Service Levels: Objectives
Overview
Use this page to review configured service level objectives and their compliance targets. A service level objective (SLO) is a measurable commitment, such as an uptime percentage or a response-time threshold, that a service must meet over a defined period. This page gives you a single, read-only place to check whether each committed service is meeting its target, without digging through raw monitoring data.
Objectives are created and configured on Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives, where the Target, Window, Bucket, and underlying data Source are set; this page only displays what has already been configured there. From an objective here you drill into its compliance history and error budget, Service Levels: Violations shows any breaches, and Service Levels: Dashboard rolls every objective up into overall service health.
From this page you can scan every objective's Type, Source, Target, Window, Bucket, and State at a glance, open an objective for its compliance, history, error budget, and violations, refresh the catalog to pick up recent changes, and jump into Configuration to edit an objective.
Key concepts
- Objective - A measurable service-level target, such as an uptime percentage or a response-time threshold, that LoadGen tracks over time to determine whether a service meets its committed performance. (related: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives)
- Error budget - The amount of allowable non-compliance an objective has left before it is considered breached within its measurement window. (related: Service Levels: Violations)
- Window - The rolling period over which an objective's compliance is calculated, for example 30 days.
- Bucket - The time granularity LoadGen uses to aggregate raw measurements into a single data point before comparing it to the target, for example every 5 minutes.
- Type - The category of what an objective measures: Availability tracks uptime, TransactionSla tracks whether response times stay under a threshold. (related: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives)
When to use it
- Check whether a specific service is currently meeting its committed uptime or response-time target.
- Review which objectives are closest to exhausting their error budget before they cause a violation.
- Confirm the target, measurement window, and bucket size configured for an objective without opening Configuration.
- Investigate an objective's compliance history after an alert or incident.
- Confirm an objective's State shows Active after creating or editing it in Configuration.
Before you begin
- At least one service level objective must be defined in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives; until then this table is empty.
- The data feed named in an objective's Source column (for example an uptime check) must exist and be actively collecting measurements.
- You need permission to view Service Levels pages, and a separate edit permission to change objectives in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives.
Common workflows
Check whether a service is meeting its objective
Persona: Load-test operator or admin
- Open Service Levels: Objectives from the left navigation.
- Expect: The objective catalog loads, listing each configured objective with its Type, Source, Target, Window, Bucket, and State.
- Locate the objective by name in the table, for example Portal availability.
- Expect: The row shows the objective's Type badge, Target percentage, Window, Bucket, and State.
- Select the objective's name.
- Expect: Its detail view opens showing compliance, history, error budget, and violations for that objective.
Verify: The detail view's current compliance value and remaining error budget are visible, confirming whether the service is on track to meet its Target within its Window.
Refresh the catalog after editing an objective in Configuration
Persona: Load-test operator or admin
- Select Manage in Config to open Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives.
- Expect: The Configuration page opens where you can create, edit, or retire objectives.
- Make your change in Configuration, then return to Service Levels: Objectives.
- Expect: The catalog still shows the previous values until it is reloaded.
- Select Refresh.
- Expect: The table reloads and any stale status banners clear, reflecting the updated objective.
Verify: The edited objective's Target, Window, Bucket, or State in the table now matches what you set in Configuration.
Steps
Step 1
Open Service Levels: Objectives.
Expected result: The read-only objective catalog loads, listing Portal availability and Portal response under 2 s with their Type, Source, Target, Window, Bucket, and State; a Credentials expiring banner appears in the top right warning that the Orders API token expires in 4 days.
This gives you a starting view of every configured objective's compliance target before you drill into one.
- The Credentials expiring banner can partially cover the Refresh and Manage in Config buttons in the header until it is dismissed or refreshed.
- Each row's TYPE badge is color-coded: green for Availability, blue for TransactionSla.
Step 2
Select Refresh.
Expected result: The table reloads showing the same two objectives, and the Credentials expiring banner clears from view.
Refreshing confirms the catalog reflects the latest objective data and clears outdated notifications.
-
Refresh sits in the header beside Manage in Config.
Column reference
| Column | What it shows | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Objective | Identifies the objective by name. Selecting it opens the objective's detail view showing compliance, history, error budget, and violations. | Each row is one objective configured in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives. |
| Type | Shows what kind of objective this is: Availability measures uptime percentage, TransactionSla measures whether transaction response times stay under a threshold. Use it to know which measurement model the Target applies to. | A green Availability badge means the Target is an uptime percentage; a blue TransactionSla badge means the Target is a response-time compliance percentage. |
| Source | Names the underlying data feed the objective's compliance is calculated from. | Check this feature first if the objective's compliance looks wrong, since it is where the raw measurements come from. |
| Target | The compliance threshold the objective must meet, shown as a percentage. A higher target (for example 99.9%) leaves a smaller error budget and triggers violations sooner than a lower target (for example 95%), so reserve high targets for services where downtime or slow responses are most costly. | Compare this to the objective's actual compliance, visible in its detail view, to see how much error budget remains. |
| Window | The rolling period over which compliance is measured. A longer window, such as 30 days, smooths out short spikes of downtime or slow responses; a shorter window reacts faster to recent incidents but shows less history. | The period rolls forward continuously; it is not a fixed calendar range. |
| Bucket | The time granularity at which raw measurements are aggregated before being compared to the target. A smaller bucket, such as 5 minutes, gives finer-grained history and faster detection of brief incidents; a larger bucket smooths out noise but can hide short-lived issues. | Use an objective with a smaller bucket when you need to investigate brief incidents in its history. |
| State | Shows whether the objective is currently being evaluated against its target. | An Active badge confirms LoadGen is currently measuring this objective; it does not by itself indicate whether the objective is being met. |
Controls reference
Refresh
Reloads the objective catalog and clears stale status banners, such as the credentials-expiring notice.
When to use: Use it after editing an objective in Configuration, or to clear an outdated notification, to confirm the table reflects the latest state.
Side effects: Read-only: it re-fetches data but does not change any objective, target, or state.
Manage in Config
Navigates to Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives, where objectives are created and edited.
When to use: Use it to add a new objective, change a target, window, or bucket, or retire an existing objective.
Side effects: Read-only on this page (navigation only); edits are made and saved on the Configuration page it opens.
Objective name link
Opens the selected objective's detail view.
When to use: Use it to investigate a specific objective's compliance history, error budget, or violations rather than just its configured target.
Side effects: Read-only: navigates to a detail view; does not change the objective.
Verify the result
The objective catalog lists every configured objective with its Type, Source, Target, Window, Bucket, and State, for example Portal availability showing Availability, 99.9%, Rolling / 30 d, 5 m, and Active. Selecting an objective's name opens its compliance, history, error budget, and violations. If an objective you expect is missing, confirm it was created and saved in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives, then select Refresh. If State does not show Active, the objective is not currently being evaluated against its target.
Troubleshooting
- Symptom: The objective table is empty. Fix: No objectives have been created yet; select Manage in Config to create one in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives.
- Symptom: The Credentials expiring banner stays on screen after you select Refresh. Fix: The warning is about a separate credential nearing expiry, not this page; reissue the token under Configuration: Credential Profiles.
- Symptom: An objective's State does not show Active. Fix: Check the objective's configuration in Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives; it may be paused or retired.
- Symptom: Selecting an objective's name does not open a detail view. Fix: Confirm the objective's Source data, such as an uptime check, is still configured and collecting measurements.
- Symptom: Manage in Config is missing or does nothing. Fix: Confirm your account has permission to edit Service Levels configuration.
Related articles
- Prerequisite: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives - objectives must be created and configured here before they appear in this catalog
- Next step: Service Levels: Violations - investigate breaches of an objective's error budget
- See also: Service Levels: Dashboard - see aggregated service-level health across all objectives
- See also: Service Levels: Health - review overall service health alongside individual objectives
- See also: Configuration: Credential Profiles - reissue credentials flagged as expiring in this page's status banner