LCG Grid Deployment - CERN ROC

Remedy / GGUS interface : FAQ

This FAQ page is mainly addressed to Service managers who, within the GD and FIO groups, use to receive Remedy-PRMS tickets opened by the Grid Global User Support.

We are not going here to explain the "raison d'etre" of the interface nor the technical details of its implementation. But in order to better understand the interaction between the two systems (and so accept some of the answers given), it may be useful to think to the GGUS system as a normal user of Remedy , submitting request for support.

Starting with PRMS issues

Q: How do I get a Remedy account?

A: If you have received an e-mail from ar admin you are very likely to have already a remedy account set. If you don't remember to have requested it, ask to Nick, Maite, Harry, or send an e-mail to remedy.support@cernNOSPAMPLEASE.ch

Q: How do I Connect to Remedy?

A: The server to connect to is sunar01. You can connect with the following methods

1. Using the windows terminal server client Use the "Terminal Server Client" from inside the "Applications/Internet" menu at the top left of your screen. On the connecting window
   • in the "General" tab set the computer to "cernts.cern.ch", domain to "CERN" and client hostname to the hostname of the machine you are using.
   • In the "Display" tab
     • you can change the resolution of the screen. The suggested resolution for nodes in the ROC room is "1280x960".
     • change the Colour to "True colour (24 bit)"
2. From command line

   rdesktop cernts -a 15 -g 1280x1024
      

3. Using the browser
   Remedy web interface

Q: Can I interact with Remedy tickets using e-mail?

A: Yes, although you cannot cover all the functionality. There is however a way to do some basic actions (e.g. updating some of the fields, closing, ...) . A detailed explanation is available in http://cern.ch/service-it-remedy/FAQ/mailupdates.html

Q: Should I use Remedy or GGUS to handle my ticktes?

A: Unfortunately, for the time being, you may have to use them both. There are, in fact, some known issues in the interface which makes impossible, while dealing with a Remedy ticket opened by GGUS:

1. to change the status of a Remedy ticket (e.g. to close it) using GGUS
2. to communicate with an end-user using Remedy
3. to re-assign a ticket to a different GGUS support unit using remedy

Dealing with tickets coming from GGUS.

Q: I have received an e-mail from ar admin [arsystem@sunar01.cern.ch] . Is it connected to a GGUS ticket?

A: If the Remedy ticket was generated by a GGUS ticket this is clearly specified in the subject. Normally with the notation " GGUS-Ticket-ID " . If you don't find this information you can be (almost) sure that you will have to deal only with Remedy.

Q: Why the subject says "assigned to ROC CERN" if the ticket is assigned to me?

A: All the information reported in the subject of a Remedy opened by GGUS contains information coming from the GGUS system; e.g. a subject like

CT376633  assigned to ROC CERN Support  ("job status problem - GGUS-Ticket-ID: 
#14665 - ASSIGNMENT ") - (ROC CERN  -  Medium  priority)

gives information about GGUS ticket ID assignment, and priority in GGUS when the ticket was assigned to the Cern ROC the first time. Subsequent assignments, ticket ID and priority in Remedy are, in general independent

Note: consider that even if the Remedy ticket is assigned to your service, the corresponding GGUS ticket will remain assigned to ROC CERN until the closure of the two.

How are Remedy tickets created from GGUS?

A: As soon as a GGUS ticket is assigned to ROC CERN, an e-mail is sent to ROC CERN and a Remedy ticket is created automatically. There is also an automatic notification to GGUS that a ticket has been created. This appears as an entry in the GGUS ticket created by a user called "mailer", displaying the CERN CT id of the ticket.

Q: How can I add a comment to a Remedy ticket not assigned to me?

A: If you don't want to re-assign the ticket to yourself you can only add a entry in the worklog , but you need first to configure your client as follows:

"User Preferences" (link on left bottom) --> Set "Auto Assign" to 'No'

Q: I made an update in Remedy: who should I see as "modifier" in GGUS?

A: You should see your NICE login name as the modifier in GGUS. This was decided because not all the people behind Remedy support teams have a GGUS account. But if you modify the ticket in GGUS directly, it will show your name as it appears in the DN of your grid certificate.

Q: How are the comments I do in a Remedy ticket mapped in the corresponding GGUS ticket?

A:

• Entries in the Reply box will go in the history of the GGUS ticket as public _ comments and in the _internal diary
• Entries in the Worklog will be added in the internal diary

All comments made in GGUS will be added in the worklog of the Remedy ticket

Q: How are the changes in the status of a Remedy ticket reflected on the corresponding GGUS ticket?

A: Changes in the status done in Remedy are translated in GGUS in the following way

status in Remedy	status in GGUS
Assigned (to CERN ROC)	Assigned
Assigned(to a support unit)	In progress
Open	In progress
On hold	Waiting for reply
Fixed	Solved
Closed	Solved
N/A	Unsolved
N/A	Verified

Note that the corresponding changes in GGUS are not automatically done in the reverse way.

Q: How are the changes in the status of a GGUS ticket reflected on the corresponding Remedy ticket?

A: Changes in the status of a GGUS ticket are not reflected in the status of a Remedy ticket. That is a consequence of the fact that GGUS is seen by Remedy as a "normal" user, which is not entitled, in principle, to change the status of any tickets in the system, even if submitted by himself. If a change is needed itn the status of a Remedy ticket this will have to be done manually.

Q: I (or somebody else) re-directed a GGUS ticket to a different support unit. What should I do with the corresponding Remedy ticket?

A: The GGUS support units are in general not represented in Remedy. So, if a ticket gets assigned to a different support unit other than the CERN ROC, for the CERN service administrator's purposes, that Remedy ticket has to be considered as fixed. In this case the Remedy ticket will have to be closed manually. When you close the Remedy ticket you should pay extreme attention to de-select the Notify flag in the reply box . If you don't, the state transition in remedy would be sent to GGUS and the GGUS ticket would be closed even if assigned to a different support unit, which is usually perceived as an annoying interference between ROCs

Q: I need to make a question to the end-user: can I do it through Remedy?

A: Yes. Using the Reply to User box in Remedy will reach the end user.

Q: I need to make a question to the end-user: what shall I do?

A: You can use the Reply to User box in Remedy. This automatically adds an entry in the Public Dairy of the GGUS ticket, which automatically triggers an e-mail to the user. You can also go directly on the GGUS page for that ticket in the supporters web interface and use the Public diary feature of GGUS.

Fixing/Closing of tickets

Q: Where shall I fix a ticket, Remedy or GGUS?

A: You can do both, but preferably you should fix tickets in Remedy, as this automatically updates GGUS. If you fix a ticket in GGUS, it is the responsibility of the person to whom the ticket is assigned to fix the ticket in Remedy, making sure that the "No notification" flag is set to avoid triggering unecessary updates to both GGUS and Remedy itself.

Q: I (or somebody else) closed a ticket in GGUS. What should I do with the corresponding Remedy ticket?

A: The closure, as any other change in the status of a GGUS ticket, is not reflected in the status of a Remedy ticket. In this case the Remedy ticket will have to be closed manually. When you close the Remedy ticket it is better to de-select the Notify flag in the reply box . If you don't, the state transition in remedy would be sent to GGUS and would appear in the history as a late comment after the closure

Q: I fixed a Remedy ticket some time ago and but it still appears open in GGUS. Why?

A: this is most likely because you set the "no notification" flag in remedy when fixing the ticket. By doing so you prevented the automatic update (hence closure) of the ticket in GGUS. There are also other possible causes for this, if the notification flag was set to "notify"

• The ticket somehow got out of the ROC CERN and the IT/Grid services domain. for reasons not understood updates were lost in this way in the past.
• Something went wrong in the mail notification between PRMS and GGUS. Since the interface is still based on e-mail, sometimes things go wrong for no apparent reason.

Q: I fixed a Remedy ticket some time ago and now it appears again in my intray in "Fixed" status: What does it mean?

A: Assuming that the Remedy ticket was correctly closed and the corresponding GGUS ticket set to "solved", what could have happened is that the GGUS ticket was updated after some time (e.g. an update with a post-mortem comment, a re-opening). If it happens within ten days after the Remedy ticket was fixed, it is somehow "re-opened", in the sense that the automatic procedure that should close it after ten days is re-set. This usually happens to tickets opened by the CODs. These tickets, after being closed by the ROCs, are often subject to comments and state transitions due to the interface with the CIC portal. In this case the best and safer thing is to have another look to the ticket, understand the change that was made after the closure and, if there is no need to re-open it, set it again to "fixed" with a comment in the worklog. It is definitely preferable to de-select the Notify flag in the reply box unless you do want this comment to be recorded in the history.

Q: I see "Fixed" tickets in my "Non-fixed" predefined search: is this normal?

A: Yes it is. When an update is made on a ticket which had been previously set to fixed, this ticket will automatically appear in the "non-fixed" predefined search. If you do not need to act on the ticket you can simply ignore it. The ticket will disappear from this view when its status will be automatically set to "closed" (i.e. after five or ten days, depending on the origin of the ticket).

Q: How long before a ticket is set from "Fixed" to "Closed" in Remedy?

A: It depends. If it is a GGUS ticket it is ten days. If it is a CERN Remedy ticket only, this delay is set to five days (CERN default).

Q: I see that a GGUS ticket is verified. What does it mean?

A: It means that the user is satisfied with the support provided and has "verified" (sometimes simply accepted) the solution. There is no corresponding status for this in Remedy.

-- DianaBosio - 20 May 2009