Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.
Words and Phrases
| Search for | Example | Results |
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| A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
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A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |
Using Boolean Operators
| Search for | Operator | Example |
|---|---|---|
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Two or more words in the same topic |
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| Either word in a topic |
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| Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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| Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
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| A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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Create a time period
A time period must contain one or more rules in order to create occurrences. A time period rule stores all the recurrence patterns, and reflects the recurrence of the future start and end times of the time period occurrences. Rules are the central element in the Time Period module to create time period occurrences.
Tip You can create a time period from scratch or copy from an existing one.
To create a time period from scratch, follow these steps:
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Click Time Period Management > Create New Time Period.
A list of time period categories is displayed. The categories are grouped by Type.
Time period type Description Availability Hours A period of time in which a service should be available. Maintenance Window A period of time in which Change requests may be implemented. Neutral A period of time indicating an external event, such as a holiday, which has no direct bearing on request implementation. Freeze Period A period of time in which Change requests may not be implemented. -
Select a category.
The New Time Period form opens, with certain field values automatically populated.
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Complete the fields in the Details and Applies to sections as necessary. The following tables describe the two sections, and the Activities section.
Details Attribute Description Notes Id A system-generated unique ID for the time period definition. The ID is generated based on the number file. Current Phase The phase that the time period definition is currently in, depending on the pre-configured workflow. The workflow is defined in the time period category. Approval Status The approval status of the time period definition. Same approval states as in Change Management. Type The type of the selected category. Read-only Category The selected category. Read-only Next Review Date Enter the next review date of this time period definition. Must be a future date. Scope The acceptable scope of the time period.
Note This field is available only for a time period of the Maintenance Window type.
A Global List with three values:
- No Impact
- Degradation
- Outage
Owning Group The assignment group that owns this time period.
Linked to the assignment table. Values must be a valid assignment group. Owner The owner (person) of this time period. Must be a member of the assignment group (Owning Group). Name A display name of the time period definition. Any name is acceptable. Description A description of the time period definition. Any textual description. Activities Attribute Description New Update Type The type of the new update. There are three OOB types:
- Update
- Communication with Stakeholders
- Communication with Service Owners
New Update The description of the new update for the activity log. Activity List Lists all activities performed on the record. Activity Type Filter Allows a filtered view of the activity list per Activity Type.
Applies to Attribute Description Notes Environments An attribute to classify the time period definition even further. Services Services for which this time period definition is created.
Must be a Business Service configuration item from the
devicefile.Locations The locations this time period applies to. Must be a valid record from the locationfile.Departments The departments this time period applies to. Must be a valid record from the departmentfile.Note By default, the time period is valid for all Locations, Departments, Services, and Locations (these fields have a default value of
<All>). When you specify a specific item, the<All>value is cleared and replaced with your specified value. -
Click Save.
Note Before you can add a rule, you need to save the time period.
The time period is added.
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In the Rules section, continue to add rules to the time period.
- Click New. The New Time Period form opens.
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In the Rule Name field, type a descriptive name. For example, My Rule 1.
Note The rule is Active by default. If you want to add an inactive rule, deselect the Active option. Inactive rules will not create occurrences for the time period.
- In the Time period field, select a time zone. By default, the time zone defined in your operator record or the system time zone defined in the System Information Record is selected. If you are creating a time period definition for users located in another time zone, you may want to select their time zone. Occurrences will be generated based on the specified time zone.
- Select a Recurrence Type. For example, Monthly.
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Specify when the rule will start to take effect and when it will expire. For example, you can specify February 1, 2013 as the effective date, and the rule will expire after 10 occurrences.
Note The maximum allowed value in the Expires after field is defined in the Time Period Settings. See Configure time period global settings. If you specify a value greater than the maximum, an error occurs.
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Select a recurrence pattern. For example, you can specify the rule recurs every 1 month, on every fourth of the month or on every first Monday of the month.
Note The value of the recurrence pattern has the following limitations:
- Daily: 1 to 1000
- Weekly: 1 to 100
- Monthly: 1 to 25
- Yearly: 1 to 3
- Specify the start and end times of the rule. For example, you can specify the rule starts at 00:00 (hh:mm) and ends on the same day at 08:00 (hh:mm).
- If you want to set an arbitrary schedule for the rule, select the On an arbitrary schedule check box, and then specify the start day and end date for each individual occurrence.
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Click Save.
The rule is added.
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Click Save & Exit.
You are returned to the time period record. The new rule now displays in the Rules section, and its occurrences during the specified effective period are listed in the Occurrences section. When there are a large number of occurrences, you can use the filters (Rule ID, Start Time, End Time, Status, and Activate) at the top of this section to view specific rules.
The maximum allowed value in the Expire after field and the number of months to calculate future occurrences are defined in the time period global settings. See Configure time period global settings.
Note The occurrences are displayed in your time zone or the system time zone if yours is not available, instead of the time zone specified in the rule. You can change the occurrence display time zone only for this session by clicking the Change Time Zone button (if you log off and then log back in, the time zone change no longer takes effect). For details, see Change the time zone of a time period.
- If needed, continue to add more rules as described above.
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Click Save.
The time period is created.
The Workflow section shows the workflow linked with the time period category you selected previously, and the current phase of the time period is Planning.
The Approvals section is now empty. Next, you can further update the time period or submit it for approval.
To create a time period from an existing one, follow these steps:
- Click Time Period Management > Search Time Periods.
- Open the existing time period by performing a search.
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Click More or the More Actions menu, and select Copy.
The new time period is created, populated with data from the original time period, except for the Impact and Current Phase field values. The new record always has an empty Scope and a Current Phase of planning.
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Click Save.
Note The Copy options for Rules and Occurrences setting specified in the Time Period Settings determines whether or not and how rules and occurrences are copied. When you click Save, rules and occurrences are copied regardless of their state (active or inactive).
- Update the time period as needed, and click Save.
Update a time period
You cannot update an existing time period unless it is in the Planning phase.
To update a time period, follow these steps:
- Navigate to Time Period Management > Search Time Periods.
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Click Search, or enter several fields on the search form and then click Search.
Note An entry in the ID field must include the prefix TP. For example, TP000003.
- Locate the time period record you want to update, and update it as needed.
- Save the record.
Related concepts
Time Period Management
Time Period Management concepts
Time Period Management process
Time period workflow
Time period occurrences
Time period recurrence rules
Time period security areas and roles
Related tasks
Submit a time period for approval
Deactivate or activate a time period occurrence
Deactivate a time period rule
Delegate a time period approval
Approve a time period
Change the time zone of a time period
Retire a time period
Submit a time period for replanning
Time period configuration tasks
