opCharts enables you to schedule NMIS outages and add multiple Nodes, Interfaces or Elements, or a combination of both, to a single outage event. You can also schedule a one-time outage or a recurring outage for the required Nodes or Elements on the Scheduled Outages page. 

This document describes how you can schedule a Node Outage using opCharts 4 and above, and Element Outages with Interfaces from opCharts 4.5.9 and above, and Element Outages with Other elements from opCharts 4.5.10 and above.

Creating a Scheduled Outage

1. To schedule an outage on the opCharts page, from the menu, click Views > Scheduled Outages. 
   
2. On the Outages page that opens, click New Outage. 
   
3. Add a Description for the outage.
4. Specify a Change ID for easy identification of the outage event.

5. You can schedule a one-time outage or a recurring event under Frequency.

   By default, NMIS collects the performance data during every outage event. You may choose to discard it by selecting the Discard Performance Data check box. 

6. Under Outage Window, specify the Start and End time for the outage.

   Click the Common Time Formats link to know more about the time formats supported by Opmantek applications for parsing the start and end times.

   

7. Under Node/Element Selection, choose the Selector Type - either Node or Element.
   • In case of Node, choose the Node Property to select Nodes by.
     • Select or enter the required Values. You can enter multiple Node Values (separated by commas) for the Property chosen.
       
   • How to add a custom node property ?
     In opCharts Outages, Custom properties can be added in Node property section to create outages for nodes.
     To add a custom property, Please editing opCharts_node_selector_sections.json and add in any new property of catchall.
     For example :-  Addition of Node Model in opCharts_node_selector_sections.json 

     {
     "name" : "catchall.data.model",
     "label" : "Node Model"
     }

   • In case of Element, first search for and select the Node which the element(s) are on.
   • For Element Type you can either select Interface or Other 
     • For Interface :
       • Choose how you want to search for elements on the Interface / Regex drop-down list, select  Interface or Interface Regex. 
         • In case of Interface, select the required Interfaces(s) from drop-down (example: Vlan1)
         • In case of Interface Regex, enter a valid regex pattern (examples: vlan* or ^Vlan.*?$)
     • For Other :
       • From the Match Type drop-down list, select either String or Regex
         • In case of String, enter the valid string for the Element in Value
         • In case of Regex, enter a valid regex pattern (examples: vlan* or ^Vlan.*?$)
           
           

1. Click the Add new selector button to add another Node or Element to the same Scheduled Outage. 
2. Click Save and Back to finish scheduling the outage.

Purging of Scheduled Outages

Once a scheduled outage in opCharts has lapsed, it will clear from the list as per the NMIS configuration.

Configuration Details :- NMIS Configuration (purge_outages_after)

Integration with NMIS and opEvents

When a Scheduled Outage commences, on the next node collect cycle a "Planned Outage Open" event is created in NMIS and opEvents. Similarly when the scheduled outage is completed a "Planned Outage Closed" event is created in NMIS and opEvents.

For events that occur that relate to the impacted node/element during the defined scheduled outage window, the "event.planned_outage" property in opEvents will be set to true.

Further information about this property and others can be found here: opEvents Normalised Event Properties