LGfL based subscription services (Netsweeper & Redstor problems)....

[Koldov]

I guess anyone who uses both of these services through LGfL (or anyone who uses them as stand alone products) will be aware of these current issues...?

 

If not:

 

Redstor

 

https://support.redstor.com/hc/en-gb/articles/19778844432029-2024-06-26-ESE-backup-failures-EMEA-UK-Ongoing

 

Netsweeper

 

https://netsweeper.statuspage.io/

 

My Redstor backups failed last night, but they say they have rolled out a fix, on the Netsweeper status page it seems to say the issue is resolved.

 

I wish LGfL would keep a list of Network Managers and IT technicians at schools and send out emails when issues occur. I usually presume it's something wrong on my end and spend far too long looking for problems on my systems before I give up and raise a support request, only to find out LGfL knows all about it...

 

I've asked about it before and again a few weeks ago when they were performing some maintenance on the reporting functions of the filtering system and was told "in this case the alert was the message that was placed on the portal, we are conscious not to flood everyone with alerts and prefer to target those specifically impacted."

Edited June 26, 2024 by Koldov

[networkmangler]

We are moving away from Redstor in the summer and have given LGFL notice that we won't be renewing.

 

After our backups failed last night and there was no notification that there was an issue I assumed LGFL had pulled the plug on us early! I raised a support case but was told about the general issue you have shared

 

Even if they don't want to send a text message or email they could post on things like twitter or even on the announcement section of their own support site

[Koldov]

That's the thing, it may take a little bit of set-up work creating/maintaining a list and getting an alert sent out, but on the other hand every time something like this happens their support desk has to answer all the tickets asking 'what's going on?'

 

I know it's an issue for a large and expanding MSP, trying to be all things to all people (and I know the 'support' aspect is farmed out to a 3rd party), but don't lose sight of the basics.

[PaddyNewman]

What do you think we could do better @Koldov - do feel free to reach out for a chat. Open to hearing what you think is missing

 

I (personally) wasn't aware of Redstor outages, definitely not my area sorry both yourself and @networkmangler

 

Netsweeper issue was not a direct impact on us, but we did make sure we weren't affected by mitigating some of the chances of our systems seeing the wider outage by locking policy changes for a short time. This was raised at time of announcement and resolved at 2pm UK after calls with Netsweeper to ascertain scope of the issue.

[DavR]

Huh, first I've heard of the RedStor thing being a wider issue. Like many people, I spent time today re-trying my backup to potentially troubleshoot, unaware of a wider fault. The Netsweeper thing didn't impact me at all, but if I'd been trying to make a policy change, it would have been good to know.

 

I've always found this;

 

I've asked about it before and again a few weeks ago when they were performing some maintenance on the reporting functions of the filtering system and was told "in this case the alert was the message that was placed on the portal, we are conscious not to flood everyone with alerts and prefer to target those specifically impacted."

 

a really odd place to draw the line re email alerts. Just today I got an email from the LRC Team with the "LGfL Curriculum Newsletter", which someone somewhere chose to sign me up to without my asking (it's fine, it's sometimes useful, but as an example). And yet, when I've asked in the past about email alerts about LGfL service outages, which could affect the day to day running of our systems, not only have I not been given an email alert for that, but I don't even have the option to subscribe to one. Like I say, seems like a strange line to draw. Of all alerts, surely these are the most useful? If said alerts bother me, I'll unsubscribe, or set up a mail rule to deal with them.

 

It's not the biggest issue, but, as a Nominated Contact, I've always felt it would be nice if I got an email notification when there was an Announcement on the support site (which could be turned off if necessary, I guess.)

 

In an ideal world, perhaps there could be a Service Status page in the model of https://netsweeper.statuspage.io/ that we could subscribe to, perhaps only subscribing to the elements we wanted to monitor.

Edited June 26, 2024 by DavR

[Koldov]

Just today I got an email from the LRC Team with the "LGfL Curriculum Newsletter"

 

Funnily enough the very same email came through to me while I was writing the OP and that's why I put this bit at the end...

 

trying to be all things to all people.

 

There's a lot of good things in that email and in my opinion LGfL are doing a lot of good work in a lot of important areas, there's just nothing in it that is directly relevant to my role.

 

BTW, there is an unsubscribe button at the bottom I think...

 

Also if you look at your account in the Support portal (My Account > Account Details > Email tab) there appears to be some control over which distribution lists you are signed up to.

 

It would appear there are already 'Gridstore' & 'Webscreen' distribution lists... so shouldn't be too difficult to send out email alerts to the relevant people...

 

I think the issue might be that (correct me if I'm wrong) you are an NC (nominated contact) or not. My 'roles' according to LGfL are 'Staff', 'Contact', 'Head (Proxy). So no real way there to distinguish me as a 'technical' contact... on the other hand I can see this getting messy if schools aren't using in-house technical support and have a 3rd party support.

 

The SchoolProtect/WebScreen/Netsweeper issue did cause me problems as I was trying to work out why I've stopped getting reports...

 

EDIT - I also think there is still a disconnect between LGfL and the people they use for the technical support side (who is it now WaveNet ?) - I mean when I talk about LGfL I'm usually talking about the technical support, but not all 'support' functions are covered by them...

 

EDIT 2 - Unsubscribe at the bottom of the 'Cybercloud' email newsletter... Manage Preferences at the bottom of the 'News' email newsletter...

 

@PaddyNewman - PM on its way!

Edited June 27, 2024 by Koldov

[DavR]

I think I was just using that newsletter as an example, of the many many mailing lists or notifications we all get added to. Fair play to LGfL, yes, it is an optional thing we can unsubscribe as per mailing list best practice, and yes, it's a different entity to the support desk.

 

I think the issue might be that (correct me if I'm wrong) you are an NC (nominated contact) or not. My 'roles' according to LGfL are 'Staff', 'Contact', 'Head (Proxy). So no real way there to distinguish me as a 'technical' contact... on the other hand I can see this getting messy if schools aren't using in-house technical support and have a 3rd party support.

 

IIRC, if you have the 'Contact' role, that means you are a nominated contact, and that is what picks you out as a technical contact. So shouldn't be too hard to alert nominated contacts, or maintain a mailing list of nominated contacts, based on that 'Contact' role, for when there's a service announcement, I should have thought.

Edited June 27, 2024 by DavR

[PaddyNewman]

IIRC, if you have the 'Contact' role, that means you are a nominated contact, and that is what picks you out as a technical contact. So shouldn't be too hard to alert nominated contacts, or maintain a mailing list of nominated contacts, based on that 'Contact' role, for when there's a service announcement, I should have thought.

 

Correct with the NC role, or at least 99% correct - some odd things do happen.

 

Announcements not going via email puts a reliance on logging in so having that content in an email would be helpful (if that is what you are suggesting) - if so I can 100% feed that back. I can't remember (this week is a blur already) but I think LGfL sent direct comms to contacts, but I will seek clarification for you!

More comms on issues is what I am hearing though right?

[DavR]

Hiya Paddy,

 

I mean, even just an email with the subject line "Failure in Service X reported", with the body of the announcement still being on the support site, would be a start. Something that lets us, the Contacts, know by email that there might be a service outage. Currently, there is no proactive messaging to tell NCs about service outages.

 

As it stands, unless a call is logged specifically naming your school, you don't get any email notifications at all when support desk makes announcements. Personally, this means I sometimes won't see these announcements for weeks.

 

Re the NetSweeper and RedStor problems this week, I use both services, and received no direct communication.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking at this for us!

Edited June 27, 2024 by DavR

[PaddyNewman]

Got it, let me raise internally for you.

[Koldov]

IIRC, if you have the 'Contact' role, that means you are a nominated contact, and that is what picks you out as a technical contact.

 

Correct with the NC role, or at least 99% correct - some odd things do happen.

 

I don't think the NCs are explicitly 'technical'.

 

As far as I can tell the Nominated Contact is exactly that, someone who the school has nominated to be contacted...

 

At our school that is the Headteacher, the Business manager and me.

 

I'm not sure if it is any more nuanced than that in the LGfL/WaveNet database but it would need to be, because out of those 3 NCs, only one would give a hoot about specific service issues...

[PaddyNewman]

Indeed, they aren't always technical - it is recommended that they are as its a contact that is able to call in and request changes via support.

[DavR]

As far as I can tell the Nominated Contact is exactly that, someone who the school has nominated to be contacted...

 

From which you could, if you wished, argue the semantics that as a Nominated Contact, they've been nominated to be contacted about things like service outages

 

In my mind, if they're not able to interface with the school's tech providers, then they shouldn't be a Nominated Contact..... but I will concede different schools have this set up different ways, and often non-technical people do end up in these roles.

[Koldov]

I guess that wasn't really explained in the onboarding... I've cut it down since then, but originally we had pretty much all the SLT... none of them are technical and I certainly wouldn't trust any of them to request changes via support!

 

I mean... the Headteacher uses a Macbook... that's why I've got the Head (proxy) role...