Site Maintenance Mode Policy

Summary

DigitVA supports a global admin-controlled site maintenance mode.

The maintenance mode is intended for short operational windows where admins must keep access while non-admin users are drained from the site safely.

Only admins may start or end site maintenance.
Starting maintenance opens a fixed 15-minute grace window.
During that grace window, non-admin authenticated users may continue working normally.
During maintenance, all authenticated users must see the active maintenance message in a fixed bottom-centered banner.
During that grace window, non-admin authenticated pages must also show a countdown in that banner.
The countdown banner must appear for already-open non-admin pages without requiring a manual page refresh after an admin starts maintenance.
Admin users are always exempt from maintenance-mode login blocks and forced logout behavior.
When the maintenance cutoff is reached, non-admin authenticated users must be logged out on their next request.
When the maintenance cutoff is reached, the normal login page must remain available, but non-admin login must be rejected.
When non-admin login is rejected due to maintenance, the login page must clearly state that the site is under maintenance and only admin login is allowed.
The system may show an optional admin-supplied maintenance message to non-admin users both during the countdown window and on the login page after cutoff.
Maintenance state must be persisted in the database so the behavior survives process restarts.
Maintenance state changes must record actor and timestamp fields for auditability.