Blackouts allow you to suspend monitoring on one or more targets in order to perform maintenance operations. Blackouts, also known as patching blackouts, ensure that the target is not changed during the period of the blackout so that a maintenance operation on the actual target will not be affected. During this period, the Agent does not perform metric data collection on the target and no notifications will be raised for the target. Blackouts will allow Enterprise Manager jobs to run on the target during the blackout period by default. Optionally, job runs can be prevented during the blackout period.

A blackout can be defined for individual target(s), a group of multiple targets that reside on different hosts, or for all targets on a host. The blackout can be scheduled to run immediately or in the future, or stop after a specific duration. Blackouts can be created on an as-needed basis, or scheduled to run at regular intervals. If, during the maintenance period, the administrator discovers that he needs more (or less) time to complete his maintenance tasks, he can easily extend (or stop) the blackout that is currently in effect. Blackout functionality is available from both the Enterprise Manager console as well as via the Enterprise Manager command-line interface (EMCLI). EMCLI is often useful for administrators who would like to incorporate the blacking out of a target within their maintenance scripts.

Why use blackouts?

Blackouts allow you to collect accurate monitoring data. For example, you can stop data collections during periods where a managed target is undergoing routine maintenance, such as a database backup or hardware upgrade. If you continue monitoring during these periods, the collected data will show trends and other monitoring information that are not the result of normal day-to-day operations. To get a more accurate, long-term picture of a target's performance, you can use blackouts to exclude these special-case situations from data analysis.

Blackout Access

Enterprise Manager administrators that have at least Blackout Target privileges on all Selected Targets in a blackout will be able to create, edit, stop, or delete the blackout.

In case an administrator has at least Blackout Target privileges on all Selected Targets (targets directly added to the blackout), but does not have Blackout Target privileges on some or all of the Dependent Targets, then that administrator will be able to edit, stop, or delete the blackout. For more information on Blackout access, see "About Blackouts Best Effort".