Each week, the CMS Cloud program provides a list of upcoming changes, maintenance windows, and updates to help customers build awareness and plan effectively and summarizes changes from the previous week.
This newsletter includes:
Completed change summary for the week of 6/26/2025
- 6/27/2025 - Reduce Indexed Data Retention in Cloud Splunk to 3 Years
- 6/28/2025 - Enterprise Testing Services Maintenance
- 6/29/2025 - Restart Production and Non-Prod HEC Servers
To learn details about previous changes please go to the News and Updates section on cloud.cms.gov. (Secure Access required)
For Patching and Gold Image release schedule please view :Patching and Gold Image Release Calendar - 2025
7/3/2025 - Reduce Indexed Data Retention in Cloud Splunk to 2.5 Years
Summary:
The CMS Hybrid Cloud Splunk team will be reducing indexed data retention to 2.5 years from 3 years as part of bringing Cloud Splunk into M-21-31 compliance.
Actions we are taking:
- Reduce the retention policy to 2.5 years
- Monitor indexer activities
When is this happening?
Start Time: Thursday, 7/3/2025 at 8:00 p.m. ET
End Time: Friday, 7/4/2025 at 4:00 p.m. ET
Who will be impacted?
DRaaS ITSI, MITG MSI, EMM and CCIC search heads peered to the Splunk environment.
What is the impact?
There is no major impact to users. During the change window there can be latency with Splunk searches and dashboards rendering slowly.
7/6/2025 - Marketplace SSM patching - PROD
Summary:
- Marketplace PROD
- SSM Linux & Windows Vulnerability Patching
Actions we are taking:
As part of our normal patching, the CMS Hybrid Cloud team will apply the latest Windows and Linux patches on Sunday, 7/6/2025 at 12:00 a.m. ET. The week's patches will impact the PROD environment for the affected Marketplace applications noted below.
When is this happening?
Start Time: Sunday, 7/6/2025 at 12:00 a.m. ET
End Time: Sunday, 7/6/2025 at 4:00 a.m. ET
Who will be impacted?
FFM_Opera, XES - CyberArk, OCEAN, VAMS, TWS, XES - XOC Tools, SERVIS, FFM_Shared_Services, FFM MLMS, XES - MSI Tech Lab, FFM_FM, FFM_TWS, FFM_PM, XES - Service Virtualization
DSRS, FFM, FFM DSH, FFM EDI, FFM EFT, FFM ESDCU, MCR, FLH, OC Base- FLH, OC Base PET
What is the impact?
Patches will be transmitted to the affected areas. For some customers, reboots may occur depending upon the tags applied.
7/6/2025 - Restart Production and Non-Prod HEC Servers
Summary:
The CMS Hybrid Cloud Splunk team will perform a rolling restart of the HEC Splunk Services. Splunk professional services identified some new token configuration that will need to be remediated to ensure the stability of the Splunk HEC Forwarders. They recommended that we restart the HEC Forwarders weekly until all the newly identified token configurations are corrected.
Actions we are taking:
- Restarting the Prod and Non-Prod HEC Forwarders
When is this happening?
Start Time: Sunday, 7/6/2025 at 12:00 p.m. ET
End Time: Sunday, 7/6/2025 at 3:00 p.m. ET
Who will be impacted?
MITG and MSI
What is the impact?
There is no expected impact. We have 45 prod HEC services and 18 Non-Prod and we are only restarting 5 at a time. The majority of load balanced HEC servers will be available as the restarts progress and they have sufficient capacity to handle all ingest streams.
Need help? We are here to support you.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to your assigned Hosting Coordinator. CMS IT Support can be reached via cloudsupport@cms.hhs.gov, or call (800) 562-1963, and is documented here at Support Page on cloud.cms.gov.
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