Example: Configure and verify planned outages

A planned outage is usually the result of a routine maintenance schedule, upgrade action, or faulty equipment replacement. Incidents, change requests, and change tasks can generate outage records. The change request and task records show scheduled downtime. Incident, change request, and change task records have a checkbox to specify if the Configuration Item is out of service. The following example shows an interaction record that is escalated to an incident record. Once the Service Level Agreement application is enabled and configured to spread outages, the System Down field is checked for the down Configuration Items (CIs). The incident record contains the outage details with outage start and end times.

• For information on ensuring the background processes are running, see the related topics.
• For information on enabling the Service Level Management application, see the related topics.

At the end of this example, you will be able to:

• Configure the Service Level Management application (Task 1)
• Set the outage dependency counters in Configuration Management (Task 2)
• Create an interaction record and escalate it to an incident record (Tasks 3 and 4)
• Verify planned outages, including showing that the Configuration Items (CIs) are down (Tasks 5 and 6)

Task 1: Configure the Service Level Management application

1. Log on as a System Administrator.

2. Click Service Level Management  > Administration > Configure Application.

   The SLM Integration Information record opens.

3. In the Table Name field, type probsummary, and then click Search.

   The SLM module control form for probsummary opens.

4. Go to the Service Target Information section of the form.
5. Select the following options:
   • Spread Outages
   • Extend outage spreading to more than one level?
6. Click Save.
7. Click OK.

Task 2: Set the outage dependency counters in Configuration Item (CI) relationships

Set the outage dependency counter for:

• adv-nam-switch
• adv-nam-router
• adv-nam-modem

1. Click Configuration Management > Resources > Configuration Item Relationships.
2. Click Search.
3. Select the adv-nam-switch CI relationship to set the outage dependency.
   1. Go to the Outage Dependency section of the form.
   2. Select the Outage Dependency option.
   3. Set the counter to 3 for This Configuration Item will be considered down if ___ or more of the supporting configuration items are down.
   4. Click Save.
   5. Click OK.
4. Click Search.
5. Select the adv-nam-router CI relationship to set the outage dependency.
   1. Go to the Outage Dependency section of the form.
   2. Select the Outage Dependency option.
   3. Set the counter to 1 for This Configuration Item will be considered down if ___ or more of the supporting configuration items are down.
   4. Click Save.
   5. Click OK.
6. Click Search.
7. Select the adv-nam-modem CI relationship to set the outage dependency.
   1. Go to the Outage Dependency section of the form.
   2. Select the Outage Dependency option.
   3. Set the counter to 1 for This Configuration Item will be considered down if ___ or more of the supporting configuration items are down.
   4. Click Save.
   5. Click OK.
8. Verify that the System Down field is unchecked in the adv-nam-modem CI record.
   1. Click Configuration Management > Resources > CI Queue.
   2. Click Search.
   3. Type adv-nam-modem in the Display Name field of the search form, and then click Search.
   4. Verify the System Down option is unchecked.
   5. Click Save.
   6. Click OK.
9. Log off Service Manager, and then log back on to Service Manager, for the changes to take effect.

Task 3: Create an interaction and incident for CI adv-nam-switch-hr

1. Log on as a self-service user and submit an interaction request.
2. Log on as a Service Desk Agent and bring up the interaction request submitted by the self-service user.
3. Click Service Desk > Interaction Queue.

4. On the To Do queue, select the following:

   • Interactions in the Queue field
   • Self-Service Interactions in the View field
5. Fill in the following information:
   

   Field	Value
   Assignment Group	Network
   Service	Intranet/Internet (North America)
   Manually enter CI	adv-nam-switch-hr
   Category	Incident
   Area	Hardware
   Subarea	Hardware failure
   Impact	1

6. Click Escalate.
7. On the Escalation Details screen, do the following:
   1. Select advantage/Africa in the Location field.
   2. Fill in the rest of the required fields.

   3. Click Submit.

      An Incident record is opened.

      Note If there is already an incident record related to this CI, click Create New Incident.

8. Log out of Service Manager.

Task 4: Create a separate interaction and incident for CI adv-nam-switch-mar.

1. Log on as a self-service user to submit an interaction request.
2. Log on as a Service Desk Agent and bring up the interaction request submitted by the self-service user.
3. Click Service Desk > Interaction Queue.
4. On the To Do queue, select the following:
   • Interactions in the Queue field
   • Self-Service Interactions in the View field
5. Fill in the following information:
   

   Field	Value
   Assignment Group	Network
   Service	Intranet/Internet (North America)
   Manually enter CI	adv-nam-switch-mar
   Category	Incident
   Area	Hardware
   Subarea	Hardware failure
   Impact	1

6. Click Escalate.
7. On the Escalation Details screen, do the following:
   1. Select advantage/Africa in the Location field.
   2. Fill in the rest of the required fields.

   3. Click Submit.

      An Incident record is opened.

      Note If there is already an incident record related to this CI, click Create New Incident.

8. Log out of Service Manager.

Task 5: Verify "System Down" is checked for CIs selected on incidents opened earlier.

1. Log on as a System Administrator.
2. Click Configuration Management > Resources > Search CIs.
3. Type adv-nam-modem in the Display Name field, and then click Search.
4. Select the CIs selected on the records opened previously, as well as the CIs "adv-nam-switch," "adv-nam-router," and "adv-nam-modem". These CIs appear in red.
5. Verify that each of the CIs has the "System Down" checkbox selected.
6. Click Cancel and Back until you get back to the main menu.

Task 6: See outage details with confirmation for the outage start and end times

1. Log on as a System Administrator.
2. Click Incident Management > Search Incidents.

3. Type an incident record ID number in the Incident ID field, and then click Search.

   The incident record opens.

4. Click Fill in the Closure Code field to select an applicable closure code.
5. Type a solution in the Solution field.
6. Click Close Incident.

7. In the Confirm Outage Information form, update or accept the specified outage start and end times, and then click OK.

   The status of the incident record is updated to Closed.

8. Click OK.

Related topics

Why are service agreements important?
Calculating response time

Related topics

Start background processes

Related topics

Add Service Level Targets
Edit the Service Level Management control record