EOSC-hub User Support

The goal of the EOSC-hub User Support is:

• To coordinate the support infrastructure for the EOSC-hub
• to operate and maintain the EOSC-hub Helpdesk system, a ticketing system based on GGUS with interfaces to the support infrastructures like EUDAT and EGI
• to provide the 1st level support and dispatch incoming requests to the adequate service expert teams and other downstream support teams.

The task is designed to fulfill the helpdesk requirements according to OLAs and project-specific SLAs.

• First level support

A dedicated First Level Support team is responsible for handling all incoming issue reports, support and contact requests which are normally received via the EOSC-hub helpdesk, available at helpdesk.eosc-hub.eu. The 1st level support is the initial point of contact for stakeholders and customers of the EOSC-hub.

The 1st level support provides basic information about the project, the services and how to use them. In addition, requests and issue reports are prioritized, classified, eventually clarified by contacting the requester and forwarded to the adequate Infrastructure support service through the support units defined in the xGUS system.

The 1st level support acts as a bridge to the 2nd level support by clarifying incoming requests which are too vague: standard questions are asked about more details if issue reports or requests are too unspecific, by that, requests are either filtered or enriched with further information before they are forwarded to the 2nd level support. 

The 1st level support also searches in the KEDB in order to solve recurring issues or inform for a service degradation before escalating the ticket on the 2nd level support. The KEDB should be up to date with service information about known issues and workarounds. In KEDB incidents that downgrading a service should be reported. Such information would be useful for 1st level to resolve the issue faster. KEDB link.  

• Second Level Support and other Infrastructures support

The Second Level Support is responsible for the generic or technical support for the Hub services and for the external infrastructures providing the services of the EOSC Portfolio. The EOSC-hub first level can provide an initial classification and prioritization of the incident/request, but the track of the request/ticket and their fix is done by the support team providing support to this service. In order to connect the EOSC-hub helpdesk with these infrastructure support units, we have defined within the xGUS helpdesk, the different infrastructures working within the umbrella of EOSC-hub, then the first level will be able to check the response of the service involved in the incident/request and escalate the request to its infrastructure. The best example is currently the connection we have available with EGI and EUDAT infrastructures. To check who is the owner of the services the 1st level support needs to check it in the EOSC-hub catalogue<https://www.eosc-hub.eu/catalogue>.

When a request ticket has been escalated from the 1st level support to one of the infrastructure support units, this unit starts interacting with the requester in order to solve or answer the issue/request. 

Helpdesk system, description, and configuration

The main tool to manage all the requests from the users is xGUS (simple interface for GGUS ticketing system). 

The access to the system is managed through B2ACCESS or EGI Check-in. Any user registered in any of them. can access and submit a request to xGUS system-

Tickets, best practices for time to respond and time to resolution

We can distinguish between two types of tickets. The ones that are related to the Hub services (like marketplace and xGUS) and the ones related to the integrated services of the EOSC. Portfolio.

For both levels, the following rules should be followed:

• classification, prioritization, and assignment to a specific queue, owner and service → less than 8 working hours (1 working day)
• First reply → less than 8 working hours (1 working day)

For the tickets related to services of the EOSC Portfolio, their specific SLAs is applicable, as they are not part of the user support team of EOSC-hub project.

• Guideline: the time to solve  a ticket should be kept as low as possible. A ticket should not be more than 5 days without being updated.