HARDWARE TROUBLE REPORTS

It is the AIS facility's responsibility to submit the trouble reports on system hardware problems. The common reasons for hardware trouble reports include the following:

A file has become corrupted and no good save tapes are available to rebuild the file.

The system keeps hitting 100 percent of capacity and locks up.

The system keeps dropping I/O channels.

If the hardware problem can be traced to a specific piece of equipment, notify the maintenance technicians to handle the problem.

TECHNICAL ASSISTS

After submitting a trouble report, you will need to coordinate with the central design activity to see if the problem can be taken care of over the phone or if it will require a technical assist. If it requires a technical assist, there may be a requirement to arrange for transportation, entry to the facility, and/or escorts. You will need to schedule time for the technician to use the system and notify the users that the system is unavailable.

OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES

When preparing the operational guidelines for your facility, you should consider four major areas as follows: . Future growth capabilities; o Backup operations; l Contingency plans and disaster recoveries; and l Emergency responses.

To develop these and other operational guidelines, you will need to review the current SOPS, command's mission, run folders, and monthly production schedules. While reviewing these, you are looking to make sure that the current and/or proposed operational guidelines will allow the AIS facility to meet the command's mission.

FUTURE GROWTH CAPABILITIES

Projecting future growth capabilities is often the most overlooked operational guideline. Projecting future growth should have been done when the system was designed, but it can be done at any time it is needed.

Users are one of your last sources of information when it comes time to start projecting. They know how their workload has increased in the past and can forecast what it will be in the future. With this information, and

by knowing the limitations of the existing system, you can project what additional equipment will be needed to handle the future workload of the command.

This may include additional network drops and terminals located throughout the command, spare parts, backup media, and personnel. The most important thing to remember when projecting the future growth capabilities is to take your time when doing the research. You don't want to come up short when requesting the additional materials that you expect to need later on.

BACKUP OPERATIONS

Backup operations fall into two categories: normal and special saves.

Normal saves. Normal saves are the ones worked into the monthly production schedules. These saves are normally done every day or night and are the most important recovery tool available to you.

Special saves. Special saves are the ones that need to be done before and after the implementation of a software upgrade and during monthly and yearly production runs. The saves that are done in association with a software upgrade are not covered on your production schedule, since upgrades are not released on any published schedule.