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.

Outages List View

This Outages lists all the outages. Using the filter option, you can view planned, current, and concluded outages.

You can perform the following actions in this page:

• Using the column headers, you can sort or search the outages at the header level.

• To view an outage, click the required outage.

• To edit an outage, click the required outage, and then click the icon.

• To delete an outage, select the required outage, and then click the icon.

Creating an Outage

To create an Outage:

1. Click the icon at the bottom of the page.

2. In the Outage Editor page, specify the following information:

   The changes are applied only when you save the Outage.

   
   

Planned Outages
Details	Description
Title	Specify a valid title for the outage.
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.

3. To associate an item to outage, perform the following:

   1. In the Items section, click Add.

   2. In the Advanced Item Search, specify the required keywords to search the required items.

   3. Select the required items, and then click Select Item.

   4. 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.

   5. To view the blackout window, click the icon.

4. Click Create.

Viewing Outages

To display Outages Tile, Planned Outages Page and Outages Page should be set to Yes in Setup > Privileges > System | Outage Options.

The Outage will be displayed only when the Mimimum Criticality for an Item Category is set to equal or higher criticality, and Item must be deployed.

For Item, Criticality must be equal to or higher to the Item Category Minimum Criticality setting.

To view the Outages Offline, go to the “Item Category” and ensure that the Offline State and Customer Visible is set to Yes.

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.