Default language.

Configuring blackout policies

Use blackout policies to black out events originating from various devices. These policies help you black out events only, they are not applied to data. The following instructions help you to create, edit, copy, view, enable, disable, and delete blackout policies.

The following video (7:03) created by BMC Support describes how to create a blackout policy.

icon-play@2x.pnghttps://youtu.be/cvJCAuZr5cA

Example

Sarah is an administrator at Apex Global. She wants to black out maintenance-related events during a database maintenance period that runs twice a week and lasts for an hour from 2.00 AM to 3.00 AM. She can schedule the blackout by using the following settings:

Blackout settings.png

 

To create a blackout policy

  1. In , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page and click Create.
  2. Specify a unique name, optional description, and precedence number for the policy.
  3. Click in the Selection criteria field and make a selection.

    Each time you make a selection, you are progressively prompted to make another selection. Perform the following steps to configure the selection criteria for the policy.
    Values that you specify in the selection criteria are case-sensitive. For example, Message Equals test and Message Equals TEST are considered as different values.
    Refer to the following image to understand the Selection criteria field.
    blackout_pol_sele_crit.png

    Important

    • A condition based on the class slot must be specified before any other condition. In the subsequent conditions, the list of slots changes based on the class specified. The subsequently displayed slots are subclasses of the parent class selected in the first condition.
      For example, in the following image, notice the list of slots specific to the selected Alarm class.
      event_sel_crit.png
    • If you specify multiple hosts, for example, more than 500, by using the Equals operator with OR in the condition, the blackout policy might not black out events because the condition would
      exceed the maximum character limit of 32,766. In this scenario, to black out events, consider specifying multiple hosts by using the Matches operator with the pipe (|) character in the condition. Make sure that the event slot values that you specify with the Matches operator do not exceed 1000 characters.
      For example,
      Matches:
      Host Matches 'HostA.bmc.com|HostB.bmc.com|HostC.bmc.com|HostD.bmc.com|
      HostE.bmc.com|HostF.bmc.com'
      Within:
      source_hostname within '['clm-host-within1.bmc.com','clm-host-within2.bmc.com','clm-hostwithin3.
      bmc.com']'
      Avoid:
      Host Equals 'HostA.bmc.com' OR Host Equals 'HostB.bmc.com' OR Host Equals
      'HostC.bmc.com' OR Host Equals 'HostD.bmc.com' OR Host Equals 'HostE.bmc.com' OR Host
      Equals 'HostF.bmc.com'
    • The maximum limit of 32,766 characters for the Event Selection Criteria field includes the length of the incoming event slot data that is used in the event selection criteria. Therefore, if the Event Selection Criteria field exceeds the maximum limit during policy evaluation, the policy evaluation fails, and the policy is not applied to the event. You can see an error under the Others tab on the Event Details page. 
    • If you specify the Class slot with an opening parenthesis as the first condition in the criteria, you must use the closing parenthesis to complete the condition. The Class slot must be
      followed by the AND operator before the next condition.
    • Event slot values that you specify in the criteria with the Contains operator are not case-sensitive.
      For example, if you use the following values, the blackout policy is applied to events:
      Value in the event selection criteria: Host Contains hostA
      Value in the ingested event: Host Contains HOSTA
      However, slot values that you specify with other operators, such as the Equals operator, are case-sensitive.
    • If you add leading and trailing spaces in the list of string values or spaces before or after the list separator (,) with the Within operator, the blackout policy fails and does not black out events.
  4. Click Add Policy Configuration and configure the blackout settings.
    You can configure one of the following settings. You can also use Advanced Settings to specify a desired time zone.
    • One Time: Can be used to black out event notifications during a specified time period only, such as a
      holiday, or during an expected change in your IT environment.
      Perform the following steps to configure this setting:
      1. Select the start date for the blackout and click Next.
        You can click the arrows to change the month and the year.
      2. Set the start time for the blackout. The current system time is the default. Perform the following
        steps:
        1. Move the hours hand to set the hours part of the time.
        2. Move the minutes hand to set the minutes part of the time.
        3. Select the time of the day that is A.M. or P.M.
        4. Click Next.
      3. Select the end date for the blackout and click Next.
        You can click the arrows to change the month and the year.
      4. Set the end time for the blackout. The current system time is the default.
        Perform the following steps:
        1. Move the hours hand to set the hours part of the time.
        2. Move the minutes hand to set the minutes part of the time.
        3. Select the time of the day that is A.M. or P.M.
        4. Click OK.
    • Recurring: Can be used to black out event notifications for a specified time period on a recurring basis, such as during a regular maintenance window, or if your IT operators don't want to see event notifications during certain times of the day.
      Perform the following steps to configure this setting:
      1. Configure the start time and end time of the blackout period by using the following options:
        • Start Time: Set the start time for the blackout period.
        • End Time: Set the end time for the blackout period.
      2. Configure the recurrence pattern of the blackout period by using the following options:
        • Repeats: Select how often a schedule should run. The following options are available:
          • Daily: Select this option to run the blackout schedule daily.
          • Weekly: Select specific days of the week when the blackout schedule should run.
          • Monthly: Specify dates of the month when the blackout schedule should run.
      3. Configure the range of recurrence of the blackout period by using the following options:
        • Start Date: Specify the date when you want the blackout to begin.
        • No End Date: Select this option if you don't want the blackout period to end, which means the blackout schedule executes perpetually.
        • End Date: Specify the date when you want the blackout to end.
        • End After: Specify the number of occurrences after which you want the blackout to end.
  5. (Optional) In Blackout Actions, specify the action that you want to take during the blackout window. To learn about blackout actions; see Blackout-policies.
  6. Click Save.
  7. (Optional) Select Enable Policy.
    You can enable or disable the policy any time from the Blackout Policies.
  8. Save the policy.

To edit a blackout policy

  1.  In  , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page.
  2. Perform one of the following actions:
    • Select a disabled policy and click Edit.
      To edit an active policy, disable it first.
    • From the Actions menu of a disabled policy, select Edit.
  3. Edit the policy and save the changes.

To copy a blackout policy

  1. In , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page.
  2. Click the action menu of the policy that you want to copy and select Copy . 
    The Create Blackout Policy page is displayed with the configurations of the copied policy. 
  3. Modify the configurations according to your requirements to create a new policy quickly.

To view the list of blackout policies

In , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page to view the list of blackout policies.

By default, you can see 25 policies on a single page. You can configure this number. Perform the following steps to configure the number of policies that you can see on the page:

  1. If you have more than 25 policies in the system, scroll down to the end of the Blackout Policies page.
  2. Click the box that shows 25 and select the number of policies that you want to see on the page. You can see the box only if you have more than 25 policies in the system.
    blackout_policy_pagination.png

By default, the policies are sorted by the last updated date and time (Modified By / On column). To sort on a different column, click the column heading.

To enable or disable a blackout policy

  1. In , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page.
  2. Perform one of the following actions:
    • Select the policy and click Enable or Disable.
    • From the Actions menu of a policy, select Enable or Disable.
    • Edit the policy, and select or clear the Enable Policy checkbox.

To delete a blackout policy

  1. In , navigate to Configuration > Blackout Policies page.
  2. Perform one of the following actions:
    1. Select one or more policies, click Delete, and click OK.
      To delete an active policy, disable it first.
    2. From the Actions menu of a disabled policy, select Delete, and click OK.

Important

Deleting a large number of policies is a maintenance activity and should be done in a controlled manner. Conctact BMC Support if you want to delete a large number of policies at once.

Type your warning message here.

Auditing user actions on a blackout policy

As a tenant administrator, use the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard in  to view the audit trail of activities that users perform on blackout policies. You can audit the following activities on a blackout policy:

  • Create a blackout policy
  • Update a blackout policy
  • Delete a blackout policy
  • Enable a blackout policy
  • Disable a blackout policy

Scenario

Sarah is an administrator at Apex Global. She has configured a blackout policy to black out maintenance events during planned downtimes. However, she can see maintenance events on the Events in  despite an active blackout policy. To troubleshoot this issue, she can now use the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard in  to view the audit trail of all activities that users perform on blackout policies. Viewing the audit trail helps Sarah to track the history of changes made to the policies and achieve improved user accountability, compliance with organization policies, and system security.

For more information, see Auditing configuration changes in BMC Helix Dashboards.

The following image displays the audit trail of blackout policies in the BMC Helix Audit Dashboard. Note that the selected resource type is Blackout Policy. Click the link in the Operation column to view the values before and after you perform an activity on a blackout policy.

Audit trail for blackout policies label.png

 

 

Related topics

Managing-maintenance-windows

Blackout-policies

Blackout-policy-configuration-endpoints-in-the-REST-API

Troubleshooting-policy-issues

 

Tip: For faster searching, add an asterisk to the end of your partial query. Example: cert*