Experiments support at INFN-T1
Daniele Lattanzio, Andrea Rendina, A. Pascolini, Lucia Morganti, F. Fornari, C. Pellegrino, Daniele Cesini · 2023
The Italian WLCG Tier-1 located in Bologna and managed by the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), provides computing resources to several research communities in the fields of High-Energy Physics, Astroparticle Physics, Gravitational Waves, Nuclear Physics and others. The facility is hosted at Centro Nazionale Analisi Fotogrammi (CNAF). Although the LHC experiments at CERN represent the main users of the Tier-1 resources, an increasing number of communities and experiments are also being supported in all of their computing activities. Due to this very heterogeneous user base, an efficient support system is needed in order to assure a smooth and appropriate exploitation of the computing infrastructure. In this framework, this role is played by the Tier-1 User Support group, which acts as a first level support and represents the entry point for services and support requests, and for problem reports. The group makes use of multiple systems to meet the different needs and specificities of the supported experiments. Moreover, the group continuously maintains a detailed knowledge based in the form of an online users guide. The communication channels are represented by ticketing systems and also by mailing lists used for a more direct communication with users, allowing to notify maintenance interventions, downtimes and more in general all the new features and services provided by the Datacentre. In this paper, the ticketing systems, tools, platforms and services that User Support offers, and the internal organisation of the department, will be described. Future workflow plans in view of the DATACLOUD project, which will require an increasing effort, will also be presented.