Configuration: Service Levels: Policies
Overview
Use this page to create and manage business-hours policies and maintenance/incident exclusions that control when service level objectives (SLOs) are actively evaluated. A business-hours policy is a reusable weekly schedule, a time zone plus day windows, marking when a service is monitored. A maintenance/incident exclusion is a time-bound window tied to one service and objective that suspends evaluation for a declared reason, so planned maintenance or an active incident does not count as a violation.
The services and objectives an exclusion targets must already exist, created under Configuration: Service Levels: Services and Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives. A saved business-hours policy becomes available when you map objectives to services under Configuration: Service Levels: Mappings. Exclusions feed the SLO evaluation engine and are reflected on Service Levels: Violations and the Service Levels: Dashboard, where excluded time is not counted against error budgets.
This page lists configured business-hours policies and lets you add, edit, or delete them. It also lists maintenance and incident exclusions, each scoped to a service and objective with a UTC start and end time, and lets you add, edit, or delete those. Refresh reloads both panels to confirm the latest saved state.
Key concepts
- Business hours - A reusable weekly schedule, defined by a time zone and one or more day windows, that marks the hours during which a service's SLOs are actively evaluated. (related: Configuration: Service Levels: Mappings)
- Maintenance and incident exclusions - A one-time, time-bound window tied to a single service and objective that suspends SLO evaluation for a declared reason, such as planned maintenance or an active incident. (related: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives)
- Day windows - The individual day-and-time entries (for example Mon 08:00-18:00) that together make up a business-hours policy's weekly schedule.
- Objective - The specific service level objective (SLO) that an exclusion or business-hours policy applies to, scoped under a parent service. (related: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives)
When to use it
- When onboarding a new service, to define the business hours during which its SLOs should be evaluated.
- Before a planned maintenance window, to create an exclusion so the change does not count against the service's error budget.
- While an incident is in progress, to exclude its downtime from SLO evaluation.
- When adjusting support hours or coverage, to edit an existing business-hours policy's time zone or day windows.
- When reviewing why a service's SLO status does not reflect known downtime, to check whether an exclusion is in effect.
- When cleaning up configuration, to delete a business-hours policy or exclusion that is no longer needed.
Before you begin
- At least one service level objective exists for the service you intend to exclude, created under Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives.
- The service the exclusion applies to is already configured, reviewed under Configuration: Service Levels: Services.
- You know the time zone a new business-hours policy should use; new policies are pre-filled with the appliance's configured zone, but confirm it with your admin if unsure.
- You have permission to manage Service Levels configuration, assigned under Operations: Permissions.
Common workflows
Create a business-hours policy
Persona: Load-test admin
- Select New next to Business hours, or the Business hours shortcut in the header.
- Expect: The New business-hours policy form opens with Policy name, Time zone, Enabled, and a Day windows list.
- Enter a Policy name, confirm the Time zone, and use Add day to add each day and time range the policy should cover.
- Expect: Each day window you add appears in the list with its day and HH:mm start/end.
- Select Save policy.
- Expect: The form closes and the new policy appears in the Business hours list with its name and schedule summary.
Verify: The Business hours panel lists the new policy by name with the correct time zone and day-window count, and it becomes available to assign when you map objectives to services under Configuration: Service Levels: Mappings.
Create a maintenance exclusion
Persona: Load-test operator preparing a planned maintenance window
- Select New next to Maintenance and incident exclusions, or the Exclusion shortcut in the header.
- Expect: The New exclusion form opens with Service, Objective, Type, Source id, Reason, From (UTC ISO), and To (UTC ISO) fields.
- Choose the Service and Objective affected, set Type to Maintenance, and enter a Reason plus the From and To timestamps.
- Expect: The form holds your selections; From and To define the exact UTC window to exclude.
- Select Save exclusion.
- Expect: The form closes and the exclusion appears under Maintenance and incident exclusions, replacing the No exclusions configured message.
Verify: The exclusions panel lists the new window with its service, objective, type, and reason, and SLO evaluation for that objective is suspended between the From and To timestamps so the maintenance work is not counted as a violation.
Steps
Step 1
Open the Policies page under Configuration: Service Levels.
Expected result: The page loads showing the Business hours panel with one configured policy, Office hours (Mon-Fri 08:00-18:00) in Europe/Amsterdam with 5 day windows, and an empty Maintenance and incident exclusions panel reading No exclusions configured. A Credentials expiring banner also appears, unrelated to this page, warning that an API token expires soon.
This is the starting point for reviewing or changing the schedules and exclusions that gate SLO evaluation.
- Business hours panel lists the Office hours policy with Edit and Delete actions.
- Maintenance and incident exclusions panel shows No exclusions configured.
- The Credentials expiring banner overlaps the header and partially hides the header-level shortcut buttons.
Step 2
Select the Refresh icon in the header.
Expected result: The Credentials expiring banner clears and the header-level Business hours and Exclusion shortcut buttons become visible; both panels reload showing the same Office hours policy and the No exclusions configured empty state.
Refreshing confirms the panels reflect the latest saved policies and exclusions, and clears the banner so the header shortcuts are usable.
- Business hours and Exclusion header buttons are now visible as quick-create shortcuts.
-
Refresh reloads both panels without opening any form.
Field reference
| Field | Purpose | Format / Validation | Required | Default |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Policy name | Identifies the business-hours policy in the list and when assigning it elsewhere. Use a name that reflects the coverage it represents, for example a region or support tier. | free text | Yes | - |
| Time zone | Determines how each day window's start and end times are interpreted. Choosing the wrong zone shifts the effective hours relative to the service's actual local time. | time zone selector | No | the appliance's configured time zone |
| Enabled | Turns the policy on or off without deleting it. Disable it to pause its effect on mapped objectives while keeping the schedule configured for later reuse. | toggle | No | - |
| Day windows | Defines the day-of-week and HH:mm start/end pairs that make up the policy's weekly schedule. More windows widen coverage; fewer windows narrow the hours SLOs are actively measured. | list of day plus HH:mm start/end entries | Yes | - |
| Service | Selects the service the exclusion applies to. The window only suspends evaluation for this service, not others. | select | No | - |
| Objective | Selects the specific SLO under the chosen service that the exclusion suspends. Pick the objective that corresponds to the maintenance or incident affecting it. | select | No | - |
| Type | Classifies why evaluation is suspended. Choose Maintenance for planned work and Incident for unplanned downtime; this value is used for filtering and reporting on exclusions. | select, enum: Maintenance, Incident | No | - |
| Source id | An optional identifier linking the exclusion to an external record, such as a ticket or incident number, for traceability. | free text | No | - |
| Reason | A short explanation of why the exclusion was created. Recorded for audit purposes so later reviewers understand what the excluded window covered. | free text | Yes | - |
| From (UTC ISO) | The start of the exclusion window in UTC ISO format. Evaluation is suspended from this timestamp onward. | UTC ISO datetime | No | - |
| To (UTC ISO) | The end of the exclusion window in UTC ISO format. Normal SLO evaluation resumes at this timestamp. | UTC ISO datetime | No | - |
Column reference
| Column | What it shows | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Policy (Business hours row) | Shows the policy's name and a short schedule summary, such as the days and hours it covers. | Read the day range and hours directly from the label to confirm when the policy is active. |
| Time zone / windows (Business hours row) | Shows the time zone the policy runs in and how many day windows make up its schedule. | The time zone tells you how the hours are interpreted locally; the window count confirms how many day entries are configured. |
Controls reference
Refresh
Reloads the Business hours and Maintenance and incident exclusions panels from the server.
When to use: After making changes elsewhere, or when you suspect the lists are showing stale data.
Side effects: Read-only; it does not change any saved data, only the displayed lists. In this capture, selecting it also cleared the Credentials expiring banner that was overlapping the header.
Business hours (header shortcut)
Opens the New business-hours policy form.
When to use: Quickly start a new policy without scrolling to the panel's own New link.
Side effects: Opens a form only; no data changes until you select Save policy.
Exclusion (header shortcut)
Opens the New maintenance/incident exclusion form.
When to use: Quickly start a new exclusion without scrolling to the panel's own New link.
Side effects: Opens a form only; no data changes until you select Save exclusion.
New (Business hours)
Opens the New business-hours policy form from the panel header.
When to use: Add an additional schedule, for example a different region or support tier.
Side effects: Opens a form only; saving creates a new row in the Business hours list.
Edit (Business hours row)
Opens the selected policy pre-filled for editing (Policy name, Time zone, Enabled, Day windows).
When to use: Adjust hours, rename the policy, or turn it on or off.
Side effects: Save policy commits the changes; Cancel discards them and leaves the policy unchanged.
Delete (Business hours row)
Opens a confirmation warning that services using the policy lose their business-hours window, then permanently removes it once confirmed.
When to use: Remove a schedule that is no longer needed.
Side effects: Mutating and destructive; cannot be undone. Any objective mapped to the policy loses its business-hours window.
New (Exclusions)
Opens the New exclusion form from the panel header (Service, Objective, Type, Source id, Reason, From, To).
When to use: Declare a maintenance window or log an incident exclusion.
Side effects: Opens a form only; saving creates a new row in the exclusions list.
Edit (Exclusions row)
Opens the selected exclusion pre-filled for editing.
When to use: Correct the reason, or extend or shorten the From/To window.
Side effects: Save exclusion commits the changes; Cancel discards them.
Delete (Exclusions row)
Opens a confirmation naming the exclusion's type and reason, then permanently removes it once confirmed.
When to use: Remove an exclusion created in error, or one for maintenance that was cancelled.
Side effects: Mutating and destructive; cannot be undone. The objective's downtime during that window is no longer excluded from SLO evaluation.
Add day
Adds another day-window row to the business-hours policy form.
When to use: Cover additional days or split hours differently on certain days.
Side effects: Adds an empty row to the form; not saved until you select Save policy.
Remove
Deletes a single day-window row from the business-hours policy form.
When to use: Correct or remove a day window before saving.
Side effects: Changes the form only; not saved until you select Save policy.
Cancel
Closes the open policy or exclusion form without saving.
When to use: Discard changes you do not want to keep.
Side effects: Discards unsaved form changes; no data is modified.
Save policy
Commits the new or edited business-hours policy.
When to use: After entering or changing the Policy name, Time zone, Enabled state, or Day windows.
Side effects: Mutating; creates or updates a row in the Business hours list.
Save exclusion
Commits the new or edited maintenance/incident exclusion.
When to use: After entering or changing Service, Objective, Type, Reason, or the From/To window.
Side effects: Mutating; creates or updates a row in the Maintenance and incident exclusions list.
Verify the result
After creating or editing a business-hours policy, it appears in the Business hours panel with its name and schedule summary, for example time zone and day-window count. After creating an exclusion, it appears under Maintenance and incident exclusions instead of the No exclusions configured message. If Refresh shows no change after you expected one, the save likely failed, check for a validation error in the form such as a missing Policy name or Reason. If a policy or exclusion you deleted still appears, select Refresh again; the confirmation dialog applies the delete immediately but the panel only reflects it after reload.
Troubleshooting
- Symptom: The header's Business hours and Exclusion shortcut buttons are not visible. Fix: Dismiss or wait out any alert banner covering the header, then select Refresh.
- Symptom: After deleting a business-hours policy, a service's SLO status changes unexpectedly. Fix: Check Configuration: Service Levels: Mappings; the service was likely still mapped to the deleted policy and now has no business-hours window.
- Symptom: An exclusion does not appear to suspend violations as expected. Fix: Confirm the From and To timestamps are correct UTC ISO values and that Service and Objective match the one showing violations exactly.
- Symptom: A business-hours policy's day windows trigger at the wrong local time. Fix: Re-check the Time zone field; it determines how each day window's HH:mm is interpreted.
- Symptom: BusinessHours is not selectable as a Type when creating an exclusion. Fix: This is expected; BusinessHours is produced automatically by a policy, so use Maintenance or Incident for manual exclusions.
- Symptom: A delete or edit seems to have no effect after confirming. Fix: Select Refresh to reload the lists; the panel only reflects the change after reload.
Related articles
- Prerequisite: Configuration: Service Levels: Objectives - an exclusion must target an objective that already exists
- Prerequisite: Configuration: Service Levels: Services - policies and exclusions apply to services configured there
- Next step: Configuration: Service Levels: Mappings - assign a saved business-hours policy to a service-objective mapping
- See also: Service Levels: Violations - shows whether a violation falls inside or outside an exclusion window
- See also: Service Levels: Dashboard - reflects how excluded time affects overall SLO and error-budget status
- See also: Configuration: Credential Profiles - where to reissue an expiring API token flagged by the Credentials expiring banner