Managing Schedules

Scenario

You can configure schedules to make rules take effect only within the specified time range.

This section describes how to add, copy, and delete a schedule.

Use Cases

• Policy test: Set a validity period for a test policy. During the test, the policy automatically takes effect. After the test is complete, the policy automatically becomes invalid.
• Public network exposure control: Allow services to open ports to external systems only in a necessary period of time (for example, only during office hours), reducing exposure to the public network as well as security risks.
• Temporary access: Configure a policy to temporarily allow public network access. The policy will become invalid as scheduled even if you forget to delete it.

Adding a Schedule

1. Log in to the CFW console.
2. Click in the upper left corner of the management console and select a region or project.
3. (Optional) Switch to another firewall instance. If there are multiple firewall instances, you can select a desired instance from the drop-down list in the upper left corner of the page.
4. In the navigation pane on the left, choose Access Control > Object Groups.
5. Click the Schedule Management tab. Click Add Schedule and configure parameters.

   Table 1 Schedule parameters

   Parameter		Description
   Schedule Name		Name of a user-defined schedule
   Description		(Optional) Usage and application scenario
   Periodic Schedule		(Optional) time periods in a week. A rule will take effect in the specified periods every week. Perform the following operations to add a periodic schedule: Click Add. On the displayed page, set the schedule type, dates (mandatory only if Specific Days Each Week is selected), start time, and end time. Click OK. If the time zone of a resource is different from your local time zone, set CFW time zone to the time zone of the region where the resource is located.
   Absolute Schedule	Time Settings	Configure Time Settings if the time zone of a resource is different from your local time zone. The firewall engine is executed based on the time of CFW time zone. Local time zone: Time zone of the client browser. CFW time zone: Time zone of the CFW instance. It is the time zone of the current region.

6. Click OK.

Follow-up Operations

To make a schedule take effect, you need to select it in the protection rule. For details, see Configuring Protection Rules to Block or Allow Internet Border Traffic.

References

• Copying a schedule: In the Operation column of a schedule, click Copy. On the page that is displayed, configure the schedule and click OK.
• Editing a schedule: Click the name of a schedule. On the Edit Schedule page, edit the schedule and click OK.
• Deleting a schedule: Note that the schedules referenced by protection rules cannot be deleted.
  • To delete a single schedule, locate the row that contains the target schedule and click Delete in the Operation column. In the dialog box that is displayed, confirm the information, enter DELETE, and click OK.
  • To delete multiple schedules, select them and click Delete above the list, confirm the information, enter DELETE, and click OK.