RT usage in CSCF and MFCF 2017-11-23 Presented by: Lawrence Folland Computer Science Computing Facility (CSCF)

Outline Background Concerns Implementation Integrations Command-line tools Future RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Background For many years, CSCF (and MFCF before that) has been using a customized version of RT which we eventually called “ST” (RT++, get it?) for “Service Tracker” In May 2016 we decided to investigate making the switch from our highly-customized ST and move to the campus standard RT, with an aim to go live in May 2017 Motivation to move: ST primarily maintained by Bill Ince, who retired No longer wanted to maintain/develop this custom application Benefits of integration with IST and other Service organizations around campus Contribute future development to the open source community Created a Project Plan, with Daniel Allen as lead: https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/twiki/view/CF/STToRTInvestigation RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Concerns Identified a number of critical factors: Time tracking – Research staff, in particular, required time-tracking in order to bill clients Searching (the “Run On” Sentence) – a highly developed and useful tool for searching Permissions – the ability to search across RTs created by other staff Roles – we had differences in how we assigned roles (Responsible, multiple owners) Summary – we like having a summary field Item dependencies and see/see-also references Updating items via email, including attachments Custom integrations – with our inventory and subscription systems Batch record creation – we had a sophisticated tool for bulk creation of ST items as dependencies RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Implementation - timeline Fall 2016 - Reviewed the critical factors and determined that there were no “show-stoppers” Winter 2017 – worked with IST (Lisa, Jeff and Jennifer) to create CSCF Queues and custom fields, worked on integrations (Daniel), trained CSCF and MFCF staff. Worked on closing as many outstanding STs as possible May 2017 – all new jobs for CSCF created via RT. ST still available to update (and close) jobs July 2017 – MFCF changed over to RT RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Implementation – resolution of concerns Time tracking – time worked, already available. Daniel wrote code to total time worked across all RTs and STs allowing us to continue updating work in both systems as needed Searching – the search capabilities were deemed sufficiently useful. The quick search and the use of “Any” keyword helped a lot Permissions – CSCF and MFCF queues are completely searchable by all staff. Other Client Services queues were also opened up Roles – we added custom roles in RT 4.4 (Accountable and Supporting). CSCF has since decided to stop using them as they don’t move neatly between queues Summary – added a Wiki field for Summary Item dependencies and see/see-also references – existing feature, so no problem Updating items via email, including attachments – also existing feature somewhat different – some advantages and disadvantages but generally ok. Cannot access attachments as a file mount as with ST Custom integrations – see next page Batch record creation – command-line tools solved this problem! RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Integrations Time-tracking / Subscriptions: Utility to display time worked by a staff member Integrated with our Subscription System, generating Reports, and individual groups, eg: PLG Inventory – custom field for machine name / barcode links to our inventory system Eg: https://rt.uwaterloo.ca/Ticket/Display.html?id=705732 (Note links by machine name barcode, and subscription code) RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Dependency/batch creation - ST Tool in ST to create tree-structure of dependencies, eg: Fall 2016 – ST#106458 - Spreadsheet to generate the ST dependency text [Fall2016] Install School Laptop for MMath student Ali Abbassi (aabbassi) Supervisor: Day, Nancy | responsible: rgarcia | owner: pbeldows rgarcia lfolland | subscription_code: sc-watform | summary: Supervisor: Day, Nancy Room: DC 25551B" [Fall2016] Install School PC for MMath student Ali Aminian (a2aminia) Supervisor: Boutaba, Raouf | subscription_code: sc-rboutaba | summary: Supervisor: Boutaba, Raouf Room: … RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Dependency/batch creation - RT Use Command-line tools in RT Fall 2017 – RT#637172 - Spreadsheet to generate the 75+ RT command lines rt create -t ticket set queue=CSCF-RSG subject='[Fall2017] Install School Laptop for MMath Thesis student Abbas Abou Daya (aabouday) Supervisor: Boutaba, Raouf' set 'CF-Summary (Wiki)'=' Supervisor- Boutaba, Raouf ; Room - DC 3549(3)' 'CF-Subscription Code'='sc-rboutaba' Due='2017-09-05 17:00' priority=3 owner=rgarcia add AdminCC=lfolland,pbeldows rt create -t ticket set queue=CSCF-RSG subject='[Fall2017] Install Course Master's lab machine for Coursework student Shreesha Addala (saddala) Supervisor: Director, Graduate Studies' set 'CF-Summary (Wiki)'='Supervisor - Director, Graduate Studies ; Room - DC 3335' 'CF-Subscription Code'='0' Due='2017-09-05 17:00' priority=3 owner=cscfhelp add AdminCC=lfolland,pbeldows rt create -t ticket set queue=CSCF-RSG subject='[Fall2017] Install Thin Client for MMath Thesis student Sushant Agarwal (s34agarw) Supervisor - Nishimura, Naomi' set 'CF-Summary (Wiki)'='Supervisor: Nishimura, Naomi ; Room - DC 2569(5)' 'CF-Subscription Code'='sc-nishi' Due='2017-09-05 17:00' priority=3 owner=gboerke add AdminCC=lfolland,pbeldows … RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Command-line tools Daniel investigated RT Command-line tools in RT#593919 Need to install the “rt” command in Linux: sudo apt-get install rt4-clients Configure the .rtrc file: lfolland@ubuntu1604-102:~$ cat .rtrc server https://rt.uwaterloo.ca user lfolland passwd MyPassword$ [Not my real password …] RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Command-line tools (cont’d) Create an RT: rt create -t ticket set queue=CSCF-RSG subject='[Fall2017] Install To be determined for MMath Thesis student Mohammed Alfatafta (maaalfat) Supervisor: Al Kiswany, Samer' set 'CF-Summary (Wiki)'='Supervisor- Al Kiswany, Samer, Room -' 'CF-Subscription Code'='sc-alkiswan' Due='2017-09-05 17:00' priority=3 owner=rgarcia add AdminCC=lfolland,pbeldows Edit an RT: rt edit 637182 set subject='[Fall2017] Install School Laptop for MMath Thesis student Abbas Abou Daya (aabouday) Supervisor: Boutaba, Raouf' RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Future Add a feedback function, using RT resolved email and WCMS web form, eg: https://wcms-training.uwaterloo.ca/drallen/contact-us?owner_name=Fred%20Smith&rt=65535:%20things%20and%20also%20stuff RT usage in CSCF and MFCF

Questions?