FAQ GGUS-User Guide

GGUS wiki / GGUS Documentation

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Introduction

The GGUS system is the primary means by which users request support when they are using the grid. The GGUS system creates a trouble ticket to record the request and tracks the ticket from creation through to solve. The user of the system should not need to know any of the details of what happens to the ticket in order to get it from creation to solve. However, an understanding of the operation of the system may be helpful to explaining what happens when you request help. There are two ways in which a user can submit at request for help:

• Send an e-mail to helpdesk@ggus.org ;
• Use the GGUS web interface to create the ticket.

The first one of these methods is further documented in section 2 of this note (Submitting a ticket using email). The web interface is described in section 3.1 of this note (Accessing the web interface to GGUS). Once the ticket has entered GGUS, it is processed by assigning it to the appropriate group to deal with the problem. The groups are generally addressed via mailing lists, and so GGUS assigns the ticket to a group, and an e-mail message is sent to people on the appropriate list. Sometimes, a ticket is simple and it is assigned to the correct group immediately and dealt with immediately.

Submitting a ticket using email

This is quite the simplest way to request help. The user simply sends an e-mail to helpdesk@ggus.org . The e-mail is converted into a ticket and processed. The information provided in the email should be as detailed as possible. Helpful information could be • The name of the site concerned, • The VO concerned and whether it is a VO specific problem, • The error message received, • The command used, • Software versions (OS, Middleware etc.). The user will receive e-mails which either request further information from the user, or which notify the user of a change in status of the ticket. For simple cases, this should be all that is necessary for the user to know. The e-mails which a user receives may include links into the ticketing system. If the user uses the link, then GGUS will ask the user to identify him. The user does this using his digital certificate. The digital certificate must be registered with GGUS. This is discussed in the following section (Accessing the web interface to GGUS). Note: All emails sent to helpdesk@ggus.org are either added to an existing ticket or trigger the creation of a new ticket. Please avoid sending mails to this mail address if you do not want to submit a new ticket or update an existing one (5.2 Modify your tickets using email).

Attachments and emails with large body

Attachments to ticket submit mails are processed like the mail itself. They are added to the ticket. The size of attachments is limited to 2 MB. Please avoid file formats like .exe, php, html etc. Mails with a body size of more than 3500 chars are cut during the mail processing. The cut part is also added as attachment to the ticket.

How to set the priority of a ticket

It is possible to define a priority by adding a number in square brackets to the subject line of the mail. Priority numbers can be 1, 2, 3 and 4.

• 1 stands for priority “less urgent”. This is also the default priority of tickets.
• 2 stands for priority “urgent”,
• 3 stands for priority “very urgent”,
• 4 stands for priority “top priority”.

The subject should look like “[2] gcc: Command not found” for defining a ticket priority”.

Submitting a ticket using the web interface

Before using this route, it is essential to have a digital certificate and that it is installed in the manner appropriate for its use by the browser being used. A description of how to do this is outside the scope of this document. Some of the Certificate Authorities (CAs) provide documentation on this matter.

Accessing the web interface to GGUS

If the user carries out all of the steps above, but is not registered to use GGUS, then the home page is like shown in the following figure (Figure 1: GGUS home page for unregistered users). If the user faces problems with his certificate he may get help here:

• http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/digital.htm
• http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/loading_certifs.htm
• http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/cert-trouble.htm

For accessing GGUS users have to register first. Registration process is described in chapter 3.2

Registering at GGUS

For registering at GGUS the user should go to https://ggus.eu/pages/home.php and click the link “Registration” (Figure 2: How to register at GGUS). This link opens the registration form the user has to fill in. Additionally there are some links were the user can find information about grid certificates (Figure 3: Registration form for GGUS users). Users who do not have a valid digital certificate can access GGUS with login and password. The usage of login and password is not guaranteed to be supported in future, so it is recommend accessing GGUS with a valid digital certificate. The usage of a valid digital certificate is guaranteed in future. After filling in the registration form the user will receive an email from GGUS staffs with his access data for GGUS.

Accessing GGUS with certificate

The primary address of the GGUS portal is: http://ggus.eu. When the user types this into the browser, then an alert is displayed by the browser requesting that the user indicate which certificate to use (if the user has not selected to choose the certificate automatically in the browser settings). The reason for this alert is that GGUS has to validate the user to provide the appropriate access. Once this is done, the user is not required to provide further identification. The user identifies himself with his digital certificate. The following figure (Figure 4: Browser prompts for the digital certificate) provides a detailed view of the contents of the prompt window. In this case, the user only has one digital certificate, and it has already been selected, so the user simply presses the OK button. This is the behavior of Firefox web browser. Other browser may behave slightly different. At this point, GGUS has identified the user, and displays the home page, as shown in Figure 5: GGUS home page for recognized users. Note that in this case, the identity of the user is displayed on the page, and GGUS has recognized that this user is registered for submitting tickets. If authentication via certificate fails, you are guided to the login page (Figure 6: Screen to login to GGUS with login and password).

The ticket submit form on web interface

The tickets submit form offers a set of fields which should help the user to describe his problem as detailed as possible. Most of the fields on the submit form are optional. Only field “Subject” is required. The submit form consists of three main sections: the user information, the problem information and the routing information. User information Most fields in the user information section are pre-filled by GGUS system.

• “Name/Login” is taken from the GGUS user database.
• “E-Mail” is also taken from the GGUS user database.
• “Notification mode” defaults to “on solution”. The “Notification mode” manages the update notifications the user receives. “On solution” means that the user only gets notified when the ticket status is set to “solved”. Additional information is available by clicking on the question mark on the right hand side of the field label.
• “CC to” could be filled with any mail address of people who should be informed about this ticket. Notifications are sent on every ticket update. The field content could only be changed by people who have support access. Additional information is available by clicking on the question mark.

Problem information Although only one field is mandatory in this section as much fields as possible should be filled with information.

• “Date/Time of problem” defaults to the submitting time. This field should be set if the ticket is submitted much later than the problem occurred.
• “Affected Site” The site impacted by the problem. A drop-down list with all EGI sites registered in GOC DB and OSG sites registered in OIM DB is available. This is no routing information!
• “Affected ROC/NGI” The NGI/ROC impacted by the problem. A drop-down list of all NGIs/ROCs integrated in GGUS is provided.
• “Concerned VO” provides a drop-down list of all VOs supported by GGUS.
• “VO specific” is a flag indicating whether a problem is VO specific or not. It defaults to “no”. This flag could only be set to “yes” in combination with a VO selected in field “Concerned VO”.
• “Does it affect the whole” allows specifying whether a problem is affecting a VO or site or ROC as a whole.
• “Subject” is a mandatory field. It should give a short description of the problem. This field is limited to 250 characters.
• “Describe your problem …” is limited to 4000 characters. It should be used for a detailed description of the problem. If the user does not know which information to add here he could click on the question mark for getting additional information.
• “Command used” is for providing the command used when facing the problem.
• “Error message you obtain” is for adding the error message, if got one.
• “OS, Middleware, Application version” is for providing information on software versions used.
• “Type of problem” provides a drop-down list with possible values. This field is for categorizing the problem. It defaults to “Other”.
• “Priority” provides a drop-down list with possible priority values. They are “less urgent” which is the default, “urgent”, “very urgent” and “top priority”.

What if I have questions which are not dealt with by this FAQ?

Please submit a GGUS ticket.