Appeals/Caseflow

Last Updated: December 19, 2024

The page outlines the Appeals/Caseflow process by covering everything from integration endpoints and required configuration to key contacts and the incident response process.

Overview

Appeals status data is presented to VA.gov users alongside disability claims data.

• Va.gov sends a query for a user's appeals data to Caseflow via a REST API.

• Caseflow, in turn, queries the VACOLS (Veterans Appeals Control and Locator System) database for the appeals data.

• Caseflow also queries BGS (which is an interface to the "VA corporate database") for Social Security Number information.

Integration endpoints

Note: You must have access to the internal VA network to access all the links in the table below

Required configuration

appeals_status:
  mock: "{{ plat_config.APPEALS_MOCK }}"
  app_token: "{{ lookup('aws_ssm_custom', '/dsva-vagov/vets-api/<env>/appeals_api_token') }}"
  host: "{{ plat_config.APPEALS_HOST }}"

Key contacts

The Appeals DSVA team builds and maintains Caseflow.

For implementation questions, Appeals DSVA Team members tend to be present in the shared #appeals-status Slack channel.

For operations issues, use the #appeals-devops channel.

The Benefits & Memorials Team implements and maintains the Appeals status application on the http://VA.gov side.

Incident response process

1. Check that the forward proxy has at least one connection to the Caseflow servers by running the following query in the Datadog Metrics Explorer and validate that are more than 0 backends up
   sum(haproxy_backend_status{proxy="appeals_back"})

2. Check that the forward proxy health check is returning a valid result
   curl https://internal-dsva-vagov-dev-fwdproxy-1893365470.us-gov-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com:4437/health-check

3. Check that the Caseflow service is available and that the health check succeeds from within the VA network
   nc -z appeals.cf.ds.va.gov 443
curl https://appeals.cf.ds.va.gov:443/health-check

4. Check the VACOLS status endpoint: https://monitor.cf.ds.va.gov. (You must have access to the internal VA network to access this link.)

5. Notify the #appeals-devops and/or #oncall Slack channels with any findings.

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