1. Operations Support for the UK National Grid Service
URL of main web site – for information and user registration.
Web site is being updated.
Andrew Richards (GOSC/NGS) – CCLRC, RAL

2. Audit Board Security NGS GOC GSC USERS ETF Director GOSC
Management Board
Steering Committee
Director
GOSC
Operations Board
Operations Manager/
Technical Director
Development
Manager
TRAINING
Security
NGS
Networking
GOC
GSC
USERS

3. Provides Support… + Other Helpdesk support@grid-support.ac.uk
first point of contact for requests and queries
personally contactable during office hours
provides access to technical expertise at all sites
Web information resource
tutorials
evaluation reports
links to other resources
+ Other

4. …and Services Certificate Authority for the UK e-Science programme
issues X.509 digital certificates
uses network of Registration Authorities (RA) to validate users
Bi-monthly training course for RA operators
see
National resource directory service
Globus MDS + BDII Implementation for NGS
holds published information on Grid-enabled resources
National MyProxy Service – myproxy.grid-support.ac.uk

12. User Support
Providing support to end users is a key component of a production grid.
The existing UK Grid Support Centre at CCLRC RAL has the responsibility for providing this. Under the new GOSC (Grid Operations and Support Centre) flag, the GSC provides a first point of contact for any queries related to the NGS and grid related aspects within the UK.
Support is provided via and via the web, through the provision of a helpdesk and a dedicated website to answer user queries.

13. User Registration (Process)
Accepted
(User Notified)
User Applies
(Via Website)
Application QC
User added
to NGS VO
(includes SRB account)
Application Submitted
to Peer Review Panel
User added
NGS-USER and
NGS-ANNOUNCE
Mailing lists
User Registration Process
Schematic overview of the user registration process including peer review process now in place.
The process can take up to 7 days (maximum) during which time if no reject statements have been received from anyone on the peer review panel, then the user is accepted and granted an account and subscribed to the User related NGS mailing lists.
(Note: SRB account is also automatically generated at this stage, but until we know the licensing issue then we are not making this publicly known!)
Approved ?
Rejected
(User Notified)

14. Production Status TODAY 4 new core nodes operational
141 Users registered (41 since 1 September ’04)
Grid enabled – Globus v2 (VDT distribution v1.2) at present
BDII information service (GLUE + MDS Schemas)
Data Services – Oracle and SRB
Growing base of user applications
MyProxy and CA services provided by UK Grid Support Centre
VO Management Software – LCG-VO
User support: Helpdesk
Next…
Other Middleware [gLite/OMII etc…]
NGS Portal
Resource Broker
SRB pre-production service

15. Access Grid
Certification
Condor
ETF
For Information
General
GT2
GT3
GT4
Globus-MDS
GridFTP
Internal
Maillist
Myproxy
NGS
OGSA-DAI
Project Registration RA
Security
SRB
Support Notices
Training
Unicore

16. Provide first point of contact support
Contact point between other helpdesks
Or provide helpdesk facilities for other sites
Develop Support relationship with technical expertise at sites

17. Possible ticket status and order for Helpdesk Tickets
Agents Informed
User Informed
Comment
Request
New query submitted
Open X
Query number distributed
Stalled
Rejected
Agent Replied
Agent response automatically informs user and associated agents
User Replied
User response automatically informs associated agents
Resolved
Query answer
Closed
Can be reopened

18. Automated Workflow Default auto assignment
Automatic escalation and business rules:
Rule
Description
Certificate Request
Subject contains Certificate, assign to Jianhua and Alex.
NGS rule
Subject contains NGS, assign to Rob and Andy.
Requests over 1 day old
notification to Andy, Jianhua and Alex.
Last edited over 2 days ago
Inform appropriate agents that query still active.
Follow up date reminder
Issue an reminder to agent(s) if query follow up date set.
Close resolved queries
After 2 days change status from Resolved to Closed.
Close rejected queries
Automatically change status from Rejected to Closed.
Bugzilla reports
Forward to Xiao & close.

20. Query History
An audit trail of all actions performed on a query can be viewed from the History button on the Details screen.
View Contact History on the Edit screen shows all queries associated with a user

21. Inter-Helpdesk Development e.g. GGUS

22. Helpdesk Plans
Upgrade server to FootPrints v6.5, includes new user portal interface to access knowledge base without logging in. Make server SSL-enabled i.e. https
Explore use for other areas of e-Science eg GridPP, OMII
Populate UKGSC knowledge base with additional solutions and FAQs.
Publicise web interface to users and include web link in notifications to users. Note: Users logon to FootPrints with their address and register a password.
Create additional business rules to automate procedure and add reports to satisfy SLAs etc.
Review best practice for interactions with other e-Science helpdesk systems, internally and externally (e.g. GGUS relationship)

23. Neil Geddes: n.i.geddes@rl.ac.uk
GOSC Director
Neil Geddes:
NGS Grid Coordinator
Andrew Richards:
Websites
Helpdesk (via Grid Support Centre)
Contact Information
General contact information.
Users or sites interested in joining the NGS should in the first instance preferably contact the Grid Support Centre, clearly marking their as NGS related.

24. GOSC / NGS Websites

27. Demonstration…

28. Main web sites
Support web sites

30. Web Services interfaces
Core services to facilitate collaborative (grid) computing – run by GOSC
Authentication (PKI X509)
Job submission/batch service
Resource brokering
Authorisation
Virtual Organisation management
Certificate management
Information service
Data access/integration services (SRB/OGSA-DAI/DQPS)
National Registry (of registry’s)
Data replication
Data caching
Grid monitoring
Accounting
UK e-Science Cert.
gsi-ssh, globus-job-submit, condorG
EDG-RB
VOM/VOMS
VOMS (+Grid3/EGEE)
myProxy(++)
BDII/Glue
? ETF ?
? EGEE ?
EGEE/LCG + ETF +TeraGrid
EGEE/LCG/ETF/GGF
Web Services interfaces

31. UK e-Infrastructure Users get common access, tools, information,
Nationally supported services, through NGS
Regional and
Campus grids
Integrated
internationally
ISIS TS2
LHC
HPCx + HECtoR
VRE, VLE, IE

32. AA, Certification, VO Plans, MyProxy…