Service Level Agreement

Owned by Chris Green
Last updated: Jul 02, 2024
2 min read

The SCD Cloud is a service developed for use within Scientific Computing and the wider STFC for developing and supporting projects. SCD Cloud usage must comply with the Terms of Service. If you have any questions regarding the following, please contact cloud-support@stfc.ac.uk

By continuing to log in you accept the following Service Level for Virtual Machines (VMs):

Support

  • Technical Support for the SCD Cloud is offered during working hours.

  • Tickets will be responded to within 2 working days.

  • Support for the end-users of services hosted on the SCD Cloud is not provided, this includes but is not limited to using the Operating System.

Availability

  • We endeavour to minimize downtime of VMs however some is inevitable.

  • Services built on the SCD Cloud where availability is important must be architected in such a way that they can tolerate VMs being unavailable.

  • VMs are configured to update automatically although monthly reboots will be required.

Storage

  • The storage underlying the SCD Cloud Volume (Cinder), Image (Glance), Object (Swift) and Fileshare (Manila) services is resilient for the purposes of availability.

  • VMs on the SCD Cloud should not be used as a persistent Datastore and have no resiliency of storage.

  • Boot from Volume VMs should be used where resiliency is required.

  • If you require more security for your data then arrange to back up your VMs.

Maintenance

  • We will endeavour to provide notification of scheduled downtimes at least 1 week in advance.

  • Regular maintenance will take place on Wednesday mornings between 10am and 12pm. The service should be considered at risk during this period.

  • If a security patch requires it, you will normally be given 5 working days within which to reboot VMs, after which time a reboot will be forced.

  • We reserve the right to reboot VMs without notice in order to preserve the integrity of the service.