Hours and Availability
Our objective for most enterprise services is 99.8% availability, including planned and unplanned disruptions of the service.
Users should expect occasional but infrequent service interruptions or slowdowns, both planned and unplanned. Where it is necessary to schedule system maintenance that necessitates a service outage, IT Services will do this outside of regular business hours whenever possible. Regular security patching may also occur.
Our Core Service Availability page shows the status of core services for the current day, current month, previous month, and year to date.
Backup, Recovery, Archiving, and Retention
IT Services backs up data in the event of data loss:
- We backup and restore server related files to/from the server (7 versions stored, 30 days retention for deleted files)
- We ensure a backup policy is in place to assure data that is older than 72 hours resides in a physically separate location in the event of a disaster.
- To request restoration of lost file(s), contact IT Support Centre by calling 613.533.6666 or by filling out the online help form.
Facilities Management
In the course of maintaining service facilities, ITS will:
- House and maintain the hardware
- Install, configure and maintain application and operating systems with patches
- Communicate service outages
- Implement automated mechanisms for daily backup of user data and system data that is stored on the servers
- Implement appropriate security mechanisms to reduce the impact security threats
- Communicate production changes
- For some services, provide an Administrator, responsible for maintaining the software configuration of the server.
Service Interruption and Restoration
Planned Service Interruptions
IT Services will, on occasion, need to schedule service outages in order to improve the service, install new hardware or resolve problems. In such cases, IT Services will provide a minimum of 36 hours' notice, communicated according to the Notification process.
IT Services will:
- Monitor for excessive use of resources and issue warnings to users who are close to exceeding their assigned quota.
- Monitor the availability and performance of the service
- Perform coarse level diagnosis of problem to determine cause
- Hardware failure
- Connectivity
- Reboot server to resolve failure
- Place repair calls with hardware supplier for next business day support following our standard support agreement with (CONTRACTOR) which provides business day support
IT Services will distribute notices regarding planned or unplanned interruptions of the service or significant changes to the service as follows:
- Notices will be sent by email to all IT Admin Representatives (ITAdmin Reps)
- Notices will be posted to the IT Services notification tool.
IT Services will monitor service health and respond to failures and significant performance problems with any of the systems supporting the service according to the following schedule:
|
System Interruptions Occurring |
Target Response Time |
|---|---|
|
Monday-Friday 8:00 am to 4:30 pm |
Within 20 minutes of initial pager alert |
|
Monday-Friday 4:30 pm to 1:00 am |
Within 1.5 hours of initial pager alert |
|
Saturday-Sunday & Stat holidays 10am to 8pm |
Within 1.5 hours of initial pager alert |
|
All other times |
Next coverage period |
Notification will occur using the Notification process, including posting to the IT Services Notification Tool. Repair of failed system components and restoration of service can normally be expected to be completed within one business day under the terms of negotiated service contracts for this equipment.
In the event of a system failure or other problem that results in interruption or significant degradation of the service, IT Services will use the Notification process to:
- issue a service interruption alert, and
- issue a notice when the service has been restored.