Technical Preparations for On-Call

Why Technical Preparation Matters

An alert fires at 3 AM. You acknowledge it, open your laptop, and realize your VPN credentials expired last week. While you request emergency access, the incident escalates. Users start complaining. Your colleagues wake up to help because you cannot access the systems you need to diagnose the problem.

This scenario plays out regularly across engineering teams. The difference between effective on-call responders and those who struggle often comes down to preparation completed before the shift starts, not technical skill during incidents.

Technical preparation creates the foundation for fast, decisive response. When you verify access, familiarize yourself with current system state, and confirm your tools work correctly, you eliminate variables that slow investigation. You can focus entirely on the problem rather than fighting your own infrastructure.

Access Verification Checklist

Before every on-call rotation, systematically verify access to every system you might need during an incident.

Core Infrastructure Access

Start with foundational systems:

VPN and Network Access: Connect to your organization’s VPN and verify you can reach internal networks. Test access from both your primary and backup locations. Expired credentials or certificate issues become critical blockers during incidents.

Cloud Provider Consoles: Log into AWS, GCP, Azure, or whatever cloud platforms your services run on. Verify you have appropriate IAM permissions. Test that you can view logs, metrics, and resource states for services you support.

Kubernetes or Container Platforms: Access your cluster management interfaces. Verify you can view pod states, logs, and deployment status. Test that kubectl or equivalent tools work from your machine.

Database Access: Confirm you can connect to production databases for read operations. Know which credentials provide which access levels. Understand what queries you can safely run during incidents.

Monitoring and Alerting Systems

Your monitoring stack forms the primary lens through which you diagnose problems:

Monitoring Dashboards: Open your primary monitoring tools. Verify you can see service health, error rates, latency metrics, and resource utilization. Bookmark critical dashboards for quick access.

Alerting Platform: Log into your alerting system. Confirm your notification preferences are configured correctly. Test that alerts route to your phone and reach you within expected timeframes.

Log Aggregation: Access your centralized logging platform. Test searches across your services. Verify you can filter by time range, service, and severity level.

Communication Channels

Incident response requires coordination:

Paging System: Verify the mobile app is installed and notifications are enabled. Test that push notifications reach your phone. Confirm your phone number is correct in the system.

Team Communication: Join all relevant incident channels. Know which channels to use for different severity levels. Confirm you can page other team members if escalation becomes necessary.

Escalation Contacts: Document phone numbers and contact methods for senior engineers, managers, and dependent team leads. Know when and how to escalate based on incident severity and duration.

Runbook Familiarity

Runbooks transform incident response from improvisation to execution. But runbooks only help if you know they exist and understand how to use them.

Pre-Shift Runbook Review

Before your shift, review runbooks for services you support:

Locate All Relevant Runbooks: Find where your team stores operational documentation. Identify runbooks for each service in your scope. Note any gaps where runbooks should exist but do not.

Understand Alert-to-Runbook Mapping: Know which runbook applies to which alert. Many alerting systems link directly to relevant runbooks. Verify these links work and point to current documentation.

Review Recently Updated Procedures: Check when runbooks were last modified. Read recent changes carefully. Architecture updates or new failure modes may have changed response procedures.

Practice Key Procedures

Reading runbooks differs from executing them under pressure:

Walk Through Critical Runbooks: For high-severity scenarios, trace through each step mentally. Identify commands you would run and systems you would check. Note any steps that seem unclear or outdated.

Verify Commands Work: Test diagnostic commands in non-production environments. Confirm scripts referenced in runbooks exist and run correctly. Update runbooks if you find broken references.

Know Emergency Procedures: Memorize steps for the most critical failure scenarios. When systems are failing rapidly, you may not have time to read detailed documentation. Core emergency procedures should be second nature.

System State Awareness

Effective incident response requires understanding current system state, not just how systems should work in theory.

Recent Changes and Deployments

Changes cause incidents. Know what changed recently:

Review Deployment History: Check what deployed in the past week across services you support. Note any rollbacks or failed deployments. Identify changes that might explain unusual behavior.

Pending Changes: Know what deployments are scheduled during your shift. Understand rollback procedures for in-flight changes. Coordinate with release teams about timing and risk.

Known Issues and Technical Debt: Review the team’s issue tracker for known problems. Understand workarounds for issues that might surface during your shift. Know which systems are degraded or running on temporary fixes.

Current System Health

Start your shift with awareness of baseline system state:

Review Monitoring Dashboards: Spend 15 minutes checking key health indicators. Note any metrics trending toward thresholds. Identify systems already showing warning signs.

Outstanding Incidents: Check if any incidents remain open from previous shifts. Understand ongoing investigations and their current status. Know which systems remain under observation.

Scheduled Maintenance: Review maintenance windows during your shift. Know which systems will experience planned downtime. Understand communication plans for maintenance activities.

Notification Configuration

Alerts only help if they reach you reliably.

Multi-Channel Redundancy

Configure multiple notification channels:

Primary Channel: Usually push notifications through your alerting platform’s mobile app. Verify the app is installed, logged in, and notifications are enabled at the system level.

Secondary Channel: SMS or phone calls for high-severity alerts. Confirm your phone number is current. Test that calls and texts reach your device.

Backup Channel: Email or Slack notifications provide another layer. While slower, these create records and catch alerts if primary channels fail.

Notification Testing

Before each shift, verify notifications work:

Send Test Alerts: Most alerting systems support test notifications. Send one to yourself and confirm it arrives on all configured channels within expected timeframes.

Check Phone Settings: Verify Do Not Disturb settings allow alerts through. Confirm your phone has sufficient battery. Test that notification sounds are audible.

Backup Plans: Know what to do if your primary device fails. Have a backup phone number configured. Understand how to monitor alerts from a computer if mobile fails.

Environment Preparation

Your physical environment affects response capability.

Technical Setup

Prepare your workstation:

Laptop Readiness: Charge your laptop and keep it accessible. Install any tools you might need. Verify development environments work for services you support.

Network Reliability: Have backup internet options identified. Know if you can hotspot from your phone. Consider locations with reliable connectivity during critical periods.

Documentation Access: Bookmark runbooks, dashboards, and escalation contacts. Ensure you can access documentation even if some systems are down.

Personal Readiness

On-call affects your life outside work:

Availability Planning: Communicate your on-call status to family or housemates. Plan activities that allow you to respond within expected timeframes. Avoid situations where you cannot access your laptop.

Rest Before Shifts: Fatigue impairs judgment. Get adequate sleep before on-call periods, especially those covering nights or weekends. A tired responder makes more mistakes.

Handoff Preparation

If receiving handoff from a previous on-call engineer, maximize knowledge transfer:

Structured Handoff Meeting

Request or attend a handoff meeting:

Open Issues: Understand any ongoing investigations or unresolved alerts. Know what was tried and what remains to explore. Get context on customer impact and timeline pressures.

Recent Incidents: Review incidents from the outgoing shift. Understand root causes and remaining follow-up work. Note any temporary fixes that might need attention.

Watch Items: Learn what the previous engineer was monitoring closely. Understand systems that seemed unstable or concerning. Know what might escalate during your shift.

Documentation Review

Supplement verbal handoff with written context:

Handoff Notes: Read any written summary from the outgoing engineer. These often capture details missed in conversation. Follow up on anything unclear.

Incident Timeline: Review incident channels from the past shift. Understand the full context of recent events. Identify patterns that might continue during your shift.

Continuous Improvement

Each on-call shift generates learning opportunities:

Document Preparation Gaps: Note any access issues, missing runbooks, or unclear procedures you discover. Create tickets to address preparation problems for future shifts.

Update Runbooks: When you find outdated or incorrect procedures, fix them immediately. Future responders benefit from corrections you make during incidents.

Share Knowledge: Discuss preparation improvements with your team. Standard checklists reduce individual burden and improve team consistency.

Platforms like Upstat support on-call preparation by centralizing runbooks with step-by-step execution tracking, providing clear roster visibility so you know who to escalate to, integrating monitoring dashboards for at-a-glance system health, and routing notifications through multiple channels to ensure alerts reach you reliably. These capabilities transform scattered preparation into systematic readiness.

Technical preparation is not optional overhead. It is the foundation that enables effective incident response. Engineers who invest time before their shifts respond faster, escalate appropriately, and resolve incidents with less collateral damage. The checklist takes an hour. The alternative is scrambling during the worst possible moment.