Policy Reference

Category Web Site Administration
Approval Date  
Approved By  
Scope ITS  Staff and Customer Points of Contact for external websites
Confidential No

Procedure Summary

this procedure defines what tools and paramaters are to be used to monitor external websites.   External websites provide services to either city staff, the community or both.   In most cases, the information provided is being done via an external website in an effort to allow access to a greater number of people and for acces to be offered beyond normal business hours.   The type of information being provided indicates the level of service and priority of the site; with some sites requiring access be avaialble 24x7 while others may only require access during normal business hours.

Policy Reference

Scope

  • A. Coverage
  • ITS  Staff who are designated as the Primary or Backup Support contact for an external website,   ITS  On-Call Staff, ITS  Help Desk Staff and ITS  Management.  
  • B. Assignment

R=Responsible, A=Accountable

C=Consulted, I=Informed

ITS

Help

Desk

 ITS

On Call

Apps

Admin

ITS

Ops

Mgr

Web Admin

 

 CTO User User
Mgr		 GIS Mgr
Approve new external site          R  A     C
Define Service Level        C  R  A  I   C
Implement Monitoring/Test I  I    I  C  R  I   A
Dispatch staff when alert occurs  I  I    A    R  I   A
Own Issue when alert occurs on particular site      R  A  R  I  I   A
  • C. Required Knowledge and Tools
  • What information does the person(s) carrying out this procedure need to know?   Ensure specific training needs are listed.
Knowledge, Tools or Training Required

ITS

Help

Desk

 ITS

Sys

Admin

 Apps

Admin

ITS

Ops

Mgr

 GIS  
Mgr		 Web Admin

 

 CTO User

User

Mgr/ Director
Setup of "monitis" for monitor and alerting         X  X  X    
Knowledge of specific sites and how to contact vendors, customers, troubleshoot, etc.      X      X      
                   
                   
                   

Triggers

  • New sites should be setup when they are approved per the city Web Site Administration policy.   Any external site placed into production which is serving city employees or external customers must be monitored to track uptime, response time and provide reporting on these values.
  •  
  • When a new site is ready to 'go live', the primary responsible party for the site should notify the Web Admin, GIS  Manager and CTO during the go live review to request the site be added to "monitis"
  •  
  • Service Levels, which define the site availability, expected ITS  response in a down event must be identified prior to go live.   This shoudl also clearly identify who the ITS and customer contact points are for the site.
  •  
  • The support proces is triggered when an alert occcurs for a production site which is being monitored.   ITS  staff are responsible for responding in various capacities depending upon the role they play as defined herein and as clarified by their manager.  

Procedure

  1. Sites to be monitored will be added to the City Monitis Account.   The primary ID of the monitis service is under the GIS  managers email address.  
  2. The SLA which has been agreed to will serve as the guide to define the frequency and alert paramaters for the new site.
    1.  LEVEL  1 -   Sites which have a 24x7 SLA will be monitored 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.   In the event that the site does not respond, an alert will be sent per the Alert Matrix table (attached) after no less than 5 minutes and no later than 10 minutes of total downtime.  
    2. LEVEL 2 - 16x7 (6AM-10PM 7 Days Per week) SLA will be monitored continuously, but will only alert staff between 6 AM and 10 PM.   These sites will provide an alert after no less than 10 minutes and no later than 20 minutes of total downtime.
    3. LEVEL  3 -   9x5 (8-5, Monday throug Friday) SLA will be monitored continuously, but will only alert staff between 6 AM and 10 PM.   These sites will provide an alert after no less than 10 minutes and no later than 20 minutes of total downtime.
  3. Each site will have a designated Primary and Backup support person.
  4. Points of Contact and Service Levels will be documented in the Alert Matrix table attached to this procedure.   This should serve as the official reference to this information.  
  5. When an alert is triggered, a notice will be sent to the Primary Site Support, Backup Site Support, ITS  On Call Support and any appropriate ITS  managers.
  6. An alert will also be sent to the ITS  Help Desk via email for call recording and customer services purposes.
  7. The Primary Site Support person is ultimatly responsible for owning the problem through resolution.   If they recieve an alert they should make a reasonable effort to take ownership of the issue and communicate any related results/status.
    1. The Primary Site Support person must contact the ITS  Help Desk and the ITS  On Call Staff (After business hours only) to acknowledge that they have taken ownership of the call OR  to inform them that they are not able to take ownership at that time.
  8. In the event the Primary Site Support person cannot or does not take ownership of an issue;   The ITS  Help Desk (During business hours) and ITS  On Call Staff (outside of business hours) will provide dispatch services to make an attempt to transfer owneship to the Backup Site Support person or to escalate the issue to ITS  management.  
    1. ITS  Help Desk and ITS On Call staff will be alerted when an event occurs.
    2. ITS Help Desk and ITS  On Call staff will await a notice from a Primary Support Person for the impacted site.   The notice should be recieved within 30 minutes for a level 1 SLA and within 1 hours for all other SLA.s
    3. In the event that no contact is made, the ITS  Help Desk or the ITS  On call Staff (after hours only) will then attempt to escalate the issue as follows:
      1. Attempt to contact the Primary Site Support person
      2. Attempt to contact the Backup Site Support person
      3. Attempt to contact the appropriate ITS  Manager
      4. Attempt to contact the CTO
  9. In additoin to alerting the appropriate ITS  Staff, the 'monitis' system will also be configured to provide updates to the user department point of contact when appropriate.  
  10. ITS  Help Desk and ITS  On Call staff will be responsible for responding to status requests from customer points of contact when needed.  


Additional Information/Notes

  • none

 

Compliance

Not applicable