Managing Maintenances

Maintenances represent planned service interruptions or maintenance windows.

Creating a Maintenance

1. Go to Status → Maintenances
2. Click Create New
3. Fill in the maintenance details:
   • Title - Brief description (e.g., “Database Migration”)
   • Description - Detailed explanation (optional)
   • Affected Services - Select impacted services
   • Scheduled Start - When maintenance begins
   • Scheduled End - When maintenance ends (optional)
   • Duration - Human-readable duration (e.g., “~2 hours”)
4. Click Save

A notification draft is automatically created when you save.

Maintenance Statuses

Auto-Status Updates

Enable automatic status transitions:

• Auto-start on schedule - Automatically changes to “In Progress” when the scheduled start time is reached
• Auto-complete on schedule - Automatically changes to “Completed” when the scheduled end time is reached

These can be enabled/disabled per maintenance.

Adding Updates

During maintenance, add updates to keep users informed:

1. Open the maintenance
2. Scroll to Updates
3. Click Add Update
4. Fill in:
   • Status - Current status
   • Message - Progress update
   • Created At - When this update occurred
5. Click Save

A new notification draft is automatically created for each update.

Maintenance Permalinks

Each maintenance gets a unique short ID (e.g., xyz789) that creates a permanent link:

https://status.example.com/m/xyz789

Notification Content

Initial Notification (Email)

A maintenance window has been scheduled.

Scheduled Start: Sat, Jan 11 at 2:00 AM
Scheduled End: Sat, Jan 11 at 4:00 AM
Expected Duration: ~2 hours

We will notify you when the maintenance begins and completes.

View full details: https://status.example.com/m/xyz789

Initial Notification (SMS)

🔧 MAINTENANCE: Database Migration

📅 Sat, Jan 11 at 2:00 AM - Sat, Jan 11 at 4:00 AM

We will notify you when maintenance begins and completes.

Details: https://status.example.com/m/xyz789

Best Practices

Scheduling

• Schedule during low-traffic periods
• Give users at least 24-48 hours notice
• Avoid scheduling during holidays or major events

Communication

• Be clear about what will be affected
• Provide estimated duration
• Notify at key milestones (start, 50%, complete)

Timing

• Send initial notification 24-48 hours before
• Send reminder 1-2 hours before
• Send “started” notification when beginning
• Send “completed” notification when done

Example Timeline

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Database Migration                                          │
│ Scheduled: Jan 11, 2:00 AM - 4:00 AM EST                   │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 📅 Scheduled - Jan 9, 10:00 AM                              │
│    Scheduled maintenance for database migration.            │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🔧 In Progress - Jan 11, 2:00 AM                           │
│    Maintenance has begun. Services may be unavailable.      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 🔧 In Progress - Jan 11, 3:00 AM                           │
│    Migration 75% complete. On track for scheduled end.      │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ✅ Completed - Jan 11, 3:45 AM                              │
│    Maintenance completed successfully. All services         │
│    have been restored.                                      │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘