IBM Cloud Docs
Maintenance

Maintenance

Infrastructure Deployment Options

The IBM MAS Cloud Service supports two infrastructure deployment options: Dedicated Cluster and Shared Cluster. Both require Capacity Unit, Virtual Processor Core and Gigabyte entitlements. The difference between the two options is how the Cloud Service is provisioned, deployed and maintained. In both scenarios the client is provided separate MAS Applications and database instances for each environment (for example PROD, TEST, DEV) on IBM Cloud, but the underlying infrastructure will differ according to the deployment type ordered.

Dedicated Cluster Deployment (MAS-Dedicated)

In a Dedicated Cluster Deployment, clients maintain their own individual MAS Applications and database instances. Each MAS Client environment (PROD, TEST, DEV) resides on it's own dedicated Red Hat OpenShift Cluster. Red Hat OpenShift clusters are not shared. IBM determines, schedules and communicates when MAS and Application upgrades will occur. Customer initiated deferrals are permitted, but must scheduled at a mutally agreeable time and date with the IBM SRE team.

Shared Cluster Deployment (MAS-MS aka "Managed Service")

In a Shared Cluster Deployment, clients maintain their own individual MAS Applications and database instances, but these reside on one or more shared Red Hat OpenShift Clusters (along with other customers). Clients choosing the Shared Cluster deployment must follow the software upgrade schedule (determined by IBM SRE). In this scenario, IBM schedules and communicates when MAS and Application upgrades will occur. Customer intiated deferrals are not permitted.

Clients who purchased MAS-MS (Managed Service) or were quoted prior to December 2022 are Shared Cluster deployment. Clients who were quoted and purchased off that quote after January 2023 are Dedicated Cluster deployment. If you are not sure which deployment option you have please contact your IBM sales person, CSM or open a support ticket.

Maintenance Windows

(Applies to both Dedicated and Shared Cluster Deployments)

Maintenance Windows for Production Environments are scheduled on weekends (Saturday 00:00 UTC -> Sunday 24:00 UTC).

Maintenance Windows for Non-Production Environments are scheduled on weekdays (Monday 00:00 UTC -> Friday 24:00 UTC).

There may be exceptions, in which case Customers will be notified in advance.

The IBM SRE team proactively notifies customers at least 5 business days prior to any Non-Production environment impacting maintenance and 10 business days prior to any Production environment impacting maintenance via email using the Client Communications Center (CCC). This pertains to environment impacting (outage) maintenance only. Non-environment impacting (no outage) maintenance is not subject to this policy.

Customers must subscribe in order to receive maintenance notifications via email.

Environments are usually not available to users during maintenance windows, but the following maintenance categories may be applied:

  • Outage - systems will not be available to users for the duration of the scheduled window
  • Medium Impact - users may experience a period of intermittent connectivity (30 mins to 1 hour) during the scheduled window
  • Low Impact - users may experience a brief period of intermittent connectivity (up to 15 mins) during the scheduled window
  • No Outage - maintenance will be performed, but it will not impact users

Change Freeze Period

The Change Freeze period for year end 2024 is December 16th, 2024 through January 3rd, 2025. Systems are available to users and all standard automated processes such as database backups continue as normal during the change freeze period. Coordinated changes to environments such as application upgrades are not available during this time. The IBM SRE team does not schedule maintenance during the change freeze period.

The Self Service Portal is available for Non-Production environments during the change freeze window. Production environment SSP access, with the exception of running MAS Must Gather, is not allowed.

Upgrade Rules, Policy and Plans

Starting March 1st, 2024 all MAS-Dedicated and MAS-MS customers will be assigned an upgrade date and time and receive MAS 8.11 upgrade notifications. Customers can also request the upgrade via case ticket case ticket. If you wish to upgrade to v8.11, submit a case ticket requesting the upgrade, along with the target environment URL(s). IBM SRE will then put you in a queue to receive the upgrade.

Customers can request a specific date and time for MAS and Appliction upgrades as long as the following conditions apply:

  • The request is may at least 10 business days prior to the requested upgrade date
  • The customer and MAS SRE Operations team are able to find a mutually agreeable date and time where the proper resources on both sides will be available.

It should be noted that IBM SRE initially determines the date, start time and duration for the upgrade your environment(s), based on overall schedule. IBM SRE will then send you an upgrade notification with those details via the Client Communications Center (CCC).

Please also note the IBM SRE Change / Freeze period of December 18th, 2024 to January 3rd, 2025. MAS Upgrades will not be scheduled or performed during this timeframe.

LA Fixes

During the Manage upgrade process all LA (Limited Availability) aka "one off" or "hot" Fixes applied to a customer's environment will be removed. It is assumed the upgrade or fixpack contains the LA Fix. It is the customer's responsibility to retest and revalidate all functionality after an upgrade. If an issue is found, the customer should open an IBM support case with the product support team to troubleshoot. If a new LA Fix is required, this would need to be requested through the support case. LA Fix approvals by the SRE team will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Patch Releases

The following guidelines apply to Maximo Application Suite patch releases:

  • Minor patches are available 1 week (5 business days) after General Availability (GA)
  • Minor patch releases are designated at the last digits in the version. For example Maximo 8.10.X, 8.11.x or 8.9.x where 'X' is the patch release
  • Patch releases for MAS or any Apps have to be requested via an IBM support case
  • 1 week of advance notice is needed in ticket for Patch release update
  • If Patch contains security fixes or any security fix available, IBM SRE team will apply fixes as soon as they are available. No exceptions.

Post Maintenance Customer Testing / Validation

After completion of maintenance windows or upgrades by the SRE team, it will be the customer's responsibility to perform regression testing and validate that the application is working as expected. The IBM SRE team do not have front end application access to customer environmentd. Customers are required to check general applicaton functionality and any business critical components. Additionally, any customer specific integrations (JMS) or custom configurations (automation scripts, applications, etc) will need to be validated as well.

Emergency Maintenance

In exceptional cases such as critical security patching, the The IBM Maximo Application Suite Dedicated Services team may need to schedule unplanned emergency maintenance outages outside of a Planned Maintenance window for Production systems. The IBM Maximo Application Suite Dedicated team will provide as much advanced notice as possible, however depending on criticality of the security patch, 5-10 business days notice may not be possible. Emergency Maintenance will be communicated via the Client Communications Center (CCC).