All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and Training Contacts:
The CARES-Live team has scheduled maintenance to the CARES-Live Training Environment on Friday, December 8, 2023, from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. This scheduled maintenance is to upgrade the Training Environment to the CARES-Live 2.8.27 version. Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live Training Environment during the scheduled outage.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CARES-Live Training Environment, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal at https://cwds.service-now.com/csm. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
Maintenance
California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – Gold Camp Switch Upgrade, Dec. 7, 2023 | 8:30 PM - 12:00 Midnight
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Thursday, December 7, 2023, to upgrade switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 8:30 PM and conclude at 12:00 Midnight.
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users: If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users: Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal at https://cwds.service-now.com/csm. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Thursday, December 7, 2023, to upgrade switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 8:30 PM and conclude at 12:00 Midnight.
The CARES-Live application will experience up to a 40-minute interruption in service within the change window.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for the CWS/CMS application during this activity.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users: If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users: Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal at https://cwds.service-now.com/csm. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email at Servicedesk@cwds.ca.gov during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
Continuation of CWS/CMS C# Migration Code Testing - REMINDER
All CWS Directors, Probation Chiefs, SPOCs, and Technical Contacts:
The CWS/CMS migration from Visual Basic 6 (VB6) to C# code project is still in progress to ensure that the CWS/CMS Application runs on a supported platform. As many are aware, VB6 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Recently a phase of testing was conducted with Co-Existent and Dedicated County participants that uncovered some issues that have been fixed and some that need to be retested. Therefore, at this time we would like to resume C# testing with county users.
The next phase of the resumed C# testing is planned to last four weeks, beginning December 11, 2023, through December 21, 2023, with a brief break for the holidays and resuming on January 8, 2024, then concluding January 18, 2024. We are looking for both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties who can participate to join a County Test Workshop (CTW) to further test the C# code. We would like to get as much participation from both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties to make this a success.
Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens is the sole tool that will be used to connect to the CTW environment for this phase of testing.
We are looking for testers that have a broad knowledge of the CWS/CMS Application and can simulate case actions that reflect daily work performed by social workers.
The CTW will be structured so that participating testers will receive both broadly defined scenarios to test various areas of the CWS/CMS application along with a list of Incidents that have been identified in previous CTWs that require retesting. In addition, testers will be asked to perform volume, robust testing of the C# code to see if it can handle various activities to support the way daily child welfare activities are performed by social workers. A few examples of testing scenarios might instruct testers to open a form after multiple cases are opened, close and reopen cases, access different areas of CWS/CMS, perform searches, and then try to perform additional actions in CWS/CMS to see how well the C# code handles the workload.
CWS/CMS C# CTW Schedule
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
CWDS is seeking twenty (20) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Registration
We appreciate the counties continued support by participating in the different phases of testing the C# code. It’s your support that will help us to confirm that the code is thoroughly tested and ready for migration.
The CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
Link: https://forms.gle/GBkTdChs9zNrTioR8
If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form or if you have any questions regarding this CTW recruitment, please contact Customer Relations.
The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.
Again, your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated.
Action Required
Submit a C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
The CWS/CMS migration from Visual Basic 6 (VB6) to C# code project is still in progress to ensure that the CWS/CMS Application runs on a supported platform. As many are aware, VB6 is no longer supported by Microsoft. Recently a phase of testing was conducted with Co-Existent and Dedicated County participants that uncovered some issues that have been fixed and some that need to be retested. Therefore, at this time we would like to resume C# testing with county users.
The next phase of the resumed C# testing is planned to last four weeks, beginning December 11, 2023, through December 21, 2023, with a brief break for the holidays and resuming on January 8, 2024, then concluding January 18, 2024. We are looking for both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties who can participate to join a County Test Workshop (CTW) to further test the C# code. We would like to get as much participation from both Dedicated and Co-Existent Counties to make this a success.
Server Based Computing (SBC) soft tokens is the sole tool that will be used to connect to the CTW environment for this phase of testing.
We are looking for testers that have a broad knowledge of the CWS/CMS Application and can simulate case actions that reflect daily work performed by social workers.
The CTW will be structured so that participating testers will receive both broadly defined scenarios to test various areas of the CWS/CMS application along with a list of Incidents that have been identified in previous CTWs that require retesting. In addition, testers will be asked to perform volume, robust testing of the C# code to see if it can handle various activities to support the way daily child welfare activities are performed by social workers. A few examples of testing scenarios might instruct testers to open a form after multiple cases are opened, close and reopen cases, access different areas of CWS/CMS, perform searches, and then try to perform additional actions in CWS/CMS to see how well the C# code handles the workload.
CWS/CMS C# CTW Schedule
CWDS is seeking fifteen (15) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
- Monday, December 11, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, December 12, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, December 13, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, December 14, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Monday, December 18, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, December 19, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, December 20, 2023 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, December 21, 2023 (AM or PM session)
CWDS is seeking twenty (20) County staff members for each of the sessions below (two (2) sessions per day):
- Monday, January 8, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday, January 9, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, January 10, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, January 11, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Tuesday January 16, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Wednesday, January 17, 2024 (AM or PM session)
- Thursday, January 18, 2024 (AM or PM session)
CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Registration
We appreciate the counties continued support by participating in the different phases of testing the C# code. It’s your support that will help us to confirm that the code is thoroughly tested and ready for migration.
The CWS/CMS C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form (see link below) for each potential tester must be received as soon as possible, but no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
Link: https://forms.gle/GBkTdChs9zNrTioR8
If for any reason, you cannot access the Online Registration Form or if you have any questions regarding this CTW recruitment, please contact Customer Relations.
The CWDS Office will work with the registered participants on all the details of their CTW participation.
Again, your continued support of CWDS is greatly appreciated.
Action Required
Submit a C# County Test Workshop Online Registration Form no later than 5PM on November 16, 2023.
CWS-CARES Scheduled Maintenance – UPDATE
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
November 9, 2023 UPDATE: The time has changed from beginning at 5:00PM and concluding at 7:00PM to now 7:00PM and concluding at 9:00PM.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for November 9, 2023, beginning at 7:00PM and concluding at 9:00PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
As part of the maintenance window the Adobe AEM functionality will not be accessible.
Action Required
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
November 9, 2023 UPDATE: The time has changed from beginning at 5:00PM and concluding at 7:00PM to now 7:00PM and concluding at 9:00PM.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for November 9, 2023, beginning at 7:00PM and concluding at 9:00PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
As part of the maintenance window the Adobe AEM functionality will not be accessible.
Action Required
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
CWS/CMS: California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – SBCS Infrastructure Servers Security Patching - Nov. 25, 2023 | 6 AM - 10 AM
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, November 25, 2023, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, November 25, 2023, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will apply Standard Monthly OS Security Patches to SBCS Infrastructure Servers. There is no anticipated outage for this maintenance; however, CDT is asking that everyone log off from the Citrix SBC system, if not actively using it during the maintenance window.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CWS-CARES Scheduled Maintenance– November 9, 2023 | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for November 9, 2023, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 7:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
As part of the maintenance window the Adobe AEM functionality will not be accessible.
Action Required
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for November 9, 2023, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 7:00 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Contra Costa, Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
As part of the maintenance window the Adobe AEM functionality will not be accessible.
Action Required
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CWS-CARES County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
CWS/CMS in Read-Only during Daylight Saving Time Change - REMINDER, Nov.5 2023 | 1:00 AM - 2:00 AM
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWS/CMS application will be in read-only mode for one hour during the time change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time on Sunday, November 5, 2023. To prevent duplicate time stamps, users will not be able to save to the database starting at 1:00 AM Standard Time, after the clocks have been moved back from 2:00 AM Daylight Saving Time. The application will return to the normal read/write mode at 2:00 AM Standard Time.
This will not affect CWS-CARES or CARES-Live.
Action Required
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if the CWS/CMS application has not returned to read/write mode after 2:00 AM Standard Time.
The CWS/CMS application will be in read-only mode for one hour during the time change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time on Sunday, November 5, 2023. To prevent duplicate time stamps, users will not be able to save to the database starting at 1:00 AM Standard Time, after the clocks have been moved back from 2:00 AM Daylight Saving Time. The application will return to the normal read/write mode at 2:00 AM Standard Time.
This will not affect CWS-CARES or CARES-Live.
Action Required
Contact the IBM Help Desk (800-428-8268) if the CWS/CMS application has not returned to read/write mode after 2:00 AM Standard Time.
CARES-Live Scheduled Maintenance – October 26, 2023 | 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CARES-Live team has scheduled maintenance for the CARES-Live application. The maintenance is scheduled for Thursday, October 26, 2023, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. During this scheduled maintenance the CARES-Live team will focus on application maintenance changes that are not visible to CARES-Live users.
NOTE: Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during the scheduled outage.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CARES-Live, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
The CARES-Live team has scheduled maintenance for the CARES-Live application. The maintenance is scheduled for Thursday, October 26, 2023, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. During this scheduled maintenance the CARES-Live team will focus on application maintenance changes that are not visible to CARES-Live users.
NOTE: Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during the scheduled outage.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CARES-Live, please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day.
California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – Citrix NetScaler Firmware Update, Oct. 21, 2023 | 6:00 AM - 10:00 AM
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, October 21, 2023, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will update the Citrix NetScaler firmware. Users should sign off prior to the start of the change. Citrix SBC users may be kicked out of the system or unable to log in. If users are kicked out of the system, they will need to wait until the maintenance window is completed to sign back in.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, October 21, 2023, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 10:00 AM. During the maintenance window, CDT will update the Citrix NetScaler firmware. Users should sign off prior to the start of the change. Citrix SBC users may be kicked out of the system or unable to log in. If users are kicked out of the system, they will need to wait until the maintenance window is completed to sign back in.
Action Required
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
California Department of Technology Service Desk Bulletin – Gold Camp Data Center Core Switch Replacement – October 15, 2023 | 12:00 AM – 7:00 AM – REMINDER
All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Sunday, October 15, 2023, to replace core switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 12:00 midnight and conclude at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for direct connection to CWS/CMS during this activity.
Server Based Computing (SBC) access to the CWS/CMS will be impacted during the change window, while CDT is in the process of switching out cables and making configuration changes.
CARES-Live users will also be impacted during the seven-hour change window, while CDT is in the process of switching out cables and making configuration changes.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day .
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled a change window on Sunday, October 15, 2023, to replace core switches at the Gold Camp Data Center. The change window will begin at 12:00 midnight and conclude at 7:00 AM on Sunday morning.
CWS/CMS connections through the Gold Camp facility will failover to either the Orange or Vacaville Data Center facilities while the change is in progress. CWS/CMS users may experience a slightly longer time than usual to connect to the CWS/CMS application while the network looks for connections to the other two Data Centers. No interruption in service is expected for direct connection to CWS/CMS during this activity.
Server Based Computing (SBC) access to the CWS/CMS will be impacted during the change window, while CDT is in the process of switching out cables and making configuration changes.
CARES-Live users will also be impacted during the seven-hour change window, while CDT is in the process of switching out cables and making configuration changes.
There is no impact to connectivity to CWS-CARES.
Action Required
CWS/CMS Users
If users experience any issues with CWS/CMS, please follow your county process for reporting issues, or you may contact the IBM Boulder Help Desk at 1-800-428-8268.
CARES-Live Users
Please follow your county process for reporting issues. CARES-Live County Administrators may contact the CARES Service Desk through the CWDS ServiceNow Customer Support Management (CSM) Portal. Alternate methods are phoning 1-855-292-3444 or via email during normal business hours. You may also email after hours, and a Service Desk representative will contact you the next business day .
If unable to find a specific Bulletin, please contact Communications.