Blackout periods are times when does not evaluate selected elements. By scheduling blackout periods, you keep from monitoring elements and notifying you about problems during times when you know that your system will not be operating—times like scheduled routine maintenance. Failure to set up blackout periods for maintenance or similar types of events causes the product to send unnecessary email notifications about your account and to record false errors that lower the service measures for your account.
You can set up one-time or recurring blackouts for all elements in the account, for all elements in a service, and for individual elements.
The status of the element changes at the first opportunity to monitor the element after the start of the blackout time.
Example: You have a 30-minute Web page element that evaluates its path at 26 and 56 minutes after the hour. You set up a two-hour blackout period that starts at 3:00 P.M. The status of the element changes to blackout at 3:00 P.M. and the Next Run time is set to 5:26 P.M.
As long as the element remains in the blackout time, it is not scheduled for evaluation.
At the end of the blackout period, the status of the element changes from blackout to its previous status.
If the status of the element is critical alarm when it enters the blackout period, it returns to a status of critical alarm when the blackout period ends. When an element has a status of critical alarm, the product attempts to verify the critical alarm status. If it cannot verify the alarm, the status changes to OK. If it can verify the alarm, it retains the critical alarm status.