Managing Outages
You can create, update and close planned and unplanned outages in ASM Core.
Creating an Outage
Before you start
You must have Create Outage from Call, Create Outage from Task and/or Create Outage from Request selected in your Availability Management security role to create outages.
Outages that are created from a call are always unplanned and are logged as a result of a User having an issue with a config item or service.
Outages that are created from requests or tasks are always planned, and you can inform your Users about planned outages via the bulletin board. Planned outages can only be logged against CMDB items that are linked to the request. You can also create outages against all items that are dependent on the linked item.
Viewing Outages for a CMDB Item
You can view the current, historical and planned outages for CMDB Item with availability tracking.
Before you start
An availability schedule must have been applied to the CMDB item.
You must have Browse Outages selected in your Availability Management security role.
In the Explorer pane, expand CMDB Item, then select Availability.
The <Entity> Availability window appears, with the applied time zone.
Select the Outages tab. Previous outages are displayed in black. If there is a current outage, it appears in red. Planned outages (future) are indicated by a blue background.
You can filter the search results by selecting the button and selecting from the drop-down list.
For each outage, the browse control displays the following information.
| Description | This is the description of the outage. |
|---|---|
Outage Start | This is the day and time set for the outage to be applied to the CMDB Item. |
Outage End | This is the day and time set for the outage to end. |
Downtime | The time period for which the CMDB Item will be unavailable. |
Outage Type | The type of outage for the CMDB Item. |
Select an outage and then select to view calls, requests, and/or tasks that are linked to the selected outage. This information appears as an Outage Quick Search – Linked Entities window.
You can view further information by double-clicking on one of the entries in this window.
Updating Outage Details
Before you start
An availability schedule must have been applied to the CMDB item.
You must have Outage Update selected in your Availability Management security role.
There must be a current or past outage on the CMDB Item.
In the Explorer pane, expand CMDB Item, then select Availability.
The <Entity> Availability window appears, with the applied time zone.
Select the Outages tab.
Select the outage entry you want to modify by highlighting the entry and selecting .
In the Outage Details window, modify the Outage Details as required.
Type | The type of outage. Select from the drop-down list. The list of Outage Types is filtered depending on the entity linked to the outage. Requests and tasks display planned outages. Calls display unplanned outages. |
Description | This is the description of the outage. |
Outage Start | This is the day and time set for the outage to be applied to the CMDB Item. |
Outage End | This is the day and time set for the outage to end. You cannot set a date/time in the future for an unplanned outage. |
Downtime | The time period for which the CMDB Item will be unavailable. |
Outage Type | The type of outage for the CMDB Item. |
Select to save your changes.
Manually Closing an Outage
An unplanned outage can be closed by closing the call linked to the outage or closing the outage manually by updating the Outage's End Date.
Planned outages are closed automatically when the end date has passed. However, you may close an outage manually if the outage ends earlier than planned, or if the request or task to which the outage is linked is completed earlier than expected.
A planned outage can be closed using one of the following methods:
By completing the request or task linked to the outage.
By using the Outages option on the Request Details Explorer.
By closing the outage manually on the Outage Search or Current Outages window.
In the relevant window, select the outage to view the Outage Details.
If needed, update the current description of the outage in the Description column of the browse table.
In the Outage End field, enter a date/time that has passed.
Save the changes.
In the dialog box, select Yes to confirm the outage closure.