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Core Concepts

Maintenances Overview

Understanding maintenance windows in Kener: What they are, how they work, and how they help communicate planned service disruptions.

Maintenance windows in Kener allow you to schedule and communicate planned service disruptions to your users. Unlike incidents, maintenances are scheduled in advance and can be one-time or recurring events.

What is a Maintenance Window?

A maintenance window represents a planned period during which one or more services will be unavailable or degraded due to scheduled work. Each maintenance includes:

  • Title - A clear description of the maintenance work
  • Description - Details about what's being done and why
  • Schedule (RRULE) - When and how often the maintenance occurs
  • Duration - How long each maintenance window lasts
  • Affected Monitors - Services impacted and their expected status
  • Status - Whether the maintenance is ACTIVE or INACTIVE

Maintenance vs Incident

Understanding the difference between maintenances and incidents is crucial:

Aspect Maintenance Incident
Nature Planned work Unplanned disruption
Scheduling Scheduled in advance with RRULE Created when issue occurs
Duration Known duration configured upfront Duration determined by resolution time
Recurrence Can be recurring (weekly, monthly, etc.) Always one-time events
Visibility Shown during scheduled window Shown from start until resolved
End Time Pre-calculated based on duration Set when issue is resolved

Key Distinction: Maintenances are preventive and scheduled, while incidents are reactive and unplanned.

One-Time vs Recurring Maintenances

Kener supports two types of maintenance schedules:

One-Time Maintenance

A maintenance that occurs exactly once at a specific date and time.

Use Cases:

  • Database migration during off-hours
  • Major system upgrade
  • Infrastructure change
  • One-off server maintenance

RRULE: FREQ=MINUTELY;COUNT=1

Example:

  • Title: "Database Migration"
  • Start: May 15, 2026 at 2:00 AM
  • Duration: 3 hours
  • Occurs: Once

Recurring Maintenance

A maintenance that repeats on a schedule using iCalendar RRULE format.

Use Cases:

  • Weekly security updates every Sunday
  • Monthly database optimization
  • Daily backup window
  • Bi-weekly deployment window

RRULE Examples:

  • Weekly: FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU (every Sunday)
  • Monthly: FREQ=MONTHLY;BYMONTHDAY=1 (first of each month)
  • Daily: FREQ=DAILY (every day)

Example:

  • Title: "Weekly Security Updates"
  • Start: Sunday, May 15, 2026 at 3:00 AM
  • RRULE: FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU
  • Duration: 1 hour
  • Occurs: Every Sunday at 3:00 AM

iCalendar RRULE Format

Kener uses the industry-standard iCalendar RRULE format for scheduling recurring maintenances. This powerful format allows you to express complex recurring patterns.

Basic RRULE Structure:

FREQ=frequency;[INTERVAL=n;][BYDAY=days;][COUNT=n;]

title: Maintenances Overview
description: Plan and communicate scheduled service work with one-time or recurring maintenance windows

Pattern RRULE Meaning
Maintenances are planned service windows. Use them to communicate expected downtime or degradation before work starts.
Every 2 weeks on Monday FREQ=WEEKLY;INTERVAL=2;BYDAY=MO Bi-weekly on Monday

What a maintenance includes

| First of each month | FREQ=MONTHLY;BYMONTHDAY=1 | Monthly on day 1 |
Each maintenance has:

  • Title and optional description
  • Start time
  • Duration
  • Schedule (one-time or recurring RRULE)
  • Affected monitors with impact
  • Status (ACTIVE / INACTIVE)
  • One-Time Maintenances: Generate 1 event at creation time

Maintenance vs incident

Aspect Maintenance Incident
Nature Planned Unplanned
Timing Scheduled in advance Created when issue occurs
Recurrence Can recur with RRULE Typically one-off
Purpose Communicate expected impact Communicate active disruption

One-time vs recurring

Maintenances have two levels of status:

  • One-time: single event (FREQ=MINUTELY;COUNT=1)
  • Recurring: repeated events from RRULE (for example weekly/monthly patterns)

Maintenance-Level Status

Monitor impact during maintenance

Controls whether the maintenance is active in the system:
Set per-monitor impact for the maintenance window:

  • ACTIVE - Maintenance is enabled and will generate events
  • MAINTENANCE (recommended for planned work)
  • DOWN
  • DEGRADED
  • UP (rare)

When an event is ongoing, this impact can override realtime status shown to users.

Event lifecycle

Each occurrence is a maintenance event that moves through statuses:

  • SCHEDULED
  • READY (starting soon)
  • ONGOING
  • COMPLETED
  • CANCELLED
  • READY - Event starts within 60 minutes (notification sent)

Automatic Event Generation

Kener runs a scheduler every hour that:

  1. Checks all ACTIVE recurring maintenances
  2. Generates events for the next 7 days
  3. Skips already-created events (no duplicates)
  4. Updates event statuses based on current time

For One-Time Maintenances:

  • Event created immediately when maintenance is created
  • No automatic regeneration

For Recurring Maintenances:

  • Events generated for next 7 days
  • Hourly scheduler keeps the 7-day window rolling
  • Ensures users always see upcoming occurrences

Maintenance Duration

Duration is specified in seconds and determines how long each maintenance window lasts:

Common Durations:

  • 30 minutes: 1800 seconds
  • 1 hour: 3600 seconds
  • 2 hours: 7200 seconds
  • 4 hours: 14400 seconds

Display:
Duration is automatically formatted for display:

  • Less than 1 hour: "45m"
  • 1-23 hours: "3h" or "2h 30m"
  • 24+ hours: "1 day 5h"

Notifications

When maintenance events change status, notifications can be sent:

READY (60 minutes before):

  • "Maintenance starting soon" notification
  • Gives users advance warning

ONGOING (when started):

  • "Maintenance in progress" notification
  • Confirms maintenance has begun

COMPLETED (when finished):

  • "Maintenance completed" notification
  • Confirms services are back to normal

Notifications respect your subscription configuration and trigger settings.

Use Cases

Regular System Updates:

Title: Weekly Security Patches
RRULE: FREQ=WEEKLY;BYDAY=SU
Start: Sunday 3:00 AM
Duration: 1 hour
Impact: MAINTENANCE

Monthly Database Optimization:

Title: Monthly Database Maintenance
RRULE: FREQ=MONTHLY;BYMONTHDAY=1
Start: First of month, 2:00 AM
Duration: 2 hours
Impact: DEGRADED

One-Time Migration:

Title: Major Database Migration
RRULE: FREQ=MINUTELY;COUNT=1
Start: May 15, 2026 at 1:00 AM
Duration: 4 hours
Impact: DOWN

Next Steps