1. What Is SLO Burn Rate?

SLO Burn Rate measures how quickly service level objectives are being violated over a specific time window. It quantifies the rate at which errors or violations occur, helping teams understand the health and reliability of their services.

2. How Does The Calculator Work?

The calculator uses the SLO Burn Rate formula:

Where:

• \( \text{Violations} \) — Number of SLO violations or errors (count)
• \( \text{Time Window} \) — Observation period in hours

Explanation: This formula calculates the average rate of violations per hour, providing a clear metric for service reliability monitoring.

3. Importance Of SLO Burn Rate Calculation

Details: Monitoring SLO Burn Rate is essential for maintaining service reliability, setting appropriate error budgets, and making data-driven decisions about when to prioritize reliability work over feature development.

4. Using The Calculator

Tips: Enter the total number of SLO violations and the time window in hours. Both values must be positive numbers, with time window greater than zero.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: What constitutes an SLO violation?
A: An SLO violation occurs when the service fails to meet its defined service level objective, such as exceeding error rates or latency thresholds.

Q2: What time window should I use for calculation?
A: The time window depends on your monitoring needs. Common windows include 1 hour, 24 hours, or 7 days (converted to hours).

Q3: How does burn rate relate to error budget?
A: Burn rate indicates how quickly you're consuming your error budget. A high burn rate means you're using your error budget faster than expected.

Q4: What is considered a good burn rate?
A: A burn rate of 1 means you're consuming your error budget at the expected rate. Below 1 is good, above 1 indicates potential reliability issues.

Q5: Can burn rate help with alerting?
A: Yes, burn rate is commonly used in multi-window, multi-burn-rate alerting strategies to detect both fast-burning and slow-burning reliability issues.