Lobster maintains a structured, predictable maintenance schedule for all cloud environments. This ensures that your systems remain secure, up-to-date, and performant. All times are specified in UTC.
NOTE:
This maintenance schedule applies to all cloud customers and covers all Lobster Data Platform (LDP) customers.
Standard maintenance windows
Maintenance type | Affected systems | Schedule | Details | Impact on availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
All environments (Test, DEV, and Production) | 1st Sunday of each month, 06:00 to 08:00 UTC | Managed by Lobster under the Shared responsibility model. Customer-specific adjustments to this process are not possible. | On non-HA systems, one or more server restarts may occur within this time window. Restarts are planned in advance and any interruption is kept as short as possible and stays within the window. For HA systems, see: System availability for High Availability systems | |
Lobster software updates | Test and DEV systems only | 1st Sunday of each month, 08:00 to 09:00 UTC | The current software version is first deployed to test and DEV systems. | On non-HA systems, one or more server restarts may occur within this time window. Restarts are planned in advance and any interruption is kept as short as possible and stays within the window. For HA systems, see: System availability for High Availability systems |
Lobster software updates | Production systems only | 4th Sunday of each month, 06:00 to 07:00 UTC | The same software version that was deployed to the DEV/Test systems is installed on production. | On non-HA systems, one or more server restarts may occur within this time window. Restarts are planned in advance and any interruption is kept as short as possible and stays within the window. For HA systems, see: System availability for High Availability systems |
Database maintenance | All systems | 1st Sunday of each month, 06:00 to 07:00 UTC | Managed by Lobster under the Shared responsibility model. Updates by Lobster are rolled out exclusively within this time window. The cloud provider reserves the right to apply critical updates. These may be carried out on any Sunday, without prior notice, within the scheduled time window. Customer-specific adjustments to this process are not possible. | On non-HA systems, one or more restarts of the database server may occur within this time window. Restarts are planned in advance and any interruption is kept as short as possible and stays within the window. For HA systems, see: System availability for High Availability systems |
Re-org Job | All systems | Daily, starting at 01:00 UTC | Internal reorganization job. Duration depends on system size. | No downtime. The job runs in the background. |
NOTE:
You can find the full update process here: Cloud update policy
Operating system maintenance windows
IMPORTANT:
The maintenance windows for operating system and database updates are fixed and cannot be adjusted on a per-customer basis. Unified schedules allow Lobster to maintain all customer environments consistently and efficiently.
System availability for High Availability systems
High Availability architecture systems are designed for continuous operation and generally protect against unplanned service interruptions. Maintenance on HA systems follows a coordinated procedure across all nodes and is planned and announced in good time.
Maintenance takes place within an announced window. Lobster plans the individual steps in advance and coordinates them across all nodes. Depending on the scope of the work, brief interruptions can occur while nodes are updated or restarted. These interruptions form part of planned maintenance and are limited to the minimum the architecture allows. We continue to develop our maintenance procedures to keep necessary interruptions as short as possible.
Operating system updates
The operating system updates on the 1st Sunday of each month also apply to HA systems. Depending on the patches provided by the cloud provider, important or critical updates such as kernel updates require the individual nodes to be restarted. This is not necessary in every maintenance window. Where restarts are required, they are coordinated across the nodes. The exact sequence follows from the patches provided, so a short interruption within the window is possible.
Lobster software updates
During a software update, the nodes are updated one after another in a coordinated sequence. This applies to the window for test and DEV systems on the 1st Sunday and to the window for production systems on the 4th Sunday of each month. A short interruption is possible while the nodes switch over.
Database maintenance
For HA systems, the database runs as an Aurora cluster. During database maintenance, the cluster fails over to a reader node automatically. This briefly interrupts the database connection.
NOTE: Take the announced maintenance windows into account when scheduling time-critical processes. This applies to HA systems as well.
Notification policy
You will be notified approximately 7 days before each scheduled maintenance. Notifications are delivered through two channels: the Lobster status pages and directly inside your Lobster software.
IMPORTANT: How to receive maintenance notifications
All details about the status pages, the subscription process, and notifications inside the Lobster software are documented centrally on the System status page.
We strongly recommend that all Lobster Cloud customers subscribe to the General Lobster Cloud Status page. Each month, it publishes the upcoming maintenance windows and the specific work planned for each window. You need this information to plan your own operations and those of your users in good time.
Planned time of notification
Notification | Scheduled time |
|---|---|
Maintenance notification for test systems | 4th Sunday of the previous month (7+ days before the 1st Sunday). |
Maintenance notification for production systems | 3rd Sunday of the current month (7+ days before the 4th Sunday). |
No separate e-mail notifications
Lobster does not send separate e-mail notifications for maintenance windows. All communication takes place exclusively via the Lobster status pages and the notifications inside the Lobster software.
IMPORTANT: Customer responsibility
As a customer, you are responsible for subscribing to the General Lobster Cloud Status page yourself. This is the only way to ensure that your teams are informed about upcoming maintenance in good time.
The subscription model for the status page provides a key advantage: you decide which users or functional mailboxes receive the notifications, and you can adjust, extend, or reduce the distribution at any time on your own. No request to or change by Lobster is required.
Recommendation
Regularly check the notifications inside your Lobster software, both on your test and DEV systems and on your production systems. This ensures that no maintenance notifications go unnoticed.
Why all operating system updates take place on the 1st Sunday of each month
Lobster deliberately performs operating system updates at the same time across all cloud systems. The reasons at a glance:
AWS-native operating system: The Lobster Cloud runs on an AWS-native Linux, currently Amazon Linux 2023. AWS provides the corresponding updates and patches, pre-tested and released.
Curated patch level: AWS publishes updates continuously, sometimes up until shortly before the maintenance window. An internal Lobster policy determines which patches are actually rolled out. Only verified and approved packages are applied.
Consistent state across all systems: The fixed maintenance window ensures that all Lobster Cloud systems run on the same patch level. This is a key foundation for compliance requirements and simplifies troubleshooting and quality assurance.
Additional infrastructure work in the same window: Alongside the OS updates, we perform further maintenance work on the cloud infrastructure, also aimed at maintaining a consistent state. This reduces the overall number of maintenance interruptions.
Minimal impact on the Lobster software: The operating system generally has little to no impact on the operation of the Lobster software. Business processes are not affected by OS updates.
Validation through test environments: Operating system updates are validated in advance in internal test environments to ensure clean and reliable operation, as far as this is realistically possible in IT practice.