1. Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial
22th-25th February 2005
Need more help ? Marco Verlato Grid.It User Support INFN – Sezione di Padova
EGEE is a project funded by the European Union under contract IST

2. Outline EGEE User support: what does it mean ?
What are the most common
problems ?
The EGEE User Support Infrastructure:
Where are we at ?
The GGUS portal
The Grid-It portal
The INFN Ticketing System
Interfacing with GGUS
GGUS-INFN Helpdesk Live Demo
Feedback
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

3. EGEE User Support: what does it mean?
Grid Support Concepts and Organization first defined for LCG in the document: “LCG Grid Support” v2.1 released on 29 April 2003, H. Bär, R. Pietschmann, W. Thöne
The same approach has been adopted by EGEE with GGUS (Global Grid User Support)
User Support covers: Helpdesk, User Information and training, problem documentation and tracking, Support staff information, measuring and reporting and service level agreements (SLA)
Portal for problem submission and tracking, knowledge base access and FAQs, status information and contacts, documentation/information/howto’s, training for support staff, user training information
Procedures are missing but in definition phase
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

4. What are the most common problems?
Where do I go for help ?
Users confused by old documentation (too many sources [of “obsolete”] documentation ) or lost in the LCG web pages
Procedural problems: finding out the CA of reference, requesting a certificate, getting started, contacting RC,
“The site is a black hole, what should I do?”...
Confusion generated by wrong answers or non adeguate support: “You should contact your ROC”, “your RB does not see your resources”, “you should use edg-rm ...”
Middleware usage: documentation too long to read
Installation/configuration problems, what is best to use, “how do I monitor ?”, “where should I look ?”, etc.
Missing templates and/or example
Confusing error messages
… and much more
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

5. What does a user expect ?
Correct answers and general help with middleware usage (how-to, new features, errors, etc.)
Solving user problems while running on Grid
User support should provide correct documentation, examples, “templates”, powerful search engines, links to EGEE infrastructure contacts, ing lists, etc.
A unique way to submit problems/requests for help and receive response. A unique entry point for information, for problem escalation, broadcasting news, ...
User/Site notification about site related problems, Grid status,etc.
User Support is different from VO and Operations Support with a lot of overlap – tools are the same
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

6. EGEE User Support: infrastructure
General approach: 3 main support centers to guarantee coverage 24/7 and 365 day support and provide a single point of contact to customers and to local Grid operations.
To ensure 24x7 support, it was decided to have 3 GGUS teams in different time zones.
GGUS started off at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany in 2003 and has had a partner group at Academia Sinica in Taiwan since April 2004.
A third partner in North America will complete the 24 hours cycle.
Support time: - ASCC: Mon. to Fri. 0:00 to 08:00 UTC (local time: 8 am to 4 pm) - FZK: Mon. to Fri. 8:00 to 16:00 UTC (local time: 9 am to 5 pm)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

7. EGEE User Support: infrastructure
The support model in EGEE can be captioned "regional support with central coordination". Users can make a support request via their Regional Operations' Center (ROC) or via GGUS. Within GGUS there is an internal support structure for all support requests.
The User
Central GGUS Application
Deployment
Support (DS)
Resource
Centers (RC)
Experiment Specific User Support (ESUS)
Regional
Operations
Center (ROC)
Can use the System directly
via Webview
Use the Webview
Local User
Support
Application
Interface
Report Problem
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

8. EGEE User Support: infrastructure
The ROCs and VOs and the other project wide groups such as the Core Infrastructure Center (CIC), middleware groups (JRA), network groups (NA), service groups (SA) will be connected via a central integration platform provided by GGUS.
This central helpdesk keeps track of all service requests and assigns them to the appropriate support groups. In this way, formal communication between all support groups is possible. To enable this, each group has to build only one interface between its internal support structure and the central GGUS application.
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

9. Where are we at ? Grid.it http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/
At present many channels used:
EIS contact people:
LCG Rollout list:
Experiment specific:
GGUS:
Not a real agreed procedure.
GGUS provides a useful portal and problem tracking tools –
however requests are forwarded, information spread, etc.
Grid.it
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

10. Where are we at ?
Unique access point (for users, VOs, operations): ROC or GGUS
GGUS responsible for coordinating the effort
ROCs highly involved in the Support effort
Executive Support Committee - ESC (VO, ROCs, CICs, NA4, NA3, LCG GD) responsible for:
Integrate all of the ROC helpdesks into the GGUS support system
Integrate the CIC operations into the GGUS support system
Integrate the VO operations into the GGUS support system
Document the workflow through the GGUS system for each client
Enhance the GGUS portal
Definition of procedures to build expertise with NA4 and NA3
Establish the mechanism and collect feedback from Users, Developers, ROCs, etc.
Local Support Committee (at ROC) responsible for:
Identify local expert, creation of experts communities
Report on specific issues with local VO/Operations support
Provide documentation, tools, how-to guides, examples
Agree on common interfaces, tools, information presentation.
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

11. The GGUS Portal http://www.ggus.org project-eu-egee-sa1-esc@cern.ch
You need to register
In order to be able
To use this portal
(GSI or password based)
You can register
as User or as
Supporter.
Supporter ?
If you think you
have a good
knowledge in Grid
and have time
to provide support,
please contact
your ROC or directly
ESC at:
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

12. The GGUS Portal: the User view
FAQ
Not very useful
at the moment.
The database is
almost empty
A group is working
on this to connect it
to the existent
knowledgebases
Check Documentation
For more useful
Links
Stay tuned!
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

13. The GGUS Portal: the User view
Documentation
Very useful page.
It is kept updated
with the most recent,
valid and correct
documentation: we are
Merging with existing
Toos: see Wiki
Not complete at the
moment: please, signal
useful docs to ESC.
We need help to
provide more
documentation
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

14. The GGUS Portal: the User view
Download
Not very useful page
at the moment.
It will point to special
software distributions
such as UI standalone
Installation and tools.
It contains the manual
For support staff using
Grid Help-Desk web
interface
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

15. The GGUS Portal: the User view
Submit Tickets
This is the key page
to receive support
The CC field allows you
to notify others that
will follow the problem
and solutions
With “Type of problem” you
can preliminary categorize
your problem. Specify “other”
if you do not know.
Short description required.
It is used to build knowledgebase.
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

16. The Grid-It portal 29 RCs 849 CPUs 120 TB 14 VOs +VOMS,DAG, MPI,DGAS
29 RCs
849 CPUs
120 TB
14 VOs
+VOMS,DAG,
MPI,DGAS
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

17. Overview (1/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

18. Overview (2/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

19. Overview (3/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

20. Overview (4/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

21. Overview (5/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

22. Overview (6/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

23. Overview (7/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

24. Overview (8/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

25. Overview (9/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

26. Overview (10/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

27. Overview (11/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

28. Overview (12/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

29. Overview (13/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

30. Overview (14/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

31. Overview (15/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

32. Overview (16/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

33. Overview (17/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

34. Overview (18/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

35. Overview (19/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

36. Overview (20/20)
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

37. The INFN Ticketing System
The trouble ticketing system is based on OneOrZero Helpdesk tool ( coded in PHP, using MySQL, customizable, free
Access allowed to registered members approved by administrators:
End-users: they create the tickets describing problems or suggestions
Supporters: fix the problems, or redirect somewhere else
Site Managers: act as supporters for a given RC, and exchange tickets with Operatives for operational issues
Operatives: people of ROC/CIC Central Management Team, Release & Deployment Team and Ticketing System Team itself, exchange tickets with Site Managers and Supporters
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

38. The INFN Ticketing System
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

39. The INFN Ticketing System
~ 40 people
+ site managers
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

40. Workflow HelpDesksystem Web Portal Mail HelpDesk system SUPP Group
User
Ticket creation
Notification
Web Portal
Mail
User
Supp.
HelpDesksystem
Ticket update
Notification
SUPP Group
User
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

41. Workflow SUPP Group X Mail Web Portal HelpDesk system Supp.X
SUPP Group Y
Ticket assignment
Notification
User
Web Portal
Mail
HelpDesk system
Supp.X
User
Ticket closed
Notification
SUPP Group X
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

42. Usage Report Statistics after 1 year of operations
~10 tickets a week on average
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

43. Usage Report Knowledge base: 14 items 42 FAQs
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

44. Usage Report Statistics after 1 year of operations
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

45. Usage Report Operative teams Grid services Grid sites VO services
VO applications
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

46. Interfacing with GGUS
using the local Helpdesk Systems in conjunction with a central integration platform at GGUS
The User
Central GGUS Application
Deployment
Support (DS)
Resource
Centers (RC)
Experiment Specific User Support (ESUS)
Regional
Operations
Center (ROC)
Can use the System directly
via Webview
Use the Webview
Local User
Support
Application
Interface
Report Problem
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

47. Interfacing with GGUS
First Pilot Interface between INFN Helpdesk System and GGUS ready since November and in ‘production’ soon
Based on Web Services at GGUS side, several advantages:
sample code available for PHP / Perl and other computing languages
very fast: service requests/sec on the GGUS Servers
easy to adapt
Based on at INFN side (importing tool)
XML exchange format
The main issue was the Ticket Fields Mapping between the two systems
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

48. Interfacing with GGUS
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

49. GGUS-INFN Helpdesk Live Demo
INFN test system:
GGUS test system:
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

50. Feedback It is very important for us to get your feedback
You can open a ticket at grid-it.cnaf.infn.it/support,
select OPER Ticketing System Group
An electronic form will be available
soon at GGUS. You can always send
to or
The electronic feedback is completely
anonymous. If you want to provide personal
information you have to do it in the
feedback field.
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,

51. And …. Hope you enjoyed this lecture. Thank you for attending !
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial Need more help ? Marco Verlato Grid.It User Support INFN – Sezione di Padova
Hope you enjoyed this lecture.
Thank you for attending !
Grid.It Grid Managers Tutorial – February 22-25,