Understanding Lead Offset and Late Offset

To configure SLA Rules, you must understand the concepts of Lead Offset and Late Offset.

Note: This topic refers mainly to "Processes," but what it describes also applies to Chains.

Lead Offset

Lead Offset is the amount of time BEFORE the SLA Deadline that the SLA Extension should monitor. For example, if you have an SLA Deadline of 11:00 and a Lead Offset of 1:00 (one hour), RunMyJobs will start monitoring for this Process at 10:00.

If the rule you are configuring is of type SLA for starttime:

  • If the Process starts executing before the beginning of the Lead Offset, it is ignored by the SLA Rule.

  • If the Process starts executing during the Lead Offset, the Process is considered to be on track and no Alerts are sent.

  • If the Process starts executing after the Lead Offset (in other words, after the SLA Deadline), the Process is marked as Late and a DeadlineAlert Alert is triggered.

If the rule you are configuring is of type SLA for endtime:

  • If the Process finishes executing before the beginning of the Lead Offset, it is ignored by the SLA Rule.

  • If the Process finishes executing during the Lead Offset, the Process is considered to be on track and no Alerts are sent.

  • If the Process has not finished executing after the Lead Offset ends (in other words, after the SLA Deadline), the Process is marked as Late and a Missed Alert is triggered.

The default Lead Offset value of 1:00 is just a starting value. If a Process runs at the same time every day and does not depend on any other Processes for its start time, you can reduce this to something more like 0:15 (15 minutes). However, if the start time for the Process depends on other Processes that do not always finish at the same time, you may want to increase it beyond 1:00. Redwood recommends looking at actual execution times when setting this value so that you have a realistic idea of the Process's actual start and end times.

Late Offset

Late Offset is the amount of time AFTER the SLA Deadline that the SLA Extension should monitor. This lets you make some allowance for a Process that starts late or takes longer than expected.

If the rule you are configuring is of type SLA for starttime:

  • If the Process starts executing before the SLA Deadline (and thus before the Late Offset begins), the Process is considered to be on track and no Alerts are sent.

  • If the Process starts executing after the SLA Deadline but before the end of the Late Offset, it is marked as Late and a Finished Alert is triggered.

  • If the Process starts executing after the end of the Late Offset, it is marked as Missed and a Missed Alert is triggered.

If the rule you are configuring is of type SLA for endtime:

  • If the Process finishes executing before the SLA Deadline (and thus before the Late Offset begins), the Process is considered to be on track and no Alerts are sent.

  • If the Process finishes executing after the SLA Deadline but before the end of the Late Offset, it is marked as Late and a Finished Alert is triggered.

  • If the Process finishes executing after the end of the Late Offset, it is marked as Missed and a Missed Alert is triggered.

The default Late Offset value of 1:00 is just a starting value. If a Process finishes reliably at the same time every day, you can reduce this to something more like 0:15 (15 minutes). However, if the end time for the Process varies over time, you may want to increase it beyond 1:00. Redwood recommends looking at actual execution times when setting this value so that you have a realistic idea of the Process's actual start and end times.

Note: Redwood does not recommend setting the Late Offset to 00:00, because it can result in unnecessary Missed Alerts. If the Late Offset is set to 00:00, a Process that starts (or ends) one second after the SLA Deadline is immediately marked as Missed. If you use a non-zero Late Offset, such a Process is immediately marked as Late, but it isn't marked as Missed until after the Late Offset ends.