Nurcan Ozturk University of Texas at Arlington for the Distributed Analysis Support Team (DAST) ATLAS Distributed Computing Technical Interchange Meeting Annecy – April 19, 2012 User Support Ideas

A searchable web interface  Accumulated vast knowledge in DAST egroups however it is not searchable  Need a searchable web interface+backend database:  User types the error seen and the result will be a step-by-step description of what to do to resolve the issue (with a link to FAQ or twiki)  For some cases, provide a diagnostic tool for users to figure out the problems themselves:  Example: manageTier3SW/ATLASLocalRootBase stack to diagnose DB issues, grid-cert issues as well as generate a file containing information that can point us to the problem.  Users do their first level support by searching for themselves thus reducing the load on DAST.  The database can be populated by anyone as soon as issue is resolved.  Despite the above, not sure how many people will do searches first before asking for help. Asoka’s experience from another experiment: “other users got annoyed if someone asked a question that was already posted before and peer pressure worked. ATLAS users seem more forgiving or DAST shifters are a much more kinder lot.” Nurcan Ozturk 2 Ideas from Asoka De Silva

Jira to rescue?  Asked for a test instance of Jira from CERN IT (by Manoj Jha). May have it in 2 weeks.  DAST will evaluate its performance and plan on migrating to.  What Jira offers for us:  One interface (instead of two) for user-user and user-shifter interactions  No central page exist which displays ongoing problems affecting distributed analysis. Shifter can post ongoing problems on Jira web interface and users read them before sending any new ticket.  Possible to inform only the concerned users (for a specific issue) directly in Jira. Thus reducing the number of threads that all users receive.  A new idea from Wensheng De:  DAST shifters' reports are currently under-utilized  If shifters can make shift summaries with Jira or insert question/solution info into Jira. This would make shift summaries more regularated, machine readable, and searchable in response to future queries. Nurcan Ozturk 3

Improvements in other systems  Any improvements on the following will help in user support:  automatic retries of failed jobs  excluding problematic sites by Hammercloud  Input data availability – PD2P  Looking at dq2 traces to understand dq2-get problems better – talk by Thomas Beermann earlier  Second copy of user datasets done automatically – does not look attractive by looking at Thomas’s talk  Also improvements in communication with other teams:  Communicate better with ADCoS shifters on site problems, namely GGUS tickets may have been opened by them already Nurcan Ozturk 4