01Your written service schedule
This page explains the SLA framework. An availability guarantee or service-credit entitlement applies only when it is included in your accepted written service schedule. It does not assign a universal uptime percentage, response deadline or credit rate to every product.
Before ordering, confirm the covered service, location, measurement point, target, reporting period, support coverage, exclusions, claim deadline and credit table. A bespoke signed SLA takes precedence over this general framework.
02What is covered
For dedicated servers and VPS, an SLA may cover specified network, host or hardware availability. Operating systems, applications and customer-managed configurations are separate unless management is included.
For colocation, the schedule should distinguish power, cooling, network and physical-access commitments. Backup and disaster recovery require separate retention, recovery-point and recovery-time objectives. Email, SMS, certificates and domains involve external dependencies that must be identified in their own terms.
03Availability measurement
The service schedule identifies where availability is measured and what counts as a covered outage. Reported outages are assessed using monitoring, incident records and relevant customer evidence. A failed test from a single remote location does not by itself identify the cause.
Where a time-based monthly measure is agreed, availability is the eligible measurement time minus covered unavailable time, divided by eligible measurement time. The schedule defines eligible time and exclusions; overlapping incidents are not counted twice.
04Reporting and handling incidents
Open a client-portal support ticket with the service reference, start time and timezone, symptoms and relevant diagnostics. For urgent facility or network incidents contact noc@datacorelink.com. Do not send passwords or private keys in ordinary messages.
The team assesses severity, investigates the affected infrastructure and communicates available findings. Response, update and restoration targets are those in the agreed schedule. A response target is not automatically a resolution guarantee. Customer cooperation may be necessary for diagnosis or recovery.
05Maintenance and exclusions
Planned maintenance notice, permitted windows and treatment of maintenance time must be defined in the service schedule. Emergency security or safety work may require shorter notice, with communication as soon as practical.
Potential exclusions must be expressly documented and assessed against the incident. These may include customer-caused faults, authorized suspensions, customer software, external networks beyond the agreed boundary or events covered by an agreed force-majeure clause. These examples are not automatic exclusions from every claim.
06Service-credit requests
Where your SLA provides credits, submit a claim through the authenticated portal with the affected service, outage times and ticket references within the deadline specified in that SLA. If no deadline or credit schedule is documented, ask support to confirm the applicable terms; this page does not create one.
We assess the covered outage against the agreed thresholds and explain the result. Eligible credits apply to the covered service and billing basis specified in the schedule. A service credit is not a cash refund unless agreed, and does not remove mandatory rights under applicable law.
07Backups and recovery responsibilities
An availability SLA is not a backup policy. Maintain independent backups unless an agreed managed-backup scope states otherwise. Confirm restore procedures, test responsibilities and any recovery objectives before relying on a service for business continuity.
Hardware replacement, restoration of customer data and application recovery are different tasks. Confirm which are included and what access, licences or customer instructions are required.
08Review and escalation
Use the existing incident ticket to request escalation or challenge a credit assessment, attaching relevant evidence. Support can provide the applicable service schedule and clarify coverage before you order.
Changes to SLA targets or remedies must be communicated and agreed according to the service contract. This general page does not retrospectively reduce a written commitment.
Need clarification?
Ask about the policy or the written terms for your specific service.
noc@datacorelink.com