SPLUNK CLOUD PLATFORM MAINTENANCE POLICY

GENERAL

To operate in an efficient, secure, and highly available manner while delivering the latest features to our customers and users, Splunk Cloud Platform has the following classes of maintenance-related activities:

• Service Update Maintenance
  

  New feature enhancements will be delivered as Splunk-initiated Service Update maintenance windows. As Splunk releases new versions of Splunk Cloud Platform and Premium Apps, you will receive the most current version. Splunk may perform up to two Service Update maintenance windows per calendar month.

• Security & Platform Maintenance
  

  Splunk performs frequent, regular maintenance activities to ensure the security, health, and operability of Splunk Cloud Platform. Security and Platform Maintenance includes vulnerability fixes, purchase fulfillment operations, updates to the underlying operating system or infrastructure, and other necessary changes.

• Emergency Maintenance
  

  In rare instances, Splunk might need to perform emergency maintenance on short notice to address a critical incident, avert a significant disruption, or fix a security vulnerability. During these exceptional situations, customers may not receive advance notice.

MAINTENANCE NOTIFICATIONS

• Splunk will notify Operational Contacts of Service Update maintenance activities at least 14 days before the maintenance window.
• Splunk will notify Operational Contacts of Security and Platform maintenance activities at least 7 days before the maintenance window.
• In the event of Emergency Maintenance, Splunk will make commercially reasonable efforts to notify customer Operational Contacts.
• Our communications will provide information about any expected customer actions, such as updates to data ingestion mechanisms or applications. During maintenance activities, ingest, login and search services may be degraded or unavailable for a short period of time within the maintenance window.

Zero Downtime maintenance activities may be performed in the background and are not communicated in advance. Upon completion of these changes, a historical record is available in the Cloud Monitoring Console and Administration Configuration Service.

CHANGE FREEZE

Customers may request a temporary Change Freeze i.e., suspension of Service Update Maintenance during specific date periods, with a maximum of three months per calendar year.

• Emergency Maintenance and Security & Platform Maintenance types are not eligible for Change Freezes. Also, Splunk may override any previously approved Change Freeze requests to perform Emergency Maintenance and Security & Platform Maintenance and schedule modification requests will not be accommodated.
• Change Freeze requests are not guaranteed. Splunk will make commercially reasonable efforts to honor these requests, while also considering the criticality of the change or update.
• Change Freeze requests will only be considered for Splunk Cloud Platform stacks on a release made generally available within the last 12 months.
• Zero Downtime will honor Change Freezes, unless they are classified as Security & Platform Maintenance or Emergency Maintenance.
• Opted-in Auto-updates will proceed as normal during any Change Freeze period. Examples can be found in this blog.

Subject to the Maintenance Policy, Customers are required to maintain their instances of the Splunk Service to address any vulnerabilities or required upgrades that could impact the security of the Splunk Service or Splunk’s customers, including (i) promptly applying security patches and updates (and associated remediation actions) to customer managed applications, infrastructure, components, and services on the platform and that interacts with the platform and (ii) ensure that their systems meet minimum security and performance standards. If a Customer fails to comply with these requirements and the instance poses a material risk to the Splunk Services, Splunk reserves the right without prior notice to patch or remove offending extensions (and associated remediation actions) to protect the integrity and security of the Splunk Service and its users.

If you have any questions or concerns about upcoming or ongoing maintenance, please contact Splunk Support by opening a case on the Splunk Customer Portal.