8 Access to the User Support
8.1.1 Application Support
There are two stages during the lifetime of a typical DEISA project, namely a preparation or 'enabling' stage and a production stage. In both stages DEISA will provide support to the DEISA users.
In the preparatory phase of a project the support questions will typically be related to obtaining certificates and accounts and to the user's applications, e.g., concerning the optimization strategy, the porting of code to the different HPC platforms in DEISA or the choice of the DEISA middleware. These will be addressed by the Application Support team at the project Home Site. The Home Site is assigned to the user when a project is accepted.
The production stage begins once the user is happy that the infrastructure is in place to provide an efficient runtime environment and when the execution site has allocated resources to the project. Typical questions in this stage are about availability of resources, functioning of batch systems or the Common Production Environment etc.
8.1.2 Helpdesk
During both stages, all questions arising must be addressed to the central DEISA Helpdesk. This can be done in either of two ways:
- By entering the problem directly into the DEISA Trouble Ticket System via the Web interface: https://tts.deisa.eu/UserSupport. This interface is only accessible for users having a DEISA account and with their certificate imported in the Web browser. In that case this is the preferred way.
- By sending an e-mail describing the problem to the DEISA Helpdesk support@deisa.eu. In this case please use the e-mail address that you provided for the DEISA registration as the sending address.
Whatever way you choose, please provide all necessary information in the problem description, i.e.:
- Your name, the DEISA username and the Project name
- Your Home site
- The site where the error occurred.
8.2 Using the Web interface to the DEISA Helpdesk
You can employ this Web interface to report new problems or view and update existing problems. Note, you can only view your own tickets. To get access to the Web interface, you first have to import your grid certificate (see Section 2.5) into your favourite browser.
When you open the Web interface you will be presented with a list of open tickets (see above Figure). There are three buttons you can use:
- Open tickets: gives a list of open tickets
- Closed tickets: gives a list of closed tickets
- New ticket: create a new ticket
With the New ticket button, you can open a form (see above Figure) in which you can enter a subject line and a description of your problem. To actually create the ticket, you have to select the button Create ticket at the lower right corner of the form.
You can open existing tickets by selecting them in the list of Open or Closed tickets. This will show the complete history of that particular ticket (see Figure below). You can then update the ticket by selecting the [reply]-link to the right side of the last correspondence added to the ticket.
8.3 Sending an e-mail to the DEISA Helpdesk
The second way to report problems is sending an e-mail to the Helpdesk, using the centralized DEISA support address (support@deisa.eu).
For new problems (new messages) you should either e-mail from the account you employed to create your DEISA account, or include the string '[DEISA.eu ticket]' in the subject line of the e-mail (including the brackets). Please do not forget to include your name, project name, Home site and Execution site into the e-mail.
For updates to existing problems you should reply to the e-mail you received after creation of the ticket, or to one of the e-mails ensuing from this thread. This will generate the proper subject line to assure that the correct ticket is updated.
