How to create a new local timeframe

Local timeframes allow you to specify periods of time that determine when an event management policy runs or does not run. You can set up a single timeframe that can apply to multiple policies.

For example, if you have several policies that you do not want to run on weekends, you can set up a timeframe from 12:00 A.M. to 12:00 A.M. on both Saturday and Sunday and call that timeframe Weekend. You can then apply the timeframe Weekend to all policies that you do not want to run on weekends.

To define an event management policy timeframe

1. From the toolbar of the Event Management Policies tab in the administration console, click View/Update Timeframes.
   
   The Timeframes dialog box is displayed, as shown in the following figure.
   

    

   Timeframes

   

2. From the Timeframes toolbar, click New Timeframe.

3. In the Timeframe New dialog box, enter or modify the information described in the following table:

    

   Timeframe New dialog box options

   Field	Description
   Name	Name of the timeframe
   Description	Description of the timeframe
   Start,End	Period when the timeframe begins and ends. You can specify the End value as either a Time or Duration. If you select Time, select the appropriate value from the list. If you select Duration, select the number of hours that you want the timeframe to be active. The individual time zone of the cell is used in timeframe calculations.
   Recurrence pattern	Schedules how often the timeframe reoccurs. Changing the selection in the left side list changes the options available on the right side.  The Repeat Cycle length field represents the time interval (in days/weeks/months/years depending on what you choose on the left side of the Recurrence pattern area) between one occurrence of the timeframe and the next. Besides the Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Yearly timeframe options, you can select individual dates that are part of the timeframe by selecting Date List and choosing dates from the displayed calendar.
   Range of recurrence	When you have selected a Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly timeframe option, you can select the starting and ending date range for the recurrence. Optionally, instead of choosing an end date, you can enter the count (of days/weeks/months/years) counted from the Start date field until the timeframe ends, in the occurrence(s) field. For example, if you select Daily as the Recurrence Pattern and set the value of the occurrence(s) field to 2, the timeframe is applicable for two days, after which it gets deactivated.

4. To create additional timeframes, click Save and repeat this procedure starting with step 2.

5. To close the editor, click Close.

Timeframe in BAROC format

The timeframe options in BAROC format are defined in the rrule slot. For example, consider the scenario where the value of the Repeat Cycle length interval is 15 and count of the occurrences is 10 as shown in the following figure:

The BAROC format of the scenario is as follows:

>mquery -n CELLNAME -q -d -a TIME_FRAME -f BAROC

TIME_FRAME;

data_handle=1044;
mc_udid='mc.CELLNAME.12cf04de.0';
mc_creation_time=1389298910;
mc_modification_time=1389369655;
mc_modification_request_time=1389369655;
mc_modification_requestor=admin;
publish_env_id='';
description='Timeframes allow you to specify when the event management policy is active.';
name='Daily Timeframe';
dtstart=20140101T000000;
dtend='';
duration=PT1H;
interruptions=[];
tzid='';
rdate=[];
rrule=['FREQ=DAILY;INTERVAL=15;COUNT=10;WKST=SU'];
exdate=[];
exrule=[];
active=0;
END

In the example above, the timeframe will be active for the duration of 1 hour, once every 15 days, for a total of 10 times (150 days). The term "active" reflects whether the current date/time coincides with the dates/time configured in the Timeframe dialog box. A "Daily" timeframe with an "End" time duration of 18 hours will be "active" (active=1) for 18 hours and not "active" (active=0) for 6 hours during the 24-hour day of each occurrence.