In Datadog On-Call, schedules define the specific times when team members are available to respond to Pages. Schedules organize and manage the availability of team members across different timezones and shifts.

Concepts

On-Call schedules are structured in layers, where each layer covers different parts of the week or specific responsibilities.

Consider the following example schedule:

There are four layers:

• JP Business Hours: A person named DM covers Japanese business hours, which begin (from a UTC perspective) each day. Repeats every day from Monday to Friday.
• EU Business Hours: Next, DB handles European business hours. Repeats every day from Monday to Friday.
• US Business Hours: Lastly, BS is on-call for US business hours, at the end (from a UTC perspective) of each day. Repeats every day from Monday to Friday.
• Overrides: Overrides accomodate schedule changes, such as temporary shift adjustments and holidays. See Overrides.

The Final Schedule is composed of all layers. Lower layers take precedence over higher layers.

Create a schedule

1. Go to On-Call > Schedules.
2. Select + New Schedule.
3. Provide a Name for your schedule, select a Schedule Time Zone to use, and select the Teams that own this schedule.
4. Add layers:
   • Starts: The date and time when the schedule becomes effective. Shifts do not appear before this date and time.
   • Shift length: The length of each shift; effectively, when the schedule repeats. Options include:
     • One Day (24 hours)
     • One Week (168 hours)
     • Custom
   • Handoff Time: The date and time when shifts are swapped to the next person.
   • Conditions: Time conditions applied to each shift. This enables you to restrict the timeframe of on-call shifts. For example, Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
   • Members: The list of individuals who perform on-call duties. These individuals take shifts in the order in which you add them to the list.
5. Select Create.

Reference a schedule within an escalation policy

To send a Page to the on-call person for a given schedule, reference the schedule within an escalation policy. When you create or edit an escalation policy, use the escalation step’s Notify drop-down menu to search for and select your desired schedule. The escalation policy sends a Page to the person who is on-call when the Page is triggered.

Overrides

Overrides are modifications made to the scheduled on-call shifts. They can accommodate changes such as temporary shift adjustments and holidays.

To completely or partially override a shift, select the shift and click Override.

Request overrides in Slack or Microsoft Teams

If you are part of an On-Call rotation, and you know that you will be out of office during your shift, you can request an override in Slack or Microsoft Teams. Type /dd override, select the timeframe to be overridden, and add a description. This sends a request to the channel:

Other channel members can select Take it to schedule themselves to override your shift.

Further Reading

Additional helpful documentation, links, and articles:

Datadog On-CallDOCUMENTATION