# Managing channel maintenance
The AWS Elemental MediaLive service routinely performs maintenance on underlying systems for security, reliability, and operational performance. The maintenance activities include actions such as patching the operating system, updating drivers, or installing software and patches.
Maintenance is performed individually on each channel, as it is required.
You can't disable channel maintenance. But you can control when the maintenance occurs.
The routine for maintenance is the following:
+ When you create a channel, MediaLive automatically assigns an arbitrary maintenance window: a particular day of the week and a two-hour window. For example, Thursdays from 4:00 to 5:00 UTC.
+ When a channel needs maintenance, you receive notification in the Health Dashboard and by email. For more information, see [Managing maintenance notifications](maintenance-setup-notifications.md).
+ When you receive a notification, you should decide if you want to adjust the timing of the maintenance. There are several ways to adjust the timing. See [Options for handling maintenance](setting-maintenance.md#set-maintenance-change-options).
**Topics**
+ [
# Viewing maintenance information
](viewing-maintenance.md)
+ [
# Managing maintenance notifications
](maintenance-setup-notifications.md)
+ [
# Working with a maintenance event
](setting-maintenance.md)
+ [
# Changing the maintenance window
](set-maintenance-change-steps.md)
+ [
# How MediaLive performs channel maintenance
](maintenance-how.md)
# Viewing maintenance information
You can view maintenance information from the MediaLive console or from the Personal Health Dashboard in Health Dashboard.
## Viewing information on the MediaLive console
1. Open the MediaLive console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Channels**.
In the list of channels that appears, there are two columns on the right-hand side: **Maintenance status** and **Maintenance window**, which shows the upcoming maintenance
## Viewing information on the Personal Health Dashboard
On the Personal Health Dashboard, you can view information upcoming maintenance events for all channels in your AWS account.
1. Open the Health Dashboard at [https://phd.aws.amazon.com/phd/home\$1/](https://phd.aws.amazon.com/phd/).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Your account health**, then choose **Other notifications**. Use the filter to find events with a title that includes **MediaLive maintenance event**.
Each event lists the channels, the Region, and the state date.
# Managing maintenance notifications
When a channel needs maintenance, you receive notification in the Health Dashboard, one notification for each channel. In addition, AWS sends an email to the email address associated with your AWS account.
We recommend that you can set up EventBridge to disseminate these notifications to people in your organization. See the [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/getting-started-health-dashboard.html](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/health/latest/ug/getting-started-health-dashboard.html) for more information. The people who receive those notifications should read this maintenance topic.
# Working with a maintenance event
You receive notification of upcoming maintenance for a channel at least 21 calendar days before the deadline for the maintenance. The notification specifies this deadline. You should decide how you want to handle the upcoming maintenance event.
**Topics**
+ [
## How maintenance timing works
](#set-maintenance-timing)
+ [
## Options for handling maintenance
](#set-maintenance-change-options)
+ [
## Stopping a channel during the maintenance event period
](#maintenance-stop-channel)
+ [
## Rescheduling a maintenance event
](#set-maintenance-reschedule)
## How maintenance timing works
In the following example, assume that your *maintenance window* is currently set for Thursdays between 4:00 and 5:00 UTC (red date marks in the diagram). Assume that you receive a *maintenance notification* on Tuesday, May 2.
+ The *maintenance deadline* is Tuesday, May 23.
+ The green bar is the current *maintenance event period*. It is the period between the notification and the deadline. In this example, the maintenance event period is May 2 to May 23.
+ The purple bar is the *maintenance opening*. It is the period from 7 days before the deadline until the deadline. In this example, the maintenance opening is May 16 to May 23.
+ The short red marks are *potential maintenance events*. Each potential maintenance event is set on the same day. In this example, there is a potential maintenance event every Thursday.
+ The red mark in the purple bar is the *current maintenance window*. Automatic maintenance is set to occur some time during the maintenance window that occurs during the maintenance opening. In this example, it is set to occur on Thursday, May 18 between 4:00 and 5:00 UTC.
![\[Timeline showing a long bar spanning multiple days and shorter bars on specific dates.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/medialive/latest/ug/images/maintenance.png)
## Options for handling maintenance
You have the following options for maintenance:
+ You can leave the maintenance window (red mark) as it is currently set.
+ You can change the day of the week and the time of the maintenance window. See [Change the maintenance window](set-maintenance-change-steps.md#set-maintenance-edit).
+ You can set a specific date and time for the maintenance window. See [Set a specific date](set-maintenance-change-steps.md#set-maintenance-specific-date)
## Stopping a channel during the maintenance event period
As part of normal operations, you might stop the channel, for example, to make changes to the channel configuration.
If you stop a channel during the maintenance event period (green bar), maintenance will be performed automatically when you restart. The maintenance event will be considered to be completed. The maintenance status for the channel will change to **Not required**.
## Rescheduling a maintenance event
If MediaLive can't perform the maintenance during the maintenance window (red mark), MediaLive will reschedule the maintenance for the same maintenance window in the next week. This date might be after the deadline for the maintenance event period (green bar). Every week, MediaLive will try to perform the maintenance.
Each time MediaLive reschedules the maintenance event, the new date will appear in the Channels list in the MediaLive console, and on the Health Dashboard.
During this retry period, you can change the maintenance window, but only if the channel is still in the maintenance event period (green bar).
# Changing the maintenance window
There are two ways to change the maintenance window (red mark). You can edit the maintenance window, or you can seta specific date. The method to choose depends on your reasons for wanting the change. The following table compares the reason and period for the two methods. Read across each row to compare the two methods.
****
| | Edit the maintenance window | Set a specific date |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reason for change | Use this method if you're happy to wait until the next maintenance opening (purple bar), but the current day of the week and/or time doesn't suit your operations. | Use this method if you don't want to wait until the next maintenance opening (purple bar) for maintenance. You want to move the maintenance window earlier in the maintenance event period (green bar). |
| Period when you can make the change | Any time from the minute that you create the channel until one minute before the start of the upcoming maintenance window (red mark). | From the start of the maintenance event period (green bar) until one minute before the start of the upcoming maintenance window (red mark). You can't change the maintenance window outside of the maintenance event period. |
![\[Timeline showing a long bar spanning multiple days and shorter bars on specific dates.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/medialive/latest/ug/images/maintenance.png)
## Change the maintenance window
You can change the current maintenance window (red mark). The following rules apply:
+ You can change the window at any time from the minute that you create the channel until one minute before the maintenance window in the current or next maintenance event. Therefore, following our example, you can change the window at any time until Thursday, May 18 at 3:59 UTC.
+ The new window applies to future maintenance events, not just to the next maintenance event. The maintenance window will change, for example, from every Thursday to every Saturday.
+ You can move the maintenance window to an earlier day or a later day of the week. Maintenance will occur in that window during the maintenance opening (purple bar). For example, you can change the maintenance window to Saturdays, at 03:00 UTC. This specific maintenance event will occur on Saturday, May 20, some time from 03:00 to 05:00 UTC.
+ You can't change the window if doing so would mean that the current maintenance event won't occur. For example, on Thursday, May 17 at 1:00 UTC you can't change the window to Wednesdays because the next Wednesday is May 24, which is after the deadline.
1. Open the MediaLive console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Channels**, and select one or more channels. Select only channels that have the status **Maintenance Required**.
1. Choose **Channel actions**, and then choose **Edit channel maintenance window**.
1. On the dialog that appears, set **Start day** and **Start hour**. Choose **Save**.
## Set a specific date
You can set up a specific date and time for the maintenance window (red mark). The following rules apply:
+ You can change the window at any time from the start of the maintenance event period (green bar) until one minute before the start of the current maintenance window. Therefore, following our example, you can change the window at any time from 0.01 UTC on May 2 until Thursday, May 18 at 3:59 UTC.
+ The specific date and time can be any time in the maintenance event period (green bar), so long as the new date is still in the future.
+ This action sets a specific date for the maintenance, and it also changes the maintenance window changes to the day of the week of the specific date, and the time of the specific date. For example, if you specify Tuesday, May 9 at 2:00 UTC, then the maintenance window changes permanently to Tuesdays at 2:00 UTC.
1. Open the MediaLive console at [https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/](https://console.aws.amazon.com/medialive/).
1. In the navigation pane, choose **Channels**, and select one or more channels. Select only channels that have the status **Maintenance Required**.
1. Choose **Channel actions**, and then choose **Edit channel maintenance window**.
1. On the dialog that appears, set a **Start hour**. Ignore **Start date**.
1. Expand **Additional maintenance settings** in the **Upcoming maintenance** section. In **Maintenance window date**, set the specific date. Choose **Save**.
# How MediaLive performs channel maintenance
At some point during the maintenance window (red mark), MediaLive starts the maintenance. There is no notification that maintenance is about to start on the channel.
There is no need to monitor the channel or to prepare for maintenance during the time leading up to the maintenance window.
MediaLive performs maintenance as follows:
+ If a channel is set up as a standard channel (with two pipelines), MediaLive always performs maintenance on one pipeline at a time. MediaLive stops one pipeline, performs the maintenance, and automatically restarts the pipeline. It then stops the second pipeline, performs the maintenance, and automatically restarts the second pipeline. In this way, there is typically no impact on the output from the channel.
+ If a channel is set up as a single-line channel, MediaLive stops the pipeline, which stops the channel. MediaLive performs the maintenance and restarts the channel. There will be no output from the channel while maintenance is being performed.
**Note**
Setting up with standard channels is an effective way to mitigate the impact of maintenance events. You might want to consider this mitigation for your most important 24x7 channels.
![\[Timeline showing a long bar spanning multiple days and shorter bars on specific dates.\]](http://docs.aws.amazon.com/medialive/latest/ug/images/maintenance.png)