The DBA Planning Calendar (MS SQL Server)

Use

You can use the DBA Planning Calendar to automate database administration actions that have to be performed regularly. You can schedule operations, such as online backups, to have them automatically performed, and then check that the operation was successful.

The main function of the DBA Planning Calendar is to define the start times and parameters for database actions. Since these actions run without interaction with the administrator, you have to make sure in advance that the necessary resources are available.

Integration

The DBA Planning Calendar is part of the Computing Center Management System (CCMS) and can be accessed with the DBA Cockpit.

Features

Restrictions for Remote Databases

If your central system and remote system are in different time zones, the following restrictions apply to scheduling jobs from a central system to a remote system as the jobs are scheduled in SQL Server agent time of the remote system.

If the remote system time is ahead of the central system, then schedule jobs in remote systems only in the time zone of the remote system. For example, if the time of the remote system is eight hours ahead of the central system, then scheduling jobs must occur after eight hours. Any jobs scheduled before this timeframe do not run in the remote system. The status of these jobs in remote system is updated in the central system only when the time of the central system reaches the execution time of these jobs. You must not schedule jobs in remote system for immediate execution.
If the remote system time is behind the time of the central system, then scheduling jobs is possible only after the time difference between the remote system and the central system. For example, if the time of the remote system is eight hours behind the central system, then scheduling jobs is possible only after eight hours. You must not schedule jobs for immediate execution.

If the systems are in the same time zone, there are no restrictions in scheduling jobs from a central system to a remote system.

Initial Screen

The initial screen of the DBA Planning Calendar is divided into three frames:

The frame on the left contains all information and parameters to select the set of actions to be displayed. You can:
- Select the system from which you want to read planning data.
- Select Category. For SQL Server, select DBA Actions.
- Select the week to be displayed using the calendar control.
  The default is the current week. To navigate to another week, double-click the week you want to display.
- Select a factory calendar.
  Specifying a factory calendar only has an impact on the calendar display. Holidays are the same color as weekend days. It does not result in any restrictions for planned actions.
The frame on the right contains a list of all planning actions that are currently available in SQL Server.
You should schedule most actions that you can plan with the DBA Planning Calendar as recurring actions.

The frame in the lower half of the screen contains the calendar.

By default, the week view with top-bottom layout is displayed, that is, one week starting with Monday. To change to a left-right split view, choose Logs → Left-Right Split View Layout. If you want to change from a week view to a day or month view, choose the corresponding button in the tool bar.

Note

You can only switch the layout for the week or month view. For the day view, only the left-right split view layout is available,

To change your preferred settings, that is, the layout and the view, choose Save Settings.

The calendar shows the actions that were scheduled with the SQL Server Agent. These actions are then automatically executed. Once the action has run, the status is indicated using the following colors:

Color	Meaning
Green	The action has run successfully.
Yellow	The action has finished with a warning. You should check the job log for details.
Red	An error has occurred and the action was interrupted. Check the job log for details and reschedule the action.
Dark Red	Scheduling failed, that is, there is no status available and the action is overdue.
Light Blue	The action has not yet started.
Dark Blue	The action has not yet finished.

To display the color encodings, choose Legend.

Drag & Drop Function

You can move or copy actions in the calendar with drag & drop.