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Procedure documentationScheduling Agreed Service Times (AST)

 

Schedule agreed service times (AST) for managed objects. Define the week days and hours during which a managed object is promised to be available, as in the SLA contract.

SAM uses the agreed service times to compute the time a managed object is available for end users. End users with access to SAP Solution Manager, administrators maintaining service outages, and IT service managers confirming service outages can display the agreed service times scheduled for a managed object.

Caution Caution

For technical reasons (to avoid inconsistencies), the agreed service times can only be defined for the present and future. They cannot be defined in the past.

When you add a new managed object, add it to the SAP Solution Manager landscape and configure it in the SAM set-up, before the SLA contract start date in the SAM set-up.

End of the caution.
Defining agreed service times in an international system landscape

Caution Caution

Due to the complexity of monitoring an international system landscape, SAM does not take into account public holidays. If you define a 5/10 pattern, for example, Easter Monday is included, by default.

End of the caution.

Recommendation Recommendation

Instead of defining agreed service times for each system individually, create AST patterns according to a naming convention reflecting the planned system availability, for example “24x7_00_to_24_CET” or “5x12_06_18_CET”.

End of the recommendation.

If you use SAM in an international system landscape across multiple time zones, you can define weekly patterns as follows:

  • Recommended: Define a 24/7 service time pattern for the complete duration of the SLA contract. To adjust the data, do one of the following.

    • Create non-SLA-relevant unplanned service outages manually for the exceptions (Easter Monday or Chinese New Year, for example).

    • Export the availability data to Microsoft Excel and adjust it manually, for example by removing the service outages created for Easter Monday or Chinese New Year.

  • Define, for example, a 12/5 service time pattern based on the time zone in which most of the primary end users are located.

  • Define multiple service time patterns with varying contract start and end dates.

    Example Example

    To exclude the Christmas Holidays from the agreed service time, schedule the following service times

    • Service time 1: Valid from 1 January, 0 a.m. to 24 December, 12 p.m.

    • Service time 2: Valid from 27 December, 0 a.m. to 31 December, 12 p.m.

    End of the example.

    Note Note

    Depending on the number of service times, this option can be complex and is therefore time-consuming and prone to error.

    End of the note.

Recommendation Recommendation

Create weekly patterns, and reuse them by assigning them to technical components.

End of the recommendation.

Prerequisites

  • You have authorization to edit agreed service times, as an SAP Solution Manager configuration user, or as an SAM administrator responsible for a managed object.

  • A managed object in scope was defined. For more information, see, Setting Up Service Availablity Monitoring.

  • Optional: To schedule complex service times, you have created service time patterns. For more information, see Creating a Service Time Pattern.

Procedure

  1. In the Technical Administration work center, choose the Service Availability Management scenario.

    The managed objects in scope of SAM are displayed.

  2. Select one or more managed objects and choose the Maintain Service Time pushbutton.

    The agreed service times assigned to the managed objects are displayed.

  3. Select one or more technical components and choose the Schedule pushbutton.

  4. Enter data as required.

    • Title: Enter a title.

      Recommendation Recommendation

      If you use SAM in an international system landscape, you might create multiple service times, for example to account for public holidays. To keep an overview, use meaningful titles, 24x7_01-01_to_12-24 and 24x7_12-26_to_12-31 for example, to exclude Christmas holidays.

      End of the recommendation.
    • Valid From/To: Enter the start and end date of the service time.

      If you want to define multiple service times for complex international scenarios, enter, for example, 1 January to 24 December and 27 December to 31 December.

    • Time Zone: Select the time zone to which the start and end time of the availability pattern(s) refer (see below), typically the time zone of the end users.

  5. Optional: On the Description tab page, describe the use of the service time.

  6. On the Availability Pattern tab page, to define the promised availability (pattern), for example a 24/7 or 10/5 schema, select the weekdays and enter the start and end times.

    Recommendation Recommendation

    To configure complex service times, create reusable service time patterns. For more information, see Creating a Service Time Pattern.

    End of the recommendation.
    • Define multiple patterns if, for example, the promised availability is distributed over the day.

    Note Note

    Use the 24-hour time format 24:00, 4 p.m. is 16:00, for example.

    End of the note.
  7. On the Component Assignment tab page, assign managed objects to the service times.

  8. Save your entries.