---
title: "On-call schedules | Grafana Cloud documentation"
description: "Create and manage on-call schedules in Grafana IRM"
---

# On-call schedules

Use on-call schedules in Grafana IRM to establish automatic rotation management and alert escalation. With on-call schedules, you can:

- Ensure consistent coverage for alerts and incidents
- Distribute on-call responsibilities across your team
- Define custom rotation patterns that match your team’s needs
- Manage schedule changes and temporary coverage adjustments
- Monitor and improve schedule quality

## Key concepts

Before creating schedules in Grafana IRM, understand the following key components:

- **Rotations**: Recurring patterns that determine when team members are on-call, such as weekly or monthly cycles
- **Shifts**: Specific time periods when a team member is responsible for responding to incidents and alerts
- **Schedule layers**: Multiple concurrent rotation patterns that define different response priorities (a higher-level layer overrides a lower tier rotation)
- **Time zones**: Settings that ensure accurate schedule display and management for distributed teams across regions
- **Overrides**: Temporary schedule modifications to accommodate time off, shift swaps, or special coverage needs

## Schedule types

Grafana IRM offers three flexible ways to manage on-call schedules:

### IRM app managed schedules

Create and manage schedules directly through the Grafana IRM web UI:

- Design custom rotation patterns that match your team’s needs
- Configure multiple rotation layers
- Preview and validate schedule coverage in real-time
- Handle overrides and time zone adjustments

To learn more, refer to [Create on-call schedules](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/create-schedules).

### Calendar import (iCal)

Import schedules from calendar applications like Google Calendar:

- Manage rotations using familiar calendar tools
- Import schedules via iCal URLs
- Automatically sync schedule changes
- Set up override calendars for temporary coverage adjustments
- Support multiple assignees and priority levels
- View and monitor schedules through the IRM schedule interface

To learn more, refer to [Import schedules](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/import-schedules).

### Infrastructure as code

Manage schedules programmatically through Terraform and version control:

- Define schedules as code
- Track schedule changes in version control
- Automate schedule creation and updates
- Integrate with CI/CD pipelines
- Ensure consistent schedule configuration
- Scale schedule management across teams

To learn more, refer to [Schedules as code](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/schedules-as-code).

## Schedule quality

Monitor and improve your schedule effectiveness:

### Quality metrics

- Coverage gaps
- Distribution balance
- User workload
- Schedule predictability

### Quality score

The schedule quality score (0-100) helps you assess and improve your schedules:

Expand table

| Score  | Rating | Description                        |
|--------|--------|------------------------------------|
| 81-100 | Great  | Well-balanced, consistent coverage |
| 61-80  | Good   | Minor improvements possible        |
| 41-60  | Medium | Some gaps or imbalances            |
| 21-40  | Low    | Significant improvements needed    |
| 0-20   | Poor   | Major coverage issues              |

> Note
> 
> If the schedule includes users which were deleted or users without the required permissions to be on-call, that will also affect the quality score.

## Combine schedules and escalation levels

By defining an escalation chain including several “Notify schedule” steps with a “Wait” step between them, you can organize different levels of on-call responsibility:

### Primary level

- First line of defense for incident response
- Handles initial incident assessment and resolution
- Typically staffed by team members most familiar with the system

### Secondary level

- Provides backup support when primary cannot respond
- Activated if primary doesn’t acknowledge within set timeframe
- Often includes more experienced team members or specialists

### Tertiary level

- Final escalation point for critical incidents
- Ensures coverage when primary and secondary are unavailable
- May include senior team members or management

### Benefits of layered schedules

- Distributes on-call workload across teams
- Provides clear escalation paths
- Ensures continuous coverage for critical systems
- Allows for specialized response teams

## Next steps

- [Create an on-call schedule](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/create-schedules)
- [Import schedules from calendar](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/import-schedules)
- [Manage shift swaps and overrides](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/shift-swaps-overrides)
- [Set up schedules as code](/docs/grafana-cloud/alerting-and-irm/irm/on-call-schedules/schedules-as-code)