Outages Slack Channel

• Employees should report outages for platforms and network to the outages channel. However, individual reports for personal equipment or accounts should be directed to the appropriate ticketing system.
  
  
• All Digidev units should have a process for monitoring this channel for outage reports.
  
  
• When a report is made, the team responsible for the platform or service should:
  • acknowledge the message
  • provide updates on the status of the issue.
    
    
• Unit managers should post any unplanned outages to this channel as soon as possible and provide periodic updates to users.
  
  
  

Intranet Alert

• Significant outages should also be posted on the Intranet as an alert.
  
  
• Employees will receive an email when alert is created.
  
  
• It is important to resolve the alert when the event has successfully resolved.

*** It is up to the unit manager to determine what a significant outage is but please err on the side of caution, especially during finals week, etc.

Main Website Alert

• For significant outages that impact user services, an alert needs to be put on the libraries main website.
  
  
• To add an alert, contact Web Service with the message.
  
  
• It is important to let Web Services know when to remove the message.
  
  

*** It is up to the unit manager to determine what a significant outage is but please err on the side of caution, especially during finals week, etc.

Notifying Stakeholders

• Make sure all stake holders know about any changes to the system or potential down time. Lead time on notification will depend on how major the change is.
  
  
• For major interruptions, a WEEKLY UPDATE must be submitted prior to the outage with the appropriate lead time. 
  
  
• Web services requires longer lead times so that Libguides, tutorials, and instruction materials can be updated. SHAREOK Partners must be notified in advance as well. 

*** It is up to the unit manager to determine who the internal stake holders are. Any public service must include notifications to the general public.

Notifying Infrastructure Working Group (IWG)

• The Wednesday before a maintenance window, unit managers should post information about the planned maintenance in the IWG slack channel.
  
  
• IWG committee members will review the change and determine if there are any conflicts.
  
  
• If more than one change is scheduled for the same day, teams should create a schedule so that multiple services are not interrupted at the same time.
  
  
• All significant changes, maintenance, and upgrades need IWG approval, but it is up to the unit manager to determine what changes are considered significant. 

Posting an Alert

• A few days before, an alert should be posted on the libraries website to notify the public of any potential outages.
  
  
• The day of the maintenance, teams need to post in the slack Outages channel when work has begun.
  Example: "Maintenance on X system has started."
  
  
• Teams should post messages about any unplanned delays.
  Example: "Maintenance on X system is taking longer than expected."
  
  
• Teams should post a message when work is completed. 
  Example: "Maintenance on X system has been completed."