Many customers have questions about how the Vault release timing works. The information below should help you understand the differences between General Release and Limited Release Vaults, and how to anticipate and find out about upcoming releases.

Definitions

  • Limited (formerly “fast train”) refers to a set of Vault production servers that receive software updates approximately every 3 to 5 weeks. Limited releases include significant product enhancements and bug fixes. Limited releases are intended for customers who value speed of receiving new features over stability.
  • General (formerly “slow train”) refers to a set of Vault production servers that receive software updates approximately every 4 months. General releases include all product enhancements and bug fixes that have gone into limited releases since the previous general release. General releases go through IQ and OQ validation prior to release.
  • Pre-Release is an environment where customers can get a preview of new general release functionality. See Pre-Release FAQ for more information.
  • Maintenance Release (also called hotfix) is a release that contains a typically small number of fixes for issues that are affecting customers. For general release customers, we ordinarily communicate 24 hours prior to the release that we will be applying a change and that there may be a short service disruption.
  • System Maintenance is downtime that Veeva schedules for system infrastructure changes like server restarts. There is no regular schedule for system maintenance, but we typically communicate 1 week prior to the downtime that there will be a service disruption. During system maintenance, Vault displays the following error message, “Vault is currently unavailable due to system maintenance.”

Release Details

The following table contains information for typical releases. Actual release details may vary slightly.

General Release Limited Release General Maintenance Release System Maintenance
Content Significant feature enhancements and bug fixes, a roll-up of everything in the limited releases Significant feature enhancements and bug fixes Typically small number of fixes for bugs affecting customers Scheduled infrastructure changes, e.g., planned server restart
Frequency Every 4 months Every 3 to 5 weeks* Weekly Not scheduled
Day* Friday Friday Varies Varies
Maintenance Window Duration Up to 6 hours Up to 4 hours Typically none, may be up to 5 minutes Varies
Vault Downtime Production Vaults: Around 30 minutes
Sandbox Vaults: Up to 6 hours
Production Vaults: Around 30 minutes
Sandbox Vaults: Up to 4 hours
Typically none, may be up to 5 minutes Varies
Communication 45 days in advance 1 week in advance 24 hours in advance** 1 week in advance
Documentation Release Notes, Fixed Issues Release Notes, Fixed Issues Maintenance Releases None
Validated Yes No Yes Yes, for general releases

* Frequency or day may change due to holidays.

** We may release a Maintenance Release with less than 24 hours notice in the case of a critical or otherwise urgent product fix.

For information on release window times for your region, please visit the Veeva Trust Site.

Release Page & Impact Assessment Timing

Typically, the Release Impact Assessment and About the Release page become available 8 weeks before the General Release.

PDF & Authentication Servers

We release Authentication updates 24-72 hours earlier than scheduled general and limited releases.

We release PDF server updates one (1) week before the scheduled general and limited releases.

Changes to the Authentication servers affect both Limited Release and General Release Vaults. Find more information about rendition updates on the current General and Limited Release notes.

FAQ

Q. Who receives the release communications? A. Users who have opted-in to the Product Announcements option from User Profile > Notification and Email Preferences. Admins can also set this option for users.

Q. Who receives the maintenance release communications? A. Users who have opted-in to the Service Availability Notifications option from User Profile > Notification and Email Preferences. See Changing Your Profile, Password & Notifications for information about subscribing to service notifications. Admins can also set this option for users.

Q. Can users receive service communications for specific Vaults? A. Admins can provide any email address to receive detailed service availability information on a Vault-level basis from Settings > General Settings > Service Availability Notifications. We recommend using a distribution list, as only one email address for service availability notifications is allowed per Vault. Alternatively, Admins can enable Service Availability Notifications for an individual user from Business Admin > Users.

Q. What will happen if a user is logged in at the time the system goes down? A. The next time the user performs an action that sends a request to the server, the user sees an error. This means unsaved work may be lost. Any logged in users will receive a notification dialog informing them that the Vault will be unavailable shortly before it goes down. It is a good idea to save your work promptly after seeing this notification.

Q. Can users log in while the system is down? A. No, logins are disabled during releases.

Q. Are customers notified when a release is finished? A. Users can tell when a release is finished if they are able to log in successfully. Additionally, users can check the Veeva Trust Site for status updates related to Vault services.

Q: What level of detail will we communicate regarding maintenance releases? A: Users who have opted-in to the Service Availability Notifications option receive maintenance release notifications based on the POD their Vault is on. A link is added to this notification which details all changes made.

Q. What is a POD? How can I tell what POD I’m on? A. POD stands for “point of delivery”. In simple terms, think of it as the Vault application server where your Vault is hosted. PODs are located in data centers on the East Coast and West Coast of the US, in Japan, and in Germany. Admin users can confirm which POD their Vaults are on from Admin > Settings > General Settings.

POD Details

AWS PODs have an ID with two numbers (VV1-19, VV2-29, etc.). The first number indicates the region: 1 for the US, 2 for Europe, 3 for Asia-Pacific.

POD Type Location
VV1-1 Limited Release US - Oregon
VV1-2 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-3 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-4 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-5 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-6 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-7 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-8 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-9 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-11 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-12 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-13 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-14 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-15 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-16 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-17 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-18 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-19 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-20 Limited Release US - Oregon
VV1-21 Limited Release US - Oregon
VV1-22 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-23 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-24 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-25 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-26 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-37 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-38 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-39 Limited Release US - Oregon
VV1-40 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-42 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-43 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1045 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1046 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1049 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1051 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1052 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1053 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1054 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1055 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1058 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1061 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1062 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1065 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1066 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1067 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1068 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1069 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1071 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1073 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1074 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1076 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1077 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1078 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1079 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1081 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1082 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1084 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1088 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1089 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1090 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1093 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1094 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1110 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1111 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1120 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1121 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1122 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1124 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1126 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1127 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1128 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1129 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1130 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1131 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1132 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1133 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1134 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1135 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1136 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1137 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1138 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1139 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1140 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1142 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1144 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1145 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1146 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1148 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1149 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1150 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1151 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1152 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1153 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1154 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1155 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1156 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1157 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1158 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1159 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1160 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1161 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1162 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1163 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1164 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1165 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1166 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1167 Limited Release US - Virginia
VV1-1168 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1169 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1170 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1171 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1172 General Release US - Virginia
VV1-1173 General Release US - Oregon
VV1-1174 General Release US - Virginia
VV2-10 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-27 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-28 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-29 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-30 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-31 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-32 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-35 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-41 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-44 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2047 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2050 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2056 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2060 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2063 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2070 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2072 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2075 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2080 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2083 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2085 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2087 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2091 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2092 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2095 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2097 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2098 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2100 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2120 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2121 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2122 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2124 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2125 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2126 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2127 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2128 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2129 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2130 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2131 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2132 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2133 Limited Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2134 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2135 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2136 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2137 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2138 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2140 General Release Europe - Germany
VV2-2141 General Release Europe - Germany
VV3-33 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-34 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3048 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3057 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3064 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3086 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3096 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3099 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3120 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3121 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3122 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3123 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3124 Limited Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3125 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3127 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3128 General Release APAC - Japan
VV3-3129 General Release APAC - Japan