Degradations

A degradation is a planned or unplanned outage or reduction in service. From the Degradation menu of a record you can start a degradation now, log a past one or schedule a planned window. If the system already has a degradation in progress, the dialog says so, with its start, and explains that starting another records a second one; to update the one in progress, select Cancel and manage it. Starting reads EA Sphere first: if someone else has started a degradation of the same system since the dialog opened, nothing is recorded yet, and the dialog names theirs and says so; selecting Start degradation again records a second one. The same applies when you started one a moment ago in another window. If EA Sphere cannot be read first, nothing is recorded, and the message says so. When two or more starts for the same system are made at the same moment, all are recorded; a person whose start finds the others is told how many are now in progress, and which were started in their own other windows and which by someone else, and all of them appear in the header and on the History tab, to be managed there. The dialog that starts a degradation has no Updates list; the first update is typed in its own field. A degradation's dialog keeps a stored severity or cause that is no longer on the list, so saving changes it only if you do.

A planned window counts as in progress from its start time until its end time. An open degradation moves through Investigating, Identified and Restoring; each update is timestamped and attributed by EA Sphere and cannot be changed afterwards. Saving a degradation with nothing changed sends nothing, adds no line to its history and says “No changes to save.”, followed by “Someone else resolved this degradation.” when it was resolved meanwhile, or “You had already resolved this degradation in another window.” when you resolved it there; if it was deleted, EA Sphere says “That degradation was deleted by someone else.” Times are stored as exact moments and shown in each person's own time zone, so a team spread across time zones sees the same start, duration and RTO status. An unplanned degradation cannot start in the future; to schedule one, choose Planned. A planned window scheduled from the Degradation menu must end in the future; to record one that has already happened, log a past degradation.

A degradation keeps up to 150 updates in view. When it passes 150, or its updates grow long, the earliest are archived, each once, and the newest 100 or fewer stay in view; recorded notices move to the archive once they take more than about 24 KB, the newest staying in view. Archived updates and notices are kept, and the degradation shows them on request. Incident work items can be created in the space chosen under Settings, Jira, or attached by work item key. If that space no longer exists in Jira, EA Sphere says so and asks for a space Jira lists to be chosen under Settings, Jira. An incident work item created in the dialog of a degradation already recorded is attached to it at once, whether or not the dialog is then saved, and one message says that it was created in Jira and attached to the degradation. A work item attached by key is added only to the dialog it was asked from; if that dialog has closed by the time Jira answers, nothing is attached, and EA Sphere says so. Selecting Create incident work item again while Jira is still creating one does not create a second, and the same holds for mitigation work items.

A degradation is resolved once: if someone else resolves it first, or you resolve it in another window, nothing of your resolution is recorded, and EA Sphere says “Someone else already resolved this degradation.” or “You already resolved this degradation in another window.” The dialog is held for a moment while the page reads the resolution; selecting a button meanwhile says “This degradation is being resolved. The dialog shows it once EA Sphere has recorded it.” The dialog then shows the degradation as resolved, under the title Degradation record, with its end and duration and without the stage or the Resolve degradation button, keeping what you typed, with the note “Someone else resolved this degradation. What you entered is kept: select Save to add it to the resolved degradation.” (or “You resolved this degradation in another window. …”). If the page cannot read the resolution within about 15 seconds, the dialog is released with what you typed and EA Sphere says “Someone else already resolved this degradation. EA Sphere does not show it as resolved yet. What you entered is still in the dialog.” An update added after a degradation is resolved, one typed in that dialog included, is recorded at the Resolved stage. While an update is being posted the dialog shows Posting…, the update text cannot be edited, Save and Resolve wait, and the dialog cannot be closed; anything typed in other fields meanwhile is kept. If the update cannot be posted, the text stays in the field and EA Sphere says why.

Resolving shows Resolving…, and the dialog stays open until the resolution is recorded. A resolution whose answer was lost is recognized as your own: EA Sphere confirms it with Resolved after and the duration, and any corrections you made in the dialog since are carried into the resolved degradation's dialog for you to save. If EA Sphere cannot be reached to check, the dialog stays open with what you entered and says “It is not known yet whether EA Sphere recorded the resolution: EA Sphere could not be reached. What you entered is still in the dialog; select Resolve degradation to check and try again.”; selecting Resolve degradation again reads EA Sphere first. This is said only when the answer was lost on the way; a license that is no longer active, or a deletion or replacement of all data, is reported as such, as for any other save. While it is not known whether the resolution was recorded, Save also reads EA Sphere first; if EA Sphere cannot be reached, nothing is saved, and the message says so. If it turns out that someone else resolved the degradation, Save stores your other changes on it and says that someone else resolved it, never that it is still in progress.

If the page's refresh finds your resolution recorded while you are still typing, nothing is posted: the dialog stays open and says, in the dialog and as a message, that EA Sphere recorded your resolution, and selecting Resolve degradation or Save finishes it, keeping what you have typed since. An update you typed in Post an update since then is posted on your resolved degradation, at the Resolved stage, and EA Sphere says so. If you resolved the degradation in another window, Save stores your other changes and says that you had already resolved it there. An unplanned degradation longer than the tier's RTO is flagged; only severity levels marked as counting are measured.