruption to Various Services due to AWS (Amazon Web Services) failure - Wednesday, December 15, 2021 8:00 AM

WHAT: Unplanned Disruption to Various Services due to AWS (Amazon Web Services) failure 

WHEN: 12/15/2021 Duration: Beginning around 7:30am

Current Status: Resolved

Description: Duo, the service that PLU uses for multi-factor authentication that allows access to many PLU services, has reported that they have been experiencing a network connectivity issue this morning that is affecting access to their services.  Shortly after 8:00am, login services appear to have been restored and working properly; however, Duo is reporting that they are continuing to work towards full recovery.

***UPDATE***

12/15/2021 - 8:30AM: Amazon Web Services (and Duo) have reported that the connectivity issue has been resolved and access to their services are now functioning normally.

Service(s) Impacted: Sakai, Banner, Gmail, Google Apps, Help Desk, ePass

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.


Check https://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

ePass Login Service unavailable during maintenance - Fri., July 3, 6am

WHAT: ePass Login Service unavailable during maintenance - Fri., July 3, 6:00-6:30 AM

WHEN: 07/03/2020 6:00 AM  Duration: Not more than 30 minutes

UPDATE: System maintenance is complete and ePass Single Sign-on service is operational.

Description: ePass Single Sign-on service will be unavailable between 6:00am and 6:30am on Friday, July 3, 2020, while system maintenance is performed on the service. This will disrupt the ability to use ePass authentication to log in to services such as (but not limited to) Gmail, Banner, Sakai, Web Help Desk, etc. Users who are already logged into these services prior to the beginning of this maintenance window should experience no disruption.

Service(s) Impacted: Sakai, Banner, Gmail, Google Apps, Web Help Desk, ePass, Library

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: Friday, July 3, 6:30 AM



Check https://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***Resolved *** Unable to log in to ePass protected services

WHAT: Unable to log in to ePass protected services

WHEN: 11/03/17  10:50am

Current Status:***Resolved***

Description: People are reporting receiving an error message when attempting to log into PLU resources protected by the ePass single sign on page.  The error displayed is "Login Failure: Pool is empty and connection creation failed".  The I&TS systems team is aware of the issue and is working to resolve it as quickly as possible.  More information to come.

***Update*** As of 11:13am the issue has been resolved and the team is working to find the root cause of the issue.  Access to all systems should now be restored

Service(s) Impacted: Sakai, Banner, Gmail, Google Apps, Web Help Desk, ePass

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: 30 minutes

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.


Check https://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***RESOLVED*** PLU ePass Login Service Disruption

WHAT: PLU ePass Login Service Disruption

Current Status: Resolved

***UPDATE***
7/8/15, 12:25PM : The issue with the ePass login service has been resolved and access to related services should now be working normally.  If you continue to have problems, please contact the I&TS Help Desk at 253-535-7525.

Description:  As of some time this morning (Wed., July 8), users have been experiencing a service disruption with the PLU ePass login system, preventing access to such services as Sakai, Gmail, Google Apps, and Web Help Desk. The Information & Technology Services team is diligently investigating to find and repair the problem as soon as possible.

Service(s) Impacted: Sakai, Gmail, Google Apps, Web Help Desk, ePass

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update:  As soon as possible

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.

Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***RESOLVED*** Google Drive Inaccessible 12/9/2014

WHAT: Users are reporting difficulty with accessing Google Drive, receiving error 500 when attempting to access

WHEN: 12/09/14

Current Status: Open

Description:
Resolved: At 9:28 pm, google marked the issue as resolved. If you continue to have issues accessing Drive, please contact the help desk at 253 535 7525.

Update 8:23 pm: Still no word on resolution from google, but work around is to use drive.google.com/drive for the URL.

For us this means when you get the error 500, change the address from:

https://drive.google.com/?tab=mo&authuser=0

to: https://drive.google.com/drive

Original Message:

At approximately 7:30 pm, we received reports of accessing Google Drive. Users reported receiving an error 500.

Shortly after we began to receive reports, Google posted a notice on their Apps status blog noting a disruption of service for Drive. The incidents appear to be one in the same, though we will investigate to see if there are other underlying causes.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps

Work Arounds: use the url: https://drive.google.com/drive to access; works for some users, but not all.

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: Approximately 9 pm or as soon as Google updates

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

Errors Accessing Google Drive - Error 500 and slow connections

WHAT: Google has posted a status update noting that some users are having difficulty accessing Google Drive

WHEN: 10/27/2014

Current Status: Open

Description:  

Update 11:45 pm 10/27: Google is still noticing errors and problems with Google Drive. Their next scheduled update is 1:30 PM local time.

Original Message: At approximately 8:50 am, we began to receive reports of users receiving errors when accessing Google Drive. At approximately 9:10 am, Google posted an update on their status dashboard that Drive was experiencing difficulties.

Users attempting to access some Drive documents may receive an Error 500 or just an incredibly slow connection when working in Google Drive.

We will post updates as Google Provides them.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps

Workarounds: There are no work arounds at this time

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: 1:30 pm

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement:Unknown



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***Resolved***Connectivity issues with Google Drive, Gmail 6/23/14

WHAT: The Help Desk received reports of issues with opening documents in Google Drive and accessing Gmail

WHEN: 06/23/14

Current Status: Open

Description:
 ***Resolved***:  At approximately 10:20, services appeared to return to normal operation.  We did not receive an update from Google, but typically for shorter outages, they do not update. 

At approximately 10 am, the Help Desk began receiving calls reporting that users were having difficulty accessing documents stored on Google Drive.  In addition to this, some users reported issues with logging into email.

The Help Desk has confirmed issues on some accounts/files, and we are awaiting confirmation from Google on their Status Blog.  At this time we have no work around.

The issue does not appear to affect all users.

Service(s) Impacted: Gmail, Google Apps

Workarounds: No Workarounds available at this time.

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: 11 am

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: We have not received any information on the root cause, however, Google has posted to confirm that there was an issue. 



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

RESOLVED: Difficulties Accessing Google Drive 6/4/14

WHAT: At Approximately 7:40 am, users reported difficulties accessing Google Drive.

WHEN: 6/4/14

Current Status: Closed

Description:
RESOLVED:  Google posted that the issue should be resolved.  If you continue to experience difficulties in accessing Google Docs, please contact the Help Desk at 253-535-7525.


Original Message: At approximately 7:40 am, we received reports from users regarding difficulties in accessing Google Drive.  Checking the Google Status Blog, we observed that a notice for Drive was posted at 7:32 am.  We will continue to monitor the blog for updates and will send them out as soon as we receive them.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps

Workarounds:
Some users have reported that repeated attempts allowed them to finally access Google Drive.  We have no specific work around for access, however.

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: 10 am

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement:



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

Google Drive Connectivity Issues

WHAT: Google has posted a notice that some users may be experiencing difficulties with connecting to their Google Drive.

WHEN:05/05/2014

Current Status: Closed

Description: RESOLVED:  At this time, all issues with Drive should be resolved.  Google has not posted any information as to the origin or nature of the problem.  Please contact the Help Desk if you are still having difficulties connecting to your Google Drive.  253-535-7525, helpdesk@plu.edu, or @PLUHelpDesk on Twitter.

Original Post:  At approximately 11:30 am, users reported issues with accessing Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, uploaded files, etc).  Concurrently, Google posted a notice on their Apps Status Blog stating that they were investigating an issue with connectivity for Google Drive.

We will continue to monitor the Blog for further updates.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps, Gmail

Workarounds: If you are unable to access files on Google Drive, unfortunately there are no workarounds at this time.

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update:

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: To be determined.



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***RESOLVED*** Google Docs and other Google Services currently experiencing network disruptions

WHAT: Google Docs, Google Talk (chat, hangouts), and other Google services are experiencing network disruptions.

WHEN: 3/17/2014

Current Status: Open

Description:

 RESOLVED 1:25 pm:  At Approximately 1:20 pm, Google reported that the issue should be resolved.  If you are having difficulty accessing your Google Documents or GChat, please contact the Help Desk at 253-535-7525.

Original Post:  At approximately 10:00am, we received reports of some users having difficulties accessing the following Google Services:

Google Talk (chat, hangouts)
Google Docs (all items)

Users would receive an error 502 when attempting to access their Google Documents.

Google's App Status Blog has acknowledged the issue, but no further information has been posted.  We are currently awaiting further updates.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update:  As soon as Google posts an update, we will update the blog.  Estimated time for next update is 12:00 pm



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***Resolved*** Issues with Google Services 1/24/2014

WHAT: At approximately 11 am today, a widespread issue occurred for all Google Services which is preventing standard operation.

WHEN: 1/24/2014

Current Status: Open

Description:
Resolved:  Google has changed the status from "service disruption" to "resolved", meaning the problem should be rectified.  We do not have any additional information as to the cause of the issue, but it appeared to be true across all Google Services, not just PLU email.  We thank you for your patience as the issue was resolved.

***Update***:  Google has indicated that full service has returned for many users and should return for all users relatively soon.  We are awaiting more details on the cause of the disruption.

Original Issue:  At approximately 11 am today, Google began to experience issues across all of its online apps, including, but not limited to:

Gmail
Blogger
Google Drive

Users, while able to log into their Gmail, are unable to send emails, download attachments, and receiving emails appears to be tenuous at best.

We are tracking this issue actively and awaiting more information from Google.

Due to the unreliable nature of the Google Products, we will primarily be pushing out updates over Twitter @PLUSystemStatus.

Service(s) Impacted: Gmail, Google Apps

Workarounds: No work arounds at this time.

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update:  As we receive updates from Google, we will post updates.

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: Google has made an official statement on their blog, which sheds some light on the root cause.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/todays-outage-for-several-google.html



Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.

***Resolved*** Google Drive Currently Inoperative

WHAT: Google Drive is currently malfunctioning.  This appears to affect all users.  We are beginning an investigation to determine the root cause of this issue.

WHEN: 05/10/13 

Current Status: Open

Description:  ***RESOLVED*** At approximately 12:20 pm, Drive became accessible once more.  We will keep an eye on the updates from Google to ensure there are no subsequent outages as a result of this issue, but for now we consider the problem resolved.  If you have any issues with accessing Google Drive, please contact the Help Desk at 253-535-7525.

Update 12:07 pm 5/10:  The Google Apps Status Dashboard has been updated by Google noting that there is an issue with the Drive service.  This would indicate that this is an issue at Google's level.  We will continue to post updates as they arrive.

Original Message:  At approximately 11:50 am today, the Help Desk received reports of Google Drive not working properly for PLU Gmail users.  The symptoms are as follows:

• Page loads, but user files are not shown on page

We are currently investigating to determine the root cause of the issue, and are awaiting an update from Google to see if it is a service issue.

Service(s) Impacted: Google Apps

Workarounds: No Workarounds available at this time

Estimated Time to Resolution or Next Update: 2 pm

Root Cause / Continuous Improvement: The issue appears to be a problem with Google's servers.  Google is investigating and will post updates as the issue evolves.

Check http://www.plu.edu/status/ for periodic updates.