Standard
Effective Date
February 7, 2014
Chapter Name
Networking
Chapter Number
6.5.S.3
1.
Date of Last Revision
August 12, 2015
Title
Active Directory Service Level Expectation
Purpose
This Service Level Expectation (SLE) represents I.T. efforts in providing Active Directory Services (ADS). The
scope of this document includes:
•
•
•
Service description provided by I.T. to EMU clients.
Levels of response time, availability, and support associated with these services.
Processes for requesting services and getting support.
2. Governing Policy
Number/Document Name
6.5 Active Directory Administration
3.
Effective Date
October 19, 2011
Standard
3.1. Introduction
The EMU Active Directory Service is populated by the University's Identity Management (IDM) system. This
Active Directory is intended to provide the infrastructure for a variety of departmental applications and other
campus services.
3.2. Service Description
The Eastern Michigan University Active Directory Service is provided as a shared University service, with
hardware, software and associated maintenance performed by I.T. In addition, this service provides for
administrative control for organizational unit administrators and is available to all university departments.
The Active Directory Service uses NetID and does not require another login name and password, except for
administration and role-based accounts. This feature provides significant benefits to users and departments:
•
•
•
Departments no longer need to create or manage login names, but can rely on the existing structure
supporting the NetID.
Student, faculty, and staff members can use the same login and password (single sign-on) for a wider set of
applications and services beyond the core central services.
Departments can participate in this service without making a large hardware, software, and staff investment
to establish a departmental directory service.
IT Standard
Form Version 3.0
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3.2.1. Supported Computing Environment
The service and support levels documented in this SLE assume certain minimum configurations in the user desktop
and server environments. Desktop standards are available at
http://www.emich.edu/it/help/help_desk/HDMinSupStand.php For server standards please contact Director of
Network and System Services.
Technical Support
Routine requests are typically addressed within one to three business days. Technical support and problem
report/resolution will be provided only to organizational unit administrators as follows:
!
Tier 1 Support (Help Desk):
o Tier 1 support for organizational unit administrator problems and end-user problems is provided
by the I.T. Help Desk. See the IT Help Desk web page for hours of operation and other
information.
!
Tier 2 Support (AD Support):
o The I.T. Help Desk may escalate issues to Tier 2 support.
o Tier 2 support is available during normal business hours and provided by the systems team.
!
AD Support Team Responsibilities:
o Coordination and implementation of schema modifications
o Maintain directory structure including
" Naming standard prefix designations
" OU creation, modification and deletion
" Grant authority to delegated OU administrators
o Assist departments with relocation of users and resources from one department to another
o Maintain central test environment
" Coordinate scheduling
" Maintain testing infrastructure (patches, security updates and integrity)
" Technical infrastructure support
3.3. Service Availability
3.3.1. Normal Service Availability
The Eastern Michigan University Active Directory is designed to be available for customer use 24-hours per day,
seven days per week, 365 days per year, excluding scheduled maintenance windows.
3.3.2. Scheduled Maintenance
Scheduled maintenance is critical for upgrades and to maintain a secure, stable environment. Scheduled maintenance
outages may occur monthly during a designated maintenance window. Other scheduled maintenance will occur at
pre-determined intervals and will be coordinated in advance.
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3.3.3. Problem and Change Notification
I.T. will notify delegated OU admins of service availability and service delivery issues based on the following
conditions. To the maximum extent possible, moderate and major changes will be performed during scheduled
maintenance periods.
Type
Moderate
Business Impact
Changes or problems that may affect
the service and have a potential for
broad business impact.
Major
Changes that will affect the service
across multiple departments, with a
significant impact to the subscribers'
business.
Critical
(AfterHours)
Changes that must be performed in
order to correct issues having some
impact on end-users. Impact to
business does not warrant immediate
correction.
Service unavailable in total
Emergency
(Immediate)
Subscriber Notification
I.T. will notify departmental admins
of changes five working days in
advance via e-mail, and will
generate an alert on the I.T. outages
page two weeks in advance.
I.T. will notify departmental admins
ten working days in advance via email and will generate an alert on
the I.T. outages page four weeks in
advance.
I.T. will notify departmental admins
as soon as possible after knowing
such a change is required via e-mail,
and will generate an alert on the I.T.
outages page.
I.T. will generate an alert on the I.T.
outages page, and will notify
departmental admins via e-mail
after implementing the change.
Example
The installation of
an application patch.
New version of
Windows.
Hung process on
server needs to be
cleared before the
server crashes.
Application failure
The I.T. system outages page is linked from the bottom of http://www.emich.edu/it/ .
3.4. Key Service Metrics
The following table describes the key service level objectives defined by this SLE.
Measurement Definition
Performance Target
Availability [1] The percent of time that the service is available.
99.5%
Notes:
[1] The Availability is calculated as the hours that the service is available in the reporting period divided by the total
hours in the reporting period.
3.4.1. Dependencies on other Services
The Eastern Michigan University Active Directory is dependent upon the university data center power, the network,
and related systems. The availability of those systems will have a direct impact on the availability of this service.
Availability impacted from any events (scheduled or unexpected) from these specified dependencies is not counted
into the unavailable hours.
4. Responsibility for Implementation
The Director of Network and Systems Services and the Director of Enterprise Support are responsible for
implementation of this standard.
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5. Definitions
Term
NetID
Business Hours
Service Level Expectation (SLE)
Definition
Previously referred to as my.emich credentials.
8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays and reduced
schedule days.
A Service Level Expectation (SLE) defines the service response that EMU an
I.T. customer should expect to receive upon making a request.
6. Revision History
Description
Original Draft
Approval Date
AD Storage Team
IT Policy Committee
CIO
Updated – James Pringle, Ben Peters, Patric Daugherty
IT Policy Committee 1st Review
IT Policy Committee 2nd Review
Approved by CIO
06/19/2013
02/06/2014
02/07/2014
03/10/2015
07/09/2015
08/06/2015
08/12/2015
IT Standard
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