Responding to the First Wave of COVID-19 and Preparing for theSecond Wave
1

Introduction

Japan has made it through the first wave of COVID-19 (official name), commonly known as the novel coronavirus, if we look at the
number of infected people alone. However, “the pandemic is still accelerating” globally today (words of WHO chief Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus, June 19, 2020). In the US, which has the largest number of confirmed cases, already surpassing
approximately 45,000 cases a day, the case numbers are increasing with the reopening of economy. It has also been predicted that thesecond wave will be larger than the first in Japan as well, and we are expecting more than ever that the uncertain times will continue
for a long period.
In this article, also summarizing how we are preparing for the second wave that we are expecting, we will summarize our current
situation by looking back on how the IIMC, who organize the information environment of Kyoto University, handled this situation
by focusing on online classes.

2

How we responded to the first wave

The way we responded to the first wave of COVID-19 can be largely divided into the initial response period (early March to April 6),
the preparation period (April 7 to May 1), and the full-scale response period (May 2 onward).

2.1

Initial response period (early March to April 6)

First, during the initial response period, with PandA being a core system of our online classes, we took measures against PandA
overload (enhancing computational resources such as virtual machines). The goal was to prevent PandA from collapsing due to therapid increase in PandA users. We held seven online training sessions to aid users (the PandA 101 site created for the seminar had
approximately 1,900 participants). We also started preparing for online classes, assuming that Zoom will be used as it is a remote
conference system that can also be used for large lectures. Helping us to obtain a license (20 host licenses) for educational
institutions and respond quickly to the expansion of free licenses and the acquisition and transfer of volume license for the entire
university through our negotiations with Zoom Video Communications, Inc., we have been working on requesting a rough estimate
for AY2021, as we have been considering Zoom as the core of our next high-resolution distance learning system since last fall.
During this period, we held a total of five training sessions (approximately 3,140 people participated). Through the IMS LTI(Learning Tool Interoperability) standards, we are also able to provide attendees with easy access to the lectures from the PandA
course site created for each course, without notifying meeting ID and passwords to them.
We also have been cooperating with Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education since March 23. From early on,
we started the project with strong cooperation in the provision of various support for online classes, such as launching the website“Teaching Online@Kyoto U” (see the Fig. 1) and co-hosting a lecture, creating a system in which the center provides support fromthe view point of didactics and the institution provided support from the view point of information technology.

Figure 1: Teaching Online@Kyoto U (https:www.highedu.kyoto-u.ac.jp/connect/teachingonline/)

02

2.2

Preparation period (April 7 to May 1)

While it was announced that classes for the common courses are cancelled until May 6, some departments and graduate schools held
lectures for specialized subjects mostly as scheduled. The first PandA collapse crisis occurred on April 8. IIMC introduced Slackthree years ago as a tool to communicate in real time. We also have a dedicated channel on Slack for sharing information on COVID19 response. When we look back at the messages on Slack, the measures against overload were taken as planned on April 8.
However, the number of concurrent users exceeded an all-time high of 4,200 users and the CPU occupancy of backend databaseremained at 100% for a few minutes, which is a situation we feared the most. We used Slack to share updates on these situations as
they changed moment by moment.
However, the spread of COVID-19 gradually worsened, and the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency across Japan on
April 16. On fear that PandA may crash due to the online classes starting the following week, we immediately co-planned an online
demo class targeted toward new undergraduate students with the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences. This was held in the 5th
period on April 21. With students having no issues carrying out tasks which increase the load on the system, such as downloading
and viewing class materials, answering surveys, taking online tests and submitting assignments, as instructed by professors,
approximately 2,100 new students participated and the number of concurrent users, including current students, climbed to a record
high of approximately 8,300 students. As a result, we have the prospect of being able to handle approximately 11,000 people
consisting of 10,500 students plus 300 instructors on the second period of Tuesday when the maximum number of users will be
expected (based on the last year’s results).
With the spread of Zoom use, the amount of recorded data of Zoom transferred from PandA to Kaltura, a cloud-based video
platform that can be used along with LTI, as well as the number of times the videos are rewatched have started to increase.

2.3

Full response period (May 2 onward)

We conducted an urgent maintenance of the backend Oracle database server (enhancement from 8 cores to 12 cores) on May 2 inorder to respond to the increasing number of users. Afterward, and with the CPU occupancy rate exceeding 100% for approximately
55 minutes due to the database server processing reaching its limit, thinking we would be able to handle the situation with no issues,
but unfortunately, the number of users exceeded 14,000 people when the third period started, we recorded the highest number ofusers yet at 13,200 people during the first and second period on May 7 after the holiday, despite experiencing unexplained
occurrence of delay in backup processing, tuning processing, and data deletion processing.
As an urgent response, although we found out that the issues we had after the holiday were a matter of READ performance of
Fujitsu’s file server, we enlarged the database server capacity to 1.5 times its original size. As a result, we have not had anotheroverload that could cause PandA to collapse to this date. We have been operating under a temporary measure in the two months since.

3

Current situation

The usage of PandA, Zoom, and Kaltura, which are the three main services of online classes provided by IIMC, have drasticallychanged in about three months. Figure 2 summarizes the relationship with KULASIS, which is used as a system for educational
administration (e.g., registering to courses, checking grades).
Syllabus, course registration,
grade reports, communication via email

KULASIS

Open course sites
Automatically links withcourse enrollment
Distribution of course material,
submission of assignments,
connection with Zoom and Kaltura

PandA

Connects automatically by Learning Tool
Interoperability (LTI) for every class
On-premises operation

Zoom

Simultaneous interactive
video lessons and recordings

KalturaStreaming of video materials

Contract with cloud service

Figure 2: Response to implementation of online classes

03

First, 5,903 courses opened a course site on PandA in the first half of the school year alone. This is much more than the 1,740 coursesof last year (see Fig. 3). If you look at each department that has opened course sites, while you can see that usage for specialized
courses has grown in the past year, the sites created by the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences, which provides common courses,
accounted for approximately half of the course sites until last year.
Lists of courses using PandA course in the AY2020
7/1/2020
Number of sites opened
Number of
Total number of Number of sites
participating
courses
openeddepartments
22
10,31986
26
12,814482
28
13,409663
2915,106824
30
14,7751,015
30
14,7101,570
30
14,8171,740

AY2013
AY2014
AY2015
AY2016
AY2017
AY2018AY2019AY2020First
semester
Secondsemester

32

14,850

Number of course sites opened by departments
Department name

Number of courses Sites opening rate

Sites opening rate
Full year

First
semester

Secondsemester

Total number of courses (estimate)
OthersFull year

First
semester

SecondsemesterOthersInstitute for Liberal Arts and Sciences
Languages
Natural Sciences
Seminars in Liberal Arts and Sciences
Informatics
Humanities and Social Sciences
Interdisciplinary Sciences
Health and Sports
Career Development
Common Graduate Course
Interdisciplinary Graduate Course

5,903

Faculty of Letters
Faculty of Education
Faculty of Law

Number of participating departments: departments providing information about courses in PandA;
cumulative value within the same year

Number of registered users
KULASIS
PandA opening
registration
17,586
19,6582,819
3,346

Faculty of Economics
Undergraduate

Student
Instructor

Number of sites
openedUsage rate

Faculty of Science
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine (Human Health Science)
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

89%
84%

Faculty of Engineering
Faculty of Agriculture

PandA opening: total number of people registered to course sites opened on PandA
KULASIS registration: total number of people who are registered to course information on
KULASAS as instructor or student

Faculty of Integrated Human Studies
Graduate School of Letters
Graduate School of Education
Graduate School of Law
Graduate School of Economics
Graduate School of Science
Graduate School of Medicine

Faculty of
Economics
Faculty of 3%
Education
3%
Graduate School of Humanand Environmental Studies
3%
Graduate School ofEngineering
3%
Graduate School of
Agriculture
Faculty of4%
Science4%
Faculty ofAgriculture
4%
Faculty of Integrated
Human Studies
4%

Graduate School of Medicine(Graduate course, Human Health Science)
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Graduate schools, etc.

Others23%

Institute for Liberal
Arts and Sciences
26%

Graduate School of Engineering
Graduate School of Agriculture
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies
Graduate School of Energy Science
Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies(ASAFAS)
Graduate School of Informatics

Faculty of
Letters
8%

Graduate School of Biostudies
Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies(GSGES)
School of Government
Graduate School of Management (GSM-KU)

Faculty ofEngineering
6%

Graduate School of
Science4%

Graduate School of Law
Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies
in Human Survivability (Shishu-kan)

Graduate School ofLetters
5%*The Faculty of Medicine created sites for necessary courses at the beginning of the year.

Figure 3: Status of PandA course sites (as of July 1, 2020)

Approximately 1,500 Zoom meetings are held per day and the number of users have grown to approximately 30,000 users per day(see Fig. 4). Many are class attendees that access Zoom via PandA, but a number of small-scale meetings have also been hosted.
Number of Zoom meetings

Number of meetings

Number of meetings(PandA)

Number of meetings(Zoom)

Number of Zoom meeting participants

Number of participants

Total number ofparticipants(PandA)

Total number ofparticipants(Zoom)

Figure 4: Zoom usage status (4/1–5/19)

04

Blue: via PandA

Furthermore, approximately 5,444 hours of video and audio have been recorded and viewed on Kaltura through its use since April(see Fig. 5). The storage capacity is 4.5 TB. If we combine the network bandwidth usage associated with viewing, it will amount to36.4 TB.

Figure 5: Kaltura usage (April 1–June 30)

Through conducting all classes online in this way, Kyoto University’s educational and learning activities are being accumulated in
PandA, Zoom, and Kaltura.
Additionally, preparation for online exams has begun as the first half of the school year nears its end. On June 30, we jointly
hosted the “Seminar for Your First Online Exam with PandA” with Center for the Promotion of Excellence in Higher Education, andapproximately 280 people participated.

4Preparations for the second wave

Based on what we discussed above, we recognized the challenges in preparing for the second wave expected in the future.
First, we came up with several ideas to avoid a situation that would lead to “PandA collapse,” our biggest concern, with regard to
PandA which operates on-premises using processor resources of the general-purpose computer system. However, we still have theissue caused by Fujitsu’s file server. Further operation stability measures will be required. Additionally, measures for greater ease ofuse, such as improving PandA’s function and user interface as well as resolving chaos caused by function that overlap with
KULASIS, need to be enhanced as well.
Also, regarding Kaltura, which we have a cloud service contract with, we have applied for budgetary approval to gain unlimited
storage capacity and unlimited network download bandwidth, where we may exceed the annual contract capacity within the year if
current use trends continue.
Zoom is also a cloud service, but the security issues that were largely highlighted earlier in its implementation are heading toward
resolution. At least for this year, we will maintain our status quo with Zoom.
In any case, the three core services in conducting all classes online during the second wave will be PandA, Zoom, and Kaltura.
Therefore, IIMC will make efforts toward a more secure operation and improved use. We would appreciate your candid opinions.
(Shoji Kajita, Professor of the IT Planning Office, IIMC)

05

Let’s use Google Meet and Google Chat!
This year, there have been more opportunities to go about the daily business from home due to the coronavirus. We imagine thatmany of you are utilizing video conference call such as Zoom and Skype to communicate with others remotely.
As an alternative tool that can be used when these services become unavailable due connectivity issues, etc., we introduced Google
Meet into Kyoto University’s faculty & staff groupware (G Suite) in April 2020. You can also use Google Chat for group chat.
However, depending on how you use these apps, there are risks of accidents such as information leaks. Therefore, we will
introduce matters to note in order to use them safely.
*This article is based on information available as of July 1, 2020.
For the latest information, please refer to faculty & staff groupware manual or Google help.
1.

Google Meet

Google Meet is an app in

The meeting name should be blank.

which you can have a videoconference with one or more
people. By not using ameeting name, you can havea video conference only withusers that know the meeting
URL. Any users with a
Kyoto University domain(@kyoto-u.ac.jp) who knows

the URL can join. There is no function for limiting participation to specific users, so please be extra careful when sending the URL.
Add by selecting users.
The camera image of otherusers will be displayed.

ON/OFF setting
Microphone Camera

For more information on how to use Google Meet, please refer to below.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Access Google Meet (https://meet.google.com/).
Click “Join or Start a meeting.”
Leave the meeting name blank and click “Continue”.
Adjust the camera and microphone settings (on/off) and click “Join now.”
Invite members by adding users or sharing the URL.
Reference: Google Meet Help
https://support.google.com/meet/

06

Share via URL.

Things to be aware of-

About requests to join a meeting
When users outside of Kyoto University’s domain (individual’s Gmail

When users without Kyoto University
domain requests to joinaccount [@gmail.com], other G Suite accounts such as users unique todepartments, or users without accounts) accesses a meeting, a request
will appear. Please be careful of imposters. Approve the request after
confirming that it was made by the meeting participant.

-

About using a meeting name
When you use a meeting name, a user who does not know the URL can join the meeting by entering the meeting name. In order toprevent unauthorized users from joining, please do not use a meeting name.

-

Confirming participants of a meeting
Users who do not have a Kyoto University domain cannot join

Confirming participants

unless approved, but any user with the domain can join without
approval as long as they know the meeting URL. When you arehandling highly confidential information, please make sure thatunauthorized users are not participating.

-

About Google accounts of participants
If an approval is required even if you are a Kyoto University domain user, there is high possibility that you are logged in to
Google with an account other than the domain in the browser you are using (individual Gmail accounts [@gmail.com] or other G
Suite accounts such as users unique to the departments). Access the meeting URL while you are logged in with Kyoto University
domain (@kyoto-u.ac.jp).
Reference: Kyoto University's IIMC Magazine “Info!” No.17[Tips] Switching between university and personal Google accounts

07

2. Google Chat
Being a useful tool for simple communication that doesn’t merit email or video conference, Google Chat is an app in which you canchat with one or more people. It’s even more convenient when you also use the app available on iOS or Android.
When you receive a message from other users, a notification will appear on the left-hand side of the Gmail page. If you click it,
you can start a chat. You can also notify the sender that you saw the message by sending reactions.

Notify the sender that you reada message via reactions.

Search a user

Start a chat.
Start a chat.

Check the message.

For more information on how to use Google Chat, please refer to below.
1.

Access Google Chat (https://chat.google.com/).

2.

Search users and chat rooms from the search window on the top left of the screen.

3.

Send a message on the chat screen on the right.

4.

You can send reactions by putting the cursor over the message.
Reference: Google Chat Help
https://support.google.com/chat/Things to be aware of:Sometimes it is hard to notice you received a message on Google Chat, so please change the notification setting to the following.
-

Set notifications to ON (PC and smartphone).
Leave the chat screen open on the browser (notification will be displayed on the browser tab when you receive a message).

Reference: Google Chat Help—Turn Chat notifications on or off
https://support.google.com/chat/answer/7655718
3. Google Hangout
In Kyoto University’s G Suite service, you can use Google Hangouts, but this app is scheduled
to end in late 2020. The function will be integrated into Google Meet and Google Chat.
Although you must please avoid using it as much as possible, currently, the Google Hangout
icon is displayed in the Kyoto University G Suite app menu.

4. Manual
For manuals on the faculty & staff groupware, please see below.
-

Faculty&staff groupware manual
Faculty&staff groupware > Links > Manuals, FAQs, Contact > faculty&staff groupware
manual(Yuki Narita, Business System Management Team, Information Infrastructure Division,
IT Planning Office/Planning and Information Management Department, IIMC)

08

Service introduction

Commencement of the provision of WEB Hosting service (type S)
We started providing the WEB Hosting service (type S) using a private cloud service (Sakura’s rental server) in April 2020.
The WEB Hosting service will enable you to set up a website without the need to build or operate a server, which can betroublesome.
We have been offering an on-premises environment WEB Hosting service (type K) using Kyoto University’s server. However,by using a cloud service, you will be able to run a more stable website. Capacity of publishing space has expanded vastly, andoperation of multiple domains with one contract is now possible.
Type S has the following three plans (standard, business and managed). Please feel free to use the service.

Subscription fee
The service we are providing and the subscription fees are as follows:
Classification

Subscription fee

Description
Capacity of publishing space100 GB

WEB Hosting service(type S; standard)

Number of multi-domains100
9,000 yen per year

Estimated maximum transfer rate80 GB per day (*)
Number of DB: 20, capacity: 1.5 GB
Shared server
Capacity of publishing space300 GB
Number of multi-domains200

WEB Hosting service(type S; business)

36,000 yen per year

Estimated maximum transfer rate160 GB per day (*)
Number of DB: 100, capacity: 6 GB
Shared server
Can have multiple administrators
Capacity of publishing space700 GB
Unlimited multi-domains

WEB Hosting service(type S; managed)

180,000 yen per year

Estimated maximum transfer rate200 GB per day (*)
Number of DB: unlimited
Dedicated server
Can have multiple administrators*While when the demand for data transfer increases rapidly and pressures shared lines, a similar error response code may be returned, when theamount of access greatly exceeds the maximum bandwidth, the page or resource will be unavailable due to errors such as “503 Service Temporarily
Unavailable.”

12

Merits for using WEB Hosting service of IIMC
Although it is possible to contract directly with private businesses such as Sakura Internet Inc., using services that the IIMC provides
offer the following advantages:
Immediately available with no additional paperwork required to contract with a private business (an account will be issued inapproximately three days after the service application );Consultation with and support from the IIMC regarding use;
Vulnerability diagnosis carried out by IIMC (preparation in progress).
We are considering providing backups for BCP and virus scans in the future.

Cautions when using type S:
When you begin using type S, you will need a DNS registration. However, with type S, you cannot register a host name to KUINSDB because Sakura Internet Inc.’s IP address will be used.
To register to the DNS, you will need to submit a request to the department’s domain administrator.

Request for transfer to type S for pre-2019 web hosting service users
The previous on-premises WEB Hosting service (name: type K) will end its services and shut down its server in August 2021. We
ask type K users to transfer to type S (acceptance of new requests ended at the end of March 2020). Transfer notifications will be sent
to users in June 2020. Please check the notification and take the necessary steps.

Using Google Sites
Google Sites has been available for tenants of G Suite, which Kyoto University is subscribed to, since June 2020. Please check thefollowing precautions and consider using the service if suits your needs, with Google Sites being free to use and can be used
immediately with safety.
We recommend Google Sites for temporary websites and the WEB Hosting service for permanent websites.

Cautions when using Google Sites:
The URL that can be specified will be https://sites.google.com/kyoto-u.ac.jp/your-texts-here; You cannot specify yourown domain such as the domain of a department;
The site data will be deleted when the site owner (creator) resigns; If you want to continue using the site, you will need tochange the site owner before they resign.
Reference:-

WEB Hosting service (type S)-

Application Process: https://u.kyoto-u.jp/whsreq-

A manual for new users: https://u.kyoto-u.jp/whsriyou-

FAQs: https://u.kyoto-u.jp/whsfaq-

Basic specifications of Sakura’s rental server: https://help.sakura.ad.jp/206053142/-

Manual for Google Sites: Google サイトマニュアル:

教職員ポータル⇒マニュアル・FAQ⇒教職員グループウェアマ

ニュアル⇒操作マニュアル｢マニュアル_25_Google ドライブ等の GSuite コアサービス｣(Hirofumi Sawada, Head of Cloud Computing Group, Information Infrastructure Division,
IT Planning Office/Planning and Information Management Department, IIMC)

13

Editorial

A Serious Threat! Information Leakage from Loss and Theft
In Japan, a state of emergency was declared in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Remote
work was encouraged at Kyoto University as well due to this situation. With the most important of these being the measuresagainst information leakage, the University has announced some important items to note regarding information security
measures, along with notifications from the human resources department. I am addressing this matter once again as the topic
of this article.
According to the preliminary results of a survey on of information security incidents (2018) conducted by NPO Japan
Network Security Association, the two most common causes of information leakage is loss/misplacement (26.2%) andmisuse (24.6%). Incidents caused by human error make up more than half of the cases. Five cases of information leakage
caused by data loss have occurred at Kyoto University since the end of last year.
The concerning thing about human error is that we often consider it to be a problem of the individual who made the mistake,and those of us who are not involved neglect to take measures, thinking “I will be okay because I am always careful.”
Everyone makes mistakes, so we need to take measures with the understanding that we, too, may make a mistake.
So, let’s think about countermeasures against information leakage together.
Step 1. Do not carry data around.
If you do not carry data around, there is no risk of information leaking from a loss, for example. Store necessary data on an
online server and be mindful not to save data on the PC that you carry around. If you have to work at a place with badinternet connection, make it your habit to delete information as soon as it becomes unnecessary, keeping information savedon your PC to a bare minimum.
Step 2. Lock with a password.
Lock the PCs that you carry around with a password, and make sure that people who do not know the password cannot
operate it. Making sure it requires a password when resuming from the said mode, adjust the settings of your PC so that it
will switch to sleep or screen saver mode when you do not use it for a certain amount of time.
Step 3. Encrypt.
Encrypting each file is effective, but consider encrypting the whole disk as a measure against loss and theft of PCs, USB flash
drives, and external HDD. BitLocker is installed on Windows 8.1, 10 (Pro/Enterprise) and FileVault on MacOS as standard
features, which are disk encryption software. Please utilize them.
The truly concerning thing about information leakage is human error. Overconfidence is our greatest enemy. Please takenecessary precautions daily in case of emergency.
[Limited on-Campus] How to Prevent Information Leakage (Measures Against Loss and Theft, and How to Dispose ofInformation)
http://www.iimc.kyotou.ac.jp/ja/services/ismo/reference/prevent_information_leakage.html
Security Measures for Online Lectures and Meetings as Well as Working from Home
http://μwww.iimc.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/services/ismo/reference/remotework.html(Yosuke Toda, Head of Information Security Management Office, Information Infrastructure Division,
IT Planning Office/Planning and Information Management Department, IIMC)

Edited and published by IIMC, Kyoto University
Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501
Websitehttp://www.iimc.kyoto-u.ac.jp/ja/

IIMC, Kyoto University
Institute for Information Management and Communication, Kyoto
University

If you have any questions, opinions, or comments about the articles, please contact us via the following
email.
[General information counter]
ICT Support Center
E-mail: support@iimc.kyoto-u.ac.jp