Introduction

This document serves as a Root Cause Analysis for the Alma service interruption experienced by Ex Libris customers on  October 8, 2018

The goal of this document is to share our findings regarding the event, specify the root cause analysis, outline actions to be taken to solve the downtime event, as well as preventive measures Ex Libris is taking to avoid similar cases in future.

Event Timeline

Intermediate service interruptions were experienced by Ex Libris customers served by the Alma EU00 instance at our European Data Center during the following time period:

October 8th, 2018 from 03:11 PM until 03:51 PM Amsterdam time zone.

During the event, the service was unavailable for the environment

Root Cause Analysis

Ex Libris Engineers investigated this event to determine the root cause analysis with the following results:

A fix to regression in the October release also required a specific application cache refresh.
Due to a human error a full application cache refresh was done, instead of a specific refresh.
The full application cache refresh caused a high load on the system and required a full system start-up to restore full system functionality.

Technical Action Items and Preventive Measures

Ex Libris has taken the following action and preventive measures to avoid such an occurrence in future:

• Ex Libris engineers restarted the system to have it back to full functionality
• Ex Libris development will improve procedures to prevent reoccurrence of a full system refresh

Customer Communication

Ex Libris is committed to providing customers with prompt and ongoing updates during Cloud events. Ongoing and prompt updates on service interruptions appear in the system status portal at this address: http://status.exlibrisgroup.com/

These updates are automatically sent as emails to registered customers.

Publication History