Create blackout and maintenance schedules

Blackout windows specify times during which change requests should not be scheduled. Maintenance windows specify times during which change requests should be scheduled.

Before you begin

Change Management - Collision Detector (com.snc.change.collision) is activated.

Role required: itil_admin or admin

About this task

Blackout schedules are periods of time where changes cannot be implemented. For example, create a blackout schedule for code freezes at the end of the year.

Maintenance schedules specify the period during which changes are implemented. For example, create a maintenance schedule to implement changes only on the weekend. Maintenance activity is represented by a span, which is displayed as a horizontal bar on the timeline and can appear in any color. Spans for requested changes that occur outside their allowed maintenance periods appear in red on the timeline.

Both blackout and maintenance schedules are condition schedules.

Procedure

  1. Complete one of the following steps to create a schedule.
    OptionDescription
    Create a blackout schedule
    1. Navigate to Change > Administration > Blackout Schedules.
    2. Click New.
    Create a maintenance schedule
    1. Navigate to Change > Administration > Maintenance Schedules.
    2. Click New.
    Note: Maintenance schedules added directly to configuration items are not evaluated during conflict detection. Define a maintenance schedule to match the CI class and conditions.
  2. Complete the form, as appropriate.
    Field Description
    Name Enter a name for the schedule.
    Description Enter a description for the schedule.
    Time zone Select the time zone for the schedule.

    Select Floating to evaluate planned start and end dates on the change request form for the logged-in user.
    Applies to Select the CI classification to which the conflict detection is filtered.
    Condition Select the conditions to specify the CIs to which the schedule applies to.

    This field does not appear when Applies to is set to None.

    Note: Related fields used in conditions are not evaluated for blackout or maintenance schedules.
  3. Open the form context menu and click Save.
    A blackout or maintenance schedule is created and the Schedule Entries, Child Schedules, and Referenced By related lists appear.
    Note:

    The Blackout Schedule (cmn_schedule_blackout) table extends the Condition Schedule (cmn_schedule_condition) table, which in turn extends the Schedule (cmn_schedule) table. The Blackout Schedule table inherits the domain properties from the Schedule table which has the Domain and Domain path columns. As the Blackout schedule table makes use of the same Child Schedule and Schedule Entry tables as the Schedule table, domain support is identical, where the domain_master attribute is used to derive Domain from a parent record. For more information, refer Domain support for schedules Domain support for schedules.

What to do next

Associate one or more schedule entries with this newly created schedule. Users can start applying schedules to determine when changes are implemented to CIs.