Expected time off and downtime

There are some cases when we intentionally reduce our operations and support capacity. See Expected end-of-year time off for our broader policies and support commitments during this time.

Expected time off support policy¶

Below is our policy for support during expected time off:

• We monitor our support e-mail for major incidents, but do not guarantee a response for non-essential requests or questions.

• We will take steps to minimize harm and avoid catastrophic problems (e.g. incidents that drastically increase costs), but will not perform non-essential actions. We will assume there is no essential work happening on any of our hubs for all communities.

• If there is a catastrophic incident, we will take the minimal number of actions to reduce risk and damage to a reasonable level.

• For non-catastrophic incidents and general change requests, we will wait until after this period to resolve them.

Support process during expected time off¶

Here are the steps we take to set expectations for our team and for other organizations during expected time off:

• One month before the start of time off. Add footer content to our support@2i2c.org and hello@2i2c.org responses that communicates our intent.

  Example text:

  Note: the 2i2c team will have expected reduced capacity from STARTDATE to ENDDATE. During this time, we will provide operational support for significant cloud incidents and outages, but not for non-essential questions or change requests. We will be less responsive than normal, and will return to answer your questions and resolve issues after the time off.

• During the time off. Add an auto-responder to our FreshDesk accounts with a message like the following:

  Note: the 2i2c team is operating at an expected reduced capacity until ENDDATE. We will provide operational support for significant cloud incidents and outages, but not for non-essential questions or change requests. We will be less responsive than normal, and will return to answer your questions and resolve issues after the time off.

Rotating team members during expected time off¶

Because team members continue to serve as support triagers during this time, we should take care to avoid the same person serving in this role across multiple periods of expected time off.