Introduction

This document serves as a Root Cause Analysis for the RefWorks interruption experienced by Ex Libris customers on August 16th, 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 and identify preventive measures Ex Libris is taking to avoid similar cases in future.

Event Timeline

Service interruption was experienced by Ex Libris customers served by RefWorks during the following hours:

August 16^th, 2018 from 2:32 AM until 6:52 AM CST 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:

Access to our servers were blocked by an internet service provider due to suspected un-authorized access. 
During the event we worked with the service provider to remove the blocking.

Technical Action Items and Preventive Measures

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

• During the event we worked with the service provider to remove the blocking.
• We are doing root cause analysis with the service provider in order to make sure that such event will not happen again.

Customer Communication 

ExLibris 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