IT Policies
Notification of Potential Service Interruptions
ITC's “Downtime” Policy
ITC has in effect a policy governing the way we let you know about activities that have known potential to interrupt access to networks or systems. These would be things like upgrades to the ITC Central Exchange Server or UVaCollab that require us to block user logins, server maintenance to the UVa Hive that causes certain software to be unavailable, or planned activity by Facilities Management that affects electrical service to buildings where we have equipment. Some things, like thunderstorms or construction crews cutting powerlines, are beyond our control and definitely not planned. We will also be letting you know about these when they've interrupted our service and problems may be continuing.
The primary mechanism for notification about service interruptions will be a posting (notice) to the "ITC News Service" section of ITCWeb, ITC's comprehensive computing and communications website.
Additional mechanisms for distributing news about service interruptions include:
- Email to the mailing list uva-downtime@virginia.edu (which includes the mailing list for LSPs at UVa); subscribe at https://lists.virginia.edu/sympa/info/uva-downtime to get downtime emails sent to your personal mailbox.
- Email to uva-mess@virginia.edu when Apple/Macintosh systems are especially impacted; subscribe at https://lists.virginia.edu/sympa/info/uva-mess.
- The ITC RSS feed (learn more at http://itc.virginia.edu/feeds/).
- A global notice posting on every page of ITCWeb (located under a page's masthead) if a critical system is impacted.
- A posting in System Status; you can also subscribe to the System Status mailing list at https://lists.virginia.edu/sympa/info/system-status.
If you need additional information about accessing any of these mechanisms, please contact the UVa Help Desk at 924-HELP (434-924-4357).
These notices will be labeled on the first line as “ITC Planned Downtime,” “ITC Unplanned Downtime,” “ITC Emergency Downtime” or “ITC Service Notice.” The last category is for activities that we do not anticipate will impact users of our machines or facilities, but which, nevertheless have that potential.
In the case of planned downtimes or work notices, we will be giving at least 48 hours' advance notice. As soon as possible after an unplanned outage, ITC staff will post information which includes a brief description of the extent, duration, and cause of these interruptions and also indicates any ongoing problems that may have resulted. ITC staff will notify the UVa Help Desk of all downtimes and will provide the Help Desk with information about possible problems caused by these situations along with suggested solutions. Unless otherwise specified, you should call the UVa Help Desk at 924-HELP (434-924-4357) with any questions that you might have.
In addition to postings on ITCWeb and the above listed mechanisms, ITC staff in various areas will develop additional, targeted notification procedures. Wherever practical we will make those of you on an affected system or network aware of the existence of these lists so that you can identify yourselves or colleagues who should be included as well.
