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Tech support (FAQs)

All your questions about the way we offer tech and user support answered.

How can I ask for tech support?

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Our main communication channel for paying Subscribers is support.cloud68.co. On-boarded Subscribers can also contact our team by using support@cloud68.co, which will open automagically a support ticket for you.

Do you offer support via phone?

Our team members are millennials and GenZ members and are not used to use 'the phone'. We use BigBlueButton (open source software of course) for video calls to offer tech support. It's just like using 'the phone', but better. Everyone on a Subscription plan can easily schedule a call to reach our tech and user support team by visiting cloud68.co/schedule-a-call. 

What about tech support via X (Twitter)/Mastodon?

For various reasons, we're not on X. Sometimes we also answer questions on our Mastodon/Fediverse channels, but it is not guaranteed that we will answer there as quickly as if you contacted us at our primary support channels. Just a reminder that our Mastodon account is @Cloud68@fosstodon.net.

Submitting a Support Ticket: Essential Information for Quick Resolution

To ensure our support team can efficiently address your issues, please provide the following information when submitting a support ticket. Clear and detailed information will help us understand your problem and offer a quick resolution.

1. Software Information

The most important thing is to inform us about the software that has the issue. Example: Nextcloud (or PeerTube)

2. Detailed Problem Description

Describe the issue you are experiencing. Include as much detail as possible to help our team understand and diagnose the problem.

Nature of the Issue:
  - Is it a website downtime issue, email problem, performance issue, security concern, etc.?
Steps to Reproduce:
  - Provide step-by-step instructions on how to replicate the issue.
Error Messages:
  - Include any error messages you have received, along with screenshots if possible.
Affected Services:
  - Specify which services are affected (e.g., Nextcloud: desktop sync client, web interface).

3. Recent Changes

Inform us of any recent changes that might be related to the issue.

Software/Hardware Changes:
  - Have there been any recent updates or changes to your mobile device, personel using the isntance, computer operating system or operating system update on your machine?
Configuration Changes:
  - Mention any recent changes to your configuration settings (example: shared a main Nextcloud folder with more people from the team, accessing the instance from another country with or without a VPN).

4. Access Information

Provide any necessary access information to allow our team to investigate and resolve the issue.

Login Credentials:
  - Document in writing whether you consent to Cloud68.co impersonating your account solely for the purposes of replicating the problem when necessary.

5. Urgency and Impact

Help us prioritize your request by describing the urgency and impact of the issue.

Severity Level:

Deadline:
  - Mention if there is a specific deadline by which the issue needs to be resolved.

6. Additional Information

Include any other relevant information that might help us resolve your issue more efficiently.

Logs:
  - Attach any relevant client/browser console or application logs (does not apply to all use cases).
Screenshots:
  - Provide screenshots or videos illustrating the issue.

Note: By following these guidelines and providing comprehensive information, you can help our support team address your issues more effectively and efficiently.

Using support.cloud68.co

We offer technical support to our Subscribers based on the packages they have.

Starter packages: standard support

Medium+ packages: priority support

Who has access to your support system?

If you are a subscriber of ours you can access our support system by requesting a username and a password at support (a) cloud68.co.

If you have a username and a password

In this case visit support.cloud68.co and get access with your credentials.

When do you offer support?

Our support team is active from Monday to Friday from 9.00 - 17.00 CEST.

 

What are your support days and hours?

Our friendly tech support team is available from Monday to Friday 9.00 - 17.00 CET/CEST timezone.

Tech support during weekends

During weekends and official holidays, only high priority and downtime-related support tickets are handled. 


Official holidays and unavailability

Below are the days that our team is not expected to offer tech and user support, except in high priority situations:

Our team members monitor our and your infrastructure around the clock including weekends and official holidays to make sure everything is up and running and most importantly secure.

Scheduled maintenance & software updates

In this page, we explain our approach on instance updates from the actual version you are using to a new one.undraw_clean_up_ucm0.png

When is an instance updated

The approach we have decided to follow for the management of all the instances is to update to major stable releases, unless there is a security or an unscheduled critical update. We have found this to be a more stable and secure approach. Minor updates might also break some things in the instance, which will force us to revert to the previous version and cause disruption and potential downtime to our Subscribers.

Instance update procedure

Due to potential downtime to the instance(s) we manage, we inform our Subscribers beforehand, at least five (5) business days before we proceed with an update.

Should you update the instance(s) on your own?

We encourage our Subscribers that do their best to follow the security practices. One of these practices is to have every software you use up to date. But if every Subscriber updates their instance without informing our support team, it can cause a lot of issues on a hosting provider side. The issues can be from simple to fix like an app not working on new releases, to the  platform having a major bug that had escaped the QA of the developing team of the platform.

Our approach on software updates

For the reasons mentioned above, we test each major release on our test environment, and then if everything looks good, we inform you (our Subscriber) about the specific date we plan to update your instance. We test major release or minor releases that contain vulnerability fixes. Vulnerability issues on well-developed platforms such as Nextcloud are uncommon, but they still can happen once in a while. This is why we do our best to test and notify you in a timeline as short as humanly possible.
Our update procedure is fully automated (we let our automation code do the work) and ensure no human error is present while updating.

Scheduled maintenance

When we need to proceed with a software/platform update, we plan on a scheduled maintenance to your instance. In this case, the main contact person responsible for the Subscription package will be notified by email. We usually work on planned instance updates on weekends (Saturday to be more specific). The reason we choose Saturdays is due to the fact that we don't want to disrupt your work during weekdays when the instances are used the most usually.

Software updates are implemented two (2) weeks from the release date the earliest, unless there is a security update involved.

Service not available

undraw_server_down_s4lk.pngIn case of unplanned disruption of service, we will try to inform our Subscribers using the following methods:

  1. email directed to the main contact person responsible for the Subscription;
  2. Mastodon announcement fosstodon.org/web/accounts/234260;

For major disruptions, we might also publish a blog post https://cloud68.co/blog/.

Handling High Traffic on Your Managed Hosting Instances

From time to time, there may be instances where we anticipate a higher load on the infrastructure we are hosting for you. Such situations might require additional resources to ensure that your services remain accessible and perform optimally. Here are some common scenarios that might lead to increased traffic:

And the list goes on.

Solution

Each of your instances comes with predefined specifications. If your instance(s) are using more resources than allocated, they might become inaccessible. To avoid any disruptions during periods of high traffic, please inform our support team through the usual tech support channels at least three (3) business days before the anticipated event. This advance notice will allow us to ensure that your instance remains accessible and performs well during high-traffic periods. 

If you have any questions or need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our support team.

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