Operate Ironwood without treating it like a black box.
Ironwood gives your team health checks, diagnostics and operational tools for understanding the installation before you change configuration or escalate a problem.
When a review cannot start or complete, first establish whether Ironwood itself is healthy, then check the Git provider, AI provider and licence service independently.
Know when Ironwood is healthy
Platform Health is the first operational view to check. Use it with review status and provider connectivity to narrow the problem before making changes.
Platform Health shows which core component is healthy or needs attention. Confirm the web application, API, review worker, queue and PostgreSQL are available before investigating an individual review.
Check failed reviews and queue progress to see whether work is moving normally or waiting on a dependency.
Confirm the Git provider and AI provider selected by your team are reachable from the Ironwood installation.
Check licence state and connectivity to the Ironwood-hosted licence service. Licence validation is separate from review traffic.
Diagnose before changing configuration
Use Diagnostics and Installation Preflight when validating a new deployment or investigating configuration problems. The goal is to identify which boundary is failing rather than changing several settings at once.
Back up before operational changes
Back up PostgreSQL and your Ironwood configuration before an upgrade or other material change. Test the restore procedure in a non-production environment before depending on it for recovery.
Validate upgrades before relying on them
When a new Ironwood version is available, download the new customer package, back up the existing installation data, run the upgrade validation, and start the new version using the supplied deployment package. Ironwood applies its idempotent database schema during startup so supported upgrades can retain persisted configuration, users and review data. After deployment, complete the post-install smoke tests and confirm Platform Health before returning the installation to normal review use.
Generate a sanitised support bundle
When support needs installation details, generate a sanitised support bundle rather than assembling diagnostic information manually. Review the generated bundle before sharing it with Ironwood Solutions.
The support bundle is intended to provide operational information for troubleshooting. Review the bundle before sending it. The support workflow does not automatically upload your source code or provider credentials to Ironwood Solutions.
Keep the operational boundaries clear
Web interface, API, queue, review worker, PostgreSQL, configuration and operational records.
Provider availability and credentials can affect reviews even when the Ironwood installation itself is healthy.
Used for licence and evaluation validation. Review content does not travel through the licence service.
A practical incident sequence
- Check Platform Health.Establish whether the Ironwood application and its core components are healthy.
- Check the affected review.Look at its state and determine whether processing is progressing, failed or waiting.
- Check external dependencies.Validate the configured Git provider, AI provider and licence-service connectivity as relevant.
- Run Diagnostics.Use the available evidence to isolate the component or configuration that needs attention.
- Escalate with a support bundle.If support is needed, generate and review the sanitised bundle before sharing it.