When updating our site, how long should we delay having the utilities run?

Environment:

All Implementations

Resolution:

When a site update is scheduled, one of the options you can specify is how long the site utilities will be delayed post cutover. The default delay is one hour. This delay gives time after the update to review business rules for accuracy and make any necessary updates before the utilities run. If not enough time is allowed and utilities are enabled before rules are updated, the utility processes such as service request routing and escalation may be performed according to the pre-update rules. It is recommended that the default delay of one hour not be changed unless an additional time delay is explicitly needed.

Also note that the content_processing utility for Knowledge Advanced is delayed 24 hours before an update.

During the delay, the following occurs.

• Techmail does not retrieve email from mailboxes. No new service requests will be created from email messages and service requests will not be updated from email messages. All email messages will remain in the mailboxes until Techmail resumes. Service requests will still be created through Ask a Question. Transactional surveys and other Outreach emails will not be sent until Techmail resumes.
• Dbstatus does not escalate service requests, answers, opportunities, or tasks. When utilities resume, all objects that were scheduled to be escalated will be escalated.
• Scheduled reports and answer notification messages are not sent by Dbstatus. When utilities resume, all objects that were scheduled to be escalated or sent while utilities were disabled will be escalated or sent.
• Agedatabase does not set service requests to the Solved status or cache report results. If utilities are disabled during Agedatabase’s scheduled execution time, some standard reports will not include data from the previous day and service requests will remain set to Waiting until the next time Agedatabase runs.

Notes:

• To change the utility delay period, please use the "Manage My Update" feature in Configuration Assistant.
• The utility delay period starts at the end of the cutover, not from the cutover start time nor when a cutover completion e-mail notification is sent.
• It may take up to half an hour for all utilities to start running after the utility delay period ends.
• Agedatabase stops running 8 hours before the cutover thus data processed by agedatabase may not be correct until the first agedatabase runs after the cutover is complete.