Schedule a Maintenance Window - VisualCron

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ErikC
Free support Topic Starter

2012-01-26T09:14:16Z

Hi,

It would be nice to have a server setting to setup a maintenance window.
In this window the server will do nothing, not running any jobs (Just like when the server is off).
After this window the server will continue his work.

Now there is a setting at job level to 'Run missed jobs once at start'.
There might be a checkbox needed to run missed jobs in maintenance window.

Regards,
Erik

Uses Visualcron since 2006.

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Support
Official support

2012-01-26T09:26:48Z

One solution could be to use a Time exception set. For example call it "Maintenance window". Check it in all Jobs. If you need to setup a Maintenance window then just add it in the Time exception set.

Henrik
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ErikC
Free support Topic Starter

2012-01-26T09:49:14Z

Hi,

Thanks for looking at this 'out of the box'.
Yes I believe this could be what we want.

Question though:
Let's say I use this solution:
When a remote server is not available during this time window and I have a job with a file trigger on this remote server, will the trigger be disabled or not?

Regards,
Erik

Uses Visualcron since 2006.

Support
Official support

2012-01-26T09:52:20Z

Originally Posted by: ErikC

Hi,

Thanks for looking at this 'out of the box'.
Yes I believe this could be what we want.

Question though:
Let's say I use this solution:
When a remote server is not available during this time window and I have a job with a file trigger on this remote server, will the trigger be disabled or not?

Regards,
Erik

No, it will still be there. Time exception will just prevent the Job from Running - not Triggering. So, if you need total silence then the request is "more fair". 😁

Henrik
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ErikC
Free support Topic Starter

2012-01-26T10:06:21Z

Hi,

The triggers should not be changed if a remote server is not available during the time exception. When the server is not available outside this window, the trigger should be using the polling meganism which is already in place.

If a time exception stops the trigger to look at the remote server, so it isn't using the polling meganism during the time exception, than my request is solved by using time exceptions.

Is it?

Regards,
Erik

Uses Visualcron since 2006.

Support
Official support

2012-01-26T10:08:16Z

Originally Posted by: ErikC

Hi,

The triggers should not be changed if a remote server is not available during the time exception. When the server is not available outside this window, the trigger should be using the polling meganism which is already in place.

If a time exception stops the trigger to look at the remote server, so it isn't using the polling meganism during the time exception, than my request is solved by using time exceptions.

Is it?

Regards,
Erik

Yes, if you have prepared Triggers for that downtime in the way that they will wait during the whole downtime.

Henrik
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ErikC
Free support Topic Starter

2012-01-26T10:25:55Z

Ahh, so this solution is not completly what I want. 😲

I want to define a time period which behaves like 'server off'. The server should be in a state that it is doing nothing.

I can change the polling for a file trigger so that the maintenamce window will fit in this period, but my next window could be dirrerent and I have to change all the polling stuff again. That's not an ideal situation.

So I believe my request still stands 😎.

The possibility to freeze the server for a specific time period and be able to run missed jobs.

😟 Mayby this could be done by a task: server off, server on.

Regards,
Erik

Uses Visualcron since 2006.

matrixIII
Free support

2012-01-27T06:34:14Z

Originally Posted by: ErikC

Mayby this could be done by a task: server off, server on.

I also have use for "server off" in a task. If some [date on a proprietary system] check fails in the morning, I want to turn the server off automatically so it does not process anything until someone looks at it.

Support
Official support

2012-01-27T09:26:10Z

While it makes sense to add this as a Task I just want to show the power of the .NET Code Task and show how simple our API is. Here is the code for turning off the Server:

using VisualCron;
using VisualCronAPI;

public class Test
{
    public static void TurnServerOff()
    {
        Client c = new Client();
        Connection conn = new Connection();
        Server s = c.Connect(conn,false);
        s.Stop();
    }
}

So, placing this in current version will not work because we do only load libraries from GAC. But in next version we load VisualCron.dll and VisualCronAPI. I mean, they are always available as the Task is executed from VisualCron so there is no reason not to load the dlls.

We can probably upload a beta later today if you are interested.

Edited by user 2012-01-27T09:27:44Z | Reason: Not specified

Henrik
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metasource
Paid support

2017-03-27T16:55:49Z

#10

I realize this topic is over 5 years old. But we are looking to implement a "Maintenance Window" on our servers that run VisualCron so that Windows Updates can be applied. In a nutshell, we do not want any job to run between 1:00am and 3:00am, Monday through Saturday, and 1:00am to 11:00am on Sunday. Does this functionality exist and I just missed it, or is it still in Features Request status?

I've read over the documentation for Global - Time Exceptions and I understand that is one approach. However, I feel that using that approach can be problematic since you are relying on the user that sets up a new job to add the "Maintenance Window" collection to the Time Exceptions section of the new job in order to achieve an environment that "nothing runs between these times" regardless. I also saw the code snippet where you could connect via the API to turn the server off; however, then you have to write something to turn it on. Then you would have to schedule that ON / OFF functionality somewhere else and that seems to defeat the purpose of using VisualCron.