AWS Systems Manager Change Calendar - AWS Systems Manager
Who should use Change Calendar?Benefits of Change Calendar

AWS Systems Manager Change Calendar

Change Calendar, a tool in AWS Systems Manager, allows you to set up date and time ranges when actions you specify (for example, in Systems Manager Automation runbooks) might or might not be performed in your AWS account. In Change Calendar, these ranges are called events. When you create a Change Calendar entry, you're creating a Systems Manager document of the type ChangeCalendar. In Change Calendar, the document stores iCalendar 2.0 data in plaintext format. Events that you add to the Change Calendar entry become part of the document. To get started with Change Calendar, open the Systems Manager console. In the navigation pane, choose Change Calendar.

You can create a calendar and its events in the Systems Manager console. You can also import an iCalendar (.ics) file that you have exported from a supported third-party calendar provider to add its events to your calendar. Supported providers include Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and iCloud Calendar.

A Change Calendar entry can be one of two types:

DEFAULT_OPEN, or Open by default

All actions can run by default, except during calendar events. During events, the state of a DEFAULT_OPEN calendar is CLOSED and events are blocked from running.

DEFAULT_CLOSED, or Closed by default

All actions are blocked by default, except during calendar events. During events, the state of a DEFAULT_CLOSED calendar is OPEN and actions are permitted to run.

You can choose to have all scheduled Automation workflows, maintenance windows, and State Manager associations added automatically to a calendar. You can also remove any of those individual types from the calendar display.

Who should use Change Calendar?

  • AWS customers who perform the following action types:

    • Create or run Automation runbooks.

    • Create change requests in Change Manager.

    • Run maintenance windows.

    • Create associations in State Manager.

    Automation, Change Manager, Maintenance Windows, and State Manager are all tools AWS Systems Manager. By integrating these tools with Change Calendar, you can allow or block these action types depending on the current state of the change calendar you associate with each one.

  • Administrators who are responsible for keeping the configurations of Systems Manager managed nodes consistent, stable, and functional.

Benefits of Change Calendar

The following are some benefits of Change Calendar.

  • Review changes before they're applied

    A Change Calendar entry can help ensure that potentially destructive changes to your environment are reviewed before they're applied.

  • Apply changes only during appropriate times

    Change Calendar entries help keep your environment stable during event times. For example, you can create a Change Calendar entry to block changes when you expect high demand on your resources, such as during a conference or public marketing promotion. A calendar entry can also block changes when you expect limited administrator support, such as during vacations or holidays. You can use a calendar entry to allow changes except for certain times of the day or week when there is limited administrator support to troubleshoot failed actions or deployments.

  • Get the current or upcoming state of the calendar

    You can run the Systems Manager GetCalendarState API operation to show you the current state of the calendar, the state at a specified time, or the next time that the calendar state is scheduled to change.

  • EventBridge support

    This Systems Manager tool is supported as an event type in Amazon EventBridge rules. For information, see Monitoring Systems Manager events with Amazon EventBridge and Reference: Amazon EventBridge event patterns and types for Systems Manager.

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