[Dispatch] IMPORTANT FW: *NOTICE!* UPCOMING AND ONGOING SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE, GATRRS, 2/24/14 THRU 4/18/14

[Brooks, William]

Please read carefully. This will have a direct impact on Austin/Travis County dispatching and radio service.


·        Event 1 will affect dispatchers at CTECC.

·        Event 2 is largely controlled by the radio shop.

·        Event 3 will affect both dispatch and crews in the field predominantly the ESDs on the edges of Travis County. However, anyone could see a short outage or loss of contact with dispatch.

Captain William B. Brooks
Austin Fire Department – 911/Communications

From: Brotherton, Charles
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2014 6:18 PM
Subject: *NOTICE!* UPCOMING AND ONGOING SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE, GATRRS, 2/24/14 THRU 4/18/14
Importance: High

NOTICE OF SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE: GREATER AUSTIN-TRAVIS COUNTY REGIONAL RADIO SYSTEM (GATRRS).

THREE EVENTS IN THE COMING WEEK STARTING MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2014.

WHAT’S HAPPENING: THREE EVENTS.

EVENT 1: MONDAY, 2/24/14, 1:40 P.M.: NO CONSOLE LOG-OFFS, NO MANUAL REBOOTS, ALL NETWORKED DISPATCH CONSOLES. DISPATCHERS AT ALL NETWORKED POSITIONS ARE STRONGLY ENCOURAGED NOT TO LOG OFF, NOT TO REBOOT THEIR CONSOLES.


·         Gold Elite positions (Austin/Travis, primarily): No console log-offs or reboots through Friday, February 28, at 5:00 p.m., or until Motorola technicians have manually upgraded your console and given you the “all clear.”

·         MCC7500 positions (AE, Bastrop, Caldwell, DPS, WilCo): No console log-offs or reboots through Friday, April 18, at 5:00 p.m., or until Motorola technicians have manually upgraded your console position and given you the “all clear.”

·         Motorola is working with each agency directly to schedule your console upgrades.

IMPACT: NO IMPACT TO FIELD RADIOS, NO IMPACT TO NON-NETWORKED, “RF-ONLY” CONSOLES.

·         A networked console rebooted or logged-off during this period, before it has been manually upgraded by a Motorola technician, will require Motorola on-site assistance to reboot.



EVENT 2: MONDAY, 2/24/14, 1:40 P.M.: DO NOT REBOOT AIS/LOGGERS (RADIO RECORDING EQUIPMENT).

·         Because of system domain changes, AIS/trunked loggers cannot be rebooted until devices have been manually upgraded.

·         Manual upgrades are scheduled through March 28, 2014, with Austin Energy and Williamson County loggers scheduled first, CTECC scheduled last.

IMPACT: AUSTIN/TRAVIS, AUSTIN ENERGY, WILCO: If a logger is rebooted during this period prior to manual upgrade, audio will stop recording on that logger until NICE Engineering completes its upgrade. This could result in a multi-day loss of radio recording on that particular device.

·         Austin Energy and Williamson County radio loggers will be upgraded first to minimize their risk.

·         CTECC radio loggers will be upgraded last; the quantity of radio loggers at CTECC minimizes risk to Austin/Travis.

·         THIS DOES NOT AFFECT 9-1-1 OR ADMIN TELEPHONE LOGGERS.


EVENT 3: WEDNESDAY, 2/26/14, 12:01 A.M. TO 4:00 A.M.: MASTER SITE OUTAGES / ZONE CORE UPGRADE.

IMPACT: THREE (3) PERIODS OF “SITE TRUNKING” DURING THIS PERIOD. ALL DISPATCH OPERATORS MUST USE BACKUP RADIOS. RADIOS IN THE FIELD MAY BECOME ISOLATED FROM DISPATCH.

·         Dispatchers must switch to backup radios before midnight Tuesday and remain on backup radios until given the “all clear” by City of Austin.

·         Users in the field who become isolated from dispatch should rely on cell phones, mobile data computers, and pagers, which are not affected by this maintenance.

·         Once given the all-clear, dispatchers may resume console operations. Users in the field may have to power-cycle radios to ensure they resume wide-area trunked operation.

·         Caldwell County, Middle Rio Grande, South Texas, and Western Region systems will experience individual tower site-trunking. Users in the field should be alerted to this and advised to rely on cell phones, mobile date computers, and pagers to communicate with dispatch.

·         Radios in Austin/Travis, Bastrop, Lee, TxDPS, and WilCo will tend to remain on primary simulcast or single-tower layers, staying in touch with each other and with dispatch (which will be on backup radios). Radios in outlying parts of these counties may become isolated and should be ready to use cell phones, MDC’s, and pagers to stay in touch.


DETAILS BELOW.

Feb 24 Monday 1:40PM – Feb 28 Friday 5:00PM (approximate for last center/position) -  Gold Elite Consoles: No reboots pending manual position upgrades.  Because of console network domain changes, Gold Elite console users are strongly encouraged not to log off or reboot their positions.  If they do, the op will be able to reload using cached credentials, but we are still recommending as a general practice to not reboot during this time period.  This is in effect until a specific Gold Elite operator position has been manually rejoined to the new 7.13 Domain Controller by Motorola/City of Austin technicians. The maintenance team will start the first dispatch center on approximately Wednesday, Feb 26, at 8:00AM and complete the last center/op by approximately Friday, Feb 28, at 5:00PM.

Feb 24 Monday 1:40PM – Apr 18 Friday 5:00PM (approximate for last center/position) -  MCC7500 Consoles: No reboots pending manual position upgrades. Because of console network domain changes, MCC7500 console users are strongly encouraged not to log off or reboot console positions. Also, if you receive an error message asking if you want to download or connect to the new database, please answer “No.”  If the position is rebooted, the op will be down until additional manual steps are taken with Motorola’s or COA’s assistance. This is in effect until a specific MCC7500 operator position has been manually upgraded to 7.13 by the Motorola/RZ team.  Motorola/RZ will start the first dispatch center on approximately Monday, March 3, during daytime hours and work on one operator position at a time.  When Motorola/RZ is working on a specific position, that position will be unavailable for use. Each position is estimated to take approximately 4 hours, barring any problems that might arise. The last center will be completed by approximately April 18th.
 
Feb 24 Monday 1:40PM – Mar 28 Friday 5:00PM (approximate end date for last AIS/Logger pair) - AIS/Loggers (voice radio recording equipment): No reboots pending manual upgrades. Because of network domain changes, AIS/trunked loggers CANNOT be rebooted until those devices have been manually upgraded to 7.13.  NOTE!! - If the AIS or Loggers are rebooted during this period, prior to their device upgrade, audio will stop recording on that particular device until NICE Engineering completes the upgrade on that particular logger. NOTE ALSO THAT THIS DOES NOT IMPACT TO 9-1-1 OR ADMIN TELEPHONE RECORDING.  There will be approximately an 8 hour planned outage for each logger while it is being upgraded, one at a time.  The following schedule is estimated and will be coordinated with each customer directly prior to work starting. (Joe Vitone of Motorola will ensure that the WilCo Storage Center is “caught up” through the Investigator app prior to WilCo’s upgrade.)

-                      March 4, Tues – Austin Energy Logger

-                      March 5, Wed – Williamson County Logger

-                      March 10, Mon – CTECC 1 Logger

-                      March 12, Wed – CTECC 2 Logger

-                      March 17, Mon – CTECC 3 Logger

-                      March 19, Wed – CTECC 4 Logger

-                      March 24, Mon – CTECC 5 Logger

-                      March 26, Wed – CTECC 6 Logger

Feb 26 Wednesday 12:01AM-4:00AM (Tuesday night into Wednesday morning) – Master Site Outages. During the zone core upgrade, there will be one significant (approximately 30 minutes) and two brief (about 2 minutes each) master site outages over the four-hour period from midnight to 4:00 a.m.  A master site outage will cause all radio sites to go into site-trunking and all networked consoles to fall back to local-only operation. During site trunking, field radios will continue to operate on the tower or trunked site they’re affiliated with but will lose the capability to communicate to users at another site. All dispatch centers must manually switch to backup control stations, consolettes, or handy-talkies prior to midnight and stay in that configuration until after Austin calls with the all-clear (approximately 4:00 a.m.). During master site outages, radio recording through the NICE IP loggers will discontinue completely during site-trunking. 9-1-1 and Admin telephone logging are unaffected.

WHAT IS REQUIRED OF YOU?

·         ALL USERS, SYSTEMWIDE, SHOULD BE AWARE OF THESE SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE EVENTS AND USE BACKUP RADIOS, MDC’S, CELL PHONES, AND PAGERS AS DIRECTED ABOVE.

PRIOR TO THE START OF WEDNESDAY’S MAINTENANCE:

·         GATRRS Dispatch Operators (if available) will be contacted by the City of Austin Wireless Communication Services technician assigned to oversee the work. He will determine if there is a reason to postpone or suspend the scheduled maintenance.

·         EXAMPLES of justification for calling off scheduled maintenance: Major inclement weather moving into the affected area, a multi-alarm fire in progress, or a law enforcement agency vehicle pursuit in progress. If the scheduled maintenance procedure is called off, all affected dispatch centers (if available) will be notified of the cancellation.

CONTACTS:

·         City of Austin Wireless Communication Services Division Master Site Engineer: Mike Pena, cell (512) 698-6575, desk (512) 974-0976, e-mail mike.pena at austintexas.gov<mailto:mike.pena at austintexas.gov>.

·         City of Austin Wireless Main # (512) 927-3200, answered 24/7/365.

If you have questions about the planned maintenance or problems during the maintenance, please use either of the contacts listed above. If you need further assistance, please contact Gary Wilks or Chuck Brotherton at the telephone numbers below, or by email.

·         Gary Wilks, desk (512) 927-3229, cell (512) 848-4421, pager (512) 802-9330, email gary.wilks at austintexas.gov<mailto:gary.wilks at austintexas.gov>.

·         Chuck Brotherton, desk (512) 927-3209, cell (512) 636-6825, pager (512) 802-9328, email charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov<mailto:charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov>.

Chuck Brotherton
Manager, Wireless Communication Services Division
Communications and Technology Management
City of Austin
1006 Smith Road
Austin, TX 78721
phone: (512) 927-3209
cell: (512) 636-6825
pager: (512) 802-9328
charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov<mailto:charles.brotherton at austintexas.gov>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://cafcatx.org/pipermail/dispatch_cafcatx.org/attachments/20140222/3f54d2a8/attachment.htm>