---
title: Service Protection Classes
slug: ps/help/en_us/vtm/userguide/service-protection-classes
docTags: 
createdAt: 2026-08-02T07:48:40.717Z
---

A “service protection class” is a group of settings you specify to protect your service against malicious attacks, such as Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). You can create a service protection class in the Service Protection Catalog, and configure settings such as:

- Lists of banned and trusted IP addresses. Connections from these IP addresses are never allowed and always allowed, respectively.
- Limits on the number of connections from one machine or a group of machines.
- A limit on the connection rate from any one IP address.
- Restrictions on HTTP requests, such as whether they should be strictly RFC2396-compliant.

You can apply a service protection class to a virtual server by clicking the **Classes** link on the appropriate **Virtual Servers > Edit** page. In the Service Protection section, select a class from the list and click **Update**.

Service protection is covered in detail in [Service Protection](docId:6ti9EFPGWwnsF9gbHaev_).