Best Practice

[james]

I'm looking for some type of generic industry standard that talks about server maintenance in regard to when maintenance is performed. I personally think that all server maintenance should occur after normal work hours for anything that isn't an emergency. I realize that some businesses run 24/7 so there is no normal work hours in some instances for things like your website and e-com. However, I think that there are a lot of systems like an HR system that has normal working hours for many companies(8am-5pm). In these cases, I think that the maintenance should be scheduled for after the normal working hours. I have seen too many times where maintenance is scheduled during working hours and is justified by it only being 15 minutes, but then there is some unforeseen problem(server doesn't come back up after reboot, etc.).

I don't agree with this for two reasons.
1. It makes the department look bad. It isn't just the reputation of the server administrator.
2. The total cost of the users being down for the whole day or a few hours is typically greater than the server admin doing the updates after hours.

I don't know if this is just considered common sense or if there is some logic I am missing. I haven't been able to find the information on this particular point. If anyone knows of some IT standards organization that has this type of information/best practice/guideline I would appreciate a link or information to it.

Thank you for your time

[JPnyc]

I don't know of any company that does their backup/maintenance during normal business hours. I will poke around and see if I can find you some more official recommendations somewhere.

Speaking for the companies I have worked for, any type of disabling operation is generally scheduled for after normal business hours.

[james]

I agree with you too. The only instance where I see it being justified is when you are dealing with a vendor support contract where you can't call anytime to get help. Even then I think you could schedule it for around the end of the day.

[ua549]

I'm not aware of any industry standard other than compliance with the SLA the IT department has with each "client" department. There are many guidelines and models published that suggest a maintenance structure and best practices. A starting point for further research is the ITIL - Information Technology Infrastructure Library from the Office of Government Commerce in the UK. Link to Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Technology_Infrastructure_Library) and Link to OGC (http://www.ogc.gov.uk/programmes___projects_documents_itil.asp)

I can see maintenance activities divided into several types each with its own set of scheduling constraints. Most of the places where I've consulted have separate systems for OS and application software maintenance and test so that is hardly ever an issue. Software updates are fully tested including integration testing prior to a scheduled roll out often at the end of an accounting period. The real issues are network related maintenance items and the infamous "one line of code" change that cripples everyone. IMO unless there is an over riding need all routine maintenance that requires a system boot should be done in a full 24 hour window such as at week's end or month's end. Other maintenance should be conducted when the affected systems are the least busy.