# Maintenances

Maintenances let you suppress alert notifications for a defined time window — so planned downtime, deployments, or scheduled restarts don't trigger false on-call pages.

When an active maintenance window is in place, incoming alerts that match the associated escalation policy are received but not escalated. No voice calls, SMS messages, or emails are sent until the window ends.

### How maintenances work

1. **Create a window** — Define a name, select a tenant and escalation policy, then set start and end times for the window.
2. **Alerts are silenced** — While the window is active, alerts routed through the selected escalation policy are suppressed. They are still recorded in the dashboard but do not trigger notifications.
3. **Window expires** — Once the end time is reached, the maintenance window moves to **Expired** status. Normal escalation resumes automatically — no manual action needed.

### Creating a maintenance window

Navigate to **Monitoring → Maintenances** and click **Create Maintenance** in the top-right corner.

Fill in the following fields:

| Field       | Description                                                                     |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Name        | A short label to identify this window (e.g. `weekly-patching`, `db-migration`). |
| Description | Optional. Add context about the reason for the maintenance.                     |
| Escalation  | The escalation policy to silence during this window.                            |
| Starts At   | Date and time the window begins.                                                |
| Ends At     | Date and time the window ends. Must be after **Starts At**.                     |

Click **Create** to activate the window immediately if the start time has already passed, or to schedule it for the future.

### Maintenance statuses

| Status    | Meaning                                                      |
| --------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Active    | The window is currently in effect. Notifications are paused. |
| Scheduled | The window is configured but has not started yet.            |
| Expired   | The window has ended. Escalation is fully restored.          |

### Viewing and managing windows

Navigate to **Monitoring → Maintenances** to see all windows across your tenants. Use the **Search** field to filter by name, or use the **Status** filter to narrow results to active, scheduled, or expired windows.

Each row displays:

* **Name** — the label you assigned
* **Escalation** — the policy being silenced
* **Status** — current state of the window
* **Created At** — when the window was created

Click the **⋯** menu on any row to view details or delete the window.

> **Warning:** Deleting an active maintenance window immediately restores escalation for the affected policy. Any alerts that arrive after deletion will trigger notifications normally.

### Best practices

* **Name windows descriptively.** Use names that reflect the actual change event (e.g. `k8s-node-drain-prod`) rather than generic labels like `test`.
* **Set the tightest window possible.** Overly wide windows increase the risk of missing real incidents. Adjust **Ends At** to match your expected downtime closely.
* **Scope to a single escalation.** Avoid silencing a broad policy if only one service is affected. Create a dedicated escalation for that service and target it specifically.
* **Review expired windows.** Periodically clean up old entries to keep the list readable.


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