Outages

An Outage is when an Item Status is unavailable due to expected or unexpected events. For example, the Item may be out for repair or faulty. To move an Item into an unavailable State, and therefore list it as inactive, the Item Status selected for the Active State option within the Item Category Lifecycle must be set to No, and the Offline State option set to Yes.

Planned Outages

Planned Outages are used to manage Items' proposed unavailability. This is useful for informing Customers and Users about planned changes to infrastructure that may cause an Item to be taken offline or out of service.

If an Item has an SLA with a specified Blackout Period, ideally Outages should be planned to fall within this time. The Blackout Period is an agreement between the Customer and the service provider regarding a period of time when the Customer has no service expectations. This can also be the preferred time for Item upgrades and maintenance without affecting service availability. To access the Blackout Period details for an SLA associated with an Item, create the Planned Outage within the Outages tab of the Item Information screen.

Creating a Planned Outage

To create an Outage:

1. Select Configuration > Outages

2. Click New
   
   
   

3. Planned Outages
   Details	Description
   Interval	Select One Time if the Outage is a one off, or set regular outages based on a weekly or monthly basis.
   Start Date	Select the Start Date within the calendar, and modify the Time accordingly inside the calendar pop-up.
   End Date	Select the End Date within the calendar, and modify the Time accordingly inside the calendar pop-up.
   Notification	Select  Email or SMS Notification about the Outage  is to be sent to the Primary Contact of the Org. Unit,  or All Customers/Owners associated with the Item.
   Reminder	This option is displayed when a Notification is set for the Outage. If a Reminder notification is to be applied to the Outage, check the box and define the period of time prior to the Planned Outage period that the reminder is to be issued.
   Reason	Enter a description that details why a Planned Outage is being scheduled.

4. Define the Interval for the Outage
   The options of One Time, Weekly and Monthly are available.

5. Set the Outage Start and End dates

6. Set the Notification method and recipients
   These are applied when the Outage is saved.

7. Tick the Reminder Email field
   If a reminder is to be emailed to defined recipients prior to the Outage time. Define the length of time before the Outage occurs that the reminder is to be sent.
   
   

8. Enter the Reason for the Outage

9. Click Save
   The add Items option is displayed.
   
   

10. Click
    The Find Item/Item Type field is displayed.

11. Enter the known Item Number or Type and click

12. Click the Item Number hyperlink to add the Item to the Outage
    
    

13. Define the Offline Status and Online Status for the Item
    These are the States the Item will be automatically assigned in the CMDB when the Planned Outage commences and ends.

14. Click Save
    Repeat Steps 9 to 12 to add more than one Item to the Outage. Click to remove Item details from the Outage.

15. Click Save and Done.
    The Outage details are visible in the Planned Outage page, if the Criticality of the Item is equal to or greater than the Minimum Criticality set by the Administrator within the Setup>Privileges>System tab.

Viewing Outages

Planned Outages can be viewed from the Login Page and the Customer Portal, if the Administrator has toggled the Setup>Privileges>System Outages Page option to Yes. This enables the Planned and Unplanned Outage links in the Customer Portal and Login Page.

Customer Portal View

In the Customer Portal the Planned Outages information is accessible in the side bar menu of the Items and Services tab.

To view the Outage details, click the Outage No. link. To close the window, click Done.

Login Page View

Planned Outage information can also be accessed from the Login page, Click the View Outages link to display a complete list of current outages. Select the View Planned Outages link to access planned downtime details.

Planned Outage Page Options

• Search for Outages based on the Item Type
  This functionality is enabled by the Administrator in Setup>Privileges>System Search Outages.

• Within the Outage Details window, click on the Item Number link to show the Item Relationship Map
  To enable this feature, the Show Affected Relationships option must be activated by the Administrator in Setup>Privileges>System Outages.

• To return to the Planned Outage list, click the Done.