How to use the SLA tile

Overview

The SLA tile displays gauges showing the availability of SCOM objects, such as servers or applications, based on your SCOM Monitor Service Level Objectives (SLOs).

How to configure an SLA tile

1. Before the SLA tile can be used, you must have one or more Monitor SLOs created in your SCOM management group.

   How to create a Monitor Service Level Objective (SLO) in your SCOM console

   1. Open the SCOM Operations Console.
   2. Go to Authoring workspace (Authoring tab on bottom left).
   3. Select Authoring > Management Pack Objects > Service Level Tracking in the left-hand tree view.
   4. Click Create in the right-hand task pane.

   5. On the General page, enter the following details and click Next:

      Name:Service Availability

      Description:<leave blank>

   6. On the Objects to Track page click Select... next to Targeted class
   7. Set the Search result filter dropdown to Distributed Application
   8. In the list, select Service (from System Library). Click OK
   9. Ensure the Scope is set to All objects of the targeted class
   10. Click the New button to create a new management pack, for example SlaTest

   11. On the Service Level Objectives page click Add > Monitor state SLO.

       Dashboard Server does not support Collection Rule service level objectives.

       

   12. Enter the following details and click OK

       Service level objective name:Availability

       Targeted class:Service

       Monitor:Availability

       Service level objective goal:99.000

       Specify states:Critical is checked

       Dashboard Server does not support unmonitored, and it should not be ticked.

       

   13. Click Next. On the Summary page, click Finish

2. Add a new tile to a dashboard or perspective and choose the SLA tile.

   

3. Scope:

   Scope options on dashboards

   Tip: If you experience any problems with scoping tiles, you'll find FAQs and help in the article How to scope tiles.

   List	List allows you to select one or more objects or groups. You can add multiple objects and groups. To remove an object or group click the x to the right of its name. Tip: Start typing and after two characters you'll see suggestions that match the name appear. Tips for using wildcards when searching for objects or groups By default searching will look for the top 10 items containing the words listed in the search. If you wish to create a more specific search you will need to use wildcards (*). If you place a wildcard after the term you are looking for, it will find all the objects which start with that word searched and any terms that may follow. If you place a wildcard at the start of the search term, it will look for objects that contain the searched word and also have terms before that word. If you enclose your searched term in wildcards it will look for objects which contain the searched word, this object will not begin or end with the term searched.
   Group	Group allows you to select members of a specific group. Only one group can be selected.
   Advanced	Advanced allows you to select a group, class or both. You must at least define either a group or class. You can define both. You can also use criteria to narrow down your selection. Group: Same as the group option above. Class: Class equates to the target class within SCOM. As you type the dropdown will be populated with suggestions of matching classes from SCOM, from which you can select the required class. Criteria: Criteria allows you to create an expression to further refine the scope.
   Examples for commonly used criteria Objects you would like to see Criteria Objects with particular text in their name DisplayName like '%Server1%' Objects starting with a particular string DisplayName like 'test%' All objects in maintenance mode InMaintenanceMode = 'TRUE' Only healthy objects HealthState = 1 Objects with a health state in SCOM of 0, an unknown health state (uninitialized), a gray health state icon with a question mark. HealthState = 0 Objects that are not healthy HealthState != 1 Objects in critical state HealthState = 3 Objects in critical or warning state HealthState = 2 or HealthState = 3 To show all gray uninitialised objects HealthState = 0 OR HealthState IS NULL All objects not in maintenance mode InMaintenanceMode != 'TRUE' Objects where the parent agent is offline IsAvailable='false' Objects that are offline, in maintenance or state unknown IsAvailable='false' OR InMaintenanceMode=1 OR HealthState=0 Computers with a particular OS OSVersion = '6.3.9600' List objects by name and filter by HealthState (Name like '%Server3%' OR Name like '%Server4%' OR Name like '%Server2%') AND HealthState=3 List objects by SCOM Id and filter by HealthState Id IN ('7021174b-9e5d-5fbf-878a-42b9f0bf6f4a', '9bd4a1cc-f07a-0e36-b37d-d9ee974e0f3c') AND HealthState=3 Exclude object from the Group specified DisplayName not like '%server3%' Exclude objects from the Group specified (DisplayName NOT LIKE '%server3%') AND (DisplayName NOT LIKE '%server4%') For more information see: How to use criteria when scoping objects How to use criteria when scoping alerts

   Scope tips and examples for dashboards

   SLA-specific examples:

   • To show the SLA of a group itself, use the list option and type in the name of your group.

   • To show the SLA of members of a group use the group option with your group name.

   General examples:

   What you want to select	What to use as a scope
   All your Distributed Applications (DAs)	In the advanced section, use a class of either service (system.service) or user created distributed application
   Only your Enterprise Applications (EAs)	In the advanced section, use a class of Enterprise Application (Base)

   Scope options on perspectives

   Note: If you never used a perspective, you should read Working with perspectives before scoping tiles on perspectives.

   The power of perspectives is that tiles on a perspective can use a dynamic scope. A dynamic scope considers the currently viewed object. A dynamic scope consists of two different states:

   • the configuration of the scope in the tile (for example, "consider child objects of type logical disk for the currently viewed object")

   • the actual resolved scope that depends on which object you are currently viewing ("this object has 5 child objects of type logical disk")

   After configuring the dynamic scope once in the tile, you'll get different results depending how the scope is resolved on the different objects you are viewing.

   Suggestions

   Suggestions are generated based on the object you are currently viewing. You'll see a list of relevant scope options based on the object's relations to other objects. Suggestions don't cover every possible scope, but they are a quick and easy way to select a suitable scope for your tile.

   Note: Suggestions won't be shown if an object has no children, parents or siblings.

   Tip: If the exact scope you want isn't listed in the suggestions, you can select a suggested scope that is similar to the one you want, and then click on custom. The custom section will now automatically be filled with the suggestion you picked and you can edit the scope here to adjust it exactly to your needs. This is a more intuitive way to pick a scope than starting in the custom section and navigating the SCOM object model for classes and groups.

   Double-check the scope when using suggestions: Using suggestions is an easy way to pick a scope, but you need to make sure that the generated suggestion is appropriate for all objects that use the perspective.
   For example, when you pick a suggestion for an EA, you will get suggestions that are specific to the map, dependencies, and availability tests for this one EA. On perspectives you want to use for all EAs, you have to change the scope suggestion in the custom section so that the tile work for all EAs.

   Walkthrough: Editing a scope suggestion to make it work for all EAs

   Enterprise Applications are designed so that you can map out the servers that make up the application. You can then configure tiles to show information related to just the servers on the EA's map. When you create a perspective that will be used for all EAs, you need to make sure that you scope the tiles so that they work for any EA. When you start with a suggestion, the tile's scope only works for the one EA you're currently looking at, and this is why you need to edit the scope:

   1. For an EA you want to scope to the servers that are specified on the EA map by selecting something from the suggestions (Dashboard Server 4.2 and above) that shows something similar to the following:

      This /<YourApplicationName> Map / ... / Windows Computer

      The above will scope the tile to all the objects of class Windows Computer on this EAs map.

      The screenshot below shows some scope suggestions for an application called FinanceXS. The bold text shows the currently selected scope is This object. The cursor shows the option This / FinanceXS / ... / Windows Computer. Once chosen this scope will show all the Windows computers shown on the applications map.

      

      Next, we need to adjust the specified scope to allow it to work for all EAs, rather than just this one.

   2. In the scope section click custom.

   3. Click on the text <YourApplicationName> Map (children) which is your first scope step. This will expand the scope step so you can edit it.

      

   4. Remove the auto-populated class <YourApplicationName> Map by clicking the cross x next to it.

      

   5. Start typing Enterprise Application - Map and select this from the list to add this class. This is so that this tile scope will work for all EAs, rather than just this one EA.

      

   6. The scope is now configured to show all the Windows computers on the EA's map, whichever EA you happen to be viewing with the perspective.

   How to read the suggestions

   You can pick between "this object" and objects that are related to this object as parents, children or siblings. The suggestions for children are written as paths that follow the SCOM object tree structure, parents and siblings can be identified by the word parent or sibling in the suggestion.

   A parent of an object is any object that hosts or contains that object.
   A child of an object is any object that this object hosts or contains.
   A sibling of an object is any object of the same class that is hosted by the same parent.

   This object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to the object currently viewed. "this object" option which does NOT mean the actual one object like for the target setting but the relative object I'm looking at
   This / child / child / class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. You select objects of a particular class that are contained in path. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path.
   This / *	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. If a path ends with a wildcard (*) it means that you select all objects of any class within the path. Technically it means that we fill the class field with the class "logical entity" since every object in SCOM has this class, it is a "base" class Example: This / IIS Web Server / * selects all objects of any class in the level below This / IIS Web Server.
   This / child / ... / class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to children of the object currently viewed. If a path contains an ellipsis (...) it means that you select objects of a particular class that are contained in all of the objects that are contained in the path preceding the ellipsis. The class of the objects you are selecting is stated at the end of the path. Example: This / Sales App Map / ... / Windows Computer selects all objects of the class Windows Computer in the This / Sales App Map path.
   Parent class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to parents of the object currently viewed.
   Sibling class of object	The dynamic scope will be resolved to siblings of the object currently viewed.
   Show more triangle next to a suggestion	You can click the show more triangle to expand the list of suggestions and see more specific paths.

   Example for navigating suggestions in an EA

   If you are looking at an EA, the path to find all windows computers in that EA may read Map / ... / Windows Computer. It returns all objects of the Windows Computer class contained within all of the paths under Map.

   To narrow the scope down, you can click on the triangle to expand the suggestion and select one of the more specific paths. If you select Map / Web / Windows Computer you will find all objects of the Windows Computer class in the path Map / Web.

   If you choose the option Map / * you'll find all objects contained in the map. If you extend this suggestion by clicking on the triangle, you'll see suggestions to select all objects in a more specific path, for example Map / Web / *.

   

   Custom

   Here you can pick objects that are related to the object you are currently looking at. If you want to create a specific scope that is not listed under suggestions, you can create the scope here.

   Tip: You can pick a similar scope under suggestions first and then click on custom to edit it.

   How to pick a simple relation (one step through the SCOM model)

   1. At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.

   2. Class:

      Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.

      Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.

      Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.

      Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there.

   3. Criteria:

      You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.

      Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.

   .

   Example for picking a simple relation

   For example, for a perspective created for the group IIS8 Computer Group adding a Status tile scoped to show children with a class of object will show the group members, i.e. the members of the IIS8 Computer Group.

   

   How to pick advanced relations (multiple steps through the SCOM model)

   If you need to traverse a more advanced SCOM object model like an EA, you can use the + button to add more steps. This creates a scope that can go through any kind of path of the SCOM object model.

   Complete the following steps and then click the + button after you're done to add the next level of SCOM objects:

   1. At the top, you'll see the name of the object you are currently looking at. Now you can choose if you want to pick parents or children of that object, and if this parent or child relation should be considered only one level up or down the SCOM model or through all levels.

   2. Class:

      Here you pick the class of the objects you want to select. If you leave this field empty, the scope falls back to the "this object" scope.

      Note: You will only see groups and classes that the object you are currently looking at is a member of.

      Tip: If you want to pick objects of any class, enter the SCOM base class logical entity in the class field.

      Tip: If you want to find out what classes the object you are interested in belongs to, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of that object. You'll see all the classes the object belongs to listed there.

   3. Criteria:

      You can narrow the selection of objects of a particular class down further by entering criteria for those objects. For more help see How to use criteria when scoping objects.

      Tip: If you want to find out what properties you can base your criteria on, you can go to the Monitored Entity perspective of the object you are interested in. You'll see all the properties for criteria listed there.

   .

   Other specific objects

   Gives you the normal, non-dynamic scope options you are used to when scoping tiles on dashboards. This means the tile will not dynamically adapt it's content to the currently viewed object, it will always show data for the static object picked here.

   Since the power of perspectives is that their tiles can show data for different objects depending on what object is currently being viewed, you should only select this option when you are sure that there is no relationship between the desired scope and the currently viewed object.

4. SLO selection:

   Click on the drop down list and select the Monitor SLO from SCOM that you wish to use.

   The slo selection drop down only lists the Monitor SLOs from SCOM.

   Dashboard Server does not support Collection Rule SLOs, or the unmonitored state which should not be ticked in the Monitor SLO configuration.

5. Timeframe:

   This is the timeframe over which the SLA will be calculated. Hourly aggregated data will be used if it exists for the whole of the interval, if not then daily aggregated data is used.

   You can either choose a specific timeframe or allow the tile to adapt to the page timeframe.

   What is the page timeframe?

   The page timeframe is the timeframe setting a dashboard or perspective is currently using. When a user changes the page timeframe, all tiles that use the page timeframe will adapt to the new timeframe. Tiles that don't use the dynamic page timeframe aren't affected and won't change.

   

6. Style:

   Here you can define how the SLA gauges are displayed.

   tile (large SLA gauge, more details, useful for a large impact wallboard):

   

   inline (smaller SLA gauge, list format to display more objects):

   

7. Visualization:

   Allows you to remove the status icon, label or SLA gauge.

8. Label:

   Allows you to change the label next to the status icon. You can also create a custom label (see How to use Custom Labels).

9. Click done to save the tile.

   The tile now shows data according to your settings.

Troubleshooting

SLA gauge is missing and the group's health state is gray

If when displaying the status and SLA of groups themselves (adding groups to scope > list for example) one or more groups have missing SLA gauges and the health status is shown as gray with a question mark, this means that the group does not have a Dependency Roll Up Monitor.

See Groups show no health information.

If the percentage uptime shown in Dashboard Server does not match that shown in SCOM

Dashboard Server pulls service level data from the Operations Manager Data Warehouse. To verify that the data shown in Dashboard Server matches that shown in SCOM, you can run a Service Level Tracking Summary Report (see How to run a Service Level Tracking Summary Report in SCOM).

Dashboard Server does not support Collection Rule SLOs, or the unmonitored state which should not be ticked in the Monitor SLO configuration.

Both SquaredUp and SCOM Reporting pull data from the Data Warehouse, so any inconsistencies in figures are usually due to configuration differences.

1. Check that both SquaredUp and the Service Level Tracking Summary Report are using the same SLO.

   In Dashboard Server check the SLO selection section of the SLA tile configuration:

   

   The SLO is specified in the Service Level Tracking Summary Report:

   

   

2. Check the configuration of the SLO (see How to check the configuration of a Service Level Objective in SCOM). Specifically, that Unmonitored is not ticked.

   Dashboard Server does not support Collection Rule SLOs, or the unmonitored state which should not be ticked in the Monitor SLO configuration.

3. Check that your SCOM report is using the same timeframe as Dashboard Server.

   In Dashboard Server if the tile timeframe is set to use page timeframe then the user can change the timeframe from the default of 12 hours using the buttons at the top of the page:

   

   If the tile timeframe is set to specific timeframe then if a user clicks the page level times at the top of the page, the timeframe will not change:

   

   Check that the timeframe in the SCOM report matches that being used in Dashboard Server:

   

4. Check that your SCOM report is using the same Data Aggregation as Dashboard Server for the timeframe.

   Data Aggregation setting in the SCOM report:

   

   Dashboard Server uses hourly data by default as long as it is available for the whole reporting timeframe, otherwise it uses daily data. Whether hourly data is available for the whole timeframe will depend on your Data Warehouse data retention settings (see How to optimise the Data Warehouse - 5 Point Plan). For a timeframe of 12 or 24 hours it will probably be using hourly data aggregation, for timeframes over 2 days (i.e. 7 days, 30 days, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months) SquaredUp will be probably be using daily data.

5. If you are using an Availability report (see How to create an Availability Report in SCOM) check that the downtime state options match those specified in the SLO. See How to check the configuration of a Service Level Objective in SCOM. Run a Service Level Tracking Summary Report on the SLO (see How to run a Service Level Tracking Summary Report in SCOM).
6. Change to an SLO that is working on another dashboard
7. On the SCOM server restart the System Center Data Access Service.