How can I use AppInsights, or some other tool, to get uptime/downtime/degraded time/etc. for websites, local applications, and DBs for use in KPI and SLA reporting?

Question

We are starting to do KPI reporting and we are having trouble finding a way to get KPI data that is more than "is a service running or not". We would like to be able to show a percentage, or histogram, or something of not only uptime/downtime but also proper performance/degraded performance. We want it more actual as well (e.g. service is running but users can't login, consider it down). 
 How can we get this type of data into a report, dashboard, etc.? The KPI widgets I've seen don't seem to be actual KPIs, it is a moment in time, which isn't helpful in reporting what KPIs were over the course of a month.

adam.beedell · Accepted Answer

This is a long road to walk. You'll realise that the issue is the definition of "down" kinda exists in an audience's minds whereas you're working with some software 
 Some stuff i'd recommend: 
 Set up a process in which outages are tracked as per major incident processes. Uptime = 100% - Sum of incident duration. Have access to that data, and maybe even integrate it to solarwinds if you can. 
 Set up a document that in it's ideal state covers all the major stuff users should be able to do, and all the components of the service which are known important, and a diagram of how it fits together. 
 (if you have devs with unit tests, work towards them) 
 You start crossing off stuff from the document as you make/place monitors in the environment which can evaluate those things, or that query a status or error log of that thing 
 Keep cautious of Health metrics which are useful but dont necessarily mean a "down" on their own. 
 Group your monitors up into something like: Service - Down KPI Metrics - Whatever else - and use the group status of "Down KPI Metrics" for uptime/downtime. Offer this alongside the stats from the ticketing system or Incident managers. 
 Make a map in solarwinds that covers the service diagram, and slowly make as much of it out of live components as you can

How can I use AppInsights, or some other tool, to get uptime/downtime/degraded time/etc. for websites, local applications, and DBs for use in KPI and SLA reporting?

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