# Choose how expired Service Fabric health reports affect evaluation

> A report can disappear at expiry or remain as an error; an infinite lifetime does neither automatically.

- Canonical URL: https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/dse-20260909-358-choose-how-expired-service-fabric-health-reports-affect-evaluation/
- Publisher: Detection Systems & Engineering (DSE Security)
- Author: DSE Security Editorial Team
- Published: 2026-09-10T00:25:58+00:00
- Modified: 2026-09-10T02:01:55+00:00
- Last reviewed by DSE: 2026-09-09
- Resource type: Guide
- DSE priority: Information
- Topics: Cybersecurity, Networks & Infrastructure
- Reading time: 2 minutes

## What you need to know

A report can disappear at expiry or remain as an error; an infinite lifetime does neither automatically.

## Potentially affected

Azure Service Fabric applications with custom periodic health reports.

## DSE recommendation

Define report lifetime and expiry behavior as part of the reporter's failure-detection contract.

## Article

## Source facts

A Service Fabric health report’s TimeToLive defines its validity and defaults to infinite. With RemoveWhenExpired set to true, an expired report is removed and no longer affects entity health. With the setting false, expiry is evaluated as an error, representing a reporter that failed to refresh its state.

A retained expired report makes the entity’s evaluation Error regardless of the report’s original health state. Queries expose IsExpired only for retained events; removed expired reports are no longer returned. [Microsoft Learn](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-health-introduction).

## Applicability

Identify each custom reporter, property, expected refresh cadence and intended response to silence. Distinguish a temporary observation from a watchdog that must keep reporting.

## DSE recommendation

DSE recommends choosing lifetime and expiry handling together. For a periodic watchdog, explicitly decide whether missing reports should raise an error instead of silently disappearing. For a temporary event, define how it will clear. Avoid leaving the default infinite lifetime unexamined when the operational requirement is freshness.

## Verification

In a controlled environment, stop refreshing a test report and observe the entity after its configured lifetime. Compare both the returned event and aggregated health with the intended behavior. Resume reporting and verify recovery. Record the source, property and settings so a stale OK report is not accepted as proof that the monitored component is still healthy.

## Official references

[Microsoft Learn: Health monitoring in Service Fabric](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-health-introduction). Source retrieved September 9, 2026.

## Primary reference

- Name: Health monitoring in Service Fabric - Azure Service Fabric | Microsoft Learn
- Authority: Microsoft Learn
- URL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/service-fabric/service-fabric-health-introduction
- Source publication date: Not stated by the source

## Citation and use

Preferred citation: “Choose how expired Service Fabric health reports affect evaluation,” DSE Security, https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/dse-20260909-358-choose-how-expired-service-fabric-health-reports-affect-evaluation/
Publishing principles: https://update.dsesecurity.com/updates/dse-updates-editorial-methodology/
Usage and citation policy: https://update.dsesecurity.com/usage/
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