CrashPlan, a data backup service used by several hundred people on campus, requires a software version upgrade that Information and Educational Technology will install on March 29.

IET manages the service for UC Davis, though use of the software is voluntary. CrashPlan is installed on nearly 400 desktop computers used by faculty and staff. The March 29 upgrade will move customers from Version 3 of the software, which manufacturer Code42 will soon no longer support, to Version 4.

Installing CrashPlan upgrades would normally be the responsibility of departmental IT staff, but IET has been asked to install these upgrades centrally to ensure consistency across the client installation base and to reduce the departmental IT administrative workload. Future upgrades will occur the same way.

"This is a departure from past practices with CrashPlan, but we've heard positive feedback from IT professionals on campus about doing the remote upgrades," said Dave Zavatson, Data Center Services manager in IET.

People who use CrashPlan on campus don't need to do anything to assist the upgrade. The computer protected by CrashPlan must be connected to the network for the upgrade to be installed, but if the machine is offline, the updated version will be installed the next time the device connects to the network.

The upgrade takes place in the background on the user's desktop. Most users shouldn't notice any difference.

The upgrade will apply to machines that obtained CrashPlan through the UC Davis licensing agreement. Campus affiliates who purchased CrashPlan licenses directly from Code42 need to make their own arrangements to obtain the upgrade.

IET is notifying CrashPlan administrators and clients about this upgrade, and will do the same for future automatic upgrades. For more information, see the CrashPlan entries in the IT Service Catalog and IT Knowledge Base.