---
title: Schedule and manage maintenance windows
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/service-level-management/maintenance-windows-slm/schedule
---

Use the **Maintenance Windows** UI to schedule and manage planned downtime exclusions for one or more service levels.

## Before you begin [#before-you-begin]

To use maintenance windows, you need an existing [service level](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/service-level-management/intro-slm/) or the ability to create one.

## Access maintenance windows [#access]

To access maintenance windows:

1.  Go to **[one.newrelic.com](https://one.newrelic.com)**.
2.  Navigate to **Service Levels**.
3.  You can access maintenance windows from two locations:
    -   **For all maintenance windows in the account**: From the **Service Levels** page, open the **Maintenance Windows** tab.
    -   **For maintenance windows of a specific service level**: From the **Service Levels** page, select an individual service level, then go to the **Maintenance Windows** page in the left navigation menu.

## Schedule a maintenance window [#schedule]

To schedule a maintenance window for one or multiple service levels within the same account, from the **Service Levels** page or a specific service level's **Maintenance Windows** page:

1.  Click **Schedule maintenance window** in the top right corner.

    ![A screenshot showing the schedule maintenance window form with fields for name, account, frequency, start/end dates, timezone, description, and service level selection](https://docs.newrelic.com/images/slm_screenshot-crop_maintenance-window-schedule.webp "Schedule maintenance window form")

2.  Enter a name for your maintenance window.

3.  From the **Account** dropdown, select your account (if not already pre-selected). All service levels you select must belong to this account.

4.  From the **Frequency** dropdown, select:
    -   **Once**: For a single maintenance event.
    -   **Daily**: Repeats every day.
    -   **Weekly**: Repeats on specific days of the week.
    -   **Monthly**: Repeats on specific dates or days of the month.

5.  Set the **Start date and time** and **End date and time** for the maintenance window.

6.  If you selected a recurring frequency, set the **Active from** and **Active until** dates to specify when the recurring maintenance window pattern should begin and end. Select **Never ends** if the maintenance window should continue indefinitely.

7.  From the **Timezone** dropdown, select your timezone to ensure the maintenance window runs at the correct local time.

8.  (Optional) In the **Description** field, add context about the maintenance window.

9.  Select one or more service levels for the maintenance window. You can search by service level names or add filters.

10. To create the maintenance window, click **Schedule**.

> #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT
>
> After scheduling, the maintenance window may take up to a minute to appear. If you don't see it immediately, refresh the page.

## View and manage maintenance windows [#manage]

The **Maintenance Windows** tab displays maintenance windows with details such as name, service levels, time period, frequency, active period, creator, and description. Each maintenance window also shows a status:

-   **Scheduled**: The maintenance window is configured to run in the future but hasn't started yet.
-   **Active**: The maintenance window is currently running and excluding data from SLO calculations.
-   **Inactive**: The maintenance window has ended and is no longer excluding data.

### Edit a maintenance window [#edit]

To edit an existing maintenance window:

1.  From the **Maintenance Windows** page, find the maintenance window you want to edit.
2.  Click **...** > **Edit**.
3.  Make your changes and click **Schedule**.

> #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT
>
> Editing restrictions apply based on frequency type:
>
> -   **One-time windows**: Can't be edited once the window has started.
> -   **Recurring windows**: Can be edited, but not while the window is actively running.

### Delete a maintenance window [#delete]

To delete a maintenance window:

1.  From the **Maintenance Windows** page, find the maintenance window you want to delete.
2.  Click **...** > **Delete**.
3.  Confirm the deletion.

> #### ⚠️ IMPORTANT
>
> Deleting a maintenance window doesn't affect the service levels themselves. They continue to track SLO compliance normally without the exclusion period.

## Visualize maintenance windows in charts [#visualize]

When viewing a service level's summary page, maintenance windows are displayed visually on your SLO compliance and good/bad events charts:

-   **Gray bars**: Maintenance windows appear as gray shaded areas on the timeline charts.
-   **Hover details**: When you hover over a maintenance window marker, you'll see the maintenance window name, description (if provided), and the exact start and end times.
-   **No impact on metrics**: During maintenance windows, neither good nor bad events are taken into account, so your SLO compliance percentage and remaining error budget are not affected.

> #### 💡 TIP
>
> During scheduled maintenance windows, any service disruptions or threshold breaches won't impact your SLO compliance or remaining error budget calculations. Your metrics stay accurate and focused on operational periods.

## Manage maintenance windows with NerdGraph [#nerdgraph]

As an alternative to the UI, you can create, update, delete, and query maintenance windows programmatically using the NerdGraph API. For the full API reference with sample mutations and queries, refer to [NerdGraph tutorial: Manage service level maintenance windows](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/apis/nerdgraph/examples/nerdgraph-maintenance-windows-slm).

## Related topics [#related-topics]

[Service level maintenance windows](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/service-level-management/maintenance-windows-slm/intro)

Learn what maintenance windows are and how they work.

[NerdGraph tutorial: Manage service level maintenance windows](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/apis/nerdgraph/examples/nerdgraph-maintenance-windows-slm)

Create, update, delete, and query maintenance windows programmatically.

[Alerting on service levels](https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/service-level-management/alerts-slm)

Learn how to create alerts for your service levels.