US CMS issue tracking

Introduction

US CMS issues are tracked through the Remedy Helpdesk system, hosted at Fermilab. It is located at http://helpdesk.fnal.gov.

When a support ticket is generated and sent to the USCMS support center, it will be assigned to a Fermilab employee responsible for the USCMS support center. That employee will act as a "ticket coordinator" and will assign tickets to the appropriate administrator. At that point, it is the administrator's responsibility to keep the ticket up to date and eventually resolve the ticket.

Administrators, you can log in via the "Expert Login" tab on the left-most frame. Then click on "Report, Query, and Modify a Problem". You are then presented with the Remedy main query screen [Screenshot].

Responding to a ticket that has been assigned to you

The preferred way to respond to a ticket is through email. When a ticket is assigned to an administrator, an email will be sent to the contact address. The email will have the following format:

This is a reminder that the ticket below is not yet resolved.

You can send a 'Notes To Requester' by Replying to this email and placing text
between the 2 lines below.

Or, by placing just the word "WorkLog" or "Resolved" on the first line between
these 2 lines, you can update the Work Log or Resolve the ticket. Your update
(or solution) must then begin on the second line.

<-- # @  Enter Update below this line. @ # -->


<-- # @  Enter Update above this line. @ # -->

___________________________________________________________________

Ticket Number:XXXXXX

___________________________________________________________________

Requester Name: First Last
Phone: XXXX
E-Mail Address: email@domain
Incident Time: X/XX/XXXX XX:XX:XX PM
System Name:
Priority: Medium
Problem Category: Grid
Type: USCMS
Item: Other
Urgency: Medium

Short Description: A short Description will be here

Problem Description: A more detailed description will be here

Instructions for handling the ticket via email are included in the email itself. The Notes To Requester instruction is for sending information or asking for information to/from the person who created the ticket. When following the instructions for WorkLog, any information typed into the email is added to Remedy's worklog. This information is not sent to the requestor. To resolve the ticket, follow the instructions for Resolved. An email will be sent to the requestor informing them of the resolution.

Other Use Cases

There are cases where the email interface may not be adequate, or may not give the functionality that is needed. Such cases may include re-assigning a ticket to someone else, creating a ticket that will be forwared to the GOC, and/or viewing the history of a ticket. The rest of the documentation on this page deals with the GUI interface to Remedy. The GUI interface contains all the functionality of the email interface and much, much more.

Creating a ticket

First, click "New request" in the upper toolbar. You will then be presented with a blank ticket [Screenshot]. In the Fermi ID field, type in your Fermilab ID number and hit enter. Remedy will look up your name and e-mail. For Problem Category, select Grid; for Type, select USCMS; for Item, select Other. Ignore the warning that pops up. In the Short Description field, insert a one-line description of the issue. In the Problem Description field, insert the long description of the issue. Click on the paragraph icon to the right to pop-up a larger version of the text box.

Next, click on the "Resolution Details" tab [Screenshot]. Set Status to Assigned, and Assigned to Group to CD-CMS/SupportCtr. Set Assigned to Individual to yourself. Finally: determine if this is an intra-Support Center ticket. If it needs to go to another Support Center, click the Forward to External Support Center checkbox; otherwise, leave it empty. Click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.

A quick reminder:

Searching for a ticket

If you know the ticket number, you may enter the ticket number in the Ticket # field and click the search button at the top left corner of the page. To see a listing of all open tickets for the USCMS support center, click the Advanced Search button at the top of the page [Screenshot]. A toolbar will appear on the bottom of the page. Enter 'Status' < "Resolved" AND 'Type' = "USCMS" into the textbox at the bottom of the page. Now click the search button at the top left corner of the page.

Reassigning a ticket

If the issue is site-specific to a CMS Tier 2 site, you can re-assign the ticket. Go to the Resolution Details tab. Click the drop drop down for the Assigned to Group. Select "CD-GRID/USCMS". This will clear the Assigned to Individual and Assignee E-mail fields. Next click the drop down for Assigned to Individual and select the person you wish to assign the ticket to. A window may pop up allowing you to select an e-mail address for the person. Select their email address and click "OK". Now add "uscms-ops@fnal.gov" to the CC Address 1 field. This will let the list know that the ticket has been reassigned. Finally, click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.

If you need to make sure that the ticket is forwarded to the GOC, check the Forward to External Support Center check box and click the save button. An Assigned to Individual and Assignee E-mail is not needed in this case.

Sometimes a ticket is sent to the USCMS Support center that should be sent instead to the Fermilab CMS Tier-1 group. To do so, click the drop drop down for the Assigned to Group. Select "CD-SF/CMSCF". This will clear the Assigned to Individual and Assignee E-mail fields. Next click the drop down for Assigned to Individual and select the "Jon Bakken". Finally, click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.

Responding to/updating a ticket

To add new information to a ticket, click on the "Resolution Details" tab. Set Status to Work In Progress. You may then add information to the Work Log field. No information will be sent to the requestor (the user who initiated the ticket) unless you enter information in the Notes to Requestor text box. Click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.

Requesting more information on an issue

If further information is needed from the requstor (problem details, or confirmation that you have solved their issue, etc.), you can ask for information in the Notes to Requestor field. Click on the "Resolution Details" tab. Set the Status to Pending, use the calendar pop-up to set a reasonable date for a response, and set the Pending Reason field to "Waiting On Requestor". Click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.

Resolving a ticket

If the issue has been resolved, set Status to Resolved on the "Resolution Details" tab. You may either use the calendar pop-up for Resolution Timestamp, or use the "Current Time" button, whichever is appropriate. Enter the solution to the issue in the Solution textbox. If this issue was resolved in Footprints first, it may be appropriate to cut and paste the entire "Long Description" from the Footprints ticket into the Work Log as well. Click the "Save" button at the top left corner of the page.