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Platform Maintenance Windows & Software Deprecation Advisories

Okustera provides operational transparency and proactive communication across its multi-tenant IaaS, DBaaS, and Serverless footprint. Unplanned disruptions, unannounced hypervisor kernel patching, storage rebalancing, or sudden software version deprecations erode customer trust and violate SLA commitments.

The Okustera Platform Notification System bridges the Operator Backoffice, the Platform Control Plane, and the Tenant Customer Portal to deliver real-time advisories, scheduled maintenance notifications, and surgical software deprecation warnings.

1. Advisory Classification & Impact Matrix​

Platform notifications are categorized into four operational classes compliant with ISO/IEC 27001 (8.14) and ISO/IEC 22301:

ClassSeverityPrimary TargetExpected User ActionRetention / ExpirationExample
MAINTENANCE_WINDOWWARNING / CRITICALGlobal or Specific Nodes / HypervisorsPrepare for failover or temporary read-only statePurged 7 days after scheduled_end"Ceph Storage Cluster Rolling OSD Upgrade: Oct 15 02:00–04:00 UTC"
SOFTWARE_DEPRECATIONHIGH / MEDIUMWorkload-Scoped (Tenants with target resource)Migrate or upgrade workload before sunset_dateRetained until sunset_date + 30 days"PostgreSQL 14.x Deprecation: EOL Dec 1, 2026. Upgrade to 16.5"
SYSTEM_ADVISORYINFOGlobal / All TenantsInformational awareness14 days"New Region Availability: Nova compute availability zone nova-az2 live"
SECURITY_ALERTCRITICALWorkload-Scoped or GlobalImmediate patching / credential rotationIndefinite (Immutable Audit Log)"Urgent OpenSSL Patch: Automatic rolling restart applied to Ingress APISIX"

Impact Classification Levels​

To provide maximum clarity to tenant engineers, every scheduled maintenance window mandates an explicit impact_level:

  • NO_DOWNTIME: Fully transparent rolling update utilizing HA redundancy (e.g., dual APISIX ingress proxies, 3-replica Valkey Sentinel failover).
  • DEGRADED_PERFORMANCE: System remains online, but I/O latency or throughput may fluctuate (e.g., Ceph deep-scrub and OSD rebalancing).
  • INTERMITTENT_FAILOVER: Sub-second to 5-second automatic failovers occur (e.g., CloudNativePG primary promotion, Galera state transfer).
  • FULL_OUTAGE: Rare, scheduled downtime requiring physical electrical or border network maintenance.

2. Real-Time Architecture & Delivery Pipeline​

The notification system uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) driven by Valkey Pub/Sub to eliminate high-frequency database polling from customer browser sessions:

3. Customer Portal Features​

3.1 Sticky Advisory Banner​

Mounted directly below the main navigation bar, the sticky banner alerts users to ongoing or upcoming operational events:

  • Visual Severity Themes:
    • Critical Outage (FULL_OUTAGE): Crimson background with pulsating warning icon.
    • Maintenance & Degraded Performance: Amber background with wrench icon and live countdown timer (e.g., "Starts in 2h 15m" or "In progress · Ends in 45m").
    • Software Deprecation: Dark navy background with sunset deadline and direct link to migration playbooks.
  • Per-User Dismissal: Dismissing a non-critical advisory records a dismissal preference so the banner remains hidden while the advisory remains accessible in the Notification Drawer.

3.2 Notification Drawer​

Accessible from the bell icon in the top header:

  • Real-time unread badge counter.
  • Categorized tabs: All, Maintenance, Deprecations, and Advisories.
  • Technical markdown briefing expandable directly inside the drawer.
  • Direct action links to documentation and migration runbooks.

3.3 In-Context Workload Deprecation Alerts​

On managed service pages (such as Managed Databases), when a cluster runs a deprecated engine or version:

  • A prominent warning callout is displayed directly above the cluster list.
  • The affected cluster row is highlighted with a Deprecated badge.
  • The Upgrade Now action button automatically opens the automated version upgrade wizard with pre-flight safety validation.

4. API Reference & Streaming Endpoint​

Customer Portal Endpoints​

List Active Notifications​

GET /api/v1/portal/notifications/active HTTP/1.1
Host: api.okustera.com
Authorization: Bearer <tenant_jwt_token>
X-OMC-Tenant-ID: tenant-alpha

Response (200 OK):

[
  {
    "id": "depr-pg14-2026",
    "type": "SOFTWARE_DEPRECATION",
    "title": "PostgreSQL 14.x Deprecation Notice",
    "summary": "PostgreSQL 14.x reaches End of Life on Dec 1, 2026. In-place upgrade to 16.5 available.",
    "severity": "WARNING",
    "scope": "SERVICE_SCOPED",
    "target_service": "database",
    "target_resource_type": "postgresql",
    "target_resource_version": "14",
    "sunset_date": "2026-12-01T00:00:00Z",
    "action_url": "https://docs.okustera.com/databases/version-upgrades",
    "action_label": "Review Upgrade Guide",
    "status": "SCHEDULED",
    "is_active": true,
    "is_dismissible": true,
    "created_at": "2026-10-01T10:00:00Z"
  }
]

Dismiss Notification​

POST /api/v1/portal/notifications/depr-pg14-2026/dismiss HTTP/1.1
Host: api.okustera.com
Authorization: Bearer <tenant_jwt_token>

Real-Time SSE Stream​

GET /api/v1/portal/notifications/stream?token=<tenant_jwt_token>&tenant_id=tenant-alpha HTTP/1.1
Host: api.okustera.com
Accept: text/event-stream

Stream Events:

event: notification_published
data: {"id":"maint-ceph-01","type":"MAINTENANCE_WINDOW","title":"Ceph Storage Rolling OSD Upgrade",...}

event: notification_dismissed
data: {"status":"dismissed","notification_id":"maint-ceph-01"}

5. Storage Durability & S3 Backups​

To guarantee zero SQLite dependency and maximum cloud durability:

  1. Valkey In-Memory Key-Value Store: Powered by Spotahome Valkey Operator with AOF (Append-Only File) local journaling.
  2. Ceph RADOS Gateway S3 Replication: Every state transition automatically writes an atomic snapshot to Ceph S3 (s3://omc-backoffice-backups/notifications/{backup_id}.json).
  3. Cryptographic Integrity: Every backup includes a SHA-256 sidecar checksum for tamper verification.

6. Annual Dependency Lifecycle & Deprecation Cadence​

Okustera adheres to a predictable, four-quarter annual dependency upgrade rhythm to prevent software stagnation while protecting tenant workloads from unexpected breaking changes:

QuarterFocus PhaseTenant Impact & Advance Notice Window
Q1 (Jan–Mar)Upstream EOL Audit & Target MatrixInternal roadmap publication; zero application impact.
Q2 (Apr–Jun)Staging & Canary ValidationSandbox verification; early access testing in staging clusters.
Q3 (Jul–Sep)Customer Deprecation Notices90-Day Advance Warning dispatched for major database engines;
60-Day Advance Warning for public APIs/SDKs via Portal Banner & SSE.
Q4 (Oct–Dec)Sunset & EnforcementFinal phase-out of discontinued engines; automatic cutover to next supported LTS.

Minimum Deprecation Notice Guarantees​

  • Major Database Engines (PostgreSQL, Valkey, Qdrant): Minimum 90 calendar days prior to engine sunset.
  • Public APIs & Terraform Provider Resources: Minimum 60 calendar days with HTTP Sunset headers.
  • Minor / Security Rolling Updates: Minimum 7 calendar days (or immediate 0–24h for critical zero-day CVEs).