The Planning Calendar is an R/3 tool that automates the execution of important database administration tasks. Its central feature is a calendar that covers the entire screen and records all the tasks that have been performed or scheduled for the database system. The calendar is particularly useful to:

• Schedule important tasks that need to be repeated periodically, for example, backups or consistency checks
• Obtain an overview of all performed or scheduled tasks and their status

Once a task has been planned, it is automatically executed at the time specified without requiring any additional attention. When it has completed, the calendar indicates any problems that occurred by highlighting it in red and providing a brief task history.

The Calendar provides options to schedule the following actions:

• Full database backup
• Differential database backup
• Transaction log backup
• Statistics update
• Database consistency check
• Tables consistency check

These actions can be scheduled to run on their own; once or repeatedly. Alternatively, they can be scheduled to run in combination with other tasks by selecting a predefined Planning pattern. A Planning pattern specifies a combination of tasks that are executed at predefined intervals and can be scheduled together. The Calendar offers the Planning pattern:

To schedule the pattern, you simply need to choose it and specify a time. The system automatically assigns values to the parameters required for the execution.

The Planning patterns do not necessarily provide the best solution for the systems. The requirements of an individual system must be considered carefully before you decide to implement a predefined strategy.

You can use the Planning Calendar to:

• Schedule a new action

• Change a scheduled action

• Display results of executed actions

• Display or change parameters

• Execute an action immediately