Schedules
A schedule runs a runbook or a workflow on the days and at the time you choose. The console calls these "maintenance windows" on the Schedules page.
A schedule is not the same as a change window. A schedule starts work at a set time. A change window stops changes from running outside set hours. Scheduled work still obeys change windows. See Change windows and locks.
To open schedules: choose Patching > Schedules.
Create a schedule
Only Gardience admins can create or change schedules.
- Go to New maintenance window.
- Enter a Name.
- In What to run, pick a runbook or a workflow.
- For a runbook, fill in its inputs, such as the node group. Workflows use the inputs set in their steps.
- Tick the days it should run. In Which weeks, keep Every week, or pick a week of the month: 2nd of the month with Tuesday ticked is Patch Tuesday, and Last of the month with Saturday ticked is the last Saturday.
- Set the Time and the Time zone. The time zone list offers America/Chicago, America/New_York, America/Denver, America/Los_Angeles, UTC and Europe/London.
- Leave Enabled ticked to turn it on now.
- Choose Save window.
Shortcut: choose Schedule… on a runbook or workflow card. The form opens with that runbook or workflow already picked.
Saving a schedule is recorded in the audit log with its days, time and time zone.
Turn a schedule on or off, or delete it
In the schedule table, choose Disable or Enable. The Status column shows On or Off.
To remove a schedule, choose Delete. Only Gardience admins can delete schedules, and each deletion is recorded in the audit log.
Deleting a runbook turns off every schedule that runs it, directly or as a step of a workflow. The schedule stays in the table, turned off, with the reason shown, until you delete it.
When a schedule runs
- Gardience checks the schedules every 30 seconds.
- A schedule runs on each chosen day at its time, in its own time zone. A schedule set to a week of the month runs only on that occurrence of the day, for example only on the second Tuesday.
- If Gardience is busy at that minute, the schedule still starts if it is no more than 5 minutes late.
- A schedule runs at most once per day and time. The Last run column shows the date and time of the last start, or "never".
- If a schedule cannot start, Gardience posts a notification to the webhook set in Administration > Settings, if there is one.
A server that was replaced by its promoted standby does not run schedules.
How scheduled work runs
Scheduled runs use Gardience's automation identity. In the run list they appear as schedule: <name>.
Each runbook in a scheduled run behaves like a workflow step:
- It runs only on the nodes that answer when it starts.
- Changes for offline nodes are held and run when the nodes reconnect.
- Nodes whose change window is closed are held until it opens.
- Locked nodes are skipped.
Held work from a schedule is listed under the name of the admin who created the schedule. When it is released, Gardience checks that person's rights. Held work from the built-in schedule, which has no author, is listed as automation. See Held work.
The built-in schedule
A new install has one schedule, Weekly patch window: pilot ring. It runs Patch a node group on Ring0-Pilot every Tuesday at 02:00 America/Chicago. It is off until an admin enables it.