When you experience unexpected downtime or disruption to a service, you will communicate this to your customers on your StatusHub using incidents. These incidents should describe the following:

• What the identified issue is
• What you are doing about it
• When you expect the problem to be resolved
• Which department is posting the incident.

As you are working towards a resolution, it is best practice to update the incident so that your customers and end users are aware that you have identified the issue and are working towards a resolution or whether you need to monitor the issue further.

An incident can have one of four statuses depending on the current state of the problem. Incidents may also be set for single or multiple services. It is possible to choose one or more service groups, services across more than one group, or individual services when creating and/or updating an incident. Available options are discussed below.

To create a new incident within Status Page, click on the Add Incident button on the Control Panel

To edit an existing incident, click on the dots to the right of the incident and choose Update Incident.

The Create Incident or Update Incident form will appear on the screen and can be used to set up an incident for one or multiple services as well as groups of services.

Note: The entry and selection options are the same whether adding an incident or updating one within the Status Page.

Incident Configuration Options

Title - The title of the incident should be a name that is representative of the issue as-a-whole. Examples of titles include: "DB Connectivity Issues", "API Requests Timing Out", and "DNS Issues".

Start Time - This should ideally be the time that the incident started. The information ensures customers are aware of the length of time that service has been affected. If this is not possible, then setting this to the time you are posting the update is the next best option. Note: this may be updated in the future if you need to adjust for ensuring correct data in relation to SLAs.

Message - When creating or updating an incident, you are also able to provide a brief message explaining the current situation. Note: This field has a rich text editor.

Incident Type - Incidents are able to have one of four distinct statuses. When creating or updating an incident, you will specify which of the states the incident is currently in:

• Investigating - This status is best when you are seeing the symptoms of an issue, but are unaware of the cause.
• Identified - This option is best when you have found the cause of the incident and are working on a fix for the problem
• Monitoring - This option is best when you believe you have successfully fixed the issue and are waiting for the symptoms and or impact to subside.
• Resolved - The cause of the issue has been eliminated and your systems are back to 100% performance. (Not an option when you create an incident)

Set Affected Services - This option is used to select the services this incident has affected. You may choose a single service, one or more groups of services, or services belonging to different groups. After at least one service or group is selected, you will be able to choose the status of each service.

Service Statuses - Services can use one of three distinct statuses. When creating or updating an incident, you will specify which of the states the service is currently in (see image below):

• Service is down - The service is currently unavailable and cannot be accessed.Color Red
  
  
• Service is affected - The service is experiencing issues and full functionality may not be available, but the service is still accessible.Color Orange
  
  
• Service is up- The service fully operational at the moment.Color Green

Send immediate notifications to subscribers- This option allows you to post the update to your status page, the Yes option (default) sends an immediate update. Choose the No option if you do not want to send an update.

An update to an incident may be necessary under several circumstances including changing the status of the incident itself, adding another service, or changing the statuses of one or multiple services affected by the incident. Incidents may be updated from the Control Panel.

 To edit an existing incident, click on the dots to the right of the incident and choose Update Incident.

 The Update Incident from will display.

Resolved is now an option for Incident Type.

Update the Incident: Change the status, resolve the incident, add more services,etc. Then press Save and Publish to update the Incident.

Updating Incidents From Current Tab

Press the Update Incident button.The Update Incident form is identical to the form from the Control Panel.

The Update Incident form may be used to make changes to a selected incident including:

• Changing the Start Date and/or Time
• Entering a New Message
• Selecting Incident Status
• Adding More Groups or Services
• Changing Service Statuses

Please note that an Incident Type must be selected to update the selected incident. If one is not selected, an error will be shown after attempting to complete the update.

Send immediate notifications to subscribers- This option allows you to post the update to your status page, the Yes option (default) sends an immediate update. Choose the No option if you do not want to send an update.

Once finished, click on Save and Publish to save the changes or Cancel to exit this form without saving your changes.

The forms and procedures used for creating maintenance events are similar to incidents. There are some fields unique to maintenance event.

The provide details section requires a Start Time and End Time for a maintenance event.

You also have the option to Suppress automated incidents during maintenance. (configured by an Admin user during Hub Config)

You have the option to repeat this maintenance event over a specific period of time. 

You also have the option schedule additional maintenance notifications ( 1 week before, etc.)

You can edit a maintenance event by choosing the Edit Maintenance button from the Scheduled Maintenance tab of the Control Panel.

Make any changes required and then press Save and  Publish.

Templates can be used to make posting events to the Status Page more efficient.

Choose Templates from the Hub Operations menu.

The control  panel will display current Incident templates.

Clicking on the Maintenance template option will display your current Maintenance templates.

Press the New Incident Template button to create a new incident template.

Fill out the form and press Save to create the Incident Template.

Press the New Maintenance Template button to create a new maintenance template.

Fill out the form and press Save to create the Maintenance Template.

Using Templates

To use an Incident Template choose Use Template button from the Create Incident form.

Then select the template you want to use for the Incident.

.To use an Maintenance Template choose Use Template button from the Create Maintenance form.

Then select the template you want to use for the Maintenance.