A.5 Step 4. Define Service Level Agreements and Objectives

Use the top level element property pages to start defining the Service Level Agreement and standard objectives.

A.5.1 Defining the Service Level Agreement

In the Explorer pane, expand Enterprise > Services > Service Models.
Right-click Customers, then select Properties to open the Status property page.
In the left pane, expand Administration.
Click Service Level Agreements to open its property page.
In the Service Level Agreements property page, click the Objectives tab.
On the Agreements toolbar, click New Agreement to open its dialog box.
Enter Gold SLA in the field to name the Service Level Agreement.
Click OK to create the agreement.

A.5.2 Creating an Objective

On the Objectives toolbar, click New Objective to display the default objective values in the Objectives pane.
Create a new calendar for a service to define operational windows of time.
Set different objectives for each time category, such as operational and nonoperational hours.

The Calendar setting is Default. The default calendar is set to ON, 24 hours, 7 days a week. The objectives for this SLA are applied 24 hours, 7 days a week, provided the ON time category is used in the objective definition.
In the Apply To section, select the Self check box.
Select the Element Children check box.
Select 4 for the number of levels deep.

All child elements four levels down from Customers inherit the SLAs and objectives.
Select the Organizational Children check box.
Select 4 for the number of levels deep.
Click Apply to save the objective.
Verify that the child element, Customer2, inherited the objective just created.

A.5.3 Verifying the Results

In the Explorer pane, expand Enterprise > Services > Customers.
Right-click Customer2, then select Properties to open the Status property page.
In the left pane, expand Administration.
Click Service Level Agreements to open its property page.
In the Service Level Agreements property page, click the Objectives tab.

The Gold SLA displays as inherited.

Also, the objective displayed is the same one added to the Customers element.

A.5.4 Overriding Agreements

It is possible to override an agreement and its objectives. For example, the objectives for a specific branch of a hierarchy might require more specific objectives that do not apply elsewhere.

The following is an example of how to override the agreement settings that were made with the steps above.

To override the agreement:

In the Explorer pane, expand Enterprise > Services > Customers > Customer2 > Invoices > Accounts Receivable.
Right-click processed invoices, then select Properties to open the Status property page.
In the left pane, expand Administration.
Click Service Level Agreements to open its property page.
In the Service Level Agreements property page, click the Objectives tab.
Click Override Agreement to create a new SLA override.
Click New Objective to specify an objective for the agreement override.
Enter Number of Approved Invoices in the Objective Name field.
In the Objective Type drop-down list, select Custom.
In the Property drop-down list, select Alarm Property.
Enter Metric Value in the property field, then select Be Less Than from the drop-down list.
Enter 950 in the value field, then select 2 in the occurrences selector.
Click Apply to save the SLA override and its new objective.