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Overview
The Downtimes and Recurring Downtimes tools are used to manage the scheduling of downtime for all monitored entities including hosts, services, host groups, and service groups. Downtime scheduling can be very useful during system maintenance as it suppresses notifications to those entities in downtime. Scheduling downtime also helps produce more accurate data for SLA reporting. When you set up regular downtime scheduling, using the Configuration > Downtimes option, you set the downtime parameters including a start time and an end time for any monitored entity (e.g., hosts, host-services, host and service groups). Using the Configuration > Recurring Downtimes option allows an administrator to configure downtimes that will recur for a set frequency (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, yearly).
 | Recommended when when working with very large host groups How to set downtime for large host groups |
Steps
Configuring Regular Downtimes
The Downtimes option is used to list current downtime configurations and to schedule downtime for hosts, services, host and service groups.
For each of the options Add Host Downtime, Add Host Group Downtime, and Add Service Group Downtime there are two methods; for Host downtime you can use the byHost or the forHost/Service methods, for Host Group downtime the byHostGroup or forHostGroup methods, and for Service Group downtime the byService or forServiceGroup methods. The first method for each entity for example Host downtime - byHost allows you to add specific hosts and host services directly from a system listing of configured elements. The second method for each entity for example Host downtime - forHostGroup allows you to add a configured host(s) and a service (or all services) by entering information in the provided fields, with the option of adding downtime frequency. This host downtime example is shown below. The process is similar for host group and service group downtime configuration.
Host Downtime - byHost
- Go to Configuration > Downtimes > Add Host Downtime, the byHost tab will display a list of current system hosts where you have the following options:
- All hosts and services: To place all hosts and services in downtime check the box next to the Host column title.
- All services: To place all services in downtime check the box next to the Service column title.
- Individual hosts and host services: To place individual hosts and/or host services in downtime check the box next to the host name and/or click the down-arrow to expose the host services and check the specific services.
- Click Add downtime which displays a dialog box for the downtime start and end times. Make sure you select Add to save the downtime configuration.
Figure: Add Host downtime byHost
- Next, we look at how you can also use the forHost/Service method to place a host(s) and host services in downtime. You also have the option to add a downtime frequency of weekly, monthly, daily, yearly. Select the next tab forHost/Service tab to enter downtime settings for the following fields:
- Host: (required) Select an existing host to place in downtime, (once you start typing you will see a list of configured hosts). Wildcards can be used to specify multiple matches.
- Service: Enter the host service name to place in downtime. To select all host services enter the " * " symbol or for host only leave this field empty.
- Author: This is a system field and auto indicates the author or logged in user configuring downtime for this host/service.
- Description: (required) Enter the purpose for the downtime.
- From and To: (required) Click on the fields to select the date and times for the downtime.
- Frequency: Allows you to set a weekly, monthly, daily, or yearly recurring downtime.
- Click Create to save the downtime configuration.
Figure: Add Downtime byHost/Service
List Downtimes
This option lists both active and scheduled downtimes.
- Go to Configuration > Downtimes > List Downtimes, a list of currently active downtimes will be displayed within the List Active tab. The next tab, List Scheduled (shown below), displays downtimes that have been scheduled but are not yet active.
- For both tabs you can choose to edit, copy, or delete each configured downtime using the corresponding icons.
Figure: List downtimes
Steps
Configuring Recurring Downtime
The Downtimes lets you schedule downtimes for a single specified date, time, and duration. With the Recurring Downtimes feature you can schedule downtimes for hosts, host groups, and service groups with a recurring time, duration, days of the week, and days of the month. For example you can set up to have a downtime at 8PM, for 1 hour, on every second Friday of every month.
Recurring Downtime - forHostService
Here we'll review how to add recurring downtimes for hosts using the forHost/Service tab. Scheduling recurring downtime for host groups and services groups work in a similar fashion.
- Go to Configuration > Recurring Downtimes, and select the forHost/Service tab to enter downtime settings for the following fields:
- Host: (required) Select an existing host to place in recurring downtime, (once you start typing you will see a list of configured hosts). Wildcards can be used to specify multiple matches.
- Service: Enter the host service name to place in recurring downtime. To select all host services enter the " * " symbol or for host only leave this field empty.
- Author: This is a system field and auto indicates the author or logged in user configuring downtime for this host/service.
- Description: (required) Enter the purpose for the downtime.
- From: (required) Click on the field to select the start date and time for the downtime.
- To: (required) Click on the field to select the end date and time for the downtime.
- Frequency: Allows you to set a weekly, monthly, daily, or yearly recurring downtime. If you choose an exclude date don't forget to select Add.
- Click Create to save the recurring downtime configuration.
Figure: Add recurring downtime for Hosts - forHost/Service
List Scheduled Recurring Downtimes
The option lists scheduled recurring downtimes.