DG/2002-04-11

Dear DutchGrid collegues,

As more and more sites are starting to use Grid and Globus middleware,
there has been a significant increase in the number of questions
and problems that are reported. The same hold for upgrade requests
for existing infrastructure. Most of these reports are surrently sent
to individuals, with several questions being asked and answered multiple 
times by different people. 
By now, some questions can even be considered "FAQs".

Therefore, I have taken the initiative of setting up a "DutchGrid Support
Desk". This entirely voluntary effort is run by some good-willing
individuals and does not represent any formal commitment to admin or
user support. On the other hand, most of us are already answering questions
and address problems, and we ourselved are definitely helped by this 
central "touble ticket" management. 

We urge you to send your questions and problems regarding Grid to:
 
	"DutchGrid Support Desk" 
	http://www.dutchgrid.nl/Support/
	mailto:support@dutchgrid.nl

Relevant problems include, for example:

* "Can you please upgrade the software distribution on the testbed?"
* "Why can't I spawn new globus jobs from the DAS-2 file server?"
* "I cannot generate a makefile header for Globus Toolkit 2.0!"
* "How do I handle multiple users in the Virtual Lab RTS?"
* "My Grid credentials (certificates) are broken! 
   It says to me: CRL expired, revoking all certs..."
* A link on the DutchGrid web site is broken
* "Could you clean the LHCb Replica Catalogue please?"
* How can I register my own GIIS with you?

But, before sending problems, please have a look at the existing 
documentation! In particular, questions like "What is Globus?"
are NOT appropriate. Same hold for questions like "I got a certificate
from you, so now why can't I login to fs2 using ssh??!".
Such questions should be solved by looking at the manual pages
and at the documentation links on the web site. Please have a look
at this documentation and the FAQ first! They're all on the web...

Requests for certification ("grid credentials") should NOT be sent
to the support help desk, but should go to the DutchGrid CA at
<ca@nikhef.nl>. See also the CA web site at <http://certificate.nikhef.nl/>

Problem categories vor the DutchGrid Support Desk include:

	das2		DAS-2 support
	nikhef-tbn	NIKHEF EDG TB1
	wcwgrid	WCW Micro Testbed
	ca		Certification Authorities
	general	DutchGrid-wide problems
	farming	Classic-style compute farming
	d0grid	D0 Grid specific problems
	vl-rts	VLAM-G RunTime System:davidg


Happy Gridding to you all,

	David Groep,
	NIKHEF.


PS: This service will be run on an experimental basis and may 
    be withdrawn at any time.