@@ -130,6 +130,37 @@ The flow of applicant data to/from the SMI and other services is summarised by t
Further information is available in the [Operational Documentation for the Undergraduate Admissions process](https://gitlab.developers.cam.ac.uk/uis/devops/uga/operational-documentation).
#### Preparation tasks for new cycle
##### Backups
Backups are run nightly, and a week's worth of the automated backups are stored. On-demand backups are stored indefinitely until deleted. It is recommended to take an on-demand backup before performing cycle changeover actions.
###### Perform manual database backup
1. Go to Google Cloud Console, and select the environment of "UG Admissions" you're looking for.
1. Navigate to the SQL instance for that environment.
1. Select "Backups" > "Create backup".
1. Give the backup a meaningful name, e.g. "Before updating SMI users for 2022 summer pool".
Taking a backup usually takes a couple of minutes. Restoring a database instance from a backup can take up to 20 minutes to complete, in practice.
##### Resetting user access
Between cycles, we need to clear down the users setup for just that cycle. This enables staff to invite only those now relevant to the role for the next cycle.
This involves deleting the following associations of users to the following auth groups:
1. "Admissions Tutors" group
1. "College Admissions Administrators" group
1. "Directors of Studies" group
1. "Interviewers" group
1. "Subject Convenors" group
1. All "[College] Affiliated Users" groups
1. All "[Subject] conveners" groups
This can be done group-by-group manually through the SMI admin interface by DevOps.
In particular we do not clear down members of the "Central Admissions Officers", so CAO staff can begin re-adding key users in each college. As we don't erase users, and DevOps team members are marked as superusers, these also survive the yearly reset process.
