29.6 Setting Up and Using Service Level Agreements

A service level agreement (SLA) is a contract between a service provider and a customer on the expected quality of service for a specified business period. An SLA consists of one or more service level objectives (SLOs) for different business calendars and different service periods for which define the service levels to be provided. Whether an SLA is satisfied or not is based on the evaluation of the underlying SLOs. Service level indicators (SLIs) allow SLOs to be quantified and measured. An SLO can have one or more SLIs.

SLOs define the service level objectives to be provided. An SLO is a logical grouping of individual measurable Service Level Indicators (SLIs). For example, an SLO can define the percentage of time a service is available to the user, how well the service is performing in terms of response time or volume, and so on. Service Level Indicators (SLIs) are quantifiable performance and usage metrics that can be used to evaluate the quality of a service.

To create an SLA, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Enterprise Manager as a user with EM_ADMINISTRATOR role.
2. From the Targets menu, select Services .
3. Click on a Generic Service target on the list. The Service Home page is displayed.
4. From the Generic Service menu, select Service Level Agreement , then select Configuration . The Service Level Agreement Configuration page appears.
5. On this page, you will see a list of all the SLAs defined for the selected service. Select an SLA from the list to view the details in the Service Level Agreement Details table. You can create an SLA or make a copy of an existing SLA (Create Like).
6. In the Service Level Agreement region, click Create . The Configure Service Level Agreement page appears.

• Name and description of the SLA.
• Name of the customer for whom the SLA is being created.
• The Lifecycle Status of the SLA. When an SLA is being created, it will be in the Definition Stage. For more details on the Lifecycle Status, see Lifecycle of an SLA.
• Specify the SLA Period. This is the contractual time period for which the SLA is determined and/or evaluated for compliance. (ie. quarterly, monthly, weekly SLA). Click the Select icon and select Monthly, Weekly, or Daily. Enter the Frequency which the SLA is to be evaluated and the date from which the SLA is to be evaluated. The SLA goals are reset when the SLA is evaluated. For example, if you specify the SLA Evaluation Period as Monthly, Frequency as 12 and the date as 09/01/12, the SLA will be evaluated on that date followed 11 consecutive evaluations in the months of October, November, and so on.
• Specify the SLA Agreement Period. This is the From and To Date for which the recurring SLA periods are in effect. If you do not specify the To Date here, the SLA will have an Indefinite expiry date.
• An SLO may sometimes not be evaluated due to planned downtime or blackouts that have been scheduled for a service. In the Service Level Agreement Evaluation Options region, select the Include blackout times (planned downtimes) in Service Level Objective evaluation checkbox and specify whether the blackout times are to be included in the SLO evaluation. You can choose to:
  • Include time as met
  • Include time as not met
  • Exclude the blackout time during the overall computation of the SLO.

  For example, if the blackout or planned downtime for the week is 1 day, then the weekly availability is (7-1) / (7-1) days which is still 100% availability.

  By default, the Include blackout times (planned downtimes) in Service Level Objective evaluation option is not selected.

  • All Service Level Objectives must be met.
  • At least one Service Level Objective must be met.

  An SLA must have at least one SLO. More than one SLO can be active at any given time. You can either specify if all SLOs or at least one SLO should be met.

  • Do Not Enable: If the SLA is not enabled, it will be in the Definition state and can be modified if required.
  • Enable Now: If the SLA is enabled, it cannot be modified as it will be in an Active state.
  • Enable Later: The SLA can be enabled later on a specified date.

  29.6.1 Actionable Item Rules for SLAs

  The table below shows a list of actions that can be performed on an SLA based on its status.