[ARCHIVE] Planned Outages clarifications

Archived 2023-06-01. Content moved to CDS Guide, Outages.

 

Question

If a Data Holder (DH) puts in an urgent change and either doesn't lodge the notification with a week's notice, or lodges no notification, that is still classified as a planned outage. The Get Outages API has no impact on whether an outage is treated as Planned. It is only ever an Unplanned outage if the DHs system is down for a reason other than a release or a fix?

Answer

The Standards state that planned outages should be published through the Get Outages endpoint with at least one week lead time to not be considered an 'unavailable' period.

If a planned outage is to resolve a critical service or security issue, it may occur without notification, to not be considered an 'unavailable' period.

The Get Outages API does have an impact on whether an outage is treated as planned, because all planned outages, other than for critical fixes, are expected to be published.

All other periods of outage should be considered as unavailability.

Planned outages should only be commensurate in length and frequency to your other primary digital channels.

Guide Entry

If a planned outage is to resolve a critical service or security issue, it may occur without notification, to not be considered an 'unavailable' period.

The Get Outages API does have an impact on whether an outage is treated as planned, because all planned outages, other than for critical fixes, are expected to be published.

All other periods of outage should be considered as unavailability.

Planned outages should only be commensurate in length and frequency to your other primary digital channels.