---
title: Incident Response Procedures and Playbooks
description: A comprehensive guide to incident response, severity levels, on-call rotations, postmortems, runbooks, and communication templates.
keywords: [incident response, severity levels, on-call, postmortem, runbook, communication]
category: operations
tags: [incident, response, devops, sre, oncall, postmortem, runbook, communication]
---

## Incident Response Procedures

Incident response procedures outline the steps to be taken when an incident occurs, ensuring a consistent and effective approach to resolving the issue.

### Incident Lifecycle

1. **Detection**: The initial identification of an incident, typically through monitoring systems, user reports, or other means.
2. **Triaging**: Assessing the incident's severity, impact, and urgency to determine the appropriate response.
3. **Escalation**: Notifying the relevant teams, individuals, or on-call personnel to initiate the incident response process.
4. **Remediation**: The steps taken to investigate, diagnose, and resolve the incident.
5. **Postmortem**: A review of the incident, identifying root causes, and documenting lessons learned to improve future incident response.
6. **Closure**: Formally closing the incident after all necessary actions have been completed.

### Incident Severity Levels

Incidents are categorized into different severity levels based on their impact and urgency. This allows for a consistent and prioritized response.

#### Severity 1 (Critical)
- Definition: A critical incident that results in a complete service outage or a significant disruption to core business operations.
- Examples: Database failure, network-wide outage, data breach, major production system crash.
- Response: Immediate engagement of the incident response team, 24/7 on-call support, executive notification, and continuous work until resolved.

#### Severity 2 (High)
- Definition: A high-impact incident that significantly degrades the performance or availability of a critical service or system.
- Examples: Partial service outage, major performance degradation, security incident with limited impact.
- Response: Immediate engagement of the incident response team, on-call support, and prioritized resolution.

#### Severity 3 (Medium)
- Definition: A medium-impact incident that partially degrades the performance or availability of a non-critical service or system.
- Examples: Minor service outage, temporary performance issues, security incident with minimal impact.
- Response: Incident response team engagement during business hours, resolution within agreed-upon SLAs.

#### Severity 4 (Low)
- Definition: A low-impact incident that has minimal effect on service performance or availability.
- Examples: Informational alerts, minor UI issues, routine maintenance tasks.
- Response: Addressed during regular business operations, no dedicated on-call support required.

### On-Call Rotation

The on-call rotation ensures that a designated team or individual is available to respond to incidents outside of regular business hours.

#### On-Call Schedule
- The on-call schedule is typically organized on a weekly basis, with a primary on-call and a backup on-call.
- The on-call schedule is communicated to all relevant teams and individuals, and rotated on a regular basis (e.g., every Monday).
- Contact information for the on-call personnel is maintained in a central location, such as a shared document or a ticketing system.

#### On-Call Responsibilities
- Respond to all critical (Severity 1) and high (Severity 2) incidents that occur outside of regular business hours.
- Triage the incident, engage the necessary teams or subject matter experts, and coordinate the incident response.
- Provide regular updates to stakeholders and management on the status of the incident.
- Document the incident and the actions taken in the postmortem process.

#### On-Call Escalation
- If the primary on-call is unable to resolve the incident, they should escalate to the backup on-call or other designated on-call personnel.
- The on-call schedule should specify clear escalation paths and contact information for the backup on-call and other escalation points.
- In the event of a Severity 1 incident, the on-call should also consider escalating to executive leadership or other stakeholders, as appropriate.

## Postmortems

Postmortems are a structured process to review and document incidents, identify root causes, and implement improvements to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

### Postmortem Template
A typical postmortem template includes the following sections:

1. **Incident Summary**
   - Incident ID, date, and time
   - Incident description
   - Severity level
   - Services or systems affected

2. **Incident Timeline**
   - Detection and notification
   - Escalation and response
   - Remediation steps
   - Incident resolution

3. **Root Cause Analysis**
   - Detailed investigation of the incident
   - Identification of the primary and contributing factors
   - Analysis of system dependencies and interactions

4. **Impact Assessment**
   - Quantification of the impact (e.g., downtime, revenue loss, customer impact)
   - Evaluation of the incident's broader implications

5. **Lessons Learned**
   - Key takeaways and insights from the incident
   - Identification of areas for improvement

6. **Action Items**
   - Specific steps to be taken to address the root causes
   - Responsible parties and timelines for implementation

7. **Conclusion**
   - Summary of the incident and the postmortem process
   - Acknowledgement of the teams and individuals involved

### Postmortem Process
1. **Incident Capture**: Gather all relevant information about the incident, including logs, monitoring data, and team communications.
2. **Root Cause Analysis**: Investigate the incident to identify the primary and contributing factors that led to the issue.
3. **Lessons Learned**: Discuss and document the key takeaways and insights gained from the incident and the postmortem process.
4. **Action Plan**: Develop a clear action plan with specific steps, responsible parties, and timelines to address the identified issues.
5. **Review and Approval**: Review the postmortem document with stakeholders and obtain approval for the action plan.
6. **Implementation and Follow-up**: Execute the action plan and monitor its effectiveness in preventing similar incidents in the future.

### Postmortem Best Practices
- Conduct postmortems for all Severity 1 and Severity 2 incidents, and consider them for lower-severity incidents as well.
- Involve cross-functional teams, including engineering, operations, and subject matter experts, to ensure a comprehensive analysis.
- Maintain a centralized repository of postmortems for easy reference and trend analysis.
- Regularly review the postmortem process and templates to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Foster a blameless culture that encourages open and honest discussions about incidents.

## Runbooks

Runbooks are comprehensive documentation that provide step-by-step instructions for responding to various operational scenarios, including incidents, maintenance tasks, and disaster recovery.

### Runbook Structure
A typical runbook includes the following sections:

1. **Overview**
   - Description of the service or system
   - Objectives and expected outcomes of the runbook

2. **Prerequisites**
   - Hardware, software, and network requirements
   - Access permissions and credentials

3. **Procedures**
   - Detailed, step-by-step instructions for common tasks and scenarios
   - Troubleshooting steps and known issues

4. **Contacts and Escalation**
   - Contact information for key personnel and subject matter experts
   - Escalation paths and on-call rotation details

5. **References**
   - Links to relevant documentation, playbooks, and other resources
   - Version history and changelog

### Runbook Examples

#### Example 1: Restoring a Database from Backup
1. Prerequisites:
   - Access to the database backup storage location
   - Database administrator credentials
   - Estimated downtime and maintenance window

2. Procedure:
   1. Notify stakeholders of the planned maintenance window and expected downtime.
   2. Stop all application services that interact with the database.
   3. Connect to the database management console.
   4. Initiate the restore process using the latest available backup.
   5. Monitor the restore progress and verify the integrity of the restored data.
   6. Perform any necessary post-restore checks and validations.
   7. Restart the application services and verify the restored database is functioning correctly.

3. Contacts and Escalation:
   - Primary DBA: Jane Doe, jane.doe@company.com, +1 (123) 456-7890
   - Backup DBA: John Smith, john.smith@company.com, +1 (987) 654-3210
   - Escalate to Database Engineering Manager if the restore process encounters any issues.

4. References:
   - Database Backup and Restore Procedures
   - Database Disaster Recovery Plan

#### Example 2: Responding to a Severity 1 Incident
1. Prerequisites:
   - Access to the monitoring and alerting systems
   - Contact information for the on-call incident response team

2. Procedure:
   1. Acknowledge the incoming Severity 1 alert.
   2. Determine the affected services and systems based on the alert details.
   3. Engage the primary on-call engineer and the backup on-call engineer.
   4. Initiate a conference call with the incident response team.
   5. Triage the incident, gather relevant logs and metrics, and identify the potential root causes.
   6. Implement the necessary remediation steps to restore service.
   7. Provide regular status updates to stakeholders and management.
   8. Continuously monitor the systems until the incident is resolved.
   9. Document the incident details and the actions taken in the postmortem.

3. Contacts and Escalation:
   - Primary on-call: Jane Doe, jane.doe@company.com, +1 (123) 456-7890
   - Backup on-call: John Smith, john.smith@company.com, +1 (987) 654-3210
   - Escalate to the Incident Response Manager if the incident cannot be resolved within the expected timeframe.

4. References:
   - Incident Response Playbook
   - Severity Level Definitions
   - On-Call Rotation Schedule

### Runbook Maintenance
- Regularly review and update runbooks to ensure they are accurate and up-to-date.
- Incorporate lessons learned from postmortems and incident reviews into the runbook content.
- Distribute runbooks to all relevant teams and individuals and ensure they are easily accessible.
- Conduct periodic walkthroughs and drills to validate the effectiveness of the runbooks.

## Communication Templates

Effective communication is crucial during incident response and other operational activities. Having pre-defined communication templates can help ensure consistency and efficiency.

### Incident Notification Template
Subject: [Severity X] Incident: [Incident Title]

Dear team,

This is to notify you of a [Severity X] incident that has been reported. The details are as follows:

**Incident Summary**:
- Incident ID: [Incident ID]
- Incident Description: [Brief description of the incident]
- Severity: [Severity Level]
- Affected Services: [List of affected services or systems]

**Current Status**:
- The incident response team has been engaged and is currently investigating the issue.
- [Provide a brief update on the current status and any actions taken so far.]

**Next Steps**:
- The on-call team will provide regular updates on the incident status.
- [Outline any immediate actions required from the recipients, if applicable.]

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]

### Postmortem Communication Template
Subject: Postmortem: [Incident Title]

Dear team,

We have completed the postmortem review for the [Incident Title] that occurred on [Date]. The key details are as follows:

**Incident Summary**:
- Incident ID: [Incident ID]
- Incident Description: [Brief description of the incident]
- Severity: [Severity Level]
- Affected Services: [List of affected services or systems]

**Root Cause Analysis**:
- [Detailed summary of the root cause and contributing factors]

**Impact Assessment**:
- [Quantification of the incident's impact, such as downtime, revenue loss, or customer impact]

**Lessons Learned**:
- [Key takeaways and insights gained from the incident and postmortem process]

**Action Plan**:
- [Outline the specific steps, responsible parties, and timelines to address the identified issues]

We are committed to implementing the necessary improvements to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

Regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]

### Runbook Update Notification Template
Subject: Updated Runbook: [Runbook Title]

Dear team,

I would like to inform you that the [Runbook Title] has been updated. The changes are as follows:

**Summary of Changes**:
- [Describe the key updates and improvements made to the runbook]

Please review the updated runbook and familiarize yourself with the new content. The latest version is available at the following location:

[Runbook Location]

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Regards,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]

### Communication Best Practices
- Use clear, concise, and actionable language in all communications.
- Tailor the tone and content of the communication to the target audience.
- Provide regular updates throughout the incident response or operational activity.
- Maintain a centralized repository of communication templates for easy access and modification.
- Review and update the communication templates periodically to ensure they remain relevant and effective.