How Higher Logic Vanilla Handles Bugs and Support Issues
When something isn’t working as expected, our Support team is here to help investigate, understand the impact, and determine the best path forward.
This article explains what happens after you report a problem to Higher Logic Vanilla, how we classify bugs by severity, and what you can expect from us along the way.
A quick note about timing: Our initial response time, update frequency, and resolution target are different commitments. A resolution may mean restoring access or providing a workable solution while our team continues working toward a permanent fix.
What Happens When You Report a Bug?
When you submit an issue, our Support team will review the information you’ve provided and begin investigating.
As part of that process, we’ll:
- Confirm the issue and gather any additional information we need.
- Determine the severity based on the impact to your community and whether a workaround is available.
- Investigate the cause and identify the best way to restore functionality.
- Keep you updated based on the severity of the issue and your Support plan.
- Provide a fix, workaround, or other guidance based on the issue.
Not every reported problem will turn out to be a bug in Higher Logic Vanilla. For example, an issue could be related to a configuration, third-party integration, custom code, or an external service. We’ll help you identify what’s happening and, where possible, point you toward the right next step.
How We Determine Bug Severity
We classify reported issues as Critical, Major, Moderate, or Minor.
The biggest factors we consider are:
- How many customers or community members are affected
- Whether a core part of Higher Logic Vanilla is unavailable
- Whether important business processes can continue
- Whether there is a reasonable workaround
- Whether the issue introduces a security risk
Critical
A Critical issue means Higher Logic Vanilla is unavailable or essentially unusable, with no viable workaround.
This generally applies when an issue affects multiple customer sites or causes a severe platform-wide disruption that prevents business operations from continuing.
Critical severity also applies to actively exploited security vulnerabilities or immediate, severe threats to customer data or system integrity.
Example: Community members across multiple customer sites cannot sign in because of a complete platform database outage.
Issues caused by third-party Single Sign-On providers are not considered Critical Higher Logic Vanilla platform incidents.
Major
A Major issue means an important part of Higher Logic Vanilla is not working and there is no reasonable workaround, but the platform as a whole is still available.
The issue significantly affects an essential business process for one or more customers.
Major severity can also apply to security vulnerabilities that require urgent remediation, such as patching or credential rotation, even if there is no evidence that the vulnerability has been exploited.
Example: Community members can access and read the community, but nobody can publish new content because of an error.
Moderate
A Moderate issue affects an important feature, but your community can continue operating.
There may be a workaround available, or the problem may affect only part of a feature or subsystem. These issues can make a task less efficient without preventing your team or community from completing essential work.
Example: Account notification emails stop sending, but community members can still see their updates when they sign in to the community.
Minor
A Minor issue has limited impact on day-to-day community operations.
These issues are typically cosmetic, affect a very specific use case, or involve non-critical functionality where a workaround is available.
Example: A typo or layout issue appears in the navigation, but everything still works and community members can navigate normally.
How Long Does It Take to Fix a Bug?
The answer depends on the severity of the issue and your Higher Logic Vanilla Support plan.
It’s also important to separate three different timelines:
Initial response is how quickly our Support team will acknowledge and begin working with you on the issue.
Updates are how frequently you can expect progress updates while the incident remains active.
Resolution describes the service outcome we’re working toward within the SLA period. Depending on the issue, that may mean restoring access, restoring the affected function, or providing a workaround. It does not always mean that a permanent code change will be released within that timeframe.
Standard Support
Severity | Initial Response | Updates | Resolution Target |
|---|
Critical | Within 1 hour, 24/7 | Every 1 business hour | Access restored within 24 hours |
Major | Within 4 business hours | Once per business day | Primary function restored or workaround provided within 14 days |
Moderate | Within 3 business days | When the status changes | Best efforts to provide instructions or a workaround within 14 days |
Minor | Within 3 business days | No scheduled updates | No guaranteed resolution timeframe |
Enterprise Support
Severity | Initial Response | Updates | Resolution Target |
|---|
Critical | Within 30 minutes, 24/7 | Every 30 minutes, 24/7 | Access restored within 12 hours |
Major | Within 2 business hours | Every 4 hours | Primary function restored or workaround provided within 8 days |
Moderate | Within 1 business day | When the status changes | Best efforts to provide instructions or a workaround within 14 days |
Minor | Within 1 business day | No scheduled updates | No guaranteed resolution timeframe |
Incident updates may also be posted to the Higher Logic Vanilla status page when appropriate.
When Is Support Available?
Higher Logic Vanilla Support agents actively monitor the Support queue from 12:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, Monday through Friday.
Some enhanced Support plans include additional coverage.
On weekends and holidays, we use a rotating on-call schedule to monitor the Support queue for Critical incidents.
How to Contact Support
You can contact Higher Logic Vanilla Support in any of the following ways:
Support Portal
Submit a ticket through the Support Portal.
Email
support@vanillaforums.com
For bugs or more complex issues, submitting a detailed ticket or email is usually the best option. It gives our Support team the information and time needed to reproduce, research, and test the issue.
What Should I Include When Reporting a Bug?
The more information you can provide up front, the faster we can investigate.
Whenever possible, include:
- Links/URLs to the specific page(s) experiencing the issue.
- What you expected to happen
- What happened instead
- Steps we can use to reproduce the issue
- Screenshots or error messages (please ensure you include the URL bar in your screenshot)
- Who or what is affected
- Whether the issue happens consistently
- Any recent configuration or integration changes
- Relevant logs or technical details, if available
In some cases, our Support team may also need access to your staging or production community to investigate.
By contacting Support, you acknowledge that the Support agent working on your case may need to access your community as an administrator or community member for troubleshooting purposes.
We will not make changes to your production community or create content without your knowledge and prior approval.
What If Support Needs More Information From Me?
Sometimes we can’t continue investigating until we receive additional information, access, logs, reproduction steps, or another action from your team.
When that happens, the SLA clock for response or update commitments may be paused while we’re waiting for the information needed to proceed.
Once you provide what we need, the applicable timeline resumes.
Are All Issues Covered by These Commitments?
Some incidents fall outside Higher Logic Vanilla's availability commitments because the underlying cause is outside the Higher Logic Vanilla production service.
Examples include:
- Beta programs, trial environments, test sites, or staging sites
- Internet, network, or telecommunications outages outside our control
- Incorrect configuration or misuse of Higher Logic Vanilla
- Third-party software, plugins, integrations, or services
- Custom code, scripts, applications, themes, extensions, or modifications not provided by Higher Logic Vanilla
- Unsupported browsers, operating systems, hardware, or configurations
- Unauthorized modifications to the service
- External dependencies such as APIs, payment gateways, or content delivery networks
- Malicious activity originating from customer-controlled systems
Even when an issue falls outside the formal SLA, Support may still be able to help you investigate the problem or identify the appropriate next step.
Have Questions About Your Support Plan?
Higher Logic Vanilla offers multiple Support levels to meet different customer needs.
Your Customer Success Manager or Account Executive can help you understand your current Support level and the Support options available to you.
All customers must have an active Higher Logic Vanilla subscription and Support level to request Support services. Support offerings and service levels may change over time.
About this article
This article is intended to make our Support and bug-handling process easier to understand. It does not replace or modify the terms of your agreement with Higher Logic. If there is a conflict between this article and your applicable agreement or SLA, the terms of your agreement will apply.