Request Tracking (RT) The new ticketing system Tomasz Wlodek

Request Tracking (RT) The new ticketing system

• Tomasz Wlodek

Why RT?

• The old ticketing system (CTS) has reached its limitations

• Users must have BNL accounts to post tickets

• With increasing customer base this is not practical

• CTS does not operate with other ticket systems – we cannot easily pass tickets from one computing center to another.

What does RT offer?

• Tickets can be submitted by e-mail or web interface.

• More configuration options

• RT is becoming standard ticketing system – it is already used by Star, Slac, VDT,…

• In the future we may be able to interface various RT installations

• RT can be extended by AT (Asset Tracking). More about it later.

RT from user point of view

• How do I submit ticket?

• How do I reply to followup to a ticket?

• How do I reopen ticket?

• How do I search tickets?

How to open ticket? First, decide which problem category your ticket belongs to

• BatchSystems

• DataTransfer

• FileSystems

• General

• GridServices

• HPSS

Then submit ticket by e-mail

• Write e-mail to

• [e-mail]

• To submit ticket to LinuxFarm write to

• [e-mail]

• That’s it.

Queues (Problem categories)

• Each queue has a set of experts assigned to it.

• When a ticket is submitted it is given status “new”

• Then one of experts decides to work on it and takes ownership of this ticket. Status becomes “open”

• Experts will send followups to ticket submitter. They will appear as regular e-mail. To reply to them use “reply” button.

• Finally ticket is resolved (closed)

That is all (from the perspective of 80% of users)

• For vast majority of users this is enough

• Ticket submission and correspondence is done by e-mail

• Each time someone sends a ticked for first time he/she is given local RT account so that we can track RT users.

• Incoming mail is filtered for spam and viruses, positive hits ->/dev/null

Possible problems

• The simplicty of this design can be abused

• Do not create tickets in automatic scripts

• Do not cross posts tickets from mailing lists

• Do not post explicitly RT mail addresses on www pages

What is the problem with the following e-mail exchange:

What is the problem with the exchange:

How do I search tickets?

• Use web interface

• https://rt-racf.bnl.gov/rt

• Logon as guest (this account is not yet activated)

• You can search ticket database and see active/closed tickets

Can I have my own RT account and submit/read tickets from www?

• Yes

• By default user accounts are created with NO right to access the web

• We expect that majority of users will not use www interface

• If you want to access the www site all you have to do is to ask for access

• Just submit ticket to [e-mail] asking for www access

• The RT password will be mailed to you. Logon to RT and change it.

RT from expert point of view

• Experts reply to tickets.

• It is possible to reply to ticket by e-mail

• For more complex operations use www site.

• Experts can: take ownership of ticket, reply to ticket, resolve a ticket, delete a ticket, join tickets

How to use RT ? (experts point of view)

RT – future

• We will operate a relatively open RT system – anyone can submit tickets from anywhere.

• Spam filtering is included, but possibility of abuse exists

• We assume that users will be responsible

• If we see abuse of the system, we will require user registration

• User registration can involve checking kerberos password OR grid certificate.

RT extension - AT

• AT (Asset Tracking) is a RT extension which allows users to integrate a resource database to the ticketing system

• A ticket posted to RT can update also the status of relevant hardware.

• “machine rcasXXXX needs OS upgrade ”

• The ticket links to database of machines, after resolving the OS system of the machine is updated in the bookkeeping system

• This will be our next possible goal, later this year.