IT Calendar Work Mode Management

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IT Calendar and Work Mode Management

IT Calendar

You can use IT Calendar to review planned events for the services, systems and databases which are relevant for your daily work. From the IT Calendar you can also schedule IT events and work modes such as peak business hours. The default page displays a calendar view showing the planned events for the selected systems, databases, hosts or services in upcoming days.

The following event types are displayed in IT Calendar:

Work Modes planned in IT Calendar
IT Events planned in IT Calendar
Operational Tasks defined in IT Task Management
Contractual Maintenance Periods defined in Service Availability Management
Change Cycle Phases defined in Change Request Management
Change Documents defined in Change Request Management
Quality Gate Management Phases & Q Gates defined in Quality Gate Management

You can:

see detailed information on planned events by clicking on the event.
switch between hours, day and months views.
create work modes and IT events for the selected systems.
switch between a view that displays work modes on the system level and work modes on the instance level.
export events to a spreadsheet.
import work modes from a spreadsheet.
personalize your display by adding custom pages.

How to open IT Calendar

Open the Launchpad.
Select Technical Administration
Select IT Calendar and Work Mode Management

Scope Selector

The scope selector allows you to select the systems, databases, hosts and external services that should be displayed in IT Calendar according to different criteria.

You can define a default variant that is executed automatically the next time you open IT Calendar as follows:

Select Select Variant.
Click Save as to save your search criteria in the scope selector under a name.
Select Set as Default if the variant should be the default variant for the next time you open IT Calendar.
Select Execute on select if the variant should be executed automatically when you reopen IT Calendar.

Settings

Using the settings button, you can filter the event types to be displayed, choose in which time zone the events should be displayed and choose a holiday calendar to highlight the respective holidays in the IT Calendar.

System and Instance switch

You can switch between the Technical System and Technical Instance view.

In the Technical System view, you can see all events scheduled for the system and you can schedule new work modes and IT events for the selected technical system.
In the Technical Instance view, you can see work modes and IT events for the instances of the selected systems and schedule new work modes and IT events for the selected instances. The Technical Instance view shows only instances of ABAP, JAVA and HANA systems.

Time granularity switch and time navigation

You have the following options to change the time frame displayed in IT Calendar:

The time granularity switch allows to switch between Hours, Days, Months, 1 Week and 1 Month view. The 1 Week view always renders a full week. It displays seven days on one screen. The start date is always the beginning of the week (depending on the locale). The 1 Month view shows an entire month. On desktop, the 1 Month view always displays an interval of 31 days. When the displayed month is shorter (28, 29, 30 days), days from the following month are displayed. They have a different visual state and serve as navigation to the following month.
Click Today to go back to the current date/moment.
Click the arrows to navigate to the next or previous interval.
Select the date to navigate to another time period.

Show event details

Click an event to display the event details. Depending on the event type, you can open the event in the originating application, copy or delete the event.

Download and upload events

You can download events into an Excel file as follows:

Click File > Download Events.
Select the time frame and the event types.
Click OK.

You can upload work modes from a CSV file as explained further below.

Relevant SAP Notes

SAP Note 2616516 - IT Calendar access to Non-SAP Solution Manager users

Required Roles

Technical Administration composite roles: SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_COMP, SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_DISP_COMP
IT Calendar Display Authorization: SAP_ITCALENDER

Work Mode Management

Work Mode Management allows planning and maintenance of work modes for Technical systems, instances, databases, hosts and external services,

The following types of work modes are supported:

Work Mode Type	Description	Integration with System Monitoring and Service Availability Management
Planned Downtime	Work mode during which the system is technically down and you do not have access. System administrators can use this work mode to perform planned administration tasks that can only be performed during downtime.	System monitoring alerts are suppressed during planned downtimes. A new planned downtime entry is created in service availability management at the end of the planned downtime. By default, it is marked as not-SLA relevant.
Maintenance	Work mode during which the system is technically up and you have no access. System administrators can use this work mode to perform planned administration tasks that can only be performed during maintenance.	Depending on the template settings, different monitoring thresholds or notification settings could become active in system monitoring during this work mode. System monitoring doesn't react in this work mode by default.
Peak Business Hours	Work mode during which the system is technically up and you have access. Most users are logged on to the system and load peaks are expected.	Depending on the template settings, different monitoring thresholds or notification settings could become active in system monitoring during this work mode. System monitoring doesn't react in this work mode by default.
Non-Peak Business Hours	Work mode during which the system is technically up and you have access. Less users are logged on to the system, and load peaks are not expected.	Depending on the template settings, different monitoring thresholds or notification settings could become active in system monitoring during this work mode. System monitoring doesn't react in this work mode by default.
Non-Business Hours	Work mode during which the system is technically up and you have access. Most users are not logged on to the system and load peaks are not expected	Depending on the template settings, different monitoring thresholds or notification settings could become active in system monitoring during this work mode. System monitoring doesn't react in this work mode by default.

You have three possibilities to schedule work modes. You can:

schedule them manually from IT Calendar.
perform mass upload using an Excel file.
use the provided work mode management APIs to define your own interface from external tools.

Work Mode Scheduling from IT Calendar

You can schedule work modes manually from IT Calendar as follows:

Open the IT Calendar for the selected scope.
Select one or multiple systems, databases or instances and click Create work modes to create new work modes.

To create new work modes:

Enter the title, start date, end date and time. The start and end date are prefilled from the first displayed date in IT Calendar but you can overwrite them.
Optionally you can choose one category and maintain a description.
If you select the recurring flag, you can define recurrence pattern for the work mode. The following recurrence patterns are supported:
- Daily - These work modes are scheduled daily. For example:
  Every day from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm but not on holidays maintained in the holiday calendar.
- Weekly - These work modes are scheduled weekly. For example:
  Every Monday to Friday from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm. but not on holidays maintained in the holiday calendar.
  -or-
  Every Friday from 8:00 am until 11:00 am.
- Weekly Multiple Patterns. For example:
  Every Monday to Friday from 8:00 am until 11:30 am and from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm.
- Monthly. These work modes are scheduled monthly. For example:
  Every 1st Monday of every 2nd month.
  -or-
  On the 2nd of every month.

For recurring work modes, you should enter a start date when the first occurrence starts and an end date when the last occurrence ends.

Note: After saving recurring work modes, not all constituents will be visible in IT Calendar directly. Only the first 100 constituents will appear. A periodic batch job generates the next work modes subsequently.

The Technical component tab shows the systems, instances, hosts and databases for which the work mode shall be scheduled. By default, the components selected in IT Calendar are pre-populated. If you have started the Work Mode Scheduling UI for systems, you can add additional systems here.
- For each system, the work mode will also be scheduled on the system instances.
- You can choose whether the work mode shall also be scheduled to related system database and its instances.
- You can choose whether the work mode shall also be scheduled to related physical or virtual hosts.
Click the Save button to schedule the work modes.
If it is possible to save the work modes the Workmode successfully scheduled message box will appear. Otherwise, check the error message and correct the problem.
With Send instant notification, you can send an email informing other users that a work mode has been scheduled.

Mass upload of work modes from a CSV file

You can maintain multiple future work modes in one CSV file and upload them to IT Calendar as follows:

Click File > Upload Work Modes.
Download the template.
Fill the template as follows (Enter 1 line per work mode to be created. Separate the values in the line by comma.):
- Enter the name of the customer network the system belongs to. You can find the network names under Global Settings & Network Configuration à Network Creation.
- Enter a title under which the work mode shall appear in IT Calendar.
- Enter the system id, host or database for which the work mode shall be created. For systems, enter the extended ID. For technical systems, the work modes will be propagated to the system database and to the physical hosts of the system and database.
- Enter the System type (e.g. ABAP, JAVA, BOBJ, HANADB,..).
- Enter the context type as follows: 060 for Technical System, 080 for database, 030 for Technical Instance, 020 for host.
- If the work mode must be created only on an instance of the specified ABAP or JAVA system, enter the instance name here. Otherwise leave the field empty.
- Enter the Work Mode Type as follows: 010 Planned Downtime, 060 Peak Business Hours, 070 Non-Peak Business Hours, 080 Non-Business Hours, 090 Maintenance.
- Enter the start and end date in the form YYYYMMDD.
- Enter start and end time in the form HHMMSS.
  Start date and time must be in the future. Creation of work modes for the past is not possible. End date and time must be after the start date and time.
- Enter the time zone to identify the time zone of dates and times. You can check table TTZZ for supported time zone abbreviations.
- Enter the work mode category as follows: 001 Hardware Maintenance-General, 002 Hardware Maintenance-Application Server, 003 Hardware Maintenance-Database Server, 004 Hardware Maintenance-Middleware, 005 Hardware Maintenance-Network, 006 Hardware Maintenance, 007 Software Maintenance-General, 008 Software Maintenance-SAP, Software Maintenance-Operating System, 010 Software Maintenance-Database, 011 Software Maintenance-Other Component.
- Enter a description (optional).
Upload the template.
Check if there are any error messages. The error messages indicate the line of the CSV file where the error occurred.

Examples:

You want to create a planned downtime for ABAP System ABCCUS including its database and physical hosts. The system belongs to customer network DAT-CUS-01. Add a line to the CSV file as follows and upload it to IT Calendar:
DAT-CUS-01,Security Patching,ABCCUS,ABAP,,060,010,20180407,20180407,110000,120000,UTC,001,Security patching for OS
You want to create a planned downtime for Database XYZCUS. The database belongs to customer network DAT-CUS-01. Add a line to the CSV file as follows and upload it to IT Calendar:
DAT-CUS-01,Security Patching,XYZCUS,DBSYSTEM,,080,010,20180407,20180407,110000,120000,UTC,001,Security patching for OS.
You want to create a planned downtime for hosts "host1" and "host2". The hosts belong to customer network DAT-CUS-01. Add lines to the CSV file as follows and upload it to IT Calendar:
DAT-CUS-01,Security Patching,host1,,,020,010,20180407,20180407,110000,120000,UTC,001,Security patching for OS
DAT-CUS-01,Security Patching,host2,,,020,010,20180407,20180407,110000,120000,UTC,001,Security patching for OS

APIs to schedule and query work modes

You can also call APIs to create, edit, delete and query work modes from external systems. Please refer to SAP Note 2391688.

Required Roles

Workmode Application: SAP_SM_WMM_ALL, SAP_SM_WMM_DIS
Technical Administration composite role: SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_COMP, SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_DISP_COMP

Work Mode Analytics

Work Mode Analytics provides an overview over planned downtimes and outages for recent time periods.

The following data are reported:

Total duration of planned downtimes. This number is calculated based on the planned downtimes for the selected system in IT Calendar.
The used planned downtime. This number is calculated based on the measured system unavailability during planned downtimes windows.
Unplanned downtimes our outages. This number is calculated based on measured system unavailability outside planned downtime windows.
Total downtime is the sum of planned downtimes and outages.

All durations can be displayed alternatively in minutes or hours.

Note: The durations and times reported in Work Mode Analytics are raw data measured by System monitoring and planned in Work Mode Management. The durations reported in Service Availability Management are also based on System monitoring and Work Mode Management but can be adjusted by system administrators. Therefore, the reported data can differ between Work Mode Analytics and Service Availability Management.

IT Event Scheduling

IT Event Management allows planning and maintenance of IT and Business Events for technical systems, instances, databases, hosts and external services. You can create IT Events of the following categories: business, development, maintenance and generic. Unlike work modes, IT events do not influence system monitoring, alerting and Service Availability management.

IT Event Scheduling from IT Calendar

You can schedule IT Events manually from IT Calendar as follows:

Open the IT Calendar for the selected scope.
Select one or multiple systems, databases or instances and select Create IT Events.
The IT Event Scheduling UI opens.

To create new IT events:

Enter a title, start date, end date and time. The start and end dates are pre-filled from the first displayed date in IT Calendar but you can overwrite it.
Optionally you can choose one category and maintain a description.
If you select the recurring flag, you can define recurrence pattern for the IT events. The following recurrence patterns are supported:
- - Daily - These work modes are scheduled daily. For example:
    Every day from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm but not on holidays maintained in the holiday calendar.
  - Weekly - These work modes are scheduled weekly. For example:
    Every Monday to Friday from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm. but not on holidays maintained in the holiday calendar.
    -or-
    Every Friday from 8:00 am until 11:00 am.
  - Weekly Multiple Patterns. For example:
    Every Monday to Friday from 8:00 am until 11:30 am and from 1:00 pm until 4:00 pm.
  - Monthly. These work modes are scheduled monthly. For example:
    Every 1st Monday of every 2nd month.
    -or-
    On the 2nd of every month.
- For recurring IT events, you should enter a start date when the first occurrence starts and an end date when the last occurrence ends.
The technical component tab shows the systems for which the IT event shall be scheduled. By default, the systems selected in IT Calendar are pre-populated. You can add additional systems here.
Click the Save button to schedule the IT events. Using Send instant notification you can send an email immediately informing other users that new IT events have been scheduled.

Required Roles

Technical Administration composite roles: SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_COMP, SAP_TECHNICAL_ADMIN_DISP_COMP
IT Events: SAP_SM_IT_EVENTS_ADMIN, SAP_SM_IT_EVENTS_DISP.

Automated work mode and IT event notifications

SAP Solution Manager can send out automatic email or SMS notifications about planned work modes or IT Events in a predefined schedule and using a predefined rich text or HTML template. Please refer to Notification Management for more information.

Technical Support

In case of issues, please open a support ticket on component SV-SMG-ADM-DTM.