5 0 0:Creating a Blocking Event

Overview

SEP sesam establishes schedules as a framework to which you link different events (backup, migration, replication, etc). A schedule defines the recurrence of an event and can be executed in minutes, hours, days, months or years. All schedules and related jobs are configured and run in the time zone of the SEP sesam Server. For more details on scheduling concepts, see SEPuler – an event calendar.

SEP sesam also provides options to prevent activation of events on certain days, such as holidays, and at certain hours. You can create and schedule a blocking event. A blocking event is any type of event that prevents another event from starting. In SEP sesam you can define blocking events to:

• prevent activation of a scheduled task or task group on a certain date
• prevent activation of a scheduled task or task group within specific timeframe
• prevent activation of any or all types of events on a certain date

A blocking event is created during the configuration of an event or later in the event properties.

Blocking events are scheduled in the same way as other events. Different scheduling options are available and you can use the default or a custom calendar. SEP sesam scheduling includes the User defined option, which allows you to quickly and easily create a custom calendar where you can specify the dates on which you want to run additional jobs or prevent certain jobs from running. For details, see Creating a Custom Calendar.

A blocking event must have event priority defined, which ensures that schedules are resolved and events are queued correctly. Event priority determines which job in a queue will be executed first. The priority of a blocking event must be higher than the priorities of the events they are meant to block. The lowest priority is 1 and the highest priority is 99. For more information see Event Priorities.

Note

A blocking event is created by selecting the Blocking date checkbox during the configuration of an event. Switching off a schedule cancels the execution of all events using this schedule (Execution off option in the schedule). A blocking event only affects other events with the same name when schedules are overlapping. A blocking event suppresses any job with the same task name at respective (SEP sesam backup day) day, regardless of whether it is scheduled to run before, during or after the blocking event.

For general information on configuring a schedule and linking an event to it, see Standard Backup Procedure, steps 2 and 3.

Configuring a blocking event for specific task or task group

You can create an event that will block scheduled jobs of a specific task or task group from running on specified dates. The blocking event is based on a task or a task group, and it will block execution of other events of that task or task group on the days when schedules overlap.

Example

A backup event that executes the task stratum1_etc is configured to run daily with priority 2. A second backup event for the same task stratum1_etc is only scheduled for December 24th every year as a blocking event with priority 9. On December 24th, the priority check detects the stratum1_etc backup with higher priority and overrides the execution of the daily backup. The blocking event itself does not create an entry in the job status, but sends a notification that it was activated.

1. Select the schedule and right-click it. Then select the event type you want to add, for example backup, and click New Backup Event.
2. Under Sequence control, set up the Priority of your blocking event. SEPuler always executes the events with the highest priority first. Then select the Blocking date check box. Make sure that this option is used together with a high priority that prevails over priority of the event you want to block.
3. Under Object, select the task or task group to which you want to link this event.
4. Click OK to save the event.

Configuring a blocking event for specific timeframe

If you want to create a blocking event that will prevent execution of other events of the same type during a specific time period of a day, you first need to set the SEP sesam profile and add a database key to the SEP sesam database. Then you create a custom schedule that defines the prohibited time period and add the blocking event to this schedule.

This type of blocking event is based on a task or a task group, and it will block execution of other events of that task or task group within the specified timeframe.

	Warning
	To enable the blocking event within the specified hours, the SEP sesam database table defaults must contain an entry suppress_with_timerange with the value yes. Without this entry the blocking event prevents related jobs from being activated for the entire sesam day!

1. Set a SEP sesam profile as described in FAQ: What happens when I set a profile.
2. Once you set the profile, insert the following to the SEP sesam database via the command line:

sm_db "INSERT INTO defaults (key,user_name,value) VALUES ('suppress_with_timerange','sesam','yes');"

3. The following scenario assumes that you have already defined an hourly-scheduled backup for ORACLE with the command event Oracle all and event priority 1 (default). Now you want to prohibit execution from noon till 2 pm. To do this, you need to create another schedule, e.g., block_ORACLE_1200-1400. For details, see Creating a Schedule. In this schedule you set the recurrence as:
   • weekly execution, from Monday to Friday
   • starting time 12:00, duration 2 hours




4. You need to link your newly created schedule, in our example block_ORACLE_1200-1400, to the same command event as mentioned above, e.g., Oracle_all (right-click the schedule and select New Command Event). Browse for the existing event (e.g., Oracle_all) and set the priority to a higher value. Note that this event's priority must be higher than the priority of the linked event. Then enable the Blocking date option.

If you want to use this function with a regular backup job, keep in mind that the blocking event must refer to the same task name as the backup event.

Configuring a Newday blocking event

To generally block execution of events on certain dates, you can create a newday blocking event that can impact all events on the specified date. A newday blocking event requires a custom schedule that does not contain any other events. Newday blocking event enables you to choose which types of events should be blocked and you can select to block all events, or only certain types of events.

	Note
	It is not recommended to use the SEP sesam NEWDAY event as a blocking event. Create a custom newday event and define that one as a blocking event.

1. Select a schedule that does not contain any events or create a new schedule. Right-click the schedule and click New Newday Event.
2. Set the priority for this event. Note that the priority of this blocking event must be higher than the priorities of the event you want to block.
3. Enable option Blocking date.
4. Select the types of events you want to block. You can select only certain event types or all events.
5. Click OK to add the blocking newday event to the schedule.

See also

About Scheduling – Creating a Schedule – Creating Custom Calendar – SEP sesam Events

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