Blackout periods for BMC Synthetic End User Experience Monitoring are used to disable monitoring and notifications, such as for maintenance or troubleshooting. In Business Services and Execution Plans, you can set blackout period to occur regularly, such as weekly or daily.
Many countries and regions employ daylight saving time (DST), also called summer time, which is the practice of advancing clocks in the springtime to add more daylight hours in the evening. In the autumn, clocks are adjusted back an hour, to return to the region's standard time. Changes to DST can affect the length of the blackout period, so that the blackout period for an Agent Group can vary +/- one hour over a night when the clocks are adjusted.
For example, if you set the blackout period to start at 23:00 and to end four hours later, the system translates the end time to 03:00. If the blackout period crosses the DST change, the blackout adheres to the start and end times (23:00 to 03:00), and not the defined duration.
In version 2.5.01, the system displays the end time of the blackout period, as shown in the following image:
Blackout settings for synthetic monitoring
Note
The times and dates begin and end according to the local time set on the BMC Application Performance Management Console. That is, you set the time in the Console, and the equivalent time is set for associated Agents.
For example, if the Console is set to Central Standard Time and you set the blackout period to start at 23:00, in Eastern Standard Time it will start at 00:00 (midnight).
The following tables present a blackout period over several time zones.
No change. The following table shows the blackout period (with a blue background) when no DST change takes place. The blackout period starts at 23:00 and ends four hours later, at 03:00.
| Time zone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APM Console time CST (UTC -6) | Agent 1 EST (UTC-5) | Agent 2 CET (UTC+1) | Agent 3 GMT (UTC 0) | |
| 22:00 | 23:00 | 05:00 | 04:00 | |
| Start time | 23:00 | 00:00 | 06:00 | 05:00 |
| 00:00 | 01:00 | 07:00 | 06:00 | |
| 01:00 | 02:00 | 08:00 | 07:00 | |
| 02:00 | 03:00 | 09:00 | 08:00 | |
| End time | 03:00 | 04:00 | 10:00 | 09:00 |
| 04:00 | 05:00 | 11:00 | 10:00 | |
Spring change to DST. The following table shows the blackout period (with a blue background) when clocks are advanced from 01:59 to 03:00 on the Console time zone. The blackout period starts at 23:00 and ends at 03:00, a difference of three hours on the Console time zone.
| Time zone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APM Console time CST to CDT (UTC -5) | Agent 1 EST to EDT (UTC-4) | Agent 2 CET to CEST (UTC+2) | Agent 3 GMT to BST (UTC+1) | |
| 22:00 | 23:00 | 05:00 | 04:00 | |
| Start time | 23:00 | 00:00 | 06:00 | 05:00 |
| 00:00 | 01:00 | 07:00 | 06:00 | |
| 01:00 | 03:00* | 08:00 | 07:00 | |
| End time | 03:00* | 04:00 | 09:00 | 08:00 |
| 04:00 | 05:00 | 10:00 | 09:00 | |
* Change in daylight saving time
Autumn change off of DST. The following table shows the blackout period (with a blue background) when clocks are adjusted from 01:59 to 01:00 on the Console time zone. The blackout period starts at 23:00 and ends at 03:00, a difference of five hours on the Console time zone.
| Time zone | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APM Console time CDT to CST (UTC -6) | Agent 1 EDT to EST (UTC-5) | Agent 2 CEST to CET (UTC+1) | Agent 3 BST to GMT (UTC 0) | |
| 22:00 | 23:00 | 05:00 | 04:00 | |
| Start time | 23:00 | 00:00 | 06:00 | 05:00 |
| 00:00 | 01:00 | 07:00 | 06:00 | |
| 01:00 | 01:00* | 08:00 | 07:00 | |
| 01:00* | 02:00 | 09:00 | 08:00 | |
| 02:00 | 03:00 | 10:00 | 09:00 | |
| End time | 03:00 | 04:00 | 11:00 | 10:00 |
| 04:00 | 05:00 | 12:00 | 11:00 | |
* Change in daylight saving time
Related topics
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8 Comments
Anila Patel
If the start and end time adheres to the blackout times and not the defined duration during a DST, then why does the column for Agent #2 and Agent #3 change time one hour ahead/after(see table for Spring and Autumn) but the APM Console and Agent #1 remain the same.
The table is showing that but it doesn’t match what is said in the content.
Sara Kamen
The time that is adhered to is the time set on the APM Console. That is the time that governs all the blackout periods. I'll try to clarify.
Thanks so much for taking the time to review and comment!
Shafeek Ramaiah
Sara Kamen
Anh Phan
Melody Locke
Shira Avron
Sara Kamen