1. ATLAS support in LCG

2. You’re finally at it:
you have read the LCG User Guide *,
you have obtained your personal certificate,
you have registered to a VO,
you have an account on a User Interface…
* (ok, you have downloaded it, there will be plenty of time to actually read it!)

3. Woops!
Something went wrong… it happens!
What to do then?
…Remember the User Guide you downloaded?
Guess it’s time to read it…

4. User guides usually tell you much and the FAQ or troubleshooting sections contain very useful informations
Unfortunately, sometimes problems go beyond the possibilities of end users. For these cases, organized support units are in place to help users in their grid activities. You simply have to know who to ask for help!
Next slides will present a map to help you orient yourself among web pages and mailing lists offering you all the help you need.

5. There are several support units and mailing lists you can ask help to, each with its own features and specific competences:
the GGUS portal (Global Grid User Support)
ROCs (Regional Operations Centers)
Savannah web portals (i.e. the ATLAS software)
specific mailing lists (i.e. DQ2 mailing list)

6. The GGUS portal works like this:
The LCG project has developed a web portal that is intended as a single access point for all grid problems.
The GGUS portal works like this:
user
more specialised
support units and ml
TPM
VO TPM
if possible, solve directly

7. When to use GGUS?
GGUS can manage any kind of problem, from the most general to the slightest oddity: most of the requests that come to GGUS are about
misconfigured sites or corrupted installations of the ATLAS software,
inability of getting files from a storage element,
errors from the grid middleware,
authentication problems on some sites,
...
The pros of GGUS are:
ease of use
fast way of forwarding tickets to competent support teams
completeness of documentation and references
a simply browsable repository of all submitted requests, providing a source for documentation and metrics
almost all support contacts are present and easily findable

8. How to ask for help to GGUS?
There are two ways of submitting a request (ticket) to GGUS:
1 - send an to (for ATLAS specific problems) or to (for generic grid problems) with the simple formatting explained here
2 - access the web portal (you need your certificate loaded into your web browser!) and click the “Submit a new ticket” link
Please, report carefully the errors you get and specify everything that may be interesting for managing the problem: this will avoid supporters from asking you for other informations and will speed up the solving of the problem

9. It is addressed to TPM and VO TPM
Ticket workflow in GGUS
Mail to
Automatic
Ticket Creation
It is addressed to TPM and VO TPM
- Solves
- Classifies
- Monitors
TPM
Grid+VO
experts
VO-specific
Central Application
(GGUS)
ATLAS
Support Units
ROC
Support Units
Operations
Support
Middleware
Support Units
Deployment
Support Units
Network
Support

10. LCG is divided into 11 regions.
Each of them has an operations center responsible for the coordination of its sites and able to grant for help and support both for users and for site managers.
You can ask for help to your ROC or you can also submit a ticket to another ROC if your problem is specific of some site in another region.
An example:
I’m registered as a member of INFN-Milan, thus my ROC is the italian one.
If I had a problem with my certificate, I should ask for help to the italian ROC. But if my certificate works well except on one site in the UK, I could directly contact the UK ROC (note that directly contact the site is strongly discouraged!)

11. ROCs usually offer a ticketing system (Xoops, Remedy,
ROCs usually offer a ticketing system (Xoops, Remedy, ...) with an easy web graphical interface.
The pros of using the ROC instead of GGUS are:
usage of your own language when you contact your ROC,
bypassing of the GGUS TPM intervention on tickets regarding specific sites,
easier coordination between user and support staff.
Obviously, there are cons:
ticketing systems not hmogeneous,
less specific expertise (mainly regarding Vos specific support),
“non-regional” tickets have to be forwarded, slowing down the solving process.
Actually, now GGUS and ROCs are well integrated and most of the previous pros and cons have wee effects...
Basically, in most cases GGUS or the ROCs is just a matter of your likes!

12. This is a list of handy resources in case of trouble!
ATLAS Wiki page (links to all specific Wiki pages)
ATLAS Computing Wiki
ATLAS Distributed Data Management (Don Quijotte)
DDM Operations
ATLAS Software Installation Database
(check the pinning option!)
Glite User Guide and general documentation
GANGA home page
Some generic info on the Grid

13. Here are some addresses to get help on specific problems (note that passing through GGUS or through the ROCs lets you “ignore” them, but sometimes it may be easier and faster to post your problems directly to the competent teams)
ATLAS generic Savannah portal
from which you can reach the whole list of specific ATLAS Savannah projects
DDM Savannah portal
DQ2 support ml:
DQ2 developers ml:
DDM Operations Savannah portal
DDM Operations mailing lists:
(for LCG)
(for OSG)
GANGA support ml and forums