You can configure blackout periods for a Secure Agent. Blackout periods prevent data integration jobs from running on the agent during a certain period. Configure an agent blackout period to configure specific hours, days, or intervals in which no data integration jobs can run on the agent.
Agent blackout periods stop the Data Integration Server service from running jobs on a Secure Agent during the blackout period. They do not prevent other types of jobs from running on the agent. Configure an agent blackout period in the following circumstances:
•The Data Integration Server is the only service enabled on the agent and you want to stop all data integration jobs from running during a certain period.
•The Secure Agent runs multiple services and you want to stop only the data integration jobs from running during a certain period.
Note: The agent blackout period is different than the schedule blackout period for the organization. During an organization's schedule blackout period, no jobs can run on any agent. For more information about schedule blackout periods, see Organization Administration.
To configure a blackout period on a Secure Agent, you must create a blackout file. The blackout file is an XML file that specifies the repeat frequency, start date, and end date for each blackout period.
For example, the following blackout file contains two blackout periods: one blackout period from July 27, 2021, 5:00 AM through July 28, 2021, 11:00 PM and a second blackout period that repeats on Fridays from 2:00-4:00 PM:
If the Secure Agent is in a Secure Agent group, copy the blackout file to the ...\conf\ directory on each agent machine in the group.
If you want to use a different file name and directory, you can override the file name and file path.
After you create a blackout file, restart the Data Integration Server service on the Secure Agent so that the blackout periods take effect.
Overriding the blackout file name and directory
You can override the blackout file name and directory by setting the BlackoutWindowsFile Tomcat custom property for the Data Integration Server.
Set the following custom property for the Data Integration Server on the agent details page:
Service
Type
Name
Value
Data Integration Server
Tomcat
BlackoutWindowsFile
File path and file name for the blackout file. For example:
C:/AgentBlackouts/Agent001Blackouts.dat
Note: Use forward slashes (/) in the file path on both Windows and UNIX machines because the Secure Agent interprets backslashes (\) as escape characters.
The file path must be accessible by the Secure Agent.
For more information about configuring custom properties for a Secure Agent service, see Secure Agent Services.
Blackout file structure
The blackout file is an XML file that contains elements that define each blackout period and the frequency, start time, and end time for each blackout period.