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FAQ GGUS-User Guide

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FAQ GGUS-User-Guide


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 a request for help:

  • Send an e-mail to helpdesk<<at>>ggus.org,
  • Use the GGUS web interface to create the ticket.

The first one of these methods is further documented in section Submitting a ticket using email of this note.
The web interface is described in section Accessing the web interface to GGUS of this note.
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.
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.

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

Figure 1: GGUS home page for unregistered users

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 If the user faces problems with his certificate he may get help here:

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

Registering at GGUS

For registering at GGUS the user should go to GGUS home and click the registration link. 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.
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

Figure 2: GGUS home page for recognized users

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. 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

Figure 3: 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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”.
    • “Attach file(s)” offers the possibility to upload 4 attachments (e.g. log files etc.) at a time. Attachments are limited to 2 MB. Please avoid uploading file formats “.exe”, “.php”, “.htm(l)”.
  3. Routing Information
    • “Notify SITE” provides a drop-down list with all EGI sites registered in GOC DB and OSG sites registered in OIM DB. If selecting a site from the list this site will be notified about this ticket by mail. Additionally the ticket is assigned to the appropriate NGI/ROC directly, bypassing the TPM (Some words about TPM). If setting a site value the appropriate NGI/ROC is set automatically. Choosing an NGI/ROC simultaneously is not possible.
    • “Assign to ROC/NGI” provides a drop-down list of all NGIs/ROCs integrated in GGUS. Choosing a value in this field assigns the ticket to the appropriate ROC directly, bypassing the TPM. If assigning a ticket to an NGI/ROC choosing a site value simultaneously is not possible.


After clicking the “Submit” button the user gets a confirmation page showing the information submitted and the ticket ID.

Figure 4: Confirmation after ticket submit

Bypassing the TPM

Users can bypass the TPM if they have good knowledge about where the problem is by either selecting site or NGI/ ROC names from the drop down menus on submit form. If selecting a site name the site will receive a notification about the ticket. Additionally the NGI/ROC the site belongs to is set automatically. Hence the ticket is assigned to this NGI/ROC. Selecting values in both fields, “Notify SITE” and “Assign to NGI/ROC” is not possible.

Browsing your own tickets

After authenticating himself the user has access to the GGUS homepage. On this page he sees a list of his own open tickets and a list of the latest open tickets of all users (Figure 5). Below the list of the user’s own open tickets there are two links for further browsing possibilities of the user’s own tickets:

  • Show my complete ticket list,
  • My Team Tickets.

The system only shows the user tickets which have been created with the same authentication information the user is currently logged in. This means if a user submits tickets with different certificates he does not see all of his tickets. The reason for this is that the DN string of the certificate is stored in each ticket. Showing all tickets of a user can be done by using the GGUS search engine. In the GGUS search engine users can search by user name amongst others. This search will show all tickets of a user independent from the authentication information.

Show my complete ticket list

Figure 5: Complete ticket list on GGUS home

This link opens a new window showing tables of all open and closed tickets of the user and all tickets of other users the user has subscribed to. Information on how to subscribe to a ticket is available in chapter Subscribing to a ticket of another user.

Modifying tickets

Modifying your tickets using the web

Figure 6: Ticket information section

For modifying a ticket the user can just click on the ticket ID. He is guided to another page. On this page are three main sections:

  • the ticket information (Figure 6),
  • the ticket history (Figure 7) and
  • the modify section (Figure 8).

The ticket information gives an overview of the personal data the user provided, the problem description and the ticket status. The ticket history shows all actions that have been taken to solve the ticket, the date and time these actions have been taken and the name of the supporter who did them. In the modify section the user can add some additional information or comment on a question of a supporter to him. The user can add attachments, change the email notification behavior of the system and change some other attributes of his ticket.

Figure 7: Ticket history
Figure 8: Ticket modify section

Escalating a ticket

Figure 9: Escalation button

Between the information section and the ticket history there is a button which allows the user to escalate a ticket (Figure 9). Three escalation levels are available in GGUS:

  • Escalating ticket to the support unit it is assigned to,
  • Escalating the ticket to the support unit and the TPM on shift,
  • Escalating the ticket to the support unit, the TPM and the GGUS ticket monitoring.

The escalation levels are reached one by one. It is not possible to choose one of them. Additional information is available by clicking on the little question mark on the left hand side of the button.

Reopen a solved ticket

If a ticket is already closed it could be reopened by adding a comment and changing the status to “reopened” in the “Modify section” (Figure 10). In this case the support unit which solved the ticket and the TPM receive an email about the ticket reopening.

Verifying the solution

Figure 10: Verify button

When a ticket is solved the user could confirm that the solution has solved his problem by verifying it. A solution could be verified by either

  • Clicking the “Verify” button in the web portal or
  • Replying to the solution mail without changing anything.

Verifying a solution can help to increase the quality of solutions in GGUS.

Modify your tickets using email

Updating a ticket using email is also possible if one fundamental requirement is achieved. The mail subject must contain the typical GGUS string “GGUS-Ticket-ID: #<<Ticket-ID>>” where <<Ticket-ID>> is the ID of the ticket which should be updated. The easiest way to do this is to reply to an update notification received from GGUS. When updating a ticket using email the whole mail body will be added to the ticket. Changing any other field (e.g. status, priority,…) is impossible!

Ticket Participation

GGUS system offers various possibilities for participating in tickets. They are

  • the CC field,
  • the Involve others field and
  • the Subscribe field.

An overview on these fields is given in the table below. Ticket participation can be done by adding a valid mail address to one of these fields. Please avoid adding closed mailing lists as such produce a lot of mail errors! Several mail addresses have to be separated by semi-colon.

User submit User modify Supporter modify
CC Yes No Yes
Involve others No No Yes
Subscribe No Yes Yes

The “CC” field

The CC field can be set by the user in the ticket submit form. Updates are only possible for supporters for correcting or removing invalid mail addresses. Every ticket update triggers a notification email to the mail address specified in the “CC” field.

The “Involve others” field

The “Involve others” field is only for supporters use. Every ticket update triggers a notification email to the mail address specified in the “Involve others” field.

Subscribing to a ticket of another user

Figure 11: Ticket subscribe

Every user could subscribe to tickets of other users if he is interested in the solution of any. For subscribing a valid email address has to be provided. The user gets a notification once the ticket is solved. After subscribing to a ticket the user could change the notification mode or unsubscribe if he wants to (Figure 11). Accessing the system with the same credentials as used for subscription is necessary for this. Additional information on subscribing to tickets is available by clicking on the question mark at the right hand side of the label “Subscribe to this ticket”.

Who gets what email notification from GGUS?

The ticket "submitter" gets emails according to the "Notification mode" value (s)he selected when submitting the ticket. If the selected "Notification mode" value is "on every change" then all updates are sent to the "submitter". "Public Diary" entries are sent to the submitter regardless the value of the "Notification mode". "Internal Diary" entries never go to the "submitter". They are reserved for exchanges amongst supporters.

The email addresses in the "Cc:" field can be entered by the "submitter" and receive the same notifications as the submitter. "Public Diary" entries are sent to the addresses in the "Cc:" field. "Internal Diary" entries never go to the people in the "Cc:" field. They are reserved for exchanges amongst supporters.

The email addresses in the "Involve others:" field can be entered by supporters only and receive the same notifications as the Support Unit (SU) to which the ticket is assigned. "Internal Diary" entries are sent to the relevant SU members AND the people in the "Involve others:" field, as they are supposed to be experts and contribute to the ticket solution.

The email address in the "Assign to one person:" field can be entered by supporters only and receive the same notifications as the Support Unit (SU) to which the ticket is assigned. "Internal Diary" entries are sent to the relevant SU members AND the people in the "Involve others:" field AND the email address in the "Assign to one person:" field as they are, all, supposed to be experts and contribute to the ticket solution.

Every ticket update triggers an email to the addresses in the "Cc:", "Involve others:" and to ticket subscribers, i.e. GGUS users, unrelated to the specific ticket, who entered their own email in the "Subscribe to this ticket" field.

GGUS email notifications highlight the fields changed with the specific update.

Please avoid including closed mailing lists, e-groups in these fields as mail delivery will fail.

Browsing all tickets

At the bottom of the home page there are additional links for browsing:

  • Search ticket database,
  • Show all open tickets,
  • Show LHCOPN tickets,
  • Technology Helpdesk.

GGUS search engine

Figure 12: GGUS search engine

For browsing all tickets the GGUS search engine is a useful tool (Figure 16: GGUS search engine for users). The GGUS search engine can be entered by clicking on link “Search ticket database”. When accessing the search engine a default search is performed like shown in Figure 16: GGUS search engine for users. Searching via Ticket ID is the easiest and fastest way to look at a ticket. When searching via Ticket ID all other search parameters were ignored. Besides searching for all open tickets this is the recommended kind of search, because it avoids needless workload on the system. When searching via ticket ID the ticket details are shown in the same window. For getting back to the main page use the "Back" button of your browser. The various search parameters can be combined in any way wanted except “Untouched since”. Description fields “Keyword”, “Involved supporter” and “Assigned to person” trigger a LIKE search to the database. Concatenating keywords with “AND” or “OR” is currently not possible. The search can either be started by clicking on "go" or just hitting the return key. The result of a search by parameters is shown in the result list. For viewing ticket details just click on the ID. A new window opens showing ticket details. For getting back to the search result just close the window with the ticket details.

Showing all open tickets

Clicking on this link shows all open tickets that are currently in the system. Unlike “Showing all open tickets” the default search in GGUS search engine uses a timeframe of one week for showing open tickets.

Showing LHCOPN tickets

LHCOPN tickets are tickets from the OPN network group within EGI project. This group monitors networks and creates tickets if a network problem is detected. Also for scheduled downtimes for maintenance reasons tickets are created. Clicking on the link “Show LHCOPN tickets” guides to the LHCOPN dashboard giving an overview of open LHCOPN tickets.

Technology Helpdesk

The technology helpdesk is a specific view for middleware providers. Accessing the technology helpdesk requires specific privileges.

Contacting the GGUS team

Users can click on the “Envelope” icon in the menu bar for sending an email to the GGUS team with any comments. Note: This must not be used for submitting support requests as it does not create a ticket in the system!

GGUS development plans

On GGUS home page there are a couple of links where users can get more information on the GGUS development plans as well as submit own feature requests. Feature requests are collected in the GGUS shopping lists in savannah and EGI RT.

Operation of GGUS

Some words about GGUS system

The GGUS system is running on servers located at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. Besides the GGUS production system a backup system is in place. Switching from production system to backup system currently needs manual interaction. An automatic switch in case of fail-over will be implemented. GGUS staffs at Karlsruhe are not providing support apart from requests concerning GGUS system itself. They can be contacted by email to support@ggus.org. Usual office hours for GGUS staffs are from 07:00 to 15:00 o’clock (UTC).

Some words about TPM

TPM is the most important part of the support system for the grid. TPM is ticket process management. The purpose of TPM is:

  • closing simple trouble tickets,
  • ensuring that other tickets are sent to the correct place for processing,
  • reacting to alarms that tickets have not been processed,

TPM teams work on a bi-weekly rotating basis. There is always one team on duty and one backup team. The teams consist of people with a broad knowledge of the Grid. TPM effort is done by Italy and Germany co-operating with GGUS.

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

Please submit a GGUS ticket.