Planned ALVS and PEACH downtime

Planned system downtimes affecting import clearances via ALVS and PEACH

Here are further updates of planned maintenance work on the ALVS/CHIEF/Government Gateway/PEACH systems:

Wednesday 9 May 2012
Due to essential maintenance work on the Single Sign-On system PEACH users may experience difficulties in logging in between 1900-2000hrs. In addition, release decisions and risk assessments in the FERA eDOMERO system may not be relayed to PEACH during this time.

Please accept our apologies for the short notice of this potential interruption to normal service.

Tuesday 15 May 2012
Due to essential maintenance work the PEACH system will be unavailable for a two-hour period between 1200-1400hrs.
Due to the length of this downtime manual handling procedures will not be in place. Where possible importers or their agents should aim to make applications either side of the downtime.

Sunday 20 May 2012
Due to essential maintenance work on the Government Gateway the PEACH system will be unavailable for a two-hour period between 2000-2200hrs.
Due to the length of this downtime manual handling procedures will not be in place. Where possible importers or their agents should aim to make applications either side of the downtime.

Sunday 27 May 2012
Due to essential maintenance work the CHIEF system will be unavailable for a one-hour period between 0000-0100hrs. PEACH will not be affected, but release decisions will not be relayed via ALVS during this period.
Due to the length of this downtime manual handling procedures will not be in place. Where possible importers or their agents should aim to make applications either side of the downtime.

Sunday 10 June 2012
Further to the advisory sent out on 9 May, we have now been informed that the planned downtime to the Government Gateway (and therefore PEACH) has been extended by two hours from 1200-1800hrs to 1200-2000hrs.
Due to the length of this downtime manual handling procedures will be in place, and the National Clearance Hub will be authorised to clear consignments on production of either a valid Phytosanitary Certificate or a Certificate of Conformity. Where possible importers or their agents should aim to make applications either side of the downtime.

We have also been advised that for the 24 hours after this planned downtime (i.e. from 2001hrs on Sunday 10 June to 2000hrs on Monday 11 June), and again between 0800-1800hrs on both Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 June, the Government Gateway will be operating at what is termed “reduced resilience”. This means that there is a small chance of users finding it difficult to access PEACH due to one of the two servers which usually processes network traffic being taken offline for essential maintenance.

As far as possible the front page of PEACH will be kept updated to notify all users of these planned downtimes and will hold current information on sudden or emergency issues causing downtime to the systems.
http://www.ehmipeach.defra.gov.uk

In addition we use the ‘Alerts online’ system to send text messages, especially for unforeseen incidents, to those importers and agents who are registered for this service. If any recipient of this email wishes to register for the Alerts Online service please visit their website:
http://www.alertsonline.net/default.aspx

Whenever we are notified of planned downtime, the expectation is that the work will proceed as planned. It is sometimes the case, however, that for operational reasons the timing of the downtime is changed or the work postponed. When these timings are amended, we will do our best to advise users as soon as practical.

There will also be occasions where downtime is caused by faults to or emergency work needed on any of the various parts that contribute to the PEACH and ALVS systems. We try to provide up to date information on such issues on the front page of PEACH, however if users are experiencing issues with the system please do contact the PEACH helpdesk.

Best regards,
PEACH and FERA Helpdesk teams.

PEACH Helpdesk – (0845) 607 3224. Open 0600-2200 Monday to Friday, 0800-1800 weekends and Bank Holidays

FERA Imports Helpdesk – (0844) 248 0071. Open 24 hours