Choose the two incorrect options regarding SLOs (service level objectives) and SLAs...
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Choose the two incorrect options regarding SLOs (service level objectives) and SLAs (service level agreements) in the context of site reliability engineering.
Show answer & explanation
Option A is incorrect because legal liability typically arises from SLA breaches, not SLO breaches—SLOs are internal engineering targets without contractual consequences. Option C is incorrect because the relationship is reversed: SLAs are set at higher (easier to achieve) values than SLOs; SLOs are intentionally set lower as an internal safety margin to prevent SLA violations. Option B is correct: SRE teams use error budgets derived from SLOs to justify controlled outages for improvements. Option D is correct: SLAs do consider competitive positioning, engineering feasibility, and customer requirements.
Step-by-step Derivation:
SLO vs SLA distinctions: (1) SLAs are contractual commitments with legal/financial consequences; SLOs are internal targets without legal liability. (2) The hierarchy is: SLA (higher % uptime, e.g., 99.9%) > SLO (lower %, e.g., 99.5%), creating error budget room. (3) Error budgets allow intentional outages within SLO bounds—this is SRE best practice. (4) SLA setting factors include competitive analysis, engineering constraints, and customer needs—all stated in D. Therefore, A and C are the two incorrect statements.