// Module included in the following assemblies:
//
// assembly-maintenance-time-windows.adoc

[id='con-maintenance-time-window-definition-{context}']
= Scheduling maintenance time windows

[role="_abstract"]
Schedule Cluster Operator certificate renewals for Kafka clusters to minimize impact on client applications.
Use time windows in conjunction with the xref:con-certificate-renewal-str[renewal periods of the CA certificates created by the Cluster Operator] (`Kafka.spec.clusterCa.renewalDays` and `Kafka.spec.clientsCa.renewalDays`).

Updates are usually triggered by changes to the `Kafka` resource by the user or through user tooling.
Rolling restarts for certificate expiration may occur without `Kafka` resource changes.
While unscheduled restarts shouldn't affect service availability, they could impact the performance of client applications.
Maintenance time windows allow scheduling of these updates for convenient times.

Configure maintenance time windows as follows:

* Configure an array of strings using the `Kafka.spec.maintenanceTimeWindows` property of the `Kafka` resource.
* Each string is a {CronExpression} interpreted as being in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)

The following example configures a single maintenance time window that starts at midnight and ends at 01:59am (UTC), on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

.Example maintenance time window configuration
[source,yaml,subs=attributes+]
----
apiVersion: {KafkaApiVersion}
kind: Kafka
metadata:
  name: my-cluster
spec:
  kafka:
    #...
  maintenanceTimeWindows:
    - "* * 0-1 ? * SUN,MON,TUE,WED,THU *"
  #...
----

NOTE: The Cluster Operator doesn't adhere strictly to the given time windows for maintenance operations. 
Maintenance operations are triggered by the first reconciliation that occurs within the specified time window. 
If the time window is shorter than the interval between reconciliations, there's a risk that the reconciliation may happen outside of the time window, 
Therefore, maintenance time windows must be at least as long as the interval between reconciliations.
