System crash during swim registration blamed on planned software update

A "planned software update" isto blame forthe latest crash ofthe city's registration system for recreation programs, city staff say.

The City of Ottawa's registration systemcrashed in August shortly after registration for aquatic programs opened, leaving many users unable to access the website orcomplete transactions.

The software host,ActiveNet, advised the city that a disruption caused by a planned software update "negatively impacted"hardware designed tobalancethe high volume of transactions across servers during peak times.

Because the software didn't perform as intended, staff wrote, "issues arose."

The information comes inresponse to a question by Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster, who personally experienced issues attempting to register her daughter for swimming lessons.

It will go before the city'scommunity services committee on Oct. 24.

Years of registration woes

The city's old web registration portal crashed in August 2022, after years of complaints from residentsdealing with a sluggishand malfunctioning system that could only support 450 users at a time.

The replacement system debuted a few months later to some positive reviews alongsidea fresh wave of complaints about a mistaken surcharge and malfunctioning payment processor.

The new system was designed to allow more people to complete transactions simultaneously and tojoin a queue while waiting to register.

Despite those efforts, residents were still unable to register multiple children before programs filled up. Others reported the payment systemwashampered by a national outage, and some residents within current city limits were charged a"non-resident surcharge"because they livein former municipalitiessuch as Navan and Cumberland.

Then, this August, the new system crashed, prompting the question from Troster.

In their response, city staff also addressed "the residency issue" of incorrectly applying a non-residentsurcharge.

Any residents who entered a typo in their address or street name were automatically charged the extra fee, staff said. The software has addressed the issue by adding a mandatory requirement for users to self-identify as residents or non-residents.