FAQ
This topic answers common questions about Cloud Service Diagnosis. For more information, see other topics in the Cloud Service Diagnosis documentation. To share questions and feedback with our product team, join our DingTalk group (Group ID: 86570007290).
FAQ
Q: Why can't RAM users activate the service?
A: A RAM user must have specific permissions to activate the service. Follow the on-screen instructions to request the required permissions from an administrator, and then try again. The simplest way to activate the service is with a root account. Once a root account activates it, RAM users do not need to do so again.
Q: Why can't RAM users access Cloud Service Diagnosis?
A: To ensure security, a RAM user needs either read-only or management permissions to access Cloud Service Diagnosis. Contact an administrator to grant the required permissions. For more information about permissions, see Read-only and Management Permissions.
Q: Why is resource health status not visible?
A: Support for the health status feature is continuously expanding to include more cloud products, so it may not yet cover all of your cloud resources. Additionally, the resource types covered by health status are a subset of those available in Resource Center. For example, for ECS, health status is provided only for instances, not for other resource types like snapshots or security groups. For a list of supported products and resource types, see Health Status Supported Products and Instructions.
Q: Health status: 'unavailable' definition, criteria, and reliability
A: Definition of 'unavailable': A cloud resource is considered unavailable during a specific period if, due to an Alibaba Cloud issue such as a failure or planned maintenance, it fails to respond to normal user requests. Examples include being down, completely unreachable, or returning only 5xx errors or no response. A resource is also considered unavailable if its service availability drops below the normal range, which varies by service.
The definition of 'unavailable' and its criteria can vary between cloud products due to their diverse nature. For details, see Health Status Supported Products and Instructions.
The health status is based on autonomous monitoring of each cloud product or log analysis of cloud resources, ensuring reliable results. If you have valuable feedback on product features or the judgment criteria, we welcome you to join our DingTalk group (Group ID: 86570007290).
Q: Cloud Resource Health Status vs. Alibaba Cloud Health Dashboard
A: Both Cloud Resource Health Status in Cloud Service Diagnosis and the Alibaba Cloud Health Dashboard display the availability status of cloud products. However, they focus on different use cases and levels of granularity. The following table compares the two:
Use cases | Daily O&M and troubleshooting for your cloud resources. | Public disclosure and notification of major incidents. |
Availability granularity | Resource level: Each independently manageable and runnable instance or service of a cloud product is considered a cloud resource, such as each ECS instance or each OSS bucket. | Availability zone and cloud product level: For example, ECS in the China (Beijing) availability zone. |
Time granularity | Hourly granularity, with some products offering precision down to the second. Data for the last 15 days is available. | Daily granularity. Data for the last year is available. |
Product scope | Cloud resources under your account. | All Alibaba Cloud public cloud products. |
Summary | The Alibaba Cloud Health Dashboard is for all Alibaba Cloud users, while Cloud Resource Health Status is for an individual user. If the dashboard reports an availability issue that causes a specific user's cloud resource to be unavailable, the issue is also displayed in that user's Cloud Resource Health Status view. Users who are not affected will not see the issue. If Cloud Resource Health Status shows an availability issue that only affects an individual cloud resource, the issue is not displayed on the public Alibaba Cloud Health Dashboard. When troubleshooting, first check your Cloud Resource Health Status. If an issue is displayed, check the Alibaba Cloud Health Dashboard. If there is a corresponding service event on the dashboard, you can track its progress. If there is no related service event, you can perform further diagnostics or contact customer support. | |
Q: Health status, SLA, and compensation claims
A: The Cloud Resource Health Status in Cloud Service Diagnosis is not directly related to the Service Level Agreement (SLA), and its results cannot be used as the basis for compensation claims. The following table provides details:
Use cases | Daily O&M and troubleshooting for your cloud resources. | Defines service level metrics and compensation plans for cloud products, representing a service commitment. |
Definition of 'unavailable' | The definition is the same for some products but different for others. A direct comparison is not possible and must be made on a per-product basis. | |
Time factor | Issues are displayed with hourly granularity, but this does not mean the resource was unavailable for the entire hour. For example, if an ECS instance is unavailable from 9:05 to 9:15, the entire 9:00–9:59 time slot is flagged with an issue. Records are kept for only the last 15 days. | Availability metrics are calculated on a monthly basis. Compensation cannot be claimed for an individual daily or hourly issue, as compensation is based on the total unavailability accumulated over the month. |
Metric calculation | The metric is binary, indicating only whether a period was 'normal' or 'abnormal'. It does not record specific metric values. | Calculation typically involves an average over the entire month. The metric value for each time period affects the final result and must be calculated accurately. |
Limitations | Does not differentiate the cause of unavailability; it only reports the availability status. | Often includes exclusions from metric calculations, such as unavailability caused by hacker attacks, issues outside of Alibaba Cloud's equipment, or scheduled maintenance for which customers were notified in advance. |
Summary | While they may share a definition of 'unavailable' for some products, the two features differ significantly in all other key aspects. You cannot use the health status from Cloud Service Diagnosis to calculate service level metrics. For compensation claims, you must follow the terms of the Service Level Agreement. | |