Service Level Agreement

1. Purpose and scope

This Service Level Agreement (“SLA”) describes the service tiers, response targets, operational scope, and support practices for servers and web infrastructure enrolled in an active paid service tier. The accepted service order identifies the covered systems, selected tier, approved work, billing details, and any custom service commitments. If a service order sets a different commitment for an engagement, that written order controls.

Submit service requests through the OS Assistance customer portal or from a verified authorized email address on file. Response targets below are for initial engineer acknowledgement and diagnostic kickoff; they are not time-to-resolution commitments. Work and changes begin only after required scope, access, and spending approval are in place.

2. Service tiers and included scope

Published prices are in U.S. dollars and are per covered server unless a written order states otherwise.

Standard incident support has a one-hour initial diagnostic minimum; additional work is scoped, approved, and billed by the hour. The $65/hour membership rate applies only to a server already enrolled in its own active monthly Membership + Monitoring or Server Care plan. A plan on another server does not qualify. Emergency support has separate pricing and scope; see the current pricing page.

Monitor & Connect activation and onboarding ($25/server/month). Billing begins at checkout. External checks and weekday alert review start after the client completes portal registration, provides the agreed public endpoints, and OS Assistance verifies that monitoring is working. This plan does not include internal SSH checks, patching, troubleshooting, or repairs. If onboarding details or endpoint setup are not completed within 14 days of payment, the subscription remains active and billing continues while monitoring and related SLA obligations are suspended until setup is verified.

Server Care activation and onboarding ($59/server/month total). Billing begins at checkout. Monitoring, scheduled care, and SLA response targets start only after portal registration and secure SSH access are verified. If required onboarding details or access are not provided within 14 days of payment, the subscription remains active and billing continues, but SLA response obligations are suspended until access is verified.

Pre-existing production outages. The $59 monthly Server Care plan is intended for healthy, operational systems. Remediation of an active production outage that exists at signup is not included; it requires separately scoped incident support at the applicable rate.

3. Incident severity and target response times

OS Assistance assigns severity based on business impact and may reclassify a request if the facts or impact change. These targets apply to accepted requests for covered systems submitted through the customer portal or verified authorized email.

Business hours: Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Central Time (U.S.), excluding U.S. federal holidays. After-hours response targets apply to accepted P1 emergency requests; P2–P4 requests received after hours are handled the next business day. Emergency requests are subject to confirmed availability, separate rates, and approved scope. Monitoring is automated; these targets do not promise 24/7 human response for every request.

4. Maintenance windows and patching

1. Routine security errata, kernel patches, and supported distribution package updates are completed in a maintenance window agreed with the client.
2. Before patching, OS Assistance checks available package and disk-space information and reviews the agreed backup or snapshot procedure. A platform snapshot is taken when the platform supports it and the client has authorized it; if no suitable rollback safeguard is available, the parties agree on a safe next step before changes proceed.
3. Scheduled patching covers supported distribution repository packages for RHEL, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux, AlmaLinux, and Debian, subject to the accepted service order. Third-party software, proprietary applications, and custom code are not included in the monthly patch window.
4. If an otherwise approved upstream package update exposes an incompatibility in a third-party application or custom code, remediation is separately scoped and billed at the $65/hour member rate after client approval. Additional work is never started without approval.

5. Backup review and data integrity

Where Server Care includes backup review, OS Assistance checks available job or timer evidence for a successful exit and non-empty output, and reviews relevant logs where accessible. This review does not certify that backup contents are complete or restorable, and it is not a restore test.

The client remains responsible for its data, off-site secondary backups, database integrity, and recovery testing unless a separate disaster-recovery service is included in a written order. Restore exercises, data recovery, storage changes, and disaster-recovery planning require separate scope unless expressly included.

6. Security, authentication, and access

• Do not send passwords, SSH or PGP/GPG private keys, or payment-card details through general inquiry forms or unencrypted email.
• For server access, use a dedicated client-approved SSH public key (ED25519 or RSA 4096-bit). Restricted IP allowlisting or a bastion host may be required for an environment.
• Access follows least privilege. Temporary sudo access and audit logging are used where the client’s platform supports them.
• The client retains control of its accounts and data. Shared access keys may be rotated or revoked at ticket closure or when no longer needed.

7. Exclusions

Unless a written order expressly includes them, monthly plans do not include:

• Full migrations between cloud providers, hypervisors, or bare-metal platforms.
• Custom application development or database work beyond agreed infrastructure tuning.
• Hardware repair on unmanaged bare-metal systems; these issues are referred to the hosting provider.
• Remediation of a root compromise or malware infection that existed before enrollment.
• Unplanned recovery work, vendor charges, backup storage, licensing, or third-party subscriptions.

8. Billing, cancellation, and renewal

• For self-service Monitor & Connect and Server Care subscriptions, the initial monthly charge is due at checkout and recurring charges are billed automatically in advance at the start of each billing cycle. Monitoring service begins after the plan-specific onboarding conditions in section 2 are met; Server Care SLA response obligations also require verified secure SSH access.
• Where a one-hour incident checkout is offered, payment is collected in advance for the initial diagnostic hour. Additional hourly work or remediation requires client approval. Diagnostic investigation does not guarantee resolution and requests remain subject to engineer availability.
• Subscriptions may be cancelled through the customer portal at any time. Unless the written enrollment terms state otherwise, cancellation stops renewal at the end of the current paid billing period. The current period is non-refundable except where required by law or a written order.
• Unused portions of a prepaid month are non-refundable, except where required by applicable law or a written order.

For current plans and rates, see Plans & Pricing. Existing customers can open the customer portal.

9. Service credits and limitation of liability

If OS Assistance fails to notify the client of an externally detectable outage that remains unmitigated for more than 30 minutes during monitored business hours, the client is eligible for a credit equal to 10% of the monthly monitoring fee for the affected instance.

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, the aggregate liability of OS Assistance and SHRE Consulting Corp. arising out of or related to the service will not exceed the fees the client paid to OS Assistance in the three months before the incident.

10. Questions and service requests

For custom project work, request a scope review before payment. Self-service subscriptions and one-hour incident checkouts are subject to the published scope, secure onboarding or access requirements, and engineer availability described in this SLA. For active covered service, submit an incident through the customer portal or from a verified authorized email address on file. Review the service terms and cancellation and refund policy alongside this SLA.