A resource group identifies a collection of VM hosts to which workloads can be deployed. However, a resource group does not includes any costs associated with running workloads on the hosts. A resource group also does not include any service objectives for the workloads (such as host availability or support response time). The resource costs and service objectives are applied to resource groups through the use of service levels.
A service level defines the monthly cost for each type of host resource (vCPUs, memory, storage, and networks). For example, you might set the cost of one vCPU at $25 per month. If a workload requires two vCPUs, $50 is added to the monthly cost of the workload.
A service level can also include service objectives. Objectives typically define measurable behaviors such as host availability (uptime) or support response time and have a cost associated with them. Any service objective costs are added to the monthly cost of a workload that is deployed in the resource group.
A service level can be assigned to multiple resource groups. For example, two identical resource groups might require the same service level.
Multiple service levels can also be assigned to a single resource group. For example, two service levels might have the same host resource costs but different service support levels - the first with 24x7x365 support and the second with 12x5x365 support. The user, when requesting a business service, could select the service level with the desired support level.