Firewall & Network Maintenance

The following describes maintenance processes and schedules for the University Firewall Service and corresponding network infrastructure, in addition to support and escalation information.

Change Management

• Maintenance windows for any firewall work (physical upgrade, software upgrades, preventative maintenance) follow the general change management processes as outlined at:
  • https://uit.stanford.edu/service/changemgt

Scheduled maintenance windows: 

1. Tuesday, 10pm-12am
2. Thursday, 4-6am and 10pm-12am
3. Saturday, 5-8am
4. Sunday, 5- 8am

• In all cases, maintenance is scheduled and negotiated with the application owners who are impacted.
• The Firewall team reserves the right to schedule emergency maintenance with minimal notification in the event of a significant security event.
• Major changes and downtimes are scheduled through ITS Change Management Request System.

Escalation Procedures & Support

• In the event of a suspected or confirmed firewall malfunction, or if an emergency action is needed on the firewall to respond to a security threat, send a message to noc@stanford.edu and call 650 723 1611 and request a page to the Network on-call staff. A callback will be placed within 1 hour. (Pending available resources)
• Rule requests and modifications are NOT considered to be emergencies and should not be escalated to the on-call staff. All rules must be requested, clarified, and tested during normal business hours. If firewall technical resources are needed for after hours or weekend project work, a written request with an account number must be sent to: firewall-team@lists.stanford.edu at least two weeks prior to the date of the scheduled work.