All SPOCs, Technical Contacts, and SBC Administrators:
The California Department of Technology (CDT) has scheduled maintenance on Saturday, August 30, 2025, 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.
CWDS Bulletins
CWS/CMS Release 9.6 and Interim Release 9.6.0 (3-Day Reminder) Bulletin
Release 9.6 will be implemented on Saturday, August 16, 2025
The application outage begins on Saturday, August 16, 2025, at 5:00 AM and will most likely complete around 11:00 AM. Users will not be able to access the CWS/CMS application during this period. All application updates will be applied during this outage and should be available once the outage is complete.
Note: Business Objects will be unavailable from approximately 8 AM to 11 AM while the Release 9.6 updates are being applied.
Customer support will be available from the IBM Helpdesk at (800) 428-8268.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file was made available on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code is located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
By Wednesday, August 6, 2025, dedicated county users should have started seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release 9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Dedicated County users should do the following on the night before the release:
The application outage begins on Saturday, August 16, 2025, at 5:00 AM and will most likely complete around 11:00 AM. Users will not be able to access the CWS/CMS application during this period. All application updates will be applied during this outage and should be available once the outage is complete.
Note: Business Objects will be unavailable from approximately 8 AM to 11 AM while the Release 9.6 updates are being applied.
Customer support will be available from the IBM Helpdesk at (800) 428-8268.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file was made available on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code is located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
- \CODEDIST\Staging\R96
By Wednesday, August 6, 2025, dedicated county users should have started seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release 9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Dedicated County users should do the following on the night before the release:
- Restart (reboot) the workstation and log into Windows (aka the "welcome screen").
- Restart again and do not log into Windows.
- Leave the workstation powered on.
CWS-CARES Scheduled Maintenance - August 11, 2025 | 5 PM - 8:30 PM
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Monday, August 11 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 8:30 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, 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 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 CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Monday, August 11 2025, beginning at 5:00 PM and concluding at 8:30 PM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, 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 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.
CWS/CMS: Release 9.6 and 9.6.0 (15-Day) Informational Bulletin 2
The mandatory VB6 version of Release 9.6 will be implemented on Saturday, Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, August 8, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:
By Friday, August 8, 2025, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Release 9.6 documents are located on the CWDS website. The xTools file and related README file are located on the CWDS Training Portal. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, August 8, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
- \CODEDIST\Staging\R96
Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:
By Friday, August 8, 2025, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Release 9.6 documents are located on the CWDS website. The xTools file and related README file are located on the CWDS Training Portal. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
Available CWS-CARES Environments for User Access
CARES SPOCs, Implementation Coordinators, OCM Coordinators, County Leadership, Tribe Leadership, Probation Leadership, and State Leadership:
We are pleased to share a new resource that will help you understand the various CWS-CARES application environments that are currently available to users.
In order to build, test, and safely launch changes to CWS-CARES, we use different environments. These environments are essentially different versions of the application that allow us to develop, test, train, and eventually deploy new features with confidence. Each one serves a different purpose in the development lifecycle, or a different audience. Some of these environments will help users gain early, hands-on exposure to and familiarity with CWS-CARES, provide a safe space to practice, and will directly support your CWS-CARES go-live readiness activities without impacting real data.
We have made several of these environments available to county users, including V1Readiness (Sandbox), V1DCVAL (for Data Conversion Validation activities), and CARES102 County Development (for Forms, Reports, and Data Extract activities). The PDF document, titled ‘CWS-CARES Environments’ includes more details about each one, including:
We appreciate your continued commitment to staying informed.
Action Required
No action required. If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations.
We are pleased to share a new resource that will help you understand the various CWS-CARES application environments that are currently available to users.
In order to build, test, and safely launch changes to CWS-CARES, we use different environments. These environments are essentially different versions of the application that allow us to develop, test, train, and eventually deploy new features with confidence. Each one serves a different purpose in the development lifecycle, or a different audience. Some of these environments will help users gain early, hands-on exposure to and familiarity with CWS-CARES, provide a safe space to practice, and will directly support your CWS-CARES go-live readiness activities without impacting real data.
We have made several of these environments available to county users, including V1Readiness (Sandbox), V1DCVAL (for Data Conversion Validation activities), and CARES102 County Development (for Forms, Reports, and Data Extract activities). The PDF document, titled ‘CWS-CARES Environments’ includes more details about each one, including:
- Activity Name
- Environment name
- Intended Purpose/Usage
- Intended Users/Audience
- Access and Duration
- Associated Teams Channel or Contact.
We appreciate your continued commitment to staying informed.
Action Required
No action required. If you have any questions, need clarification, or have any accessibility issues, please do not hesitate to contact Customer Relations.
CARES Live 2.8.34 Production Release
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
Effective July 31, 2025, CARES-Live 2.8.34 Release is Scheduled to Move into Production
The CARES-Live team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CARES-Live application. The release activity will begin at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 31, 2025, and conclude at 9:00 PM. During this release, the CARES-Live team will focus on application changes.
Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during this scheduled outage.
CARES-Live 2.8.34:
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 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.
Effective July 31, 2025, CARES-Live 2.8.34 Release is Scheduled to Move into Production
The CARES-Live team has scheduled release activity that will interrupt connectivity to the CARES-Live application. The release activity will begin at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 31, 2025, and conclude at 9:00 PM. During this release, the CARES-Live team will focus on application changes.
Users will not be able to access the CARES-Live application during this scheduled outage.
CARES-Live 2.8.34:
- This release addresses security findings, Java upgrades, and other infrastructure updates and security patches not visible to CARES-Live users.
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 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.
CWS-CARES Scheduled Maintenance - Aug. 1, 2025 | 6 AM - 8 AM
All Pilot County RFA Implementation Coordinators and SPOCs:
The CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Friday, August 1, 2025, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 8:00 AM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, 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 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 CWS-CARES team has scheduled maintenance activity for the CWS-CARES production environment for Friday, August 1, 2025, beginning at 6:00 AM and concluding at 8:00 AM. During the maintenance window, the CWS-CARES Resource Family Approval (RFA) Application Submission, Review, and Approval Process will be accessible for pilot counties Fresno, Placer, and Santa Clara.
During the maintenance window, document related functionality in the CARES application will not be accessible.
Action Required
No action required from end-users during this maintenance window.
If users experience any issues with the CWS-CARES, 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 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.
CWS/CMS: Bulletin Notification – CWS/CMS Release 9.6 and Interim Release 9.6.0 Informational Bulletin
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
This communication is a notification that a bulletin has been posted to the CWDS website. As a reminder, ‘Bulletins’ are located beneath the ‘Follow Our Progress’ header on the CWDS website’s home page. The bulletin provides a reminder and direction prior to Release 9.6 on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Action Required
Please review the bulletin and share the information with county personnel.
This communication is a notification that a bulletin has been posted to the CWDS website. As a reminder, ‘Bulletins’ are located beneath the ‘Follow Our Progress’ header on the CWDS website’s home page. The bulletin provides a reminder and direction prior to Release 9.6 on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Action Required
Please review the bulletin and share the information with county personnel.
CWS/CMS: Release 9.6 and 9.6.0 (15-Day) Informational Bulletin
The mandatory Release 9.6 will be implemented on Saturday, August 16, 2025.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, August 8, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:
By Friday, August 8, 2025, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Release 9.6 documents are located on the CWDS website. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
Coexistent county CWSCMS.MSI file availability:
The CWSCMS.MSI file will be available by Friday, August 8, 2025, for technical staff to begin testing the installation of the release. The code will be located on the CWSDFSr share in the following location:
- \CODEDIST\Staging\R96
Dedicated County CWSCMS.MSI file delivery:
By Friday, August 8, 2025, dedicated county users should start seeing the CWSCMS.MSI file copied to their workstations during Windows logon. Technical staff can verify that they have received the file by checking for its presence in the C:\CACW\R96 folder. This file must exist on the workstation for the installation of Release R9.6 to take place on or after August 16, 2025.
Release 9.6 documents are located on the CWDS website. More documents will be added as the release go-live date approaches.
CWDS Scheduled Website Maintenance - Aug. 4, 2025 | 8 PM - 9 PM
All SPOCs and Technical Contacts:
The CWDS Office will be making some backend updates to the cwds.ca.gov website, causing a short outage for the website. The maintenance window is scheduled for Monday, August 4, 2025, beginning at 8:00 PM and concluding at 9:00 PM. The CWDS website will be unavailable for approximately 15 minutes within the maintenance window.
Action Required
No action needed.
The CWDS Office will be making some backend updates to the cwds.ca.gov website, causing a short outage for the website. The maintenance window is scheduled for Monday, August 4, 2025, beginning at 8:00 PM and concluding at 9:00 PM. The CWDS website will be unavailable for approximately 15 minutes within the maintenance window.
Action Required
No action needed.
If unable to find a specific Bulletin, please contact Communications.