Apple released an update to Java on Monday June 15. This update patched a number of security holes, and tightened restrictions on launching java web applications. This has a direct affect on Elluminate. If a person applies the Java Update 4, they will not be able to launch Elluminate. Rather, the .jnlp file that was previously opened by Java Web Start.app will instead be opened by a random program, often TextEdit.app.
This Update is an important security update and will appear in OS X users Software Update within 7 days of release. By Monday the 22 this update should be applied to the vast majority of 10.4 and 10.5 OS X users.
Java Update 4 moved the Java Web Start.app to a new location. It used to be located in /Applications/Utilities/Java/Java Web Start.app .
After applying Update 4, it is now located in /System/Library/CoreServices/Java Web Start.app
Double clicking on the downloaded getAdapterJNLP.jnlp file will cause it to open in the default application. The trick is to reassociate the .jnlp with Java Web Start.app. On the getAdapterJNLP.jnlp file you’re trying to use Java Web Start on, change the “Open with:” to /System/CoreServices/Java Web Start. That’s what appears to be opening the .jnlp files I download on my Mac. I’m assuming your .jnlp files are being opened by TextEdit, or some other app…
This short video shows the steps to associate the downloaded .jnlp file with Java Web Start
http://screencast.com/t/lSelPOHZz6
Update: The hardware failure has been resolved, and the data has mostly been restored. We will be switching back to the production cluster tonight at midnight. To facilitate the switch back, Blackboard will be unavailable for approximately 30 minutes beginning Thursday June 11, 12:01am .
The data restoration from older courses prior to 2009 will continue for the next 24 hours.
Update: Tuesday June 9, the server was overloaded while trying to recover data from the disaster location to the production location. A restart of Blackboard was necessary. Blackboard was unavailable for approximately 15 minutes around 3:30pm June 9.
Update: We’ve been running out of our disaster location since June 3 while the hardware is restored and the data recovered. So far no major hiccups, all the data is available as expected.
On June 3, between 5-7pm MyUSF experienced a hardware failure which effected the performance and availability for some users until around 11pm. The hardware problem has also caused course content from Spring 2009 and Content Collection items to become unavailable. Current Summer 2009 content should not have been affected.
The nature of the failure forced us to switch to our disaster backup system. Content uploaded to the Content Collection between 5-7pm on June 3 of the failure may have been lost and will need to be uploaded again. Contents, Asisgnments, Exams, anything uploaded directly to Summer 2009 courses should not have been affected.
When the hardware issue is resolve we will make plans to switch back to the main server cluster.
Please follow this article for updates to this evolving situation.