IT-GT in GGUS and SNOW

Quick links
SNOW
SNOW Release Notes
CERN Service Portal
CERN Service Management web page
GGUS

Introduction

IT-GT is involved in the EMI and EGI projects where GGUS is the tool used to track user incidents for grid infrastructures like WLCG or EGI.

On the other hand, CERN has its own tool to manage incidents. It's called Service Now, or SNOW. IT-GT must use SNOW as any other group within IT.

In order to be able to use SNOW and GGUS at the same time, both tools are integrated. Check the following sections to understand all the details of this integration.

Support Units vs Functional Elements

GGUS groups of experts are organised in what it is called Support Units or SUs. On the other hand, in SNOW, groups of experts are organised in what it is called Functional Elements or FEs. In order to integrate GGUS and SNOW, SUs and FEs belonging to IT-GT must have the same name. In IT-GT we have the following SUs/FEs:

• IT-GT-DMS
  • D4ScienceII Technical Services
  • DPM Development
  • FTS Development
  • lcg_util Development
  • LFC Development
• IT-GT-SL
  • EMI QA
  • EMI Testbeds
  • ETICS
  • gLite Release Pages and Repository
  • gLite UI
  • gLite VOBOX
  • gLite WN
• IT-GT-TOM
  • GridView/Availabilities
  • GStat
  • Information System Development
  • SAM/Nagios
  • SAM Development (Not synchronised with GGUS)
  • Messaging Software from CERN (Not synchronised with GGUS)
  • Messaging Software from Third Parties (Not synchronised with GGUS)
  • REBUS technical support (Not synchronised with GGUS)

All grid users must use GGUS to report any incident in the grid. Moreover, CERN users that are in turn grid users of any of our services, must also use GGUS to report any incident. This is what we have specified in the CERN Service Portal for each of our functional elements. See snapshot screen example of the Service Portal below:

IT-GT Incident Management Use Cases

IT-GT incident management in GGUS and SNOW is represented in the picture below:

The entry point for grid users, as far as IT-GT SUs/FEs is concerned, is always GGUS. First level and second level support is given by the EGI project (except for some SUs in IT-GT-TOM and IT-GT-SL where we are already second level support). Once a GGUS ticket is assigned to one of our SUs, this ticket is automatically created in SNOW. The ticket in SNOW doesn't go through the first level support, which is the CERN Service Desk, but instead it directly gets assigned to the proper functional element. This is because the first/second level support has already happened in GGUS, so it's not necessary to lose more time in SNOW. Moreover, the first and second level support in GGUS is already specialised in the grid, whereas the CERN Service Desk is not, so the ticket will go directly to the experts once it's created in SNOW.

IT-GT will only use SNOW as the unique interface to manage incidents.

In the following sections, we describe in more detail the interaction between GGUS and SNOW for specific use cases that have been identified in IT-GT SUs/FEs.

Incidents that don't require a change

• Description: Incident that can be resolved immediately.
• Affected SUs/FEs: All. * Workflow example: Middleware incident.

Incidents that require a change

• Description: Incident that can only be resolved by implementing a change. In the case of the middleware, a bug is opened in Savannah and reported back to the GGUS ticket. In the case of ETICS and IT-GT-TOM, a ticket is opened in Jira and reported back to the GGUS ticket.
• Affected SUs/FEs: DPM Development, FTS Development, lcg_util Development, LFC Development, ETICS, gLite UI, gLite VOBOX, gLite WN, GridMap, GridView/Availabilities, GStat, Information System Development, Messaging, SAM Operations, SAM/Nagios.
• Workflow example: Middleware incident with a proposal of mapping fields.

Incidents for GGUS SUs including non CERN supporters

• Description: Incident that is assigned to a SU with non CERN supporters.
• Affected SUs/FEs: EMI Testbeds, most of the IT-GT-TOM section who have external supporters.
• Notes: If a CERN supporter wants to directly assign a ticket to a non CERN supporter, GGUS needs to be used since SNOW doesn't know about non CERN users. Until GGUS notifications are enabled (see #124433), please tell the external supporters to add themselves in the CC field of the GGUS ticket or add them yourselves as soon as a new SNOW ticket is assigned to your FEs.
• Workflow example: Middleware incident solved by the non CERN supporter.

Incidents that eventually should be assigned to non CERN GGUS SUs

• Description: Incident that is assigned to a CERN SU but thay eventually needs to be solved by a non CERN SU.
• Affected SUs/FEs: All.
• Tracked in: #124450.
• Workflow example: Middleware incidents that finally needs to be solved by a non CERN SU.

Incidents that eventually should be assigned to a different CERN GGUS SU

• Description: Incident that is assigned to a CERN SU but that eventually needs to be solved by a different CERN SU.
• Affected SUs/FEs: All.
• Tracked in: #124524.
• Workflow example: Middleware incidents that finally needs to be solved by a different CERN SU.

State mappings

The table below shows the state mappings between GGUS and SNOW.

Note for EMI supporters: for more information on how tickets should be dealt with according to EMI User Support task, please, refer to EMI User Support. GGUS-SNOW integration respects the states defined by EMI User Support:

Note that there is no duplicated state in GGUS nor SNOW. The suggestion is to use the close code Refused in SNOW and state in the notes This is a duplicate of ticket INCXXXXXX.

Documentation

• SNOW training for IT-GT supporters on January 2010.
• ITIL news for IT-GT on October 2010.
• IT-GT presentation given to CERN Service Desk on 03.10.2010.
• ITIL overview by John Shade on the White Area Lectures on June 2008.