1. Purpose and Application

This Service Level Agreement (SLA) describes the infrastructure availability commitment that Hostbyte Pty Ltd provides for eligible Virtual Private Server (VPS) and dedicated server Services.

This SLA forms part of the agreement between Hostbyte Pty Ltd and the Customer together with the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Anti-Spam Policy, Privacy Policy, applicable order or service description, and any product-specific terms.

This SLA applies only to a Service expressly identified by Hostbyte as SLA-eligible. Unless expressly stated otherwise, shared hosting, reseller hosting, domain names, licences, third-party products, backup add-ons and other Services are not covered by the infrastructure availability commitment in this SLA.

2. Infrastructure Availability Commitment

Hostbyte targets 99.9% monthly availability for the Hostbyte-controlled infrastructure supporting each eligible VPS or dedicated server Service, subject to the exclusions in this SLA.

For an eligible VPS, the infrastructure covered by this commitment includes the physical host platform, Hostbyte-controlled virtualisation or hypervisor layer, and Hostbyte-controlled network infrastructure required to make the VPS reachable.

For an eligible dedicated server, the infrastructure covered includes the server hardware supplied as part of the Service and Hostbyte-controlled network infrastructure, subject to the hardware, maintenance and other exclusions in this SLA.

99.9% monthly availability allows approximately 43 minutes of Qualifying Downtime in a 30-day month before an SLA credit becomes available.

3. What Counts as Qualifying Downtime

For this SLA, "Qualifying Downtime" means a continuous period during which the eligible Service is materially unavailable because of a failure of infrastructure within the reasonable control of Hostbyte.

Qualifying Downtime may include:

• failure of the physical host or Hostbyte-controlled virtualisation platform supporting an eligible VPS;
• failure of dedicated server hardware supplied as part of an eligible dedicated server Service, where the failure makes the server unavailable;
• failure of Hostbyte-controlled switching, routing or network infrastructure that prevents the Service from being reached; or
• failure by Hostbyte to correctly route an IP address that has been properly allocated to the affected Service.

Downtime is measured using Hostbyte's monitoring, network, platform and incident records together with other reasonably reliable technical evidence. Where records differ, Hostbyte will reasonably investigate the discrepancy.

4. Self-Managed VPS and Server Services

A Self-Managed Service provides infrastructure. The Customer is responsible for administration and operation of the operating system and software environment inside the VPS or server.

For a Self-Managed Service, Hostbyte is responsible under this SLA for the applicable Hostbyte-controlled infrastructure described in sections 2 and 3. The Customer is responsible for matters including:

• operating system installation, configuration, administration, updates and security patching, except where a specific provisioning task is expressly included;
• control panels such as cPanel, Plesk or similar software and their configuration;
• web servers, mail servers, databases, DNS software and other applications running within the Service;
• websites, content management systems, scripts, plugins, applications and customer code;
• firewall rules, local routing, IP configuration and other network settings inside the operating system;
• user accounts, passwords, authentication, access controls and application security;
• malware removal, compromise remediation and security of software installed by or for the Customer;
• capacity management inside the Service, including disk space, inode use, memory, process and application resource use; and
• Customer data and backups except to the extent a separate backup or managed service has expressly been purchased.

An interruption caused by a Customer-managed component does not become Qualifying Downtime merely because the VPS or server cannot be reached, or a website, email service, control panel or other application is unavailable.

5. Managed VPS and Server Services

Where the Customer purchases a Managed VPS, Managed Server or separate management service, Hostbyte will provide the management tasks expressly included in the applicable plan, order, service description or written agreement.

Management does not make Hostbyte responsible for every application, configuration or event within the server. Unless expressly included, Customer applications, custom code, unsupported third-party software, Customer changes and services outside the stated management scope remain the Customer's responsibility.

The infrastructure availability commitment in section 2 remains separate from any management or support commitment. A management issue is not automatically Qualifying Downtime unless it also results from a covered infrastructure failure.

6. IP Addresses, Routing and Reverse DNS

Any Internet Protocol (IP) address allocated by Hostbyte remains under the control of Hostbyte or the relevant upstream provider and is allocated to the Customer for use with the applicable Service. An IP address is not sold or transferred to the Customer and does not become Customer property.

Hostbyte is responsible for correctly provisioning and routing an IP address that it has allocated to the Service through infrastructure within its reasonable control.

For Self-Managed Services, the Customer is responsible for correctly configuring assigned IP addresses, subnet masks or prefixes, gateways, routes, firewall rules and network services within the Customer's operating system or server environment. Downtime caused by incorrect Customer configuration is not Qualifying Downtime.

Additional IPv4 addresses may be subject to availability, technical justification, applicable registry or upstream-provider requirements and additional charges. IPv6 addresses may be provided where supported.

Reverse DNS (PTR) records may be provided or changed by Hostbyte, or delegated where supported, upon a reasonable Customer request and subject to technical and upstream-provider requirements.

Hostbyte may change, replace or withdraw an allocated IP address where reasonably necessary for network management, security, abuse management, upstream-provider requirements, address-space changes or other operational reasons. Where reasonably practicable, advance notice will be provided where a change may materially affect the Customer.

Hostbyte does not guarantee that an IP address will be accepted by a third-party network, email provider, reputation service or blocklist. A third-party block or reputation issue does not by itself constitute Qualifying Downtime.

If an IP address appears to have a material reputation problem that existed before allocation to the Customer, Hostbyte will reasonably investigate and may replace the address where appropriate and reasonably available.

7. Maintenance

Scheduled maintenance, upgrades and other planned work reasonably required to maintain, secure or improve the infrastructure are excluded from Qualifying Downtime.

Where reasonably practicable, Hostbyte will provide advance notice of scheduled maintenance that is expected to materially interrupt an eligible Service.

Emergency maintenance may be performed without advance notice where reasonably necessary to protect security, stability, data, infrastructure or other customers. Hostbyte will endeavour to minimise disruption and provide information as soon as reasonably practicable.

8. Events Not Covered by the Availability Commitment

The following do not constitute Qualifying Downtime to the extent they cause or contribute to an interruption:

• scheduled or emergency maintenance described in section 7;
• failures or interruptions outside infrastructure reasonably controlled by Hostbyte, including upstream carrier, Internet, registry, third-party network or external service failures;
• Customer configuration, Customer actions or omissions, or actions by a Customer's users, contractors or administrators;
• operating system, control panel, application, database, web server, mail server, DNS software, website, script, plugin or other software failure on a Self-Managed Service;
• resource exhaustion or capacity issues caused within the Customer environment, including full disks, memory exhaustion, runaway processes or excessive application load;
• malware, compromise, unauthorised access or abuse originating from or affecting the Customer environment, except to the extent directly caused by a covered Hostbyte infrastructure failure;
• Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), denial-of-service attacks or other malicious traffic beyond the protection expressly included with the Service;
• third-party blocklists, email-provider filtering, IP reputation decisions or refusal by an external network to accept traffic;
• DNS propagation, third-party DNS failures or Customer DNS configuration;
• suspension or restriction permitted under the Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Anti-Spam Policy or applicable law;
• Customer-requested shutdowns, reboots, migrations, changes or maintenance;
• force majeure events or other events outside Hostbyte's reasonable control; and
• any Service, feature, licence, backup, management task or third-party product not expressly covered by this SLA.

9. Backups, Restoration and Customer Data

This SLA is an availability commitment and is not a data-loss guarantee.

Unless a backup service is expressly included in or purchased for the applicable Service, the Customer is responsible for maintaining independent and current backups of all data, configurations and systems required to restore the Service.

Where a backup or managed backup service is purchased, its scope, retention, frequency and restoration arrangements are governed by the applicable service description or agreement.

Time required to restore data, rebuild an operating system, reconstruct an array or return applications to operation after an infrastructure event is not automatically Qualifying Downtime unless expressly stated otherwise.

10. Service Credits

If monthly availability for an eligible Service falls below 99.9% because of verified Qualifying Downtime, the Customer may request a service credit.

The credit is calculated against the recurring monthly base fee for the affected eligible Service, excluding setup fees, taxes, domain names, licences, additional IP addresses, backup services, management add-ons, usage charges and other add-ons.

11. Claiming an SLA Credit

A Customer must request an SLA credit within 30 days after the end of the month in which the relevant Qualifying Downtime occurred.

The request should identify the affected Service, the approximate start and end time of the outage, and any relevant support ticket or incident details.

Hostbyte will review the claim against available monitoring, platform, network and incident records. Approved credits are applied to the Customer's account and are not redeemable for cash.

Total SLA credits for an affected Service in a calendar month will not exceed 100% of that Service's recurring monthly base fee.

Service credits under this SLA do not limit any rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law or other applicable law.

12. Support and Incident Reporting

Customers should report suspected infrastructure outages through Hostbyte's published support channels as soon as reasonably practicable. Prompt reporting can assist diagnosis and restoration.

Support response times are not guaranteed by this SLA unless a separate support-response commitment is expressly included in the Customer's plan or written agreement.

13. Relationship with Other Agreements

This SLA should be read together with the Hostbyte Terms of Service and other applicable policies.

If a product-specific written agreement contains a different service level for a particular Service, the product-specific service level applies to that Service to the extent of the inconsistency.

Nothing in this SLA excludes, restricts or modifies any guarantee, right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified.

14. Changes to this SLA

Hostbyte may update this SLA to reflect changes to services, infrastructure, suppliers, technology, security requirements or applicable law.

The current version will be published through our website or client portal with a version or last-updated date. Where required by law or reasonably appropriate, additional notice of a material change will be provided.

15. Contact

Questions about this SLA or an SLA credit request may be directed to: