VisaNet Connect - Issuing : Healthcheck of Issuer by Visa.

[MAC]

As an Issuer (Full ultimately),I was looking for any documented liveness/healthcheck API call *into* our endpoint;  but I don't find one.

Can anyone share the mechanics of STIP and if there is any 'preemptive/active' monitoring of an Issuer endpoint at all?

The benefit is (at least) two-fold :-

- Visa get to know an Issuer is 'bad' before the next request is sent - rather than react to a time out or other http error

- The Issuer gets to know that connectivity in from Visa is fine and not just low volumes.

Did I miss some documentation?  If currently absent is there anything on the roadmap?

[SyedSa]

Hi @MAC, Thank you for reaching out. An agent will get back to you as soon as possible. Until then, if any community member has information that may be helpful, feel free to reply in this thread.

[DianaVisaPM]

Hey @MAC,

Health Check of Issuer Endpoint

Visa does not currently provide a specific liveness or health check API call into issuer endpoints. This means that there isn't a preemptive or active monitoring API provided by Visa that issuers can use to verify the health of their endpoints.

Mechanics of Stand-In Processing (STIP)

Stand-In Processing (STIP) is an important feature that Visa uses to ensure transaction continuity when an issuer's systems are unavailable. Here is how STIP works and the mechanics behind it:

1. Transaction Timeouts:
If Visa sends a transaction request to an issuer's endpoint and it times out, Visa will enter STIP mode to process the transaction based on predefined criteria and historical data.

2. Error Responses:
If an issuer's endpoint returns specific error responses indicating it is unable to process the transaction, Visa can activate STIP.

3. Predefined Rules and Criteria:
Visa and issuers can set up predefined rules and criteria for when STIP should be activated. These may include conditions such as maximum response time, specific error codes, or transaction volume thresholds.

Preemptive/Active Monitoring

Currently, Visa's monitoring mechanisms are more reactive, based on transaction timeouts, error responses, and inferred data from transaction flows. However, Visa employs the following practices to ensure service reliability:

1. Transaction Monitoring:
Visa continuously monitors transaction success rates, response times, and error rates to detect anomalies or failures.

2. Alerts and Notifications:
Visa has systems in place to alert and notify issuers when there are connectivity issues or other problems with their endpoints.

While these methods help in maintaining service reliability, they do not provide a proactive health check mechanism that can preemptively identify issues before a transaction request is sent.

Roadmap and Future Enhancements

There is no specific documentation or API for a preemptive liveness/health check of issuer endpoints. However, Visa continuously evaluates and updates its services and may consider adding such functionality in the future.

Conclusion

Currently, Visa does not provide a specific liveness or health check API for issuer endpoints, and the monitoring mechanisms in place are more reactive. For proactive monitoring, issuers may need to implement their own health check mechanisms internally. 

[MAC]

Hi Diana - thanks for your reply.

Perfect.