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Nurcan Ozturk University of Texas at Arlington for the Distributed Analysis Support Team (DAST) ATLAS Distributed Computing Technical Interchange Meeting Annecy – April 19, 2012. User Support Ideas. A searchable web interface. Ideas from Asoka De Silva.
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Nurcan Ozturk University of Texas at Arlington for the Distributed Analysis Support Team (DAST) ATLAS Distributed Computing Technical Interchange Meeting Annecy – April 19, 2012 User Support Ideas
A searchable web interface Ideas from Asoka De Silva • Accumulated vast knowledge in DAST egroups however it is not searchable • Need a searchable web interface+backend database: • User types the error seen and the result will be a step-by-step description of what to do to resolve the issue (with a link to FAQ or twiki) • For some cases, provide a diagnostic tool for users to figure out the problems themselves: • Example: manageTier3SW/ATLASLocalRootBase stack to diagnose DB issues, grid-cert issues as well as generate a file containing information that can point us to the problem. • Users do their first level support by searching for themselves thus reducing the load on DAST. • The database can be populated by anyone as soon as issue is resolved. • Despite the above, not sure how many people will do searches first before asking for help. Asoka’s experience from another experiment: “other users got annoyed if someone asked a question that was already posted before and peer pressure worked. ATLAS users seem more forgiving or DAST shifters are a much more kinder lot.” Nurcan Ozturk
Jira to rescue? • Asked for a test instance of Jira from CERN IT (by Manoj Jha). May have it in 2 weeks. • DAST will evaluate its performance and plan on migrating to. • What Jira offers for us: • One interface (instead of two) for user-user and user-shifter interactions • No central page exist which displays ongoing problems affecting distributed analysis. Shifter can post ongoing problems on Jira web interface and users read them before sending any new ticket. • Possible to inform only the concerned users (for a specific issue) directly in Jira. Thus reducing the number of threads that all users receive. • A new idea from Wensheng De: • DAST shifters' reports are currently under-utilized • If shifters can make shift summaries with Jira or insert question/solution info into Jira. This would make shift summaries more regularated, machine readable, and searchable in response to future queries. Nurcan Ozturk
Improvements in other systems • Any improvements on the following will help in user support: • automatic retries of failed jobs • excluding problematic sites by Hammercloud • Input data availability – PD2P • Looking at dq2 traces to understand dq2-get problems better – talk by Thomas Beermann earlier • Second copy of user datasets done automatically – does not look attractive by looking at Thomas’s talk • Also improvements in communication with other teams: • Communicate better with ADCoS shifters on site problems, namely GGUS tickets may have been opened by them already Nurcan Ozturk