ID: 8273
Title: Recurring Scheduled Downtimes - adhoc via command and also via rule set
Component: cmc
Level: 3
Class: New feature
Version: 1.2.7i2
Check_MK now supports <i>recurring scheduled downtimes</i> (or simply
<i>recurring downtimes</i>). Let's assume that you have a couple of
servers
that are rebooted once a week always at the same time. You surely do not
want any notifications about that, you also do not want to have these hosts
displayed as "problems" in the problem views.
Up to now the only useful tool in such situations was the notification
period. But that way you can just suppress notifications - not the problem
display. Also setting up notification periods requires configuration
permissions (WATO).
The new recurring downtimes create normal scheduled downtimes for you on
a regular base. This is a direct enhancement of the downtimes that already
exist. They now have a new field where you can specify an interval in which
the downtime should be repeated. Everything is then handled by the monitoring
core (CMC) and no external cron job is involved. This has a few advantages:
LI:No cron job is needed
LI:The recurring downtimes are visible in the <i>Downtimes</i> view - even if
they are currently not active
LI:Recurring downtimes can be set and removed by using the existing downtime commands
You can create recurring downtimes in two ways:
H2:Using commands
The easiest way is to just use the same commands as for creating one-time
downtimes. The command box now has a new option <i>Repeat this downtime
on a regular base every ____</i>. You can choose between
<i>hourly</i>,
<i>daily</i> and <i>weekly</i>. If you e.g. create a downtime for
12:34 on
Monday and select <i>weekly</i> then this downtime will be repeated on every
Monday from now on. Changes in the daylight saving time are compensated,
so the time of day (12:34) will be valid in and out of DST.
Such downtimes behave exactly like one-time downtimes - with the single
difference that they are not being deleted when they end but shifted to the
next interval instead.
U2:Using rule sets
There is a second way to create recurring downtimes: two new WATO rule sets
called <i>Recurring downtimes for hosts</i> and <i>Recurring downtimes
for
services</i>. Using these you can base the downtimes on WATO folders and host
tags. While this could also by done by selecting host and services via the GUI
and applying commands - it still has one advantage: You can specify downtimes
for objects that <i>still do not exist</i>. If you create a recurring
downtime
for all servers with the tag <i>Windows</i> then also Windows hosts that
will be added at a later time will automatically get that recurring downtime.
Recurring downtimes that have been created via a rule can not be deleted by
the operator via a command, of course. All downtime views have a new column
<i>Origin</i> that shows you wether a downtime exists due to a
<i>command</i>
or due to <i>configuration</i>.