Subscribe to Status page updates (not just our specific instance)

[rbungo]

Hello,

 We are a new client moving from Blackboard to Canvas (yay!) and loved the option to subscribe to status.blackboard.com but notice that it is not an option for status.instructure.com.  As an admin, receiving email notification of new incidents is tremendously convenient, saves us the hassle of checking the status page frequently, and allows us to get out ahead of our users if a communication is needed.

Requesting the option to subscribe to Instructure-wide incidents (not just our own instance uptime) or an explanation why Instructure has chosen not to allow it, please.  (Since status.blackboard.com is also powered by Statuspage, this functionality is available (just not turned on).)

Thank you very much for your consideration!

[scottdennis]

Hi Rachel,

Welcome to Canvas and welcome to the community!  We are glad to have you!

Regarding the status page we used to have one general notification for Canvas status that went out to all subscribers.  This made sense historically when Canvas usage was much smaller in general and the system of clusters that host Canvas globally was less complicated.  In those days if Canvas had a bad day we sent out a broadcast to all subscribers globally.  However, the feedback we came to get was this became less and less useful to people as localized problems more and more gave false alarms to people whose instance of Canvas lived on a different cluster.  Thats why we added the option to look at uptime and outages specific to a given instance of Canvas.  

That all being said, we are continuing to study use of and develop the status page functionality.  Is there a use case or scenario in which it would be helpful for you to know if anywhere in the world there is significant delay or outage in any instance of Canvas anywhere?

We tend to keep the feature idea conversations specific to the function of Canvas itself so we will be archiving your submission.  However, I will pass along your initial posts and replies to the team responsible for the status page in general.

Thanks,

Scott

[rbungo]

Hi Scott,

 Thank you for your response!  No, there is no use case for knowing about something that won't affect our users.   Ultimately we want to be sure we're notified of anything that may affect our users, can you confirm that would be captured in our "Instance Status"?. Or is it possible to subscribe by cluster?  We are mainly in the United States but do have students internationally around the world.

Thank you,
Rachel

[scottdennis]

Hi Rachel,

Technically the status of your instance is the status of your cluster.  What you are actually seeing is cluster level information but yes, anything that will affect your users should be surfaced in the report you can put by entering your instance url, or that rss feed.

I was never a Blackboard admin and I'm not as familiar with their architecture so I can't give much insight into why their status system work differently from ours but I have been working with Canvas since before there was a status page so hopefully I can answer those questions. 😁

[RobDitto]

@scottdennis I realize this is an archived feature idea, but there's a question you asked which I want to answer now:

Is there a use case or scenario in which it would be helpful for you to know if anywhere in the world there is significant delay or outage in any instance of Canvas anywhere?

My answer is "yes, the sweeping incidents which affect all users" such as today's.  I'm under some pressure to deliver automation which can distinguish those from the cluster- or region-specific incidents which are much more common -- ideally using Statuspage functionality.

[scottdennis]

Hey Rob,

The reason the old statuspage feed function was deleted was that the way the software that tracks outages works there was only a binary choice between no notifications or getting notified for every problem with an service on any cluster which wasn't helpful either. Unless I'm mistaken, as a field admin don't you get an email anytime there is a sweeping incident that affects all users?  Seeing as feed data would also come via email, would getting the email from an auto-feed be different from the mailchimp messages?

[RobDitto]

Thanks, @scottdennis, my colleagues who handle support communications are considering what they can automate based on those emails. Much appreciated! 

[scottdennis]

You are very welcome, Rob!  Please let us know if what we are providing you and the team is not hitting the mark.