Upgrade Classic SLOs

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  • How-to guide
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Upgrade Classic SLOs

We strongly recommend upgrading your Classic SLOs from SLOs Service-Level Objectives Classic to SLOs Service-Level Objectives to maximize capabilities and benefit from the newest enhancements.

Dynatrace offers an improved SLOs Service-Level Objectives (SLOs) experience, allowing you to define tailored Service-Level Indicators (SLIs) using all available data points. This upgrade provides greater flexibility, customization, and integration with Grail.

Dynatrace provides two Service-Level Objectives application types:

The following examples show an SLO in SLOs Service-Level Objectives and multiple SLOs in Dashboards Dashboards.

SLO in DashboardsService availability SLOUser-conversion rate SLO
1 of 3

Why upgrade?

The table below highlights the new functionality and shows the many reasons you should upgrade. It compares the capabilities of SLOs in SLOs Service-Level Objectives and SLOs Service-Level Objectives Classic.

CapabilitySLOs Service-Level Objectives ClassicSLOs Service-Level ObjectivesBusiness impact
Supported input for SLI definitionLimited to built-in or custom-calculated metricsSupporting all data types in Grail, incl. biz-events, logs, spans, and time seriesSLOs allow a finer granular configuration and tailored definition of the SLI.
Segmenting, data filtering for SLO evaluationManagementZonesSegmentsSegments allow detailed filtering of the dataset used for the SLO evaluation.
Adding SLO tags—SLO tagsAdd SLO tags (key-value pairs) and then use them to filter SLOs when querying them via the API.
Customized dashboard tilesClassic dashboard tileNew dashboard SLO tilesNew dashboard SLO tiles allow more visual customization options, including what data should be shown and colorized. An additional SLO wizard overview allows for creating and editing SLOs in Dashboards Dashboards.
Integration with other Dynatrace appsIntegrated with classic Dynatrace AppsIntegrated with latest Dynatrace Apps

Difference between SLO and Classic SLO

The main difference between the SLO and the Classic SLO is that the SLI in the SLO is represented as a single DQL query. The DQL query allows extensive customization possibilities, unlike metric and entity selectors in the Classic SLO.

The benefits of DQL-based SLOs are as follows:

How core SLO components are defined in SLO and Classic SLO

An SLO typically shows specific characteristics you can configure in many possible ways.

The core SLO components are:

  • Service-level indicator (SLI): Time series showing percentage values (100% = ideal)
  • SLO target: Threshold for success
  • Evaluation period: Typically from 1 to 4 weeks
  • SLO status: Aggregated result over the evaluation period
  • Error budget: Acceptable deviation (100% − SLO target)

It's possible to set the following parameters:

  • SLI
    • What data types are needed?
    • What fraction of the data needs to be considered?
  • Evaluation period
  • SLO target (threshold)

In SLOs Service-Level Objectives, the SLI is represented as a DQL (Dynatrace Query Language) query. It's flexible and uses contextual data to represent the objectives.

SLO Classic example using Metrics selectors

Below is an example of a Classic SLO using the classic metric selectors, similar to a DQL query.

Screenshot of a Classic SLO

SLO example using DQL

An SLO has two major parts: the Custom DQL and the Preview. In Custom DQL you can define your DQL query. In Preview you visualize the SLO.

Custom DQL

The SLO DQL query is structured in a certain way to define the SLO and SLI. The SLO DQL example snippet defined in the Critical services or entities tab of the SLO has the following characteristics:

  • Define the data points.

    timeseries {total=sum(dt.service.request.count), failures=sum(dt.service.request.failure_count)},

  • Specify the entity scope.

    by: { dt.entity.service }

  • Display the information needed by using DQL filters.

    | fieldsAdd name = entityName(dt.entity.service)
    | filter in(name, "astroshop-checkoutservice", "astroshop-cartservice", "astroshop-paymentservice", "astroshop-shippingservice", "astroshop-currencyservice", "astroshop-frontend", "astroshop-recommendationservice")

  • Calculate the SLI.

    | fieldsAdd sli = (((total[] - failures[]) / total[]) * 100)
    | fields timeframe, interval, dt.entity.service, name, sli

Preview

Check in Preview the SLO and SLI statuses.

Screenshot of Dynatrace UI showing an SLI and SLO.

Upgrade Classic SLOs to SLOs

To upgrade a Classic SLO to SLO

  1. Map your Classic SLO metric expression to Grail.

    1. Check the comprehensive list in Upgrading Metrics.
    2. Use the Metric selector conversion guide.

    For complex metric expressions, you might need to adapt the DQL queries manually.

  2. Convert the entity selectors to the corresponding DQL statement. For more information, see DQL best practices.

    The following table shows the typical entity selectors for Classic SLOs and their equivalent in DQL.

    Entity selector classic

    DQL representation

    type("SERVICE")

    by: {dt.entity.service}

    tag("myTag")

    | fieldsAdd tags=entityAttr(dt.entity.service, "tags")
    | filter in(tags, "myTag")

    entityId("SERVICE-XY")

    | filter in(dt.entity.service, "SERVICE-XY")

    entityName.contains/equals/in/startsWith("ENTITY-NAME")

    | fieldsAdd name = entityName(dt.entity.service)
    | filter in/contains/startsWith/endsWith(name, "ENTITY-NAME")

    mzId / mzName

    Use Segments.

    Segments aren't related to permissions or access control.

    toRelationship / fromRelationship

    See the relationship mapping table in Grail: Query monitored entities in Grail.

    If you use management zones for permissions and access control, see Grant access to entities with security context.

  3. Enhance your SLI definition.

    While you can upgrade most Classic SLOs to a one-to-one match in Grail, consider enhancing your SLI definitions by leveraging options that are not available with traditional metric expressions.

    Take advantage of the new options:

    • Business hours
    • Key requests/endpoints in DQL
    • Advanced math operations
    • Use bisiness events as leading indicators
    • Add SLO tags for filtering and grouping
    • Use segments for dynamic entity scope

Upgrade API integration

To automate SLO management and evaluation, use the dedicated API endpoints. Reference the table below to upgrade your API integration for Classic SLO to SLO leveraging the SLO Service Public API.

SLOs Service-Level Objectives Classic

SLOs Service-Level Objectives

Upgrade via Configuration as Code

For scalable SLO management and evaluation, use Configuration as Code overview on top of the SLO Service Public API.

To access the SLO Service Public API on your tenant

  1. Go to Dynatrace.
  2. In the platform search, type API. In the search results, see Support resources section and Dynatrace API below it.
  3. Select Dynatrace API to access the Dynatrace API documentation. A new page opens with the Dynatrace API definitions.
  4. In the upper right corner, go to Select a definition.
  5. From the drop-down list, choose the endpoint.

What’s next?

An automated upgrade flow is under consideration; however, due to the highly customized nature of SLOs, a manual review is expected to deliver the best results. Use this opportunity to reassess and improve your SLIs, rather than simply copying them one-to-one.

For further optimization and guidance, contact your Dynatrace support team to maximize business impact from your service-level objectives.

Related tags
Application ObservabilityService-Level ObjectivesService-Level Objectives