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Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen. Wolfgang Friebel Motivation The req/reqng request tracking system Enhancements Problems left Experiences. Motivation. Stimulated by an introductory talk to Remedy Remedy license bought by DESY, usage straightforward

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Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

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  1. Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen Wolfgang Friebel Motivation The req/reqng request tracking system Enhancements Problems left Experiences Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  2. Motivation • Stimulated by an introductory talk to Remedy • Remedy license bought by DESY, usage straightforward • Installation at Zeuthen planned for months, estimated manpower for installing, configuring and administering led to further delays • Idea to try a quick and dirty interim solution (to cope with the requests while several admins were abroad) • Knew only about gnats and req • Selected req as it did fit best our work model Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  3. Living without a request tracking system • Users trained to use email to ”uco” to report problems • Additional problem reports by phone, email to individuals • All admins receive the email and work on some problems • Solutions are posted back to the users and to “uco” Works only for small group of admins, obvious drawbacks Ideally, a trouble ticket system should • be invisible or transparent to end users • put as few additional load to admins as possible • allow for efficient coordination of the work on requests Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  4. The req/reqng request tracking system • Replaces the mailing list “uco“ by a mail filter of the same name The email filter • stores requests as emails in repositories (active and resolved) • adds email headers (user, priority, request date, owner, status, …) • sends the modified mail containing a request ID to “uco-dist“ The administrator • reviews the request queue and performs actions on it: view a request notify a user change the subject take it comment a request change the user give it to somebody change its status/priority kill (remove) a request merge requests resolve requests search a request Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  5. The req/reqng request tracking system (2) • Almost completely written in perl5 • Powerful searching capabilities by indexing requests with glimpseindex • Now maintained at http://scuttlebutt.explore.com/reqng Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  6. The req/reqng user/admin interfaces • Email interface reply to email, possibly adding X-request-Do: headers inserting actions in the preformatted Subject: line Re:[Ztn #38] my problem becomes Re: [take Ztn #38] ... • Command line interface programs q (query) req (do) uco (query for users) • Graphical interface tkreq • WWW interface wwwreq Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  7. Enhancements at DESY • NFS based access replaced by client/server solution • Interfaces rewritten for client/server solution • Administrators get defined in a configuration file • Enhanced email interface (subject line actions) • Search with glimpse integrated in cmdline interface Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  8. Problems left • Mixture of req and reqng code • Problem area field defined but not used yet • Repository not well enough organized (many small files in a directory, replace it by an archive) • Interfaces still with bugs • Command line interface not yet fully implemented • DESY version not well maintained • no interface to Remedy Action Request System yet • No escalation procedures yet Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  9. Experiences • In use since May 98, 400 trouble reports up to now • Usage statistics within the last month (96 total, 46/33/9/8 resolved same day/<1 week/>1 week/unresolved) Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

  10. Experiences(2) • Basically no overhead for administrators • Not even known to users (no automatic acknowledgement, not confronted with request number) • Main advantage: admins precisely know status of request • Searching/Indexing facility not used (yet) (admins get posted all solutions, do still remember) • Admins get much better organized and informed • Saves lots of $$$ (commercial solutions quite expensive) Handling requests with a trouble ticket system at DESY Zeuthen

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