Dear All

For those of you who came to GridPP15 over the last 2 days, I hope that you found the talks and discussions useful. For those who were unable to make it please look at the programme and linked talks here: http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/gridpp15/programme.html when you have time. The second half of my own talk contains information about the status of 2.7.0 and the Service Challenge (transfer test) work together with links you need to be aware of when getting involved with it.

One of the activities mentioned a few times at the meeting is the imminent upgrade of the Footprints service run at RAL for the UKI helpdesk. Below is a message of particular importance to anyone who deals with tickets issued by the UKI ROC (or indirectly GGUS)? For most of you the only request is to clear tickets by 23rd January. More technical information is given than many of you need but please read the message just so you know!

Please send any questions to this list or directly to David Spence.

I am in the process of setting up the UKI monthly meetings for this year and anticipate the next one in early February when we expect 2.7.0 to be formerly released.

Many thanks,
Jeremy




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Dear helpdesk agents (those of you who resolve tickets via Footprints),
 
We are planning to migrate to a new interface between the local UK/Ireland ROC helpdesk and the GGUS helpdesk (in Germany).  This should make life much easier for everyone involved in answering queries which originate from GGUS for the UK/Ireland ROC (like the COD tickets).

This email explains what will happen over the next few weeks and how it changes the way the helpdesk will work. Please note that there is action that we would like many of you to take before the changeover.

Summary
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On the 23rd January we will change the helpdesk "project" (within helpdesk.grid-support.ac.uk) used to process queries for UK/Ireland ROC from "GGUS" to "UKIROC", at the same time a direct interface between the GGUS helpdesk in Germany and the UK/Ireland ROC helpdesk will be deployed.  Once this is in place, any issues/tickets raised in the GGUS helpdesk will be automatically copied across to the UK/Ireland helpdesk and any changes to the tickets made locally will be automatically applied to the copy of the ticket at the GGUS helpdesk (note there will be a short delay).  The support address will also change from [log in to unmask] to [log in to unmask] 
 
Change in usage
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There will be very little difference when using the new project, except more of the information will  be copied over from the GGUS ticket, therefore we ask that the GGUS ticket is not referenced unless really needed.
 
More details for "expert users":
The main difference between the two projects is with the two extra fields "Responsible Unit" and "syncWithGGUS", these set whether the issue is also on the GGUS helpdesk.  Normally you should not edit these fields; they will be set automatically depending on whether the issue originally came from GGUS or from a user contacting the UKIROC helpdesk.  The one situation where they should be edited is when an issue that a user has submitted to the local UKIROC helpdesk is actually for another responsible unit (ie ROC, etc).  In this case select the appropriate responsible unit from the "Responsible Unit" drop down menu or input via email.   When "Responsible Unit" is set to "ROC_UK/Ireland" then the issue remains local (and is not copied to GGUS) unless "syncWithGGUS" is set to "Yes", this will be case for issues that have come from GGUS.  If you wish to mirror an issue on GGUS, but not assign it to another responsible unit then set "syncWithGGUS" to true.
 
What you need to do
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For this change over to proceed smoothly we ask that you endeavour to solve all your remaining tickets in the UKIROC/GGUS helpdesks, we will be sending out messages to people with outstanding tickets to remind them of this request.
 
Monday 23rd January will be an at-risk day for the helpdesk service and there is likely to be no service during the actual change over period, which will be during the morning.  We ask that you do not attempt to log-on to the footprints service on the 23rd until we have notified you by email of the completion of the change over. A reminder will be sent.
 
From the 23rd you should ensure that you use the UKIROC "project" for new issues and the "GGUS" project for ones started before 23rd.   The project you are working on can be selected from the small drop-down menu at the top right of the Footprints screen (if you are logged on).  When replying to emails from Footprints they will be filed in the correct project automatically.  If you do have any outstanding issues on the 23rd then these will remain in the OLD helpdesk and we will keep them synchronised with their GGUS helpdesk copy manually.
 
Issues to be aware of
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There are a few limitations of the importer, due to incompatibilities between the Footprints and GGUS model of helpdesks:
* Parts of the history before a GGUS ticket is assigned to the UK/Ireland ROC may not be copied as the GGUS system only allows access to the most recent diary entries. 
* Attachments are currently not copied; this is because they cannot be inserted into the Footprints system without file system access to its server. 
* When a ticket is set to solved in Footprints the interface between the UKIROC and UK helpdesk must supply a solution.  This will normally be chosen as the last field entered from Footprints.  Therefore it is important that when you set a ticket's status to "solved" that you enter at least some text summarising the solution as this is all a user submitting a query to GGUS will be sent in the email notifying them of the solution.
Thank you for your help in this matter and sorry for any inconvenience caused.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any problems ([log in to unmask]). 

David Spence (UKI ROC)