5 1 0:Advanced Controls for Event Scheduling

Overview

Managing and scheduling events effectively is important for maintaining efficient backup operations. For a task, multiple events can be created within different schedules, each with different settings. Events of the same type based on the same task are considered equal. SEPuler, SEP sesam scheduling component, manages events in the execution queue. When two or more equal events overlap, SEPuler determines the order in which these events are executed. To resolve scheduling conflicts when schedules overlap, events can be assigned different priorities. Event priority determines which event takes precedence when equal events occur on the same backup day. For more information, see also Managing SEP sesam Events.

Generally, when two or more equal events are scheduled on the same backup day, only the event with the highest priority is queued and executed, events with lower priority are suppressed. However, SEP sesam offers advanced options that allow you to control task execution, offering flexibility in scheduling to ensure that only the intended operations occur within the specified timeframes.

When two equal events overlap, both regular and blocking events can suppress equal events of lower priority, regardless of whether they are scheduled to run before, during, or after the event. By default, the event is suppressed for the entire SEP sesam backup day.

The suppress_with_timerange database key modifies this default behavior and enables limiting the suppression to specific hours within the day. This provides more flexibility, ensuring that important tasks are suppressed only during critical periods, rather than the entire backup day. When this option is enabled, only a specified time period is affected, allowing other events that are scheduled outside of that timeframe to proceed as planned. The defined timeframe can also extend beyond the Newday event.

Using option suppress_with_timerange

By default, a higher-priority regular or blocking event blocks the execution of equal events with lower priority for the entire backup day. However, with the suppress_with_timerange key enabled, you can block equal events only for a specific time frame in a backup day, providing more flexibility in backup scheduling.

You might want to prevent backup jobs from executing during peak business hours to avoid impacting system performance, or you might want to prevent any backup jobs from running for a certain time period while a more important backup is running. The key suppress_with_timerange enables you to configure specific backup windows or optimize your backup schedules around critical business hours.

For example, you may have a daily backup scheduled to start at 2:00 AM, which typically takes around 4 hours to complete. You also have hourly incremental backups scheduled throughout the day. By default, scheduled incremental backups that overlap with the backup of higher priority will be blocked for the entire backup day. However, you might want the incremental backups to be suppressed only during the time frame of the higher priority backup (from 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM) and not for the rest of the day.

To achieve this, you can use the suppress_with_timerange option. With this key enabled, you can configure SEP sesam events to suppress only those backups that are scheduled within a specific time range, allowing other backups to run as planned later in the day.

	Note
	Without the suppress_with_timerange entry in the defaults, the blocking or regular event prevents associated jobs from being activated for the entire SEP sesam day.

Default behaviour	suppress_with_timerange (option Start time frame set to 10 hours)
suppress_with_timerange (option Start time frame set to 14 hours)

Configuring the suppress_with_timerange key

To enable and configure the suppress_with_timerange key, follow these steps:

1. In Web UI, in the navigation menu click System Configuration -> System Settings. Alternatively, in GUI, click Configuration in the SEP sesam menu bar, and then Defaults -> Settings.
2. Search for the key suppress_with_timerange.
3. Configure the key:
   • If the key already exists, click on the three dots -> Edit and then update its value to 1.
   • If the key does not exist, click [+ New] to create a new system setting. Enter the following values for the new setting:

     Key: suppress_with_timerange

     User Name: sesam

     Value: 1

Screenshots

Note

Changing the system setting suppress_with_timerange to '1' changes the behavior of blocking events as well as regular events. If the Start time frame option in the schedule is set, the event with higher priority blocks other events for this time period only. If this option is not set, the event takes effect for the entire SEP sesam day. Before changing the system setting, check whether there are already events for which the Start time frame option is set.

Configuring an event to block other events for a specified timeframe

Both regular and blocking events can be configured to suppress the execution of other events for a specific period during the day. You can use them to prevent multiple backups from running concurrently or avoid backups during a certain time frame (e.g., high-usage periods). This involves creating a schedule that defines the blocking periods and linking to it an equal event. The important settings to achieve selective blocking is correctly setting the event priority and using the Start Time Frame option.

Suppose you have an hourly-scheduled backup task named Oracle_all for an Oracle database, with a default priority of 1. You want to prevent this backup task from running between 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM, from Monday to Friday, while allowing it to run outside of these hours.

To do this, you can configure a blocking event with a higher priority that applies only in this timeframe:

1. In the GUI create a new schedule that specifies the blocking period, for example block_ORACLE_1200-1400. Set the weekly recurrence pattern from Monday to Friday, the Start time to 12:00 PM and the Start time frame to 2 hours.
2. Right-click the newly created schedule (block_ORACLE_1200-1400) and configure a new command event based on the same command for the backup task, in this case, Oracle_all. Set the priority of this event to a higher value than the original Oracle_all event (e.g., set it to 2). This ensures that this event takes precedence over the regularly scheduled backups.
3. Configure the command event options as required if you want this event to run (for example, perform customized backup task Oracle_all instead of the the original Oracle_all event). Aternatively, if you want to prevent all instances of this backup task from running during this time, enable option Blocking date.
4. Switch to tab Schedule and check that the Start Time Frame is correctly set to define the desired blocking period (12:00 PM to 2:00 PM). This timeframe specifies when this event will suppress other equal events.

Screenshots

With these settings, the event (either regular or blocking) will suppress all other Oracle_all events with a lower priority scheduled to run during the defined period (12:00 PM to 2:00 PM). Events before and after this period will run as usual.

Note

If the Start Time Frame option is not set when the suppress_with_timeframe setting is enabled, the blocking event will suppress other lower-priority events of the same type for the entire SEP sesam day. Additionally, for SEP sesam versions earlier than Apollon V2, the blocking period is determined by the start time of the schedule and the actual stop time of the event, not just the Start Time Frame setting.

See also

Blocking Events - Managing SEP sesam Events - Managing Schedules

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